still no Vegas Video 4 Book. WHEN?

Arks wrote on 7/30/2003, 2:28 PM

I got an email from sundace via DSE and it said they were ready to ship.... I have no idea if this is true or not. I'm getting antsy for it myself! =)

rextilleon wrote on 7/30/2003, 2:33 PM

Amazon told me the first two weeks in August--go figure

Wolfgang S. wrote on 8/5/2003, 3:45 AM

Here in Europe Amazon has mailed us, that they will not be able to deliver the book - and that they have canceld our orders.

Does that happen in the States too?

Kr
Wolfgang
www.vegasvideo.de

Grazie wrote on 8/5/2003, 3:59 AM

Does DSE know about this? London UK here, interested when the book will be out too. DMN forum might be a place to visit for update. Do Amazon States-Side do a Europe delivery?

Grazie

RBartlett wrote on 8/5/2003, 4:43 AM

I ordered the book last week amazon.co.uk (with a couple of DVDs to be sent together). I've had no email to indicate the retraction of their offer of sale. I have seen such things in the past.

I've ordered from Amazon.com in the past (for delivery in the UK) - it is fine - but you pay the necessary duty and tax - which shouldn't be too bad for a book - but a book with a CD counts as a different class of product. So you could get stung upwards of 20%.

Globalisation doesn't mean you are dealing with a single company. Just that in the territories, the bean counters have overlord bean counters in the parent company. You'd have thought that if you ordered through Amazon.com with delivery in the UK, that Amazon.co.uk would supply or have their US-UK container loaded with your product. You probably can blame the mechanics of censorship too.

Yet a PDF or downloadable "DVD" (for broadband users) would count as an intangible - and you'd typically owe the customs/excise folk nothing. I would have bought this even if it was a higher price than DSEs book. I do prefer paper but not if it means waiting 'til Christmas. Go figure -..... How much "profit" would be made if all the publisher had to pay for was bandwidth, a fulfilment engine web site and some email customer service.

PeterWright wrote on 8/5/2003, 5:07 AM

Yeah - some good points.

One factor must be copy protection - once it's out there as software ....

Anyway, I like books .... once they arrive.

RBartlett wrote on 8/5/2003, 5:26 AM

You can buy a book - then sell it, rent it, share it.
Transcribe sections of it into an email or read it over the phone.
Photocopy or scan it.
etc. All of these prevent sales of the original that benefit the author.

The sort of folk that would distribute a PDF probably wouldn't have the eggs or patience to read it. I'd rather just go blindly on thinking that most people who buy Vegas use it for good and have strong ethics.

Folks will always excuse their theft with some human reasoning which leaves, in this case Spot, going short.

I've received a few books that have a companion CD with the same book as a PDF (O'Reilly pubs). That makes me feel like a valued customer, and not someone with an opportunity to thieve.

Peter, I fully agree with you - just wanted to add these points should authors be reading this thread and dismiss the electronic media opportunity a bit too quickly.

In this electronic age it wouldn't take a genius to secretly watermark a PDF with the purchasers identity. Rendering out a book per sale wouldn't take anything like as long to process as video does. Then you only need to chase the web hosts with the files and squash the original thief (should they be found and found guilty by way of international copyright treaties). yet like I said - folks reduce sales of books in various ways too - so although you could track the book - you might take no action (other than to prevent future sales from the publisher to that same identity etc).

I'll counter this with the fact I would prefer a book - and I wouldn't be too keen on only have a CDR or DVDR holding the valuable product. Yet I'd expect each new release of Vegas (etc) to eventually make a good part of the book redundant or inappropriate in its guidance.

Spot has probably signed away his right to alternative forms of publishing that he could set up in isolation. So we just have to look forward to what we can get - when we can, and whether or not we have to keep re-ordering this on Amazon or going Stateside etc.

Wolfgang S. wrote on 8/5/2003, 9:12 AM

I think your ideas are fine - but we in Europe are suffering from high transportation costs anyway. The nice book available on SoFos homepage for 29 $ - they take 77 (!) Euros in Germany and Austria.

Overall a situation, that is not satisfying at all...
:-(

So, it would ge good news if the DSE book would come out at all!

