I was at my local Barnes and Noble today looking at the MySQL titles and found Sams’ choices amusing. They have 3 books which had damn near the same content, just slightly different titles: Sams Teach Yourself MySQL in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself MySQL in 21 Days, and Sams Teach Yourself: SQL: In 10 Minutes.
How do they sell an author on these subjects? I can’t imagine what they say, “Hey guy, we’ve got a learn in 21 Days, but we think our readers would rather learn in 24 Hours. You think you could write something like that?”
Another funny observation on the topic. The 21 Days line was like $39, the 24 Hours line was $24, and the 10 Minutes line was $14. What is the logic there?
I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but bookpool.com has great prices on technical books. For the three SQL books referenced in your post:
Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days
21.95 (45% off)
Teach Yourself MySQL in 24 Hours
13.50 (46% off)
Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes
7.95 (47% off)
I guess I’ll go ahead and give my favorite online bookstore props, it’s nerdbooks.com. What makes their amazing prices so great is that they’ve just moved to Dallas from Cali. So I can cut the shipping cost and just pick my books up at the warehouse.
They have the 24 Hours book for $16.99 and the 21 Days book for $27.99.
The best thing about nerdbooks is their prices on the O’Reilly titles, they’re between 45% – and 55% off.
No shipping … very nice.