Subject to shill: tech books as corporate marketing
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Originally this article was supposed to be a book review of the upcoming O’Reilly title Subject to Change, but I was so appalled by its content that I felt compelled to shift focus to the more important issue of ethics in publishing. This book reflects a sinister trend in the tech book publishing industry that favors vapid, tedious material that serves to advise readers without revealing the big secrets. The purpose is for the authors (usually a group of writers, and most of them high-level managers) to promote their company and its services by giving readers just enough information. If they want the advanced material, they need to buy the rest at a premium price by going straight to the company for its professional services. Meanwhile, the publisher bathes in a sea of money while the authors relentlessly promote the book on their blogs and in their conference keynotes and panel discussions. Tech books have increasingly become corporate marketing vehicles, sacrificing the exciting A-list technical material that regular tech book buyers and enthusiasts have come to expect from companies like O’Reilly Media and Pearson Education. This isn’t the first book I’ve seen that gives readers a 20,000-word marketing pitch — that honor belongs to Enterprise Ajax (and it’s about three times longer). I’m bothered — sickened — to see that not only is this trend continuing unabated, but it’s actually become a habit.
Subject to Change is written by four people who hold high positions at a company named Adaptive Path. You’ve probably heard of that company because its CEO, Jesse James Garrett, is credited with coining the term Ajax in an essay he wrote a while ago. Other than that, there isn’t anything particularly remarkable about Adaptive Path, other than the fact that it seems to be a successful consulting firm. But from reading this book, you’d think that Adaptive Path was the second coming. Its logo is splattered across every cover surface, larger and more prominent even than O’Reilly’s. The authors speak in the first-person (usually plural, sometimes singular) and turn nearly every subject into a plug for their company.