On Thu, May 18, 2006 at 07:07:57PM +0200, Tavmjong Bah wrote:
Hi,
There is a publisher who is interested in the book that I have written (http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/index.php) but needs to be convinced that there is a real market for the book. In the proposal I have already quoted the growth in downloads from SourceForge and the inclusion of Inkscape in most major Linux distribution.
Can people on this list think of other ways to document Inkscape's growing popularity?
- Download stats (from SourceForge, etc.) - Magazines that have included Inkscape on CDs and in articles - Conferences where Inkscape has been presented - Growth in activity on the mailing lists - Number of languages Inkscape (and documentation) has been translated to
I believe I am up against poor performance of previous books on Open Source drawing programs (which may account for the fact that there are over 1000 Photoshop books versus about a dozen on Gimp, all but one published four or more years ago.
I don't know much about the gimp books, but it does seem like those would be useful data points. It might be worth adding that your work has been heavily reviewed by the community, and already has served as a critically important resource for many users.
Bryce