Arjen wonders why the MySQl Cluster Study book is published on Lulu and not trough MySQL 's traiditional publisher.
Altough I was involved in the creation process of the mentionned book, I have no idea why this decision was made but to me it makes perfect sense. MySQL Cluster is a piece of software that is still going to change a lot in the next couple of months and years.
A book published in a traditional way needs a minimal sales volume in order to be worth publishing. If there even is a slight chance that by the time the book gets published a significant amount of content of the book has already changed traditional publishers shouldn't publish the book. Now over at Lulu.com a book won't be print before a customer orders it. So when the book is being sent to me. I get the current version of the book.. If in 3 months the authors decide to rewrite a chapter or make some bugfixes. The book can be updated much faster.
I can imagine that people buying the same title in april next year will already get bugfixes on the version that will arrive at my doorstep in a couple of days.
At least that's why I would publish a technical book on Lulu.
