Originally posted by Ajith Kallambella:
I congratulate the authors on this really useful book. The "In Action" series by Manning are what I call the "developer shelf" stuff; things that every developer would want to have at a hand's reach. X
I'm really happy that we went with Manning to publish the book. When I started college, (in '90) I discovered O'Reilly books. They were THE tech book publisher and I would purchase anything they put out. I've purchased hundreds of their books over the years. I have about 30 on the shelf behind be at work, and tons more at home. Even back then, I knew in the back of my mind that I wanted to write an O'Reilly book some day.
So, a decade later when Craig and I were discussing publishers to approach about the book, I was very interested in doing the book with O'Reilly. But we had both made friends with Erik Hatcher (
Java Development with
Ant) who introduced us to Manning. Manning was starting to make some waves in the tech book space. They had produced a few hits, but at the time (more than a year ago) they really weren't a major player in my mind. Craig and I both were impressed with Manning and decided to do the book with them as an "in Action" book. It was a hard decision. I wouldn't get the O'Reilly animal I longed for, and we weren't really sure if Manning could get our book all the places that O'Reilly got books. Still, we took the jump.
I think it was a great decision. Manning really has shown at every step that they care deeply about putting out good books. They were also very concerned to make sure that we developed as authors. The editors were all very willing to sit down and teach us. They didn't just correct our mistakes, they taught us to not make those same mistakes again. I was very greatful for that. I mentioned before the concessions the Manning made on the book size, letting us put the full appendices even though it increased their costs and pushed back the publication date a bit.
Manning does a pretty good job promoting their books and has great relations with users groups. My first Manning book came as a "review copy" through the Austin Java Users Group, and now I am a huge fan of their books. I think that Manning is rapidly gaining the respect of the programming community and in the last year has risen to the top level of tech book publishers. I'm quite proud to be associated with them.
I don't know what all Manning has announced publicly, but I will say they have some really cool titles in the works. Keep your eyes on them over the next few months.
) and am really looking forward to checking it out.
