This book sucks big time! | O'Reilly Media

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Book:		Java and XML
Subject:		This book sucks big time!
Date:		2008-07-08 08:04:59
From:		JGF

Rating: The folks at O Reilley should be ashamed to put out such junk. It's as it this book has gone through three editions and the book refers to things that were probably in earlier editions of the book. The same goes for the source code. The book descends into a myriad of code fragments, the majority of which aren't housed in a class, so when you try and reconcile things to the book, examples are either missing or it's as if you've got a download for a completely different book. To top this off Brett glibly refers to to an email address for OReilly for questions. I've posted countless ones to him and the folks at O'Reilly and sent in fixes to buggy code. Not once has either party responded or acknowledged this fact. I'm so disgusted with the whole process I vow to never buy another book from O'Reilley ever. There couldn't give a toss mentality sucks as does this book.

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Balancing reader feedback with quality material, July 11 2008
Submitted by Brett McLaughlin | [Respond | View]

Jeremy (and others)-

I appreciate your frustration with the book. When you sent me your initial query (about 10 days ago), I answered promptly. I found an alternate website and some links to supplement an outdated link in the print book. You immediately replied, saying you'd already found the same thing. So while I was happy to help, it's difficult to spend time on helping and then be told that help wasn't needed (a simple mail letting me know that you'd found the links yourself would have been appreciated).

Then, over the next 10 days, I began to receive 5 to 8 emails, each day, from you. Many of these were not referencing actual problems in the book, but suggestions; in other words, the way you would have preferred the book be written. While those are okay to send, it takes time to sort through which mails are errata and which are "suggestions".

Once I realized you were sending such a large volume of mail, I asked that you direct your correspondence to bookquestions@oreilly.com, for several key reasons:

1. bookquestions@oreilly.com archives all questions, so they're kept forever, and not subject to email issues.

2. bookquestions@oreilly.com collates all comments into a single mail that authors can work through and respond to.

3. I get literally over 1,000 mails a day, and can't respond to them all, particularly not quickly. But with bookquestions@, I can devote a set amount of time regularly to work through and reply to all issues that are outstanding (something I do often, as bookquestions@ support staff can attest).

Frankly, I'm disappointed that you chose to vent publicly. While frustration is understandable, you've sent an author nearly 30 individual emails in under a week, and now, two days later, are complaining that they haven't all been answered.

We at O'Reilly, and authors in general, are very committed to helping customers. But we also ask customers to respect our time commitments as well. Most of us are working on new projects that people are anxiously anticipating and emailing us about as well. There's always a balance, and sometimes that balance means taking a little time to get things right, and then moving on to corrections in another book.

I'd also point out, frankly, that it's rare these days to have a book with the authors email printed in it (as I've added mine to all my books); it's rare to have an author reply directly to a random mail (as I did with your initial mails); and it's certainly rare that a company has such a dedicated force of individuals working to support books (as bookquestions@oreilly.com does).

I'd only ask you to respect that we're all working very hard, and sometimes hard work takes time. I want you and other readers to be satisfied, but you may not all be satisfied immediately, the instant you find a problem.

I hope that at least clears up where we're coming from as authors.

Thanks
Brett McLaughlin
Author
Series Editor, Head First