Friday, July 18, 2008

Network Documentation -- Going, Going, Gone

Afterthought: This book is now completely gone and is being sold only as an e-book until we can revise the print version.
See http://www.smbbooks.com

- - - - -
Lana has left for the day. The next shipments will go out Monday at 7:30 AM.

And in the tally for the week, I note . . .

We have less than twenty copies of the Network Documentation Workbook left on the shelf.

We will not be reprinting this book.

So, unless someone finds a box that is being used to hold up a table, the end is in site.

Check it out at http://www.greatlittlebook.com/products.htm.

This book has been a huge success for us. In fact, it's the book that "started it all." Demand remains steady enough that they will all be gone in a few weeks.

So, why am I being so cruel to an old friend who has taken me so far?

It's your fault.

And Vlad's. And Erick's. And Arlin's. And Matt's and Susan's and Robbie's. And Jeff's. And Eric L's. It's the fault of the SBS Group Leaders, SMBTN, and everyone at MSPSN. And Vijay, and Chris, and Mark.

And many others.

Here's the deal.

The community of SMB Consultants and Small Business Specialists has dramatically raised the bar of professionalism within our profession.

Part of me says "Thank You" to that great crowd of people who drew attention to this little book and the role it can play in helping consultants take a step up in what they do.

But part of me says "I can't just reprint that book. The industry needed that book. But now the standards are higher."

When it gets reprinted, it needs a major face lift. It needs to be expanded. Not just "modern" technologies like VOIP, but a deeper level of documentation as well.

I have not sold millions of copies. There are millions of consultants who are doing zero documentation. So maybe I haven't really had any affect with this book.

But, for now, it will go out of print.

I am writing a couple of other books right now. There's actually an "editorial calendar" that needs to be followed. Creating a revised edition of the Network Documentation Workbook is on my list of things to do, but it will need to wait awhile.

If there's enough demand, we'll look into an e-book version.

For now, we have about 20 copies and counting.

http://www.greatlittlebook.com/products.htm.

Thank you, everyone, for the grand adventure.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:52 PM

    Sorry to hear it's going out of print...the passing of a legend!

    Look forward to the new version

    Never regreted getting my copy

    Thanks Karl

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love your Network Documentation book Karl. We now see it as a minimum requirement for all the networks we support and it makes me shudder to think of when we didn't have it.

    We've taken your book and created an electronic version so it can all be filled in using Word, rather than pencil. It means we now have three copies; paper copy at our site, paper copy at customer site and an electronic copy at our site. We're looking to make the electronic copy available to each of our customers over SharePoint. From a green point of view it would be nice to not have paper copies, but I think they're still necessary for major system failures.

    Looking forward to the new version :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I ordered this book when I was first introduced to it and have many copies filed for clients.

    I'm hoping that the new updated and expanded version will be released soon as I plan to link the documentation to SugarCRM for future projects.

    ReplyDelete
  4. How can I order one of the last 20 books that you have? Do you have an ETA on when the new book is going to be published?

    ReplyDelete
  5. All books are for sale at www.smbbooks.com.

    The "replacement" for this book is long overdue. With luck we'll have something by the end of the year.

    ReplyDelete

Feedback Welcome

Please note, however, that spam will be deleted, as will abusive posts.

Disagreements welcome!