New KSP book. For beginners and professionals.

Hello!

I just want to inform you about a book release :

Understanding and Developing NI Kontakt Scripts Volume 1
http://castlewood-music.com/ksp-scripting_vol1.php

It covers the complete K4 reference and offers a lot of script examples,
as well as a complete script guide containing further examples.



Best wishes
Mike

 

Any chance this book will be released in e-book or PDF format? PDF is nice for programming books because it's easy to copy code examples and also I can read it on my computer while I'm at work!

 

No. Only paper.

 

Is it easy to read, to access ?

 

Yes, it is.
It is written for beginners as well as for experienced users.

While the very first chapters gives you an idea of scripting
(incl. examples), the remaining chapters can be used for
referencing KSP script commands.


It is not only a "teaching book", it is a reference guide, too.

 

It's a good read. now I'm waiting for a 2nd volume.
Any estimate on this one ?

 

If you are unsure, just have a look at these example pages:
http://castlewood-music.com/ksp-scripting_vol1_preview.php

 

Thanks for posting this Mike.

As an author, perhaps the publisher gives you some insight into how they decide to distribute a book like this. Do you know why they won't offer this in electronic form? It's almost senseless NOT to do this for computer-related literature these days. For myself, I've pretty much stopped purchasing tech. books that don't at least have a Kindle version that I can open on a separate screen while I'm working through examples, etc.

Also, how did they set the price for this? I see that on Amazon, the book sells for over $50, which is pretty steep in this economy. Have they given you any insight into how they can justify that high a price when almost 2/3's of this book is pretty much a note-for-note reprint of the KSP Reference Manual PDF that comes with Kontakt?

Thanks for any insights you can pass along.

cheers,

U0

 

It has copyright reasons. A Kindle version would have no real benefit, it would only increase the price.

The price is fine for such a technical book that has a lot of details (KSP Guide).
If you have a closer look on that you will understand, how much work it was to
creat such content.

At release, the book price has been even set lower than the German edition.
But it seems that the financial crises dropped the US dollar. The publisher has no
influence on prices which are set at Amazon (or international).
Only in Germany all book stores are forced by law to offer the price the
publisher says.

And, it is not a re-print. If you look closer you will see much more
information, working script examples and other hints. Furthermore, do not forget
the great introduction in KSP scripting including interface scripting and more.
Also, the KSP Guide gives you much more information about relations between
script commands and tags.

The book covers much more, than the KSP reference of K4 does.

 

Thanks for your reply, Mike, but I'm forced to state that this is not the case at all.

A PDF or Kindle version would provide enormous benefit to those of us who only have two hands, and who prefer to use them for mouse/keyboard rather than holding a softcover book open on the desk with one hand while entering the examples into the script editor with the other. In fact, I suspect that's why NI decided NOT to ship a printed Operation Manual with Kontakt 4 and, instead, opted for documentation in PDF form. Since there's no printing or paper costs involved, it's not clear how an electronic version (PDF) would increase the price. Kindle versions of published books typically go for much less than their paper counterparts.

One thing I noticed, while looking at Amazon.de, is that the Kindle is apparently not available there (i.e., in Europe?). Perhaps this has more to do with it.

On the rest, I've written plenty of similar technical material over the last 20 years on topics like WS-BPEL, Web Services, XML, HTML, Java, Javascript and C++, and so I'm very familiar with what's involved. Based on that experience, the first 120 pages of this book look really great. They appear to provide all the much-needed examples and details that are completely missing from NI's minimalist documentation.

However, at least based on the sample you provided, the bulk of the remainder - while it may include some screenshots that aren't included there, or some code snippets that are different - appears to be a very slightly reworked version of NI's KSP Reference Manual, which is freely available. The only reason this caught my eye was because it has been common practice for some publishers (like Que, for example) to simply reprint a reference manual for, say, Java and slap a $50 or even $60 price tag on it. Books like this are often up to 1000 pages long, so they appear to be worth the money, but in actuality they don't typically provide more info than one can get with a quick Google search. In terms of actual value, the customer isn't getting much more than what's freely available on-line at O'Reilly or Sun. "Beginners" are typically the ones most apt to make such an ill-advised purchase.

