>Peter,
>
>>>I think that at least an e-book of the Hacker's Guide for each next version is a must. And updated e-books of several other publications are very welcome also. Advantages of e-books:
>- They are cheaper to 'produce'.
>- They can be sold/sent to all over the world.
>
>The reason it is unlikely that there will be any more VFP books published is not the cost of the paper and/or shipping. There are simply not enough VFP programmers willing to pay for the book to make it worth the author's time to write them.
>
>The last issue of one of the popular VFP books only sold 1,000 copies. By comparison the best sellers for Perl programmers sell >100,000 copies. How can you expect some of the VFP experts around here to waste their time writing books that most VFP programmers do not buy? Based on the questions asked on the UT, most people here who ask questions do not buy the books.

Which book was that? And how many e-copies were sold?

About Perl: This old language is now in focus due to web development, where it found new ground for some reason. And you're talking here about the bestsellers only. And how about the sales in 2006? Will Perl books then still be the hot items?


>Now if people here were willing to put up money in advance to give a guarantee that the expert authors could at least pay for their time, then we may see some more books. Otherwise it is unlikely.

Those who already have the vfp classics are probably not really interested in yet another vfp book that deals with almost the same stuff. (Same applies to Perl in a couple of years/months.) I'm thinking of updates of existing books. E-books are perfect enough for those updates. And the idea of subscribe lists is ok with me.