For the IT Books you Read, What’s in a Name?
(Remember that every comment is another chance to win a Kindle, so feel free to enter your thoughts in the comments below for a double-assist!)
Concentrated Technology is more than just a great place for blog posts from Don and Greg. Its also soon to be the jumping off point for a new type of IT learning tool that Don and I are both very passionate about.
Let me start by asking the question: When it comes to IT books, are you tired of all the 1500-page “doorstops” you find in the IT aisle of your local bookstore? To Don and I, those books always feel like the authors add too much information to artifically inflate the page count like excessive screen shots, unnecessary tables, and copy-and-pastes from help files. This is especially true for new “editions” that focus on a new version of, say, Windows - much of the content stays the same from edition to edition.
You’re a busy IT person, and the world of IT is changing every day. Just keeping up to date with what’s out there is a job all to itself. You probably find yourself buying some of these huge books in the hopes of learning a new technology. But when you get one, you probably flip through it, get overloaded with content, and ultimately toss it up on the shelf to rarely look at again. Wouldn’t it be nice if books were available that didn’t give you the exact step-by-step, that didn’t deluge you with loads of unnecessary information, and weren’t trying to overload you with every possible example?
That’s what Don and I are in the process of planning today. We’re planning a new kind of IT book that’s short (250-300 pages max), a little less expensive, laser-targeted on a focused topic, and gives you exactly the info you need to get up and running in a very short amount of time. (Now, do you see why we call it “Concentrated” technology…?) Best of all, we can pump these books out in a significantly shorter time frame than they can, getting timely information from the author’s brain to your hot little hands in a matter of a couple of months instead of upwards of a year. Thus, you’re getting the info you need when you need it.
Here’s our problem: What to call these little books? We have two ideas that we want to bounce off of you, though you’re welcome to propose your own ideas. Let us know which one you like better using comments (WIN A KINDLE!) below.
The first idea leverages the “Concentrated” idea. For this idea, we’d name books like this:
- Concentrated Windows Terminal Services 2008
- Concentrated Windows Hyper-V
- Concentrated Windows PowerShell
The second idea focuses more on how much time we think it’ll take for you to pick up this new technology. Here, we’re focusing on an amount of time. Using this idea, we’d name titles like this:
- Windows Terminal Services 2008 in 12 Hours
- Windows Hyper-V in 12 Hours
- Windows PowerShell in 12 Hours
So, our task to you: What do you think of the idea? Does the idea of a short and focused learning tool like a thin book resonate with you? And, if so, what title structure best explains that concept? And, most importantly, when you’re surfing through Amazon looking for a good book, which title would you be more likely to buy? Let us know (WIN A KINDLE) by leaving a comment.
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