So it's just not yet clear how that latter 2/3s - which constitutes the bulk of the book - provides enough additional information to justify the rather exorbitant price relative to similar selections. Technical books like this typically go for between $25 and $39 - and at O'Reilly, for instance, that typically includes a bundled e-Book version.

Regarding the exchange rate, you're absolutely right: our new, Socialist government here in the U.S. is actively working to destroy the value of the U.S. Dollar relative to other currencies. Over the last 44 months they have exploded our national debt by more than an order of magnitude and continue to pursue deficit spending as if there were some historical evidence that such suicidal policies have ever improved a nation's economy. Unfortunately, things appear to be worse in Europe, if that's possible (and Germany is one of the few countries waking up to these facts).

I checked the .de sites for this item and it's currently selling for EUR 39,90, which is about what Amazon is selling it for here (i.e., they're not jacking the price). Most curiously, Amazon Germany has discounted the English version down to 33,90. Yet the German version is 39,90. Not sure what's going on there. Was it not originally written in German?

Either way, the change in the EUR/USD exchange rate can hardly explain an increase in the cost here - quite the contrary.

Please note - other than pointing out some factual inconsistencies, I'm not trying to be argumentative here Mike. Far from it. As I move into a next career, where authoring a book is a definite possibility, I'm genuinely curious abut why book publishers continue to fight progress and actively refuse to provide electronic versions of published books - when ALL books now start out in electronic form before they go into the publishing process. It's a mystery. Pricing is another curiosity - especially in this age where almost all knowledge is available on-line with sufficient searching.

cheers,

 

This book is significantly different than books you mention due to its EXTREMELY small market. I suspect the author is not expecting to sell more than 500 copies of this book (and even that might be overstating it).

The number of Kontakt users is very small compared to the number of computer programmers who would buy an O'Reilly technical book, and the number of people interesting enough in Kontakt scripting to buy a book like this is extremely small. If you look at the prices of obscure post-graduate textbooks (which would be a closer comparison in market) those types of books typically run $100-$150.

$50 dollars for this book is not excessive. For someone who is really interested in this subject (enough to read a book about it in addition to the manual), $50 is not much money. If you were able to hire a Kontakt Scripting expert for a one-hour consultation, you could probably expect to pay at least that much if not more.

Regarding e-books, I think it would be crazy to release something like this in an e-book given the extremely small market. An e-version could easily end up on a music torrent website, which could absolutely cripple sales.

Just FYI, based on the information on Amazon.com Mike is both the author and publisher (his company Castlewood Music). He is using "Books on Demand" to physically create the books. That shows the author understands this is a low volume book, and also raises his costs significantly given he pays a price premium to use a printer like Books on Demand.

 

Interesting thoughts Martin. I'd point out one aspect that tends to invalidate this analogy, however. Post-grads seldom have a choice as to which books they're assigned by whatever program they're in. As such, the publisher is free to set the price ridiculously high, knowing that if the students wants to pass the course, they'll be forced to find a way to afford the book.

These two statements don't really square with each other in the context of practical reality. The very small market you have identified for this book wouldn't have much motivation for posting a text like this on a download site. In fact, in Kindle form that's not possible AFAIK. Meanwhile, if I'm a potential customer and I really think the text is worth $X, then I'm not going to rip off the author, am I?

Which, of course, is all the more reason to publish the book electronically.

cheers,

 

@UserZero
If you feel fine with the KSP Reference of K4, you do not need to buy this book.

@MartinHines
I am not the publisher of my books and not the owner of Castlewood Music

 

Hi Mike,

I think you may have misunderstood me.

I'm very interested in a book that goes beyond the bundled reference manual, which I can only assume is just as buggy and incomplete as the Kontakt Operating Manual.

What I'm not interested in is paying for the reference manual - again. My impression - and it's only an impression - is that 2/3's of this book does little more than duplicate the information that's in that reference. That impression is built from looking at the sample you provided, and past experience purchasing books (sight-unseen) that turned out to be a simple reprint of information already available online (again, I'm referring to things like Que's C++ reference and some of the larger HTML and Unix tomes from years back, which are now used to raise up my monitor).

