Dave Thomas wrote:
> We haven't decided yet, but it's likely that if we offer a PDF, it's be 
> deeply discounted for folks who also buy the book. With the existing 
> (considerably smaller) books, the PDF is $20, the paper $29.95, but the 
> two together are $37.50. The prices won't be the same for the PickAxe, 
> but the concept might be.

Would you consider including a PDF or HTML version with the book?  I 
know, there's a major problem with tracking HTML and making sure it 
doesn't get passed around, but dead trees just aren't greppable.

I personally much prefer HTML to PDF, because PDFs are almost always 
done expecting that they'll be printed to 8 1/2" by 11" paper, and so 
they don't scale well to my 4:3 screen.  HTML, on the other hand, will 
adjust itself to whatever shape my browser is in.  To me, PDF is a 
barely useful format.  It has all the inflexibility of layout of a book, 
with all the difficulty of reading of a web page.  Sometimes you want 
something laid out in a very specific way, but most of the time, you 
just want the data.

Maybe, as others suggested, you can include a coupon with the book, and 
once your sales pass a certain point, that coupon can be redeemed for an 
electronic version of the book.  Having read (and helped to edit) a few 
chapters of the book already, I know it will be worth buying.  On the 
other hand, I think the last time I used a paper book as a reference 
while programming was when O'Reilly came out with their first 
"Programming Java" book.

I hope your book succeeds, but if I could choose the format my $37.50 
bought, it would be HTML.

Ben