Spot|DSE wrote on 8/5/2003, 10:03 PM

It is indeed shipping in the next 2 weeks. I know this direct from CMP. So, no worries, it really, truly is shipping.
Sorry for the delays. In the end, it wasn't the publisher's fault, not in a sense that they could have prevented an idiot who was a third party contractor, who NEVER has turned on a PC in her life, is a die-hard Mac user, and she screwed up MOST of the book by doing dumb little things that took forever to accurately track down. If I had been smart, I'd have had the publisher throw away all of her work, and start over again. Would ahve been faster.

Glen_Elliott wrote on 8/5/2003, 11:10 PM

Your ClassOnDemand DVDs were incredibly helpfull I can't wait to get a hold of the book. Your quite a good teacher- helping a Vegas newb like myself shed my Adobe Premiere skin and grow accustomed to the all new workflow.

RBartlett wrote on 8/6/2003, 6:11 AM

This came in today. Slightly more pleasing than the amazon.de report above:
2 weeks from now the US will be supplied with their first quota. Two weeks after that - Europe should have it's first surface carried stock. - I guess.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Customer

Regarding your order for "Vegas 4 Editing Workshop" (ISBN: 1578202191), I
wanted to give you an update on the status of this title.

We have contacted the publishers, and they have informed us that the
publication date of this title has been delayed. They now expect this
book will be released in September 2003, however please know this may be
subject to further delays.

We will keep this title on order for you unless you prefer to cancel. As
soon as we are able to obtain copies, we will dispatch your order to you.
We will also do our best to keep you informed of any new developments as
soon as we hear of them.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause you.
Unfortunately, publication dates are often subject to change with very
little notice from publishers. If you prefer to cancel your order you may
do so using the "Your Account" link on our homepage, or simply send us an
email stating your wishes.

Thanks for your patience, and we look forward to hearing from you if we
may be of any assistance.

Warmest regards

Customer Services
Amazon.co.uk

filmy wrote on 8/6/2003, 10:37 AM

Just my few cents on the whole import/export price thing.

I think in some cases it is truley absurd because the actual product is the exact same. For example - one of the bands I have worked with released a CD and the lable has distributors all over, including in the UK. Now in the UK they sell the CD as normal, not as an import. here is the States the same thing. HOWEVER - Amazon in their rip off ways were trying to sell it here in the states as an IMPORT!!!! That is correct - they had the "US" version listed for the usual amount of like $15.00 or whatever but had "No longer available" next to it. Then they had the exact same cd listed for about $35.00 as an "import" and that, of course, was available.

As far as real imports and exports I can understand the need for price 'hike', not on the original distributor/publisher/manufacter side but on the sub-distributors and sellers side. The whole import/export taxes plus shipping can be deadly. Heck for us in the US just sending something up to Canada can take a month or more. But think about this - the differance between you ordering just one item and a distributor ordering 25 - 100, or more, pieces of the same item. The rules change...a lot.

As for Amazon, they are scam artists in many, many ways. Lots of times it has nothing to do with true imports or exports such as the CD I mention above, but just Amazon trying to screw over consumers. I have delt with them directly over the years and they just are ***holes. You want to know about a mark up? We have some video titles with a SRP of $9.95. You might want to get one so you go to Amazon and see they have it listed for a price of $99.95 SRP but Amazons price is "only" $55.96. Aside from shock if you decide to get it they tell you the product is not being sold anymore and that they will "attempt" to order it from their distributor. Now on our end we sit and wait for the FAX to spit out a P.O for the product...but that fax never comes. So we get an email from a customer asking if they can get this movie and tell us the story. Now, had the transaction gone through and we never heard from the customer what really would have happened was that Ingram or Baker and Taylor would have faxed us over a P.O for about $3.00 for one piece of the video you had ordered for $55.96. They would have turned around and sold it to Amazon for about $6.00 and you, the gullable sap who uses Amazon, just got ripped off.

Best fix to the problem would be doing something electronic and downloadable. With a book it is a bit tricky, Stephen King tried that and I am not sure how well it worked out. I don't know a lot of people who like to read a full book on the computer. look at all the issues with people who post on the forum here who don't even read the PDF manual of VV...and that is for free! The other solution is to try and purchase direct. Some companies allow it, others do not. We did, and do, sell directly to people in the UK and elsewhere (as long as the same product does not have a seperate distributor in that country). They paid the same price (US) plus shipping. Any other fees were their responsibility.