★ LITTÉRATURE ★ ENGLISH ★ WRITING SOFTWARE FOR PROFIT|Computing Today) ★ |
| Writing Software for Profit | Littérature English |
Writing Software For Profit is by A. J. Harding, who has written magazine articles on the same topic. It is something a good many of us should be interested in, for there is undoubtedly the opportunity to make a great deal of money from writing software. A best-selling games program can be a money-spinner, although the hit parade nature of the games market means that even a best-seller is unlikely to make money for long. An item of 'serious' software such as a spreadsheet or a database, or even a program generator or an expert system, might sell at a steady level for a much longer period. Unfortunately for anyone looking for a magic formula for making money from writing software, A. J. Harding's book is rather poorly titled. It is more an account of the approach of his company, Molimerx, to software publishing. This makes it useful if you want to make money by having Molimerx publish your software, but what the book has to say may not be altogether helpful if you try elsewhere. The author's views on the publishing of software are strongly held and forcefully expressed. But he is a publisher of software and that means his is not necessarily the best position from which to advise potential software authors on how to get the best deals for themselves. A more accurate title for the book (although, admittedly, much less eye-catching) would have been Harding on Software Publishing. Software publishing has a good deal in common with book publishing. My experience as an author dealing with book publishers has been that the author's best interests are only one of several matters concerning publishers when they negotiate the contract for a book! I expect that it is the same with a software publisher. That this book includes the standard contract offered by Molimerx to all its authors is evidence of the fairness of Harding's dealings with his software authors. The use of a standard contract means that all those dealing with Molimex know exactly where they stand. My point is that a publisher, by the very nature of things, is unlikely to be the best person to advise an author on how to make money. My advice, for what it is worth, to anyone wanting to make a living out of writing software would be to get an agent, and preferably a reputable and experienced one. I felt that the book was at its best when read as an account of the author's experiences in the software world. These go back about as far as possible, for he was among the first in the microcomputer software trade. He has encountered most of the inhabitants of this world, and this makes his account of it invaluable reading for anyone proposing to enter it. He is also highly informative on the application of the law in the software business, the copyright law in particular, of course. As he has been a legal executive at Lincoln's Inn Fields, and has been involved in court cases concerning the application of the copyright laws to software publishing, he naturally speaks with considerable authority on this subject. And if you don't know about The Anton Pillar Order' or 'Intellectual Property' then you should: Mr Harding will inform you about them. As far as direct advice to budding software authors is concerned, the book does deal with how to choose the machine for which, and on which, to write programs. It also addresses itself to how the subjects for programs can be chosen and has a little to say on selecting a publisher for the programs. The advice probably embodies a sound approach to the professional writing of software, but I have doubts that it is all practical. I would have thought that a number of people started with a computer and an idea for a program, although I accept that this may not be a good starting point for many reasons. I cannot imagine such people being in a position to be able to chose the computer that seems must suitable, perhaps selecting between an IBM PC, a Macintosh and an Apricot, say, and then being able to decide whether to write an expert system or a spreadsheet or whatever else is in demand. There is also a chapter called 'Income Tax, VAT and other nasty things'. While we all probably agree with the sentiment of the chapter's title, its contents can be summed up in three words — Get an accountant! If the best aspect of the book is its account of the author's experiences and views of the software trade, it has several aspects that are less pleasing. It is much too verbose in parts, as in the chapter just mentioned. There are quite a lot of sentences throughout the book that do not say, I am sure, anything like what the author meant to say. For example: 'Of course, it must be remembered that at this time the state of the art of the user was very low. (page 44). I suppose that in evolutionary terms all we users represent the state of the art, but that has nothing to do with what the author was trying to say. In summing up what is meant by 'leverage' we find: 'If one can write a program that will, with a minimum of effort, cause a maximum of output, then one has achieved leverage.' I don't think so. Lots of output does not necessarily reflect anything. Anyway, in my experience at least, 'leverage' is an Americanism that we have not imported comfortably to this country, even down to its pronunciation. (If you would like an explanation of the word, then I refer you to the introductory article in Scientific American for September 1984.) These shortcomings could have been dealt with by a sub-editor. The inclusion of an index would also have been an improvement. The illustrations have nothing at all to do with the text of the book: they are just photos of micros and were presumably scattered throughout the book to break up the text. So how to summarise? Well, I don't think that the book will tell a potential software author how to make a living from it. But it does contain a great deal of advice, provides much useful information on the practice of the software trade and the relevant laws, and it gives a considerable insight into the whole business. Any of these aspects could easily be worth much more than the price of the book. I suppose, as ever, that you pay your money and you make your choice. Computing Today
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