What is the point of this book this early? Zig is in too much flux. Language is 0.x for a reason.
Just to gauge interest?
Just to gauge interest?
IMO it’s a bet: Zig stays stable enough and this will be _the_ Zig book for a while. Should the bet not pay off it still cements the author as an authority on the language and gets them a foot in the door.
My guess is it's about $2k upfront and the author owes it back if they don't deliver.
Teiva Harsanyi did a good writeup recently about working with Manning as a first-time author. He got $2k upfront and $2k after delivering the first 1/3rd.[0]
I did get an advance but I don't remember a clause about having to return any of it if I didn't earn it out. (I did earn it out, but I don't remember any expectation that I'd have to give them money back if I hadn't.) Also my memory was that it was more than $2k but it was about 10 years ago so I might be misremembering!
Fortunately, Elm has had no breaking changes for about six years!
having read through a few of their books, Manning has a pretty good record of producing a lot of good content. nostarch an pragprog are arguably better in terms of writing quality (slightly) but they dont' publish nearly as many books.
Pakt certainly has more books but the quality is absolute garbage.
whenever a new language comes out, I usually take a weekend to at least dabble in it to see if its worth getting into. Most of the languages end up in my "cool story" bucket but its also how I found elixir and I've been working in it fulltime for the last 7 years every since.
In the case of manning, they presell the pdf. that costs them nothing while expanding their catalog in a way that doesnt feel like a ripoff for the subscribers. I'm not expecting a MEAP title to have the same level of polish as a completed book. Rather, I appreciate having close to bleeding age info thats been somewhat curated for my consumption.