On Mon, Oct 08, 2007 at 12:04:34PM +0900, James Britt wrote:
> 
> Publishers seem deeply interested in following proven paths.  Most would 
> rather publish the 100th dreary Rails book than the first Nitro or Iowa 
> book.
> 
> It seems like an area ripe for self-publishing of brief, low-cost, 
> PDF-only works.

Agreed -- and I'd like to see more of that sort of thing going on.  In
addition, it seems the publishers are few and far between who understand
that free PDFs can serve as free advertising for paid hardcopy (though
more numerous in the Ruby world than elsewhere), so offering on-demand
hardcopies through "vanity press" services along with free PDFs would
likely be a great way to self-publish in many cases.

At least you'll find out for sure whether people like your book.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
MacUser, Nov. 1990: "There comes a time in the history of any project when
it becomes necessary to shoot the engineers and begin production."