New Book for Drupal: Drupalicious - A designers companion for theming Drupal sites.

great idea about the "how do I do that in Drupal?" section.

Anymore bright ideas like that..please post.

I have emailed you about the typesetting/graphics stuff..your help would be appreciated.

Yes, Ajax will be covered in the book and it will be taking a lead from the core Drupal ajax/js scripts that will come with Drupal 4.7, with a few extended examples & references for advanced usage. All going well, the TOC (table of Contents) should be available in late feb early march which will make it clearer to what is included.

Keep those ideas coming Phil. Appreciate it.

Dub

Thanks Marcel,

Yep. Part of the feasibility study is to determine which languages can be done well on top of the English and from there we look to an appropriate publisher.

So it will be stocked in all the usual suspects online.

Once we have the framework complete, I'm toying with the idea of advance selling to the Drupal community - where there is a set budget for an initial print run and a sliding scale price per book for Drupallers who order in advance.

That reduces the need for a big advance from a publisher to do the project profesionally, so, we are essentially licensing the book to a publisher and their budget goes 100% into marketing. As opposed to the norm. which is 80-90% of the budget going on the production (the advance) and 10-20% on marketing.

I've worked on music projects that have worked in a very similar way and it's a very smart way of approaching it. however, unlike music where fans love the artists and are gagging for the new album, I will have to juggle the schedule so that Drupallers know the complete Table of Contents and a sample chapter before we can start any advance selling.

I also have to clear that with Dries and the Drupal team. I have bitten the Drupal bug and am not really doing it to make money, but, I've been around the block to know that to do something like this professionally, you have to have a decent budget to work with.

So here's how that might work, in principle and on approval from the core Drupal team:

1. Once the English TOC is nailed, languages agreed, contracts signed and production budget is known, advance orders can be made based on a sliding scale price.
2. So a Drupal.org visitor (or via a drupal.org affilliate programme) can place an advance order, for an initial run so the price goes down based on the number of people ordering
3. Once the initial run is complete, the price jumps back up to normal high street prices for a comparable book (distributers and publishers will find it harder to push to retail if it is cheaper online).

When working with artists and unleashing albums on a similar basis, there is usually something special with the initial run. Usually called a "limited edition", the "reward" or "something special" for the Drupalicious Books first run will be simply getting it much cheaper.

What's your thoughts on that, Marcel?

It would be interesting to hear back from others as well..by reducing the *need* for a publishers advance to cover production, more marketing can be done, which will help nudge Drupal in other territories.

Dub

thanks for posting and for the email Ae. I'll keep you posted on developments.

I've been blown away with the response from the community. There appears to be a lot of interest and a lot of offers to contribute sections to the English book which is fantastic.

The success of Drupal has a lot to do with the contributory eco-system that surrounds it. While it will be a challenge to maintain language consistency across authors, I think it's feasible to extend the book out a bit with contributed chapters.

Some of the ideas coming through for inclusion are superb and the offer of languages is high as well.

Anyway. Thanks again for the email. I appreciate it.

Dub

Hi Ae,

yeah. thanks for the link.

Localising into mandarin will be an enormous job - it's one of the most difficult languages to translate into from English.

In some cases, it's simpler to start from scratch in Mandarin. For example, if they are given the English Drupalicious book as a "guide", it might be easier.

If you have resources in that direction it would be appreciated, but, I'm just concentrating on the main European languages at the moment.

Dub

Appreciate the email Alexis.

I got hit with an unexpected hosting problem this month, so I'm a bit behind with where I should be at with the book project.

Will include you on the mailing list with details over the next few weeks.

Thanks again

Dub

I have seen companies sell a "beta" e-book version of a title before it was published, for full price at that. Later on when the book is complete, the paper version shipped out to everyone. eBooks are interesting (see 37signals.com and their success) but if I am going to purchase something, I want the hard copy to flip through, highlight and reference.

I agree, there is an interesting impact of techonology on the book pulbishing industry that is not unlike what has happened with the music industry.

We're still working on the Drupalicious Book.

Sample english chapter should be available in August and if there are Drupallers out there who would like to contribute a specific chapter dealing with specific theming aspects, please drop me an email.

cheers

Dub

Thanks for the offer of help Elaine.

We already have a proofreader for English, but, it's always better to have a second person to edit. Initial production starts at the end of July and will be spread out to suit contributors.

I'll drop you an email so I can keep you posted with production schedules.

We aren't using a publisher (yet!) so we're only offering very basic renumeration to contributors at the moment.

We're hoping that with the sample chapter and framework, we'll be able to fund full, professional production via advance sales online. That keeps the overall cost down and it means that we retain copyright so we can do whatever we want with it after the book is published.

In other words, we are reckoning on a budget of between $15 and $20K to complete the book, professionally. A typical equivalent book retails for between $30-$45 dollars at today's rates. We'd prefer to sell 1,000 copies at $20 dollars and retain copyright, rather than sign copyright away to a publisher who would probablly sell the same at $35 dollars per book.

That way, it's cheaper for Drupal users and we (contributors to the book) retain the copyright..not a publisher. i.e. doing it our way, if 2,000 Drupal users order the book in advance, it only costs $10 dollars per book.

That's the initial plan and if we fall short on the advance sales we may turn to publishers for assistance. The bottom line is that we don't have a big budget to pay you for editing.

hope that makes sense and thanks again for offering help.

Dub

P.S. It will be based on 4.7 with a 4.8 appendix & footnotes that will be compiled/added close to publication date.

Hi Elaine,

can you click on MY ACCOUNT and switch on your contact form?

Thanks

Dub