Two versions

[Riemer]

Hello

I was searching on Amazon.com and I saw there are two versions: this and this what is the difference between them? I am a beginner to Xara and I have been waiting for this book. When I got the book I want to star to use Xara and not earlier.

Thanks!
Riemer

[handrawn]

you mean the paperback version and the kindle version?

kindle is an electronic wireless reader
see here
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...985397-9994758

[Gare]

Hi Riemer—

Handrawn is correct: The Official Guide is identical in what I wrote in both versions. One is physical (a book) which there is a slight wait for, and the other you can download electronically right away...but the file is useless unless you own the Amazon Kindle reading device.

I myself was surprised to see a Kindle version! Guess I have to read contracts more carefully!

Here's the author's take on it:

• The Kindle Reader is $259, IMO a tad pricey for a dedicated device when you could buy an actual palmtop such as HP's iPaq for $40 more, with Windows Mobile installed. However, only the Kindle Reader can read the digital version of this and other Kindle books.

•If you already own a Kindle Reader, The Official Guide is currently $22, compared to the physical book at $26 on Amazon the last I looked. As a consumer, this annoys me: last week it was the full Kindle price of $39. So who knows what the price will be next week? As an author, this is additionally annoying because it impacts on the book's royalties.

• When I wrote the book, I paid loving and painstaking attention to the color plates. The book is full-color, this explains the retail price, and I really wanted to show the results Xaraists can achieve in their best light, in full color.

The Kindle Reader is limited to 16 shades of grayscale. A little of this impacts on the tutorials: some of the examples depend on color to point out things. But mostly, I just feel badly about first-time users buying what visually amounts to a Xerox of the hundreds of illustrations I worked so hard on to create, and worked with McGraw-Hill's production department to get the overlays and color spaces correct.

I'm not bashing Amazon or their Kindle Reader: it's fine for folks on the move and they can find entertainment and education on long plane and train trips. But I have to be honest and tell you that you don't get 100% of what I put into the book when you buy the eBook. It's just immediate gratification if you already own their reader.

My Best,

Gare

[Riemer]

Thanks for the info. But that was not what I meant :$. I meant that here the book is called: Xara Xtreme 5: The Official Guide and here it is called Xara Xtreme The Official Guide.

The first has has a "5" in front of himself and the second not.

Thanks!
Riemer

[Gare]

Got it, thanks.

No it's the identical book, and the physical book has the version "5" in the title.

We'd passed out JPEGs to booksellers way in advance of the printing of the book, and for a moment or two, there was a discussion as to whether we wanted to be version-specific.

The book really is applicable (with a few exceptions) to previous versions, Pro and standard of V5, and Magix Xtreme Designer.

To sum it up, at the moment, there's only one book you can buy on Xara Xtreme.

My Best,

Gare

[Riemer]

Ok . Then I will the book that is in stock right now.

Thanks Gare!

[PixelDust]

$26 isn't a bad price for a full-color book, IMO. The full-color Peachpit "WOW" books are usually around $50.

[zaphodeist]

Problem for me is that the price goes up to the equivalent of about $38 in the UK - almost 50% more

[Gare]

Hi John—

Trust me: as an author, I cringe at the price of books, my own, those I need to buy, Adobe Press's, and especially Sarah Palin's.

Part of the escalation is due to a world-wide paper shortage. Emerging nations are all getting into Desktop Publishing, it's a renewable resource that take decades to "harvest", and consider what you're paying now for a ream of laserjet paper today. Same deal: it went from about $3 to over $10 in the past five years.

And part of it is the stranglehold booksellers have over publishers. It's a vicious cycle: booksellers virtually dictate what titles they'll sell, they take 50% of the cover price, and the consequence is that publishers are verrrry conservative about which titles they'll publish. The result is fewer titles per year, and publishers are then forced to up the price on titles to make up for reduced volume. It took me almost ten years to sell Xara Xtreme: The Official Guide to a publisher, because only McGraw-Hill had the vision and the intestinal fortitude to publish a book on a program that isn't an Adobe app.

I was very Mindful about BookAnomics when writing the book. There's less than 25% "Absolute Beginner" content in the book, and just about every field that uses Xara for a specific purpose is covered in fairly good detail: DTP, animation, retouching, 3D, how to design effective logos, the smartest way to quickly draw accurate shapes...you name it.

I can say this, though: if this book doesn't at least make a marginal profit for M-H, I won't be asked to write a sequel.

My Best,

Gare

[zaphodeist]

Hi Gare. Oh I'll still buy it and I'm looking forward to delving into it This pricing issue is not just to do with books though; Adobe programs for instance - a while back when the pound was twice the $ in exchange rate - had the numerical amounts nearly equal ... in other words, the program cost twice as much in the UK than in the US. When I queried this they replied "overheads". I silently wept for their plight Might try and get the book via Powell's bookshop in Portland - I've had books from there which, even with postage, worked out at a considerable saving over the price here [for books of US origin that is]. So it wasn't a criticism of you or your publishing company even. It's a general gripe at a trend I suppose

Cheers