Funda of second hand books

Funda of second hand books
Some times back i was looking at one of the small gully book shops and saw a huge stock of second hand books like Let US C , JAVA , Bala guruswamy etc etc. Just asked the shopkeeper how do these books do. Pat he answered sells 2 copies every day for every book. Started my thinking all over India there must Lakhs of small shops like this.....Wondered the second hand books profit can not be enjoyed either by the publisher or the author. Yes the gulliwala is definelty under profit thats a different thing. But here are some of the tips which i learnt from Manish Jain BPB how to handle the same :-

Keep revising editions which are best sellers. For instance my .NET Interview sells approx 20 thousand copies a year and SQL Server hardly 5000. That means second hand copies of .NET will be available easily in 3 years time span in such local shops.So i always keep updating .NET on year basis and SQL Server every 4 years.
I really appreciate the depth knowledge what Manish has abot Indian Computer book Market.

My good seniors in my Career

Always said if seniors are good you get motivated , environment looks clean and you learn and grow. In my eight years of exp here are some of them who made this author

-- Chris nicolatos --- 55 years old guys taught me practical way of implementing OOPs, Way to think , Write nice code and how to be a practical project manager. He was not PMP certified , never did CMMI etc etc....But one thing i never had nights when i worked with him. Just to add you are the my building block.

-- Kapil Siddharth -- Taught me how a architecture shold think , Practical , to the grounds with the programmers.....The man who taught you should code when you are needed to.

-- Mukesh :- He was my junior but still my project manager. Taught me the true essence of programming never give up attitude.

-- Thamaka Nadan :- One senior who taught me how to be away from politics , cared for the project , gave me ear to always hear my thoughts , never let me down until i did some thing funny....Will always like to under him.

-- Manohar Kamath :- I will call him Mr perfect.....Taught me the passion to work...And do it once and do it perfect. Inspired to become MVP. Will always like to work under him if i get a chance....He will like it or not is a different question.

-- Ranjit Menon :- He was far far above me. But i can always see a respect in his eyes for juniors who worked under him. Humble and nice guy to talk to. One thing which always surprised about him he used to reply all emails how much ever busy he is and every one always found a appointment with him. Learnt from him how much ever busy you are always fine time for every one either its a senior or a far far below junior.

Every one has a hero and until now you guys are my hero.......The best part of all these guys was they never me let down....Oh yes i never let them down to. I think thats what we care for respect the juniors and he respects back.

Thanks to all you guys to make me....What i am..

Now you must be guessing did i have bad seniors.....Oh yes i have !!!!!!

Booooo Somebody asked me to sign a book

Was at the Tata MCGraw book shop at Lamington road Mumbai. Made freindship with Jayesh bhai the owner of the book shop by introducing myself. Wanted to know which are the recent hot demanding titles. Booooo Some body was buying my Java Interview , Jayesh Bhai similing asked to sign a copy for the reader.......Damn i was red face and really feeling shy....Sign and me...But reader was really excited and i saw a huge respect in his eyes. Was not able to say him no.

Damn Signed with my fav phrase "Happy Job Hunting".......

Hey guys i am not so big i just read and make it more simple......Do not make me shy again.

Snag IT my fav tool for book pictures

Snag IT my fav tool for book pictures
This is the best tool which any computer book author can have for making images in the book. Following are some real good features
-- Gives you exact print screen i mean on window , marked area etc etc
-- I love the torn edged effect borders.
-- The arrow collection is awesome
-- The labels are really good. Love the Comic labels.
Even while preparin my own company documents this tool is awesome..

And the Indian Passport Office is same even after 10 years

Was today at the passport office to renew my passport.Filled the online passport form they gave a timing of 11 :00 AM and todays date. Went to the passport gate expecting i will not have to stand in the queue....Damn had to stand in the queue...I was the 420 th person in the queue. At evening 6:oo PM finally applied. Whole day wasted to manage the buercracy of the system.

10 years before when i applied it was better than this. Counters were more. They were many uneducated people on queue who were asked to print the online form....Damn the poor uneducated how does he know to print online. Second option given to him was go the counter pay 50 rs and get the online form.

Technology enables to work faster....But looks like its opposite for the Prabhadevi passport office.

Moral of the story--- Prabhadevi Passport Office will become worst as days pass by.

The way small computer publishers work in India

They get an average of 8 book submissions every year. They publish 4-6 every year. That’s about 10% rejection rate.
I asked about criteria for rejection. They take first 30 pages of your manuscript and give it to at least 5 independent “readers” who then suggest to the publishers should they go for a print or not.
No advances paid on hand. You get money only if you sell. If your book does not sell deductions will happen from your royalty. Mostly they print 500 copies to test and see if the book sells. If it sells then go for more production.
If they are getting from there regular authors then they print 2000 copies approx depending on the author and the title. For instance i write for BPB mostly they print atleast 2000 copies for a start to see if my book is worth. If it sells good then go for the next lot....But again i am writing for BPB almost 3 years now. So because of the trust they move ahead.

New authors need to really prove to Indian publishers to stand worth.

My unexpected meet with Narayan Murthy

Some 4 months back i was invited for a book launch "Good Programming". I was not so keen in really attending the launch because of my Accenture job schedule. Luckily my project mates thought of a party near the same place. As we were passing by thought to just peek in the book store.....Damn in the corner was Mr Narayan Murthy. Book shop owner introduced me to him......But he was very busy , just smiled at me ( as if he was saying think big)....By the way lucky to get a glimpse of him. Never thought he will be available on such small book launches.
After that enjoyed bade miyan food and gateway of india sight seeing.....Movie China town sucked....

My Book Schedule for the coming year

15 th March 2007 - C# and ASP.NET Projects ( 400 pages)
25 th June 2007 - Software Testing Interview questions ( 400 Pages)
28 th Sept 2007 - Software Architecture Interview questions ( 400 Pages)
15 th December 2007 - Project Management Interview questions ( 400 pages)
18 th March 2008 - 1001 Best Practices in .NET


------ Huge list do not know if will be successful

Bye to Accenture

Bye to Accenture
Left Accenture one month back. Enjoyed every bit with every one. Made some real good freinds. Thanks to my FHLBC team i ended up with a shampine bottle...You guys are really awesome. Will miss you specially Aashish , Kirti , Sanjay , Sheethal , Hussain , Deepthi , Abhra , SRG archtiecture team , Surojit and lot more. Thanks to my seniors for all the motivatio given till now.
Bye Accenture , Bye Avanade.....