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All Packt ebooks are $5

packtpub.com

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Re: All Packt ebooks are $5

#51

Post by myth_drannon »

jorma75 wrote: post #26

I just bought Mastering Web Application Development with AngularJS which is also for sale on Amazon and has pretty decent reviews there: http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Web-Application-Development-... Turns out, you get a discount for print books if you own the e-book, I got 50% off after going back to the site once I bought the e-book: €17,50 instead of €34,99 So... €21,88 for both instead of €34,99 (you always get…

Yeah, I just came here to post the same! The problem is I don't want to buy print right after I bought the ebook.... I want to read it a bit first . I hope they keep the sale at least for a week.

Re: All Packt ebooks are $5

#52

Post by jamesbritt »

incision wrote: post #36

You can get a preview of Packt books over on Safari [0]. Personally, I've found the quality of content and editing in Packt books to be consistently terrible. I won't click on a Packt book in my all you can read Safari Library subscription, I certainly wouldn't pay $5 for any of them. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I can't recommend No Starch Press [1][2] enough. 0: http://my.safaribooksonline.com/browse?publis…

I can't recommend No Starch Press enough.

Still, some of their offerings have been pretty poor (there was at least one Ruby book that was ill-informed) so the best bet is to check reviews for any given book.

Same for O'Reilly. Used to be I would just assume a book from O'Reilly was properly vetted and worth getting, but after buying a few clunkers I learned to do some homework before shelling out or trusting the content.

Re: All Packt ebooks are $5

#53

Post by jamesbritt »

ludwigvan wrote: post #34

Too much negativity here. Some of their books are good. I have both PostgreSQL 9 Admin Cookbook and PostgreSQL 9.0 High Performance and they are pretty good books.

I bought a Packt book (or go it free on some discount thing) and it wasn't too bad.

I got the impression that the quality of any given Packt book would be up to the author, that Packt was OK with releasing sub-par technical works.

Caveat emptor.

Re: All Packt ebooks are $5

#54

Post by 1wheel »

jamesbritt wrote: post #50
dons wrote: post #6

These are $5 for a reason. http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/1rj2jq/book_haskell...

I got a similar request to write a book for Packt. They offered almost zero money upfront, and when asked could offer zero reasons as to why they thought there was a market for this book. It really seemed their plan was "James takes almost all the risk and does almost all of the work but James does not get almost all the money."

I get an ~monthly email asking about producing d3 content for them. For what they're offering it really doesn't make any sense lock what I have time to write or make in a book only a few people will read.

Re: All Packt ebooks are $5

#56

Post by welly »

judah wrote: post #32

I was contacted by Packt yesterday to write a book on KnockoutJS. I am an expert in the subject matter, however, I'm currently working a full time dev job, a part time dev job at nights, and my startup on the weekends. So, I declined. Now that I see some of the comments here about quantity over quality, I'm feeling better about my decision to turn it down.

You must love your work!

Re: All Packt ebooks are $5

#57

Post by sunnybythesea »

jamesbritt wrote: post #52
incision wrote: post #36

You can get a preview of Packt books over on Safari [0]. Personally, I've found the quality of content and editing in Packt books to be consistently terrible. I won't click on a Packt book in my all you can read Safari Library subscription, I certainly wouldn't pay $5 for any of them. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I can't recommend No Starch Press [1][2] enough. 0: http://my.safaribooksonline.com/browse?publis…

I can't recommend No Starch Press enough. Still, some of their offerings have been pretty poor (there was at least one Ruby book that was ill-informed) so the best bet is to check reviews for any given book. Same for O'Reilly. Used to be I would just assume a book from O'Reilly was properly vetted and worth getting, but after buying a few clunkers I learned to do some homework before shelling out or trusting the cont…

"The Linux Programming Interface" is a top-notch book http://nostarch.com/tlpi

Re: All Packt ebooks are $5

#59

Post by dj-wonk »

Any experience with their Storm, Kafka, and D3.js books?

For the first two, the communities and versions move so fast that I'd be surprised if a book could be kept up to date. (Storm just hit 0.9; Kafka is now at 0.8. I wouldn't recommend that anyone use older versions at this point.) Following the mailing lists seems to be the way to go in those cases. Anyone disagree?

With regards to D3, it seems like the online examples are prolific; it is hard to imagine a book being needed. Besides, it is more fun to tweak D3 directly.

Re: All Packt ebooks are $5

#60

Post by vinceguidry »

sown wrote: post #46
judah wrote: post #32

I was contacted by Packt yesterday to write a book on KnockoutJS. I am an expert in the subject matter, however, I'm currently working a full time dev job, a part time dev job at nights, and my startup on the weekends. So, I declined. Now that I see some of the comments here about quantity over quality, I'm feeling better about my decision to turn it down.

"...I'm currently working a full time dev job, a part time dev job at nights, and my startup on the weekends." That sounds neat. How did you get a part-time dev job?

I imagine the company that hired him would have preferred a full-time dev, but settled on letting him work part-time for lack of better options. Which is a great option for developers who are getting tired of the 9-5 and want a more flexible schedule. Wait until you're crazy busy then turn in your two weeks. The same company that told you they can't do remote work and the like when they hired you will suddenly get a lot more flexible when reminded of how much they need you.
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