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I know that O'Reilly's press release said that the upcoming Photoshop CS4 Missing Manual was written by Lesa Snider King and David Pogue.

That's not correct. O'Reilly sent out a bad release. Pogue is only writing the foreward.

Normally I wouldn't care. Photoshop books are kindling in my world. But, Lesa's a good friend of mine. I was at her wedding, and I've known her...crap, what almost ten years now? This is her book. It's a part of Pogue's series, but this is her book. She's writing every.single.fucking.word herself. She's spent months working on it. She's given up a lot for this book, in particular her riding. She loves her motorcycle, and she loves riding it with her husband, Shawn. If I had to point at one thing they do together that is a major part of their marriage and relationship, it's riding.

She's stopped that so she can get this book done, and it's going to be a kick-ass book.

But it's her book. I know it's so much work to change "by Lesa Snider King & David Pogue" to "by Lesa Snider King, foreword by David Pogue", but that's the truth, and that matters. Yes, even on the Internet.

No, O'Reilly probably won't fix that press release. They probably think that it's more important to bullshit people into thinking that David Pogue wrote it, because they think that will sell books. Outside of the MacMac fanatics, I doubt it. I'm not deep into the Photoshop world, but Lesa's name has more than a little recognition there. For the n00bs, the fact that it says "Missing Manual" will sell it. In the Photoshop world, the fact that Lesa is recognized as a top-flight Photoshop Jock and educator/teacher will sell more copies to Photoshop people than Pogue's name could even dream of.

So not changing the press release? It's kinda petty when you think about it.

Again...Lesa wrote it, not Pogue. Regardless of personal opinion, respect for simple accuracy should count here.

Comments

We actually changed the author information in several spots, not long after the original release was issued yesterday afternoon, including on the page you linked to above. The book's catalog page shows the cover that will be printed: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596522964/?CMP=ILC-MMh0me

-Pete Meyers, managing editor, Missing Manuals

Posted by: Pete Meyers | September 24, 2008 5:28 PM

And of course, you'll send out a revised press release Pete, so that you make sure the mistake easy to correct, right?

Posted by: John C. Welch | September 24, 2008 10:26 PM

I was just as surprised as you, John. I contacted O'Reilly immediately and asked them to change all of their PR and marketing materials to reflect Lesa's sole authorship. I have not seen one word of the book, so it's absolutely misleading to suggest that I'm a co-author (although I will be writing a Foreword). Happy to see that they changed the release within the day...

--Pogue

Posted by: PogueNYT | September 25, 2008 10:19 PM

Pete, that's great, but you guys really need to send out a new press release. People are still using the old one.

Posted by: bynkii | September 30, 2008 2:52 PM