Good News, Bad News, Worse News

Oh well, best laid plans and all that.

The good news is that my book is now available from Amazon.com. The bad news is that it has already attracted two unfavourable reviews. The worse news is that nobody has actually read it yet.

The problems started when it was decided to not include CD-ROMS with the book itself. This is actually quite sensible in a way. Since you need a network connection to actually use XNA on an Xbox 360 it seemed reasonable to drop the content and make it available on-line. And at least that way we could ensure that the content was up to date.

But not before the Amazon blurb (and Barnes and Noble too) had gone out with the promise of shiny disks. Not surprisingly the early adopters (the ones whose opinions are most important) have heartily slammed the book for not delivering on the promise. I can understand where they are coming from too. If I'd bought something which was mis-described like this I'd be angry too.

I think this is really a failure of process. Microsoft Press and Amazon (et all) should have a proper mechanism whereby when the description of an item changes all the existing purchasers of the item are informed of the change and given the option to back out of the purchase. I'm pretty sure I'm not the first to have been caught like this. But it still hurts.

Comments

[Earl Grey]

:(

[Mathew S]

Rob, if i had the money to buy it, I would, especially if its anything like the c# book from the first year.

[IgnorantPom]

I too would purchase it if I had the funds. I am however, a poorper' and am adiment on buying Army of Two when it's released.

[Xyjar]

My pre-order from amazon hasn't even come yet, but I'm also a bit annoyed over the last-minute change to not include a CD. I'm still excited to get it for the content actually in the book, and glad it was only $20, but it's just a big convenience boost to have a hardcopy of VS and XNA software available. You will probably see my review on amazon within a couple weeks. Hopefully I can help balance out the negatives a little bit.

If it's true what the review says that the back cover of the book still advertises that it comes with a CD (I hope not), it's only fair to knock off a point or two on a review score, though giving it 1/5 based solely on that is far too extreme.

[Phoenix]

The negative reviews were obviously written by people who don't know what they're doing (ordering the book for the CD!?), can't be bothered to do the research behind what they're using (theres always been a subscription charge on Dev Club!) and are basically.... trolls.

The positive comments do however, outweigh the negative ones in every way, shown by other users finding only the positive comments useful and users having a dig at the ones that obviously hadn't read the book.

So far, the books content is the winning factor. Congratulations.

[JDog]

Its on my "To buy" list, I was wondering if you sold it down on Campus, in a traditional newspaper style shop. If so I should wander down during my lunch break and purchase it.

Also Rob, do you have any other copies of the C# book you gave out on the open day, because another copy would come in handy. If so, could I come down and collect it ?

[Rob]

We do have a bookshop on campus. Waterstones. Last time I looked they didn't have any copies of the book, but I couild ask them to get some in I suppose.

If you want another copy of the "Pink Book" as it is known this year, drop into the departmental office and we will sort you out.