From: lhawkins@annie.wellesley.edu (R. Lee Hawkins)
Subject: Out of date O'Reilly book woes...
Organization: Wellesley College
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 22:37:00 GMT

First off, let me say that I really like most, if not all, of the
O'Reilly handbooks.  I am also happy that they revise things
periodically.  With this in mind, I have noticed a significant 
'gotcha' with the way they do business.  Here it is:

	How many times have you gone to the bookstore to buy an
O'Reilly book, and found yourself checking inside the front cover of
every copy of the same book on the shelf to make sure you have the most
current rev. of the book you want?  If your answer is "I've never done
this" then my guess is that (assuming you get O'Reilly books often) that
you have probably bought at least one that was not the most current
version.  For almost _every_ O'Reilly book at _every_ bookstore that
I've seen that carries them I can usually find copies that are different
revs.  I hadn't gotten an 'old' book until last month, when I picked up
the X-Windows/Motif User's Guide (the only one in the store :( )  and
later found several bugs in the book, then came to find out a book
I bought last month was a year out of rev!   Here is an email exchange
I had with a person at O'Reilly who shall remain nameless.  Looks like
the only sure way to get the current rev is to buy from O'Reilly:

(Message outbound:2289)
Return-Path: lhawkins
To: nuts@ora.com
Cc: lhawkins
Subject: X Volume 3 bug?
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 92 16:32:15 -0500
From: lhawkins
X-Mts: smtp

I was just reading through Chapter 8 in your X Window System User's Guide
Motif Edition, and in the discussion of scroll bars on page 212 the figure
that is referenced (8-24) bears no resemblance to the description in the
text.  My copy was bought 4 weeks ago, and is the January 1991 edition.
Is this the latest edition available?  I don't consider this a problem for
me, because I know basically what is being discussed anyway, but it is a 
glaring error.

Cheers,
--Lee

PS--I _really_ like O'Reilly books (I have over 14 and have more on the way),
but there is one aspect of them that is increadibly annoying: having to look
at the revision dates of every copy in the bookstore to try and make sure
that I'm getting the latest revision, and then _still_ not really being sure.
I suspect that what happened to me in this case was that the bookstore had
an old copy and I ended up with one that was older than the most current rev.
I'm glad you folks revise things periodically, but you should give bookstores
some sort of credit (like exchanging new editions for unsold copies of older
editions) for old editions to keep this sort of thing from happening.  I'd
really hate to 1) Buy a book that is out of date (and it not be my fault) and
then 2) immediately have to pay you guys 75% of the price of a new one to
get the latest edition when I find out that the book I bought last week is
a year out of rev.  This shouldn't ever happen, but I have a feeling it has
just happened to me.  And if I hadn't been so careful in the past, it would
have happened a _lot_ more often.

--Lee


Their reply:

> I'm glad you folks revise things periodically, but you should give bookstores
> some sort of credit (like exchanging new editions for unsold copies of older
> editions) for old editions to keep this sort of thing from happening.  I'd
> really hate to 1) Buy a book that is out of date (and it not be my fault) and
> then 2) immediately have to pay you guys 75% of the price of a new one to
> get the latest edition when I find out that the book I bought last week is
> a year out of rev.  This shouldn't ever happen, but I have a feeling it has
> just happened to me.

First of all, we have no control over bookstore stocking patterns.

Second, if we were to try to be very assertive about having only the
latest editions in bookstores, then we would have much greater
returns, and would have to raise prices, or stop updating books as
often.  So you'd pay either way (or get less for your money).

So the only answer I can suggest is for you to order directly
from us.  We ship only the latest edition.



________________________________________________________________________________
R. Lee Hawkins	 	    			lhawkins@annie.wellesley.edu
Department of Astronomy     		        lhawkins@lucy.wellesley.edu
Whitin Observatory         		      	    
Wellesley College				Ph. 617-283-2708
Wellesley, MA 02181				FAX 617-283-3642
________________________________________________________________________________
Newsgroups: misc.books.technical