Author: Bob Durrett
Date: 09:21:00 02/04/04
Go up one level in this thread
On February 04, 2004 at 12:12:07, Tord Romstad wrote: >On February 04, 2004 at 11:36:44, Andrew Wagner wrote: > >>On February 04, 2004 at 11:02:48, Tord Romstad wrote: >> >>>On February 04, 2004 at 10:52:38, Andrew Wagner wrote: >>> >>>>Sheer random thought....do you guys think that a basic book on how to write a >>>>chess program would sell? Like an "Idiot's guide..." or "...for dummies" book >>>>that takes you through the process step by step? >>> >>>I don't think so. There are so many nice online resources that it is not likely >>>that there would be a big enough market for a book. >>> >>>Tord >> >>You've got to be kidding me....you really think there's more online resources >>out there for computer chess than some of these other topics that dummies books >>have been written about? I have a book sitting right here called "C++ for >>dummies"...over on my bookshelf are "Networking for dummies" and "TCP/IP for >>dummies"...there is more written online about computer chess than those topics? > >This is all true, but unfortunately the number of available online resources >is not the only considerations. Compare the number of people who are >interested in learning C++, networking or TCP/IP to the number of people >who are interested in learning about computer chess programming. The >computer chess community is so small that selling a book probably wouldn't >give any profit even if there were no online resources at all. And if >50% of those who are interested think the online resources are good enough, >you can safely remove the word "probably" from the previous sentence. > >Tord The key for writing any successful book is to [realistically] target a large audience. If the book were written for aspiring chess programmers, then the audience will be too small. If, on the other hand, the targeted audience is "all chessplayers who use or play with chess software," then the book might be a success and the author become the next billionaire. : ) Bob D.
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.