I’ve had this question too many times over the last couple of weeks and instead of answering all of them separately I figured I would dedicate a blog article to it so that I can reference to that. Here we go:
Q) Will the e-book version of the HA/DRS deepdive be available soon?
A) No. We have decided that we will not release an e-book (including pdf, ibook, kindle) version of the book. It required a full reformatting of the book which is simple not feasible at this point in time. As it is a “self published” book we are responsible for not only the content but also the formatting etc. Sorry about that, for “Volume 2” however we will reconsider this.
I hope this answers your question(s). Thanks and again our apologies, the only option is the paper version.
UPDATE: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2011/04/05/what-an-ebook-is-this-a-late-april-fools-joke/
DYancy says
Duncan, I can sympathize – however, one of the things that I’ve noticed while reading my paper copy is that many of the diagrams and illustrations are so small and blurry that they are fairly illegible.
Perhaps the next version will be both a larger form factor for the paper version and also offered electronically so that the illustrations can be read easier.
Other than that, great book. REALLY wish it were available as a Kindle book on my iPad, but I’m trudging along with the paper copy and enjoying it immensely.
Best regards.
Duncan Epping says
We are fixing that in the next version. Most diagrams and screenshots should half a page or even a full page where appropriate.
Russell says
Honestly I’d be willing to pitch in money or otherwise to help get this thing in a digital format. A lot of us just don’t see the sense in buying something printed on paper thats going to be out of date at any point between 6 and 18 months.
I’m sure the information you’re providing is hugely valuable but as a traveling consultant/VMware partner I just don’t have any room to carry printed books anymore.
Still hoping for volume 2 though. If its digital I can promise that at least myself will buy it though!
Duncan Epping says
It is not about money, it is all about time.
Andrew Mitchell says
Not only that, but if they are in digital format how do you give away signed copies at VMworld without totally wrecking the screens on people’s iPads?
Renaud Touillet says
Dear Duncan,
I’m happy to hear this, I just receive my copy in Switzerland yesterday and I would be upset to hear that a PDF version was available ๐ I’m impatient to read it!
Happy to know that a volume 2 is on the way!!
Many thanks for your job!
Regards,
Renaud
Andrew Mancey says
Hi Duncan,
Any plans to have this placed with Amazon in the UK as we’re being hit with nearly a 3 week delivery lead time for basic International Shipping – or having to pay the same price of the book to get expedited shipping costs (2-4 days).
Regards
Andrew
Frank Denneman says
The book is also available at Comcol. http://www.comcol.nl/detail/73133.htm. Comcol ships to most european countries including the UK.
Duncan Epping says
And amazon.co.uk, amazon.fr, amazon.de started selling the book as well.
Paul parkin says
I’d pitch in for a kindle version too.
All my tech docs are now in PDFs on the kindle.
It’s become my must have Consulting tool.
Thomas Bryant says
You can always take the format you have now, increase the size and worst case just leave your margins the same as the smaller version. It would put a little more whitespace around, but gets around some of the nasties that the likes of lulu and such ๐
Roland says
I was waiting for the e-book version to come out before purchasing a copy. It is so much more convenient to carry my IPAD around then paper books.
Thanks,
Vuong Pham says
hmmm
try calibre (open source)
If you have any format such as pdf it can format to epub or mobi (kindle)
The ipad can handle pdf and epub.
I would consider a password on the pdf embedded to track it… or something like (adobe rights management)
But formatting for epub with complex diagrams and mobi is a nightmare..
pdf can handle complex formatting i.e. charts diagrams.
Adobe Professional can also generate complex DRM laden pdf documents (Adobe Rights Management)
It is a single click option more or less.
Even a complex word document can be converted to PDF with a PDF print driver then imported over to Adobe
Cheers!