I Am Alert (but not alarmed)

Sharing is caring

3 February 2009
Filed under Books, Text

I’ve just paid for and downloaded a PDF book by Mark Boulton called Five Simple Steps: Designing for the Web. It’s a really nicely-designed publication, and although I’ve only glanced through it so far, it seems to be chock-full of great advice and examples. I’m also really impressed the way Mark’s gone about promoting it via his networks over the last six months or so.

The only sticking point for me is the application of a software-license-style fee structure: 12 pounds¹ for ‘one user’, 25 pounds for five, and 50 pounds for a ten-user license. I haven’t really got that much to say about this, other than that books are surely meant to be shared, and in their sharing gain all kinds of attributes not as easily quantifiable as cash – influence over a broader audience, for example.

Compare Mark’s payment structure with that of Massimo Vignelli, who recently released a book-length PDF of his musings free of charge - I’m not for one second suggesting that Mark shouldn’t profit from his book, but rather that it may be interesting to try to gauge the comparative merits of reach and profit, to determine whether over time, reach leads to greater influence, and therefore – presumably – more demand for your services, and thus more money). Of course, Vignelli’s got both reach and (one assumes) cash in bucketloads, so perhaps he’s not the best example.

¹No, I can’t be bothered finding the pound sign