Monday, April 14, 2008

Ruport Book now 4 pages longer, and $5 cheaper!

The other day we released version 1.1.0 of the Ruport Book which is up to date with Ruport 1.6.

This adds four pages of new content and updates all the examples to be compatible with 1.6, which was released on April 1st. We plan to continue development of the book in this manner, so that the book is never more than a couple weeks behind the latest stable version of Ruport.

Those who have purchased a PDF or print copy will certainly get free updates so long as the changes aren't a 'major rewrite' of the whole book, which would require a new edition.

The print book wasn't selling quite as well as we hoped (as compared to the PDF which has been doing quite well), so we've lowered the price down to $25. If you haven't picked up the book yet, please remember that includes the cost of the PDF and unlimited updates, you just need to send us proof of purchase.

Anyway, that's the news for now, please enjoy the updated version of the book and let us know if you have any suggestions or run into any issues.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Did you know the print book includes free PDF copies?

We've certainly been selling copies of the print book, even more than I expected.

However, did you know that you're entitled to get the PDF version free with the print book?

We've only received one email with the proof of purchase of the print book that we've requested, which makes me think people aren't finding the instructions that Lulu sends when you buy the print copy of the book that tell you how to get the PDF free.

Anyway, for those who are in that situation, please just email proof of purchase to: rinarapress at gmail.com. You then will get unlimited updates to the PDF, barring a nearly complete rewrite of the book.

Having access to the PDFs is useful for having the most up to date content, so please be sure to contact us and get what you paid for. :)

Thursday, January 24, 2008

PayR/Rails snapshots now really on RubyForge

If you've bought the book or are reading it online, you may have noticed we mentioned PayR is on RubyForge.

Turns out, when I had thought I released the Rails version, something went wrong, and all that was up on the page was the old camping version. Thanks to a bug report from Brian Stuart, this is now fixed, and you can download PayR 0.1.0, which is the Rails 2 app.

Sorry about that, and hope you enjoy the book!

-greg

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Ruport Book Shipping!

We're pleased to announce that The Ruport Book is finished and is now available for general ordering!

For everyone who pre-ordered the book, the PDF copies will be emailed to you tomorrow. For those who pre-ordered the print version, we'll be ordering your copies and drawing the Pacman ghosts on the inside cover, so you should find your copies in the mail soon.

If you haven't ordered your copy yet, you can get it from Lulu Marketplace http://www.lulu.com/content/1700117.

We should also note that the full HTML formatted book is now available on the book website at http://ruportbook.com.

Please let us know if you find any typos, formatting issues, or other errors as you're reading. We'll be keeping it up to date with any errata as its reported. You can report any issues at http://stonecode.svnrepository.com/ruport-doc/trac.cgi/wiki.

Once again, we want to thank everyone who helped out with reviewing the drafts, reporting problems, and generally supporting us through this process. We really couldn't have done it without you.

Thank you for your support and we hope that you like the book.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Book Content Complete

I'm excited to say that last night I checked in the last chapter that needed to be completed for the Ruport book. We've got a reasonably large amount of revising and reorganizing in the next week or two, but the code and commentary are now pretty much where we want them to be.

This means if you've been holding off on buying a pre-order, now might be a good chance to pick one up. We're really relying on the community to help us spot problems and clear up any confusing parts of the book before we make it available for print.

Here's more good news. It looks like we'll be on schedule for an end-of-year release of the book, with our first order of a proof print happening late next week. Hooray!

We promise we'll get the HTML formatted version of the book up ASAP after that, probably by early January at the latest.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Pre-orders now open for Ruport Book

Though we've not quite hit the finish line yet, we're far enough along now to open up pre-orders for the Ruport Book. This will give us a chance to see how many folks are actively following the development of the book, and also allow them to help us polish things up before we do a release of the printed work to the general public.

Here's what you can expect if you pre-order now:

  • Starting within the next few days, regular preview releases of the typeset PDF, which contains chapters not yet formatted for the web.
  • You will receive your printed book before general sales even open up.
  • We are selling the pre-order at a slightly cheaper price for the printed work ($25 vs. $30)
  • If we don't get to print by January 1st, 2008, we will honor all refund requests from pre-order participants.
  • A non-automated process. Once we receive payment, I'll email you with some more details as soon as I notice you've paid, and send you a PDF as soon as it's ready.
  • If you wish, we will hand draw a Pacman ghost inside the front cover for you, which is clearly valuable.
This process will be somewhat similar to beta books from the established publishers. We'll make revisions based on your feedback, and ultimately the book will be better because of it.

If you're not sure whether or not Ruport is for you, you may wish to wait until the book is finished and the HTML sources are fully available to look over. However, if you already know our project and want to support us, participating in the pre-order program is the best way to do so.

To pick up the PDF or Printed+PDF Combo, head over to the purchase page.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Getting Closer

It's been a while since we've made announcements about the book, so this post will hopefully summarize where we're at and what you can expect in the coming months.

First of all, content updates:

The website has fallen behind our actual amount of work completed, because we're trying to write and get things typeset for print at the same time, and are actively revising things and rethinking things. We have several chapters based on PayR floating around in private emails which we'll soon be checking in and finalizing.

We decided along the way that PayR was starting to get too big for its britches on camping, so though the reports will essentially be the same either way, the core example for the Ruport Book is now a Rails 2.0 application. Hopefully this is something folks will enjoy, sorry if I've disappointed a few fellow campers with this announcement. :-/

Schedule updates:

We originally hoped to hit RubyConf as our print date, but that fell through. We announced December 15th at RubyEast, though we're not 100% sure we'll make that date. However, we are really hoping to see the Ruport Book available for print before 2008, and still have a good shot at making that happen.

We plan on opening up pre-orders on December 1st, but will delay them if we think the book will not be out before January. Stay tuned for further announcements.

Pricing and Where Your Money Goes:

If you buy the books during the limited (US-only) preorder, you can buy the printed book for $25(+ S/H) and get the PDF copy for free. If you wait until after the pre-order, the book will cost you $30. The key difference between the two is that the pre-order will be mailed directly from us, which will give us a chance to scribble a Pacman ghost inside the front cover for you. It will also help us start off with a little money in the bank, which would be great.

If you want just the PDF copy of the book, it's $8.50, either before or after the pre-order. Of course, free-loaders will get the HTML and raw sources for well... free.

Because we're self publishing, we have the opportunity to do things a little differently. This is why we've chosen to donate 25% of our revenue after any Lulu fees to Engineers Without Borders. So if you buy the book, you're supporting us a little, supporting BTree a little (who helped pay our expenses), and even helping out a charity. Seems like a good deal all around to me.

More than one way to support us:

If you don't feel like buying the book but still want to show your support, there are a few things you can do:

  • Help spot bugs and mistakes in the book. We'll announce a Trac URL for bug tracking some time soon. These bug fixes will be rolled out to the print copies of the books, as we're doing print on demand.
  • Write up a review (once the book is published) somewhere that gets traffic, and help folks find the book and hopefully buy it.
  • Consider a direct donation to the authors. Though we were able to find funding for core expenses, we weren't paid for our time, and are on our own for future expenses. On the bright side, if the book does especially well, a donation here might buy us a beer or two. :)
That about brings us up to present. Right now, we're sort of keeping a low profile, but if you want to get involved, just email us. We've been sending off documents to review to all those who ask for them.