::Manning vs. O'Reilly:: [/tech/books] (10:54)

Eric Burke asks "Is Manning the new O'Reilly?" It's an interesting question that was starting to be asked a lot right before the tech book market busted a few years. Had the tech book market not died, it's quite possible Manning would have eclipsed O'Reilly, but they haven't. Still, Manning sits there quietly pushing out one good book after another, and their reputation among developers continues to increase.

I really like both publishers. I've written one book for Manning and one for O'Reilly. I've tech reviewed books for both publishers. And, of course, I've been an avid consumer of books from both publishers. So, where do the publishers stack up?

O'Reilly still holds the premier tech publisher spot. I'm sure in marketshare, they are still well on top, but they do seem to be losing mindshare and far fewer people think of them as THE tech publisher. I regularly pass over O'Reilly books on the shelves in favor of other publishers, something that would have been unthinkable 10 years ago. Why?

First, O'Reilly has embraced the mass market. I have no doubt that this has been a very profitable decision. I don't hold it against them in the least, but when a publisher is defined by intro books like the Head First series and light-tech like the Hacks book, is it any wonder that the hardcore techie doesn't consider them to be their publisher anymore?

Manning, on the other hand, primarily publishes in-depth technical books aimed at experienced developers and those who aspire to be experienced developers. Looking at the front page, I see books about technologies like Groovy, Hibernate, iText, EJB3, Spring. (I picked those because I've read or reviewed all of them - though I've only seen a few chapters of the last one - and know that they are all solid books) This is a publisher that reaches out to developers and says "Look! We've got what you are looking for!" O'Reilly doesn't.

Another reason I feel O'Reilly is losing their voice is that O'Reilly now feels like a technology promoter. You often get the feeling that they are trying to sell new, hot technologies than simply being an impartial publisher providing tech information. Manning has exactly the opposite feeling. Manning, on the other hand, just seems to impartially publish any technical topic that it feels there is a market demand.

The final difference I've noticed is that O'Reilly comes off as a bit clickish. My experience is that it is very difficult for authors to get O'Reilly to pay attention to them if they don't already have a relationship to O'Reilly. My personal experiences aside (as obviously I was able to get a book published) is that many would-be authors are unable to get anyone at O'Reilly to talk to them. Several of them have gone on to publish successful books with other publishers, including Manning. Manning, on the other hand, is very willing to work with anyone they feel can write a quality book. It does help to know the right people, but it's not a pre-requisite to being taken seriously. This seems to make a huge difference in book quality, because Manning seems to be really good about getting new authors who are passionate about a technology. That really shows.

So, that's my take on why Manning seems to be meeting the needs of the hardcore developer better than O'Reilly. It's such a small niche that I don't think they'll ever displace O'Reilly as king of the hill. Fortunately, they don't really need that to be successful.

As a side note, this may seem that I'm down on O'Reilly. I'm not. I love O'Reilly, and I like a lot of the books they are producing. I just don't think they are meeting the needs of the technical users the way they used to.