A Foothold For The Novice

Meyer Solomon was the founding editor of Personal Computer World and a few other computer magazines. In the late Seventies he was one of various people who saw that not only were home computers likely to become as common as video recorders (if not washing machines), but also that the software industry was about to take off.

His book is a many-headed creature, more for the browser perhaps than anyone seeking deep knowledge. First the good points: it's well-written, printed and produced (a rare thing in computer books these days) and good value for money at £5.50 for 144 pages. It touches on a wide range of subjects such as how to define the market, how to approach it (sell it yourself or go to a publisher?), the importance of good documentation (programmers will have to learn how to spell properly and change their printer ribbons occasionally), the well-known fact that all programs writers are optimists and it takes four times as long to write a program as the original estimate, and even how to set about choosing snappy titles and slick packaging.

Against that, it has to be said that he tries to go in too many directions at once, and space reasons seem to have prevented him from tackling any subject at depth. For example, he talks about royalties, and even includes as an appendix an entire BBC Publications contract as a model. Nowhere does he explain that most software houses, unlike the BBC, pay royalties on the net proceeds received from the retailers and distributors - a crucial distinction from which many a teenage programmer has unwittingly suffered.

Mr. Solomon's wide-ranging selection of subjects once or twice falls flat on its face. For example, he recommends various books such as Fowler in a somewhat solemn fashion, exhorting documentation writers to do a decent job of plain English, and yet manages to give one of his chapters the ghastly title 'Reify the Idea'!

This book may provoke some thoughts, but it isn't a manual of how to make money for anyone. Even so, The Software Business is probably the easiest place to find a reasonably comprehensive checklist of most of the things needed to publish a piece of software.

All in all, one wishes it was twice its current length and less superficial.

Simon Dally