Here's the reply that I sent Wrox when I got this email today.
There has been much discussion of this topic on #perl over the
last week or so. You might also be interested in Skud's diary
entry at <http://advogato.org/person/Skud/>.
--
<http://www.dave.org.uk>
"The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one",
he said. But still they come.
>--- Original Message ---
>From: "Dave Cross" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: 10/31/00 1:56:27 PM
>
From: Julia Gilbert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: 10/31/00 1:10:45 PM
>
>> Hi Dave,
>>
>> My name is Julia Gilbert and I am an Author Agent for Wrox
>> <http://www.wrox.com>.
>>
>> You may be familiar with our range of books.
>
>Yes. You're the people who have the scarey author photos on
the front of your books.
>
>You should _know_ that I know your books as I've recently discussed
doing tech reviews on "Professional Perl" with one of your colleagues.
>
>> Our trademark is "Programmer to Programmer", because Wrox
>> books are written by professional programmers for
>> professional programmers and are subsequently reviewed by
>> professional programmers.
>
>I've been involved in some conversations with people who are
alredy tech reviewing this "Professional Perl" and the concensus
of opinion seems to be that to programmers involved in writing
it are, in general, far from professional.
>
>> We are currently in the process of producing a publication
>> dedicated to professional Perl programming and are seeking
>> authors who have the expertise to write chapters on one or
>> more of the following subjects:-
>>
>> 1) Perl and Relational Databases
>> (access to MS SQL servers via the Sybase drivers, Oracle,
>> and probably a bit of MySQL too. Modules that should be
>> covered include DBI::W32ODBC, Win32::ODBC, Win32::DBIODBC,
>> DBFramework, and Tangram)
>>
>> 2) Embedding Perl into Web Pages
>> (Why embed Perl, Perl-ASP/PerlScript, EmbPerl, ePerl,
>> HTML::Mason)
>>
>> 3) Mathematical and Computational Applications
>> (Perl Math Modules, Mathematical Algorithms with Perl,
>> Matrices, Cryptography)
>>
>> 4) Distributed Perl Programming
>> (IPC, RPC, CORBA)
>>
>> 5) Perl and Other Programming Languages
>> (Using C from Perl, writing with the POSIX.pm module,
>> syscall, Devel::Peek, DynaLoader.pm, Using Perl from C,
>> Converting Perl into C, Converting Perl into Bytecode (and
>> back))
>>
>> 6) Perl and Unicode
>> ([perlunicode] (I18N.pm), use utf8.pm, use bytes.pm)
>>
>> 7) Locale and Internationalization
>> (use locale, Unicode, Time and Timezones).
>>
>> In addition to these chapters, we need authors to write
>> the following sections:
>>
>> * A section on "Perl IDEs and Editors"
>> * Integrating Perl with IIS
>> * Integrating Perl with Netscape
>> * A set of short sections on web protocols
>> covering MailTools modules,
>> Mail::POP3Client, libnet modules (namely,
>> Net::SMTP, Net::POP3, Net::FTP).
>
>Sorry, but none of these topics really interest me. There seems
to be a large emphasis on proprietory software - which most professional
Perl programmers would avoid whenever possible.
>
>> We would need your first draft of the
>> chapter(s)/section(s) before the end of November, so
>> please let me know ASAP if you are interested in writing
>> for us.
>
>This sounds a bit short notice to produce anything of any quality.
You also fail to mention the remuneration that I could expect
for carrying out this work.
>
>> You are welcome to pass my enquiry on to any colleagues
>> who you think may be interested.
>
>Don't you think that this makes you sound a bit desperate for
authors? I think I'll pass on this if you don't mind.
>
>> I look forward to hearing from you soon,
>
>You must realise that many people in the Perl community are
regularly in contact with each and that therefore I know that
you sent this mail to a number of people last week. The fact
that I wasn't included in the first batch and was only contacted
after they all turned you down doesn't exactly fill me with enthusiasm.
>
>Also, I'm sure that you must realise that sending identical
unsolicited emails to a number of people can be seen as "spamming"
- an activity which won't exactly endear you to the programming
community at large.
>
>All in all it seems that sending out these emails has been very
damaging to Wrox's reputation in the open source developer community.
Speaking for myself, I will be very unlikely to recommend Wrox's
books to anyone in the future.
>
>Regards,
>
>Dave...
>--
><http://www.dave.org.uk>
>
>"The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one",
he said. But still they come.
>
>
>
