Hi Tim,

I'm a bit ticked. I had bought your definitive guides to JavaScript and HTML and less than a year later, new editions of both come out. (It's happened to me some of your other books as well).

I know you offer book upgrades, but I feel that's still too expensive.

How about allowing downloads of the updated chapters when the new edition is not a total re-write?

I can understand that if the book changed drastically (e.g. Programming Perl), I would be happy to buy it, but I can't afford to keep dishing put $$$ to keep my editions up-to-date. I think my suggestion is fair and reasonable, don't you?

Thanks for your consideration.

Paul

P.S. - despite my gripe, I hope you'll publish my letter so I can get one of your cool T-shirts!!

Paul,

Dang that software keeps changing... Honestly, if the changes aren't enough to make you feel you need to buy a new edition, the old one should do. If they are sufficient, you have to be willing to pay the author, the publisher, and the distributors for their work in bringing out the new edition.

Giving away free updates sounds like a great idea, but I'm afraid it disincentivizes authors, who get paid when people buy their books. We often have a hard enough time getting authors to come back and rework their books a second time without giving away the results of their work.

We do publish errata and other small updates online, but major updates need to get rolled into the book and charged for.

--Tim

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