Kind of shocked they won't be offering a Kindle version. I was a big fan of the 1.5 edition.
I read their reasons for not having one but lets be honest, this is a book for programmers ? And it doesn't have a digital version ? Someone's clearly lost the plot here!
I supported the previous edition of the book since the beta version. I'm a digital nomad, I work all over the world, I'm not about to lug a 446 page django book with me wherever I go.
There are several developers who like to search for and bookmark stuff in their ebooks. Now it's impossible to Ctrl+F.
Some of us like to read on the train or like to read on different platforms (kindle/ipad/iphone/android/etc).
I recommended the first version of this book to several fellow django programmers. Unfortunately I am really disappointed by this print-only decision. The fact that piracy was a reason for it disheartens me even more.
I guess these guys have never heard of anyone scanning in a physical book and sharing PDFs over the internet. Providing a print only version will just hurt legitimate customers, the pirates are still gonna pirate :( I can count down the days that this shows up on the pirate bay.
As for the fact that "The print version sold the most". Well, were the print people supporting your book while you were in beta releasing new versions every week ? Did they give you feedback on how good/bad the content was ?
Seriously guys, your next book should be about "How not to do programming books".
(Not that I -have- to.)
I stopped buying paper technical books, they are never around when I need them. I also like to read them on my iPad, phone and laptop at different times.
My money now goes to publishers (like O'Reilly) who support my workflow.
>The print version of Two Scoops of Django 1.5 has been by far the most popular version of the book with readers, selling several times more than the e-books. In addition, the feedback we've gotten has been that technical books are generally better to have in print than as an ebook.
>Creating and proofing each ebook format is not a trivial effort. It involves reformatting every code sample to work on every ebook reader, accounting for differences in screen contrast, accessibility testing, and proofreading the text and code samples several times on each device. Instead of spending our time struggling with reformatting, we're choosing to focus on improving the technical material.
>Considering that we publicly offered a free electronic copy to those who requested it, seeing piracy of the electronic editions from the first day of sales has been disheartening. As indie authors, it hurts to see this happening.
Now I don't agree with those reasons. I prefer an ebook version as I can bookmark it, make notes, read it on my phone etc. But they have their reasons. It's not going to stop piracy and I might purchase the paper copy and then download one of the pirate versions that will come out. I would prefer they offered a free ebook version that they didn't spend time fixing the code layout issues they mention. The book exists as an electronic version anyhow when it goes to the publisher so it wouldn't be a big deal.