SourceBeat Anyone?
First a few questions. What is the best way to sell technical books? print vs pdf? owership vs leasing? What is a reasonable price? What is the lifetime of a technical book? Is it more than 1 year?
I ask because I have been recently looking at SourceBeat's sales model. I don't know about anyone else, but I think the $29.99 per book per year from SourceBeat seems a bit steep. While I agree 100% that the authors should be compensated for their great work, $30 for something that isn't tangible and its service expires after 1 year seems like a bit much. I much prefer the Manning approach where around $20 and plus the option to purchase the real book for full price less what you paid for the pdf. This offers the consumer the best of both worlds. This gives the reader greater flexibility at a more reasonable cost. Until Sourcebeat charges around $15 per year or moves to a full subscription based service, I will have a hard time purchasing their material. Of course, I say that now :)
Why the rant? Im very interested in Matt Raible's, Spring Live book but for the reasons mentioned above, I'll probably be waiting for Spring in Action from Manning.