Ggplot2 Book: Springer Publishing Agreement (2014) [pdf]

If my legalese is up to scratch, the contract appears to entitle Springer to charge the author for copy editing on top of everything else. Why shouldn't the author hire a freelance copy editor and distribute the book himself through an on-demand printing service?

I loved the Ggplot2 when I used it several years ago. But at the time (not sure if it's still true), I found this book essential to understand how to use the library beyond the simple examples.

This github repo is interesting because it has so much stuff -- even the contract with Springer and a textfile about marketing strategy. Seems like the author wanted to be as super transparent as possible.

Not sure if that's why it was posted here, but cool in any case.

Some are critiquing the 18%. As someone who has authored a technical book with a similar caliber publisher, I can confirm that it’s on the generous side. Though typically there would be some form of book advance (few k) and copy editing included as well.

The thing is, the the technical literature industry is kind of like venture capital. Publishers will throw a lot of things against the wall and whatever sticks will net them enough of a return to cover the rest. It can cost upwards of 50-100k to produce a book and most of them tend to flop. It’s really hard to understand which ones will flop as well, unless you have intimate domain expertise and can judge the technology and the community around it as well. At that point however, you may as well write the book yourself.

Maybe OP could explain what might be interesting about this contract?

> 18% share of revenue for the author of this tech book ...

What kind of system of commerce is it, when the stars and the accomplished fall to ruin, rent and low-cost bus passes, while coffers swell to record size, and abusive money lending , addictive drugs and casinos prosper standing littered by the wreckage of their victims.

Maybe paperback books were more of a treasure than we realized ? .. including the livelyhoods of the participants ? Is there one person or player or style to blame for the aggregation economies that are consuming its citizens, farmers and aspiring creators mercilessly ? USA here.

18%

No money down?