Since I'm a Wrox author (Professional UML with Visual Studio .NET), I received an e-mail late last week informing me that Wrox's parent company is liquidating and, as an author with outstanding royalties, I am a creditor! At first I thought it was a hoax, but then I received confirmation that it is definitely true.

I was pretty shocked at first, but after some reflection, I'm not surprised. I have to say that writing a book for Wrox was one of the worst writing experiences I've ever had. During the writing of my book, most e-mails I sent requesting information were completely ignored. I even asked for basic information such as "who are the other authors?" and "what information are they writing in their chapters?", but I never received an answer to either of these questions! I've heard from other Wrox authors that their experience was similar. Wrox was famous for impossible deadlines. I tried my best to improve the process by registering complaints and suggesting reform, but nothing was ever implemented. Despite all this, it's amazing that Wrox has put out some great books (others not so great).

In conrast, I've written two books now for Hentzenwerke (I authored ".NET for VFP Developers" and co-authored "What's New in VFP7"), and the experience was great both times...maybe nice guys DO finish first. The same is true for my articles in CoDe magazine. Great exposure (my UML articles in CoDe were what got me noticed by Wrox), and what greater pleasure than writing for "The Happy Austrian", and "The German Maui Guy".

Regards,