The high cost of textbooks and science books is an open scandal. Despite this publishers are barely profitable, and the ecosystem is ripe for disruption.
Packt is one such player. I have reviewed many books for them ( in return I get ebooks and books – some of which I give to my students).
Now they have an intriguing offer.
As you are aware, this month, Packt is celebrating 10 years of success with over 2000 Titles in its Library. To celebrate this huge milestone, we have come up with an exciting opportunity for collaboration which you might be interested in.
Packt is offering all of its eBooks and Videos at just $10 each. This campaign is specifically aimed towards thanking all our customers for their support and opening up our comprehensive range of titles just for $10 each. This promotion covers every title and customers can stock up on as many copies as they like until July 5th. I hope you find this as a great opportunity to explore what’s new and maintain your personal and professional development.
Interested- you can see http://www.packtpub.com/10years
Disclosure- The author was offered 2 free ebooks as part of this campaign on social media. Books is one thing he is willing to blog for 😉
DECISION STATS 
Well, Son of Gandhi, seeing as Packt is essentialy pirating my book (they stopped paying me when, fed up after a couple of years of their games I reverted copyright and complained publicly … it’s a verrry long story) – I’m offering the same title not for $10 but for free 🙂
I understand if you think this too spammy to publish but folks are welcome, as are you, Sir, to grab “WordPress 3 Ultimate Security” from my site vpsBible.com … just sign up for the newsletter (and cancel thereafter by all means) and I’ll send it.
Really tho, have to say, for techy books, I don’t much see the point in using a publisher at all these days, unless you want a paper edition … might as well self-pub, which at least is what I’m planning for my next incursion into the depths of insomnia!
Will remember Springer tho, thank you … hadn’t heard of them.
Best to you.
thanks for the information. i will keep this in mind. i have already cancelled two book reviews and will be winding up this soon.
but i repeat they make cheap books, and they give first time authors easy chances.
try http://www.oreilly.com/ also!
O’Reilly own Packt now tho, I think. I was surprised to hear that, O’R books really are superb. I suspect they’re not run like a sausage factory. Anyhow, best to you SoG.
There you go, its the Sony and Aiwa story. Different brands at different prices hence different business models. Would be great to see you come back as an author, life too short for negative experience to hinder our true potential. Cheers
I wrote for Packt, what a scam, more pyramid scheme than publisher. Apparently, I’m not alone in my thinking.
There’s a reality check over at this G+ thread and I think anyone who cares about Open Source (and common decency in educational publishing) may wish to read it before supporting these, well, I have to say, con men and thieves.
https://plus.google.com/+RicardoCabello/posts/PDVcovR7Sir
yes Packt does put you on a schedule for writing a chapter every 4 days. So I even signed a contract for writing a book on data manipulation but I just cant write a chapter every 4 days so we cancelled that.
As for reviewing the books, these books are very very cheap- at almost 10$ per e-book. You get what you pay for. What I am hoping is that somehow these guys will get better over time and force other publishers to be more proactive about cutting expenses and digitization. I admire O Reilly in that, but I still write for Springer. Why Springer?
Because they are still the most prestigious name.
If you wanna make money by writing or reviewing books, you are in the wrong business. Better move to consulting in software or movies.
But I really appreciate your feedback, and I will scale back my involvement in reviewing their books.