If you’re into software development and books about the myriad of topics there, you probably know of at least two publishers: O’Reilly and Manning. Both provide good quality and both now have subscriptions where you basically get access to their whole catalog through your web-browser (or in O’Reilly’s case also through native apps for mobile platforms). I considered getting a subscription from O’Reilly for a long time but at €433/pa it’s not cheap. Additionally, I’m just someone who really likes “owning” a book - especially when it costs more than a few EURs - and not depending on a subscription. I also prefer the “Books” app on my iPad over the reading app that O’Reilly has built so far; another highly subjective point of view.
Manning has gone a slightly different route than O’Reilly: While you still get access to their catalog with their subscription, you also get one eBook for free every month and a 50% discount on any purchase:
- share your subscription with one other person
- access to all Manning books, MEAPs, liveVideos, liveProjects, and audiobooks!
- choose one free eBook per month
- exclusive 50% discount on all purchases
It feels more like the Audible-approach where you have a subscription but still own at least part of what you get out of it even after the subscription has ended. The pricing itself is also quite attractive, coming in at $20.83 per month if billed annually ($249.99 per year) or $24.99 if billed monthly. This sounds pretty great to me especially since I currently have a couple of their books in the backlog 😃
Do you want to give me feedback about this article in private? Please send it to comments@zerokspot.com.
Alternatively, this website also supports Webmentions. If you write a post on a blog that supports this technique, I should get notified about your link 🙂