Yes, I understand that you've added some screenshots in that later section. Yes, I understand that the first 1/3 of the book looks quite interesting. No, I'm not convinced it's worth paying almost twice what I would normally pay for a similar technical book at O'Reilly, where an electronic version is very often included in the purchase price. That's all. I'm sure it's a great book. If/when I get deeper into Kontakt I may even purchase it regardless of the price. I'm just wondering about economics here.

cheers,

 

Out of curiosity, just ran a check on "Books On Demand" for a run of 500 copies of a 190 pg. book and it worked out to $2.86/copy. That, of course, did not allow for graphics which could raise the price-per-copy substantially. I don't know how much graphics is contained in Mike's book and, unfortunately, at $50/copy, I won't get the chance.

 

Sorry. I saw on the Castlewood Music website that a "Mike Novy" is listed as Chief Orchestrator/Senior Composer. I thought that meant you actually owned Castlewood Music. Sorry.

Your understanding is wrong. Any publisher is "free to set the price" of ANY book. Publishers who publish books for extremely small audiences MUST charge high prices to earn a reasonable return on their investment.

Unforturnately you are wrong again. People will post almost anything in data form on torrent sites. For example, there are people who will buy software that costs $1500 and post it on a torrent site. It only takes ONE person who thinks their uploading won't have any consequences (or they just don't care). I know of countless examples of people who have uploaded content they purchased themselves on torrent sites.

I assume piracy is the main reason Mike is only offering a printed version (fyi, I assume Mike is German, so while his English is good he might not fully understand subtleties in English posts).

FYI, note that none of the Harry Potter books have been released in electronic format.


P.S. The reason NI stopped printing paper versions of their Operation Manuals were:
-- they didn't think that many people were using them
-- they cost alot, especially in terms of shipping products worldwide

It had nothing to do with user convenience; in the past they offered .pdf versions of manuals in addition to printed versions.

I am sure Mike understands you fine.

You don't think his book is worth $50 based on the two reasons you provided. He thinks it is worth $50.

I agree with Mike since I think your comparisons to mass-market technical books is invalid. Those books sell in the tens of thousands of copies, while I Mike's book will sell in the hundreds of copies.

 

Heh. Clearly you've never been a post-grad. Or a book publisher.

Right. But I'm the one making erroneous comparisons. Funny.

 

I have two post graduate degrees, and I am very familiar with very small market book prices.

Again, you are wrong to compare Technical books (which sell in the tens of thousands of copies) with Mike's book (which will probably not sell more than 500 copies of the English version).

Yes you are. I pointed out the Harry Potter book "no electronic versions" situation to counter your claim that everything is released electronically these days. That was a quick example; I could easily find hundreds more examples where authors have decided not to release electronic versions.

The Potter books are not released electronically due to piracy concerns.

The main point is you were able to tell the author you thought his book was overpriced. He disagreed. Case closed.

 

Martin, if that were actually true, then you would be very familiar with the manner in which publishers have that market (post-grad students - and students in similar programs, in general) over a barrel when it comes to pricing. Clearly, you're not or, more likely, you're simply refusing to acknowledge that reality because you've found yourself on what you think is the losing side of an argument. Here's a hint: you're the only one arguing here... or, at least, attempting to do so.

The fact is that post-grad text publishers can basically charge what they like and students in such programs have no choice but to spend whatever is required to get the material in order to finish their course of study. From a commodity standpoint, it's a completely broken, distorted market because it's either buy the book or fail the course. All too often, the author also happens to be the one writing the syllabus, which is a clear - but institutionally sanctioned - conflict of interest.

As such, none of this has anything to do with the size of the market in question and everything to do with the exploitation of an essentially 'captive market'. Purposely choosing to deny this fact is simply foolish and irrational, and until Mike's book finds its way into a post-grad course, pretending that this set of circumstances is in any way similar those surrounding his book is equally foolish.

Meanwhile, pretending that a book is 'worth more' simply because it has a small potential market is just silly - a notion that requires total ignorance of market and commodity economics. The market (i.e., customer) determines the value of what it buys - not the vendor, not the vendor's costs, and not the size of the market.

