>Hi Folks,
>
>Yeah, it's me, sticking my head up out of the glop for a minute... Lots of, er, unpleasantness floating around. Mebbe I can explain.
>
>1. Our web server and our order entry box (two separate machines <g>) both crashed last Thursday, about four hours before I was going out of town until Monday (and about an hour after getting Michelle Cox's order .) I was able to plug a spare box in for the server, but email and downloads weren't current on the spare box. As a result, we've been invisible as far as responding to emails or posting downloads.
>
>Current status: Web server is back up. Downloads are available. (Although Effective Techniques CHM is still the last beta.) Email (except to me directly) is still down.
>
>2. The original spec for the Hacker's Guide for 6.0 was spec'd at 1,000 pages - 500 more than any of the other books in the Essentials series. (That, together with the expectation of a CD, is why we priced it at $60 instead of $50 like the others.)
>
>The book came in at 1600 pages in 7x9 format.
>
>Do you know what other publishers - like Que, Sybex, Wrox, etc - do when a book comes in over spec? They simply delete chapters - without any explanation.
>
>We decided that instead of deleting the last third of the book, we would make the font smaller (which helped a bit), print on 8 1/2 x 11 instead of the more convenient 7x9 (which helped a bit too) and offer the CD as a download, and optional order (which helped a bit too.) Regardless, we are losing money on this behemouth - we don't have the economies of scale that a worldwide publisher has, and so the cost to print - and bind (we had to go to a different company from our normal printer to have it bound) this thing was out of the world.
>
>So - I pose to you - would you have rather had us print a 1,000 page, in 7x9 format, as our "CONTRACT" offers, and include a CD, or had us do what we did - print the whole durn thing, offer the CD contents as a download, and STILL offer the CD as an extra if you couldn't access the Internet to download? You know which route we took.
>
>I apologize for the apparaent misrepresentation of saying "Book and CD" and not automatically shipping a CD, but I felt that I was, ultimately, looking out for your best interests.
>
>I'd also like to add, if it doesn't sound too snippy, that Ted and Tamar (and all of the other Essentials authors) had already gone to a number of other publishers with their book proposals - and were turned down every time. If I hadn't put this thing together, you'd still be reading Hacker's Guide for 3.0 and VFP 5.0 for Dummies. It's been a long summer and fall, and we could use a break. <g>
>
>Well, that's about all for now. I've got to see if I can rebuild an email server. Or maybe I'll just see how far out the window I can throw it...
>
>Thanks for understanding. If you've got any immediate needs, you can email me directly at whil@hentzenwerke.com.
>
>Whil

Well, I think you made the right choice. I'd rather have the extra text than the CD. But I do think it would be a good idea if you mentioned that on your web page. It would save a lot of hard feelings.

Thanks for publishing the book. I've started reading the online version and it's great.

-Michelle