Even if it is a form letter, I don't think Packt is a scam of any kind. They appear to be a real publisher. They focus on IT titles. They do have staff (usually hired from India, but with "impeccable" English) who work with the author over a series of revisions and through peer review, typesetting, indexing, etc...
I don't recall seeing any of their publications. But I checked and some of them get very good reviews online (good authors I guess). As with all such things, beware you are dealing with the real people and not some phoney. I see the links in the form letter don't direct to the websites they say they do, but instead go via google. Not sure what's up with that.... Bill. On 28 June, 17:10, William Stein <wst...@gmail.com> wrote: > A heads-up, > > Many Sage Developers are getting the following form-letter email... > > William > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Mary Nadar <ma...@packtpub.com> > Date: Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 1:23 AM > Subject: William, Write a "Sagemath" Book for Packt Publishing! > To: wst...@gmail.com > > Hi William, > > I am an author recruiter at Packt Publishing (www.packtpub.com). We > publish computer-related books on a wide variety of IT topics. > > We are planning to publish a new book on Sagemath. While trying to > look out for potential authors to write this book, I came across one > of your blog and website which shows your expertise in Sagemath. This > gives me an impression that you could be a potential author for this > book. > > Details of the Book: > > Title: Sagemath Beginners Guide > It is planned to be a 300 page book targeted at Scientists, > Mathematicians and Engineers who want a practical introduction to > Sage. > > Prerequisite for readers: No knowledge of Sage is expected, basic > knowledge of other programming languages will be an advantage. > > To give you an idea about the way things works at Packt: > > - The editorial team at Packt works with the author through out the project. > - We pay a royalty of 16% and an advance against it. > - The marketing team at Packt ensures that the book is well promoted. > - In its ongoing commitment to OpenSource, Packt donates a percentage > of revenue generated by the book to the OpenSource project on which it > is based. We have donated more than 150 000 dollars to various > OpenSource projects since inception in 2004. > > Could you please let me know if you find it interesting to write this book? > > Regards, > Mary. > -- > > Mary Nadar > Author Relationship Executive > Packt Publishingwww.PacktPub.com > MSN: ma...@packtpub.com > Interested in becoming an author? Visithttp://authors.packtpub.com > for all the information you need about writing for Packt. > > -- > William Stein > Professor of Mathematics > University of Washingtonhttp://wstein.org -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