This silly notion is right in line with your notion that a person who views Mike's book as worth $50 is also the same person who's going to d/l it from a torrent site because it's not worth paying for. Which is it? You don't seem to know.

As for the Potter series and torrents in general, you're obviously way out of your depth here. You'll also have to refresh my memory and point out where I claimed "that everything is released electronically these days".

The Potter series is, in point of fact, freely available in electronic form in numerous places on the web. The only catch is that the copyright owner(s) aren't seeing any revenue from this medium because they refused to provide one. Like the wasted energy put into DRM, which is always eventually cracked, refusing to offer an electronic version of a book as a pretense (and a pretense is ALL it is) for preventing piracy, only guarantees that the publisher will never see a dime in revenue from that medium. Ultimately, those who wish to flaunt copyright law are the only ones who benefit. Meanwhile, those of us who could benefit from an electronic version, and who refuse to visit a torrent site in order to get one, suffer because the publisher is too ignorant of reality or short-sighted to provide one.

 

Thanks for calling me a liar. I have an MBA in Finance and a Masters in Computer Information Systems Management.

Professors do monitor the cost of books, and if a book cost too much, a professor COULD use an alternative book. You are foolish to think a publisher can realistically "charge what they want". If this were true, why wouldn't a publisher charge $500 - $1000 dollars per post-grad textbook? Why not $5,000?

It appears you have a myopic view of book pricing. Size of the potential market DOES have an impact, just like any other product pricing. Yes, a "captive market" can have an influence on pricing, but to claim a publisher can "charge what they like" shows a complete ignorance of how products are priced.

You need to take a course in Economics 101 (or go back and re-read your textbook since you obviously don't remember any of it). A "market" consists of invididuals, and different individuals place different values on a specific product (this is called the demand curve). One person might consider paying $50 for a book on an obscure subject a fair price and buy it, while another person won't buy at that price since they think it is too expensive. A third person might not be willing to spend anything on the item becuase it has no value to them. The "market" does not set a single value for a product (unless the product is available on an exchange market where the product can be quickly bought and resold, which is not the case here).

Also, stop using terms you don't understand. A "commodity" is an item that is readily available from a number of sources. Given this is the only book that covers the subject of Kontakt Scripting besides the manual, this is DEFINITELY NOT A "COMMODITY".

A vendor's cost, the size of the potential market, and desired profitability DO impact the price that is set for an item. These are factors that SET THE RETAIL PRICE of an item. The market (collection of individuals) will buy or not buy, depending on individual determinations of value.

You are very ignorant if you think people only download things if they aren't worth paying money for. Have you ever heard of the idea of "getting something for free"?

You obviously think Mike's book has some monetary value to you. Given your logic are you saying you would turn down a free copy of Mike's book he offered one to you?

Here is an education for you. With any electronic media availble for illegal download (tunes, software, e-books) you can classify the downloaders into two groups:
-- 1) people would never would have purchased the item in the first place (at least not at the current price)
-- 2) people who might have purchased the item if it wasn't available via a torrent site. These people value the item, but are happy to get it for free.

I have seen many situations where musicians will illegally download a specific software title they would have paid for, only to use that "extra" money to buy something that they can't get via a torrent site, either a different piece of software or some type of hardware.

Sorry, here is your exact quote:
It's almost senseless NOT to do this for computer-related literature these days.

I said "none of the Harry Potter books have been RELEASED in electronic format", meaning the publisher has not released them. I used that example to show there are many books on the market today where the publisher or author has decided only to release paper versions to minimize piracy.

In most cases piracy can not be "prevented". However, it can be minimized.

Perhaps you should do the following:
-- write a book on a mass-market technical subject, something that took you a significant amount of time and effort to create
-- publish your book in both paper and electronic format (.pdf)
-- price the book at the low end of the fair technical book pricing you suggest
-- Keep the electonic version free of any copy protection, given you are positive that it would be cracked anyway
-- come back here two years after your book has been released and tell us if your views about copyright protection have changed.



Final Note: With all your blustering about how this KSP book is overpriced, you have failed to convince the author and me of the validity of your argument. Good job!

Please continue to post about how this book is overpriced or how you think any copyright protection is worthless. All the points I wanted to make have been made.