What's the target date of availability of pbook of this book. I have placed an order for pbook to be shipped.

hey there! I can't give an exact date, but the book is in production right now. I'm very anxious to see it published, too!

Will the points made on this forum be addressed? It looks as though you have gone AWOL.

Yes, I've done my best to address all the points mentioned here. The book is in production and will differ from the latest MEAP release. I'm certainly not "AWOL"; you should see a few posts addressed even in the past few days. We all have busy schedules and do our best to get to things as possible. Thanks!

There are a lot of questions and issues on this forum which you haven't answered. When do you think you will have time to do this?

I'm doing my best to get to them as I have time and won't provide an estimate/my schedule, understandably. I've addressed many, if not all, of the posts in the book itself (that is, things may have been addressed/fixed even though I didn't post a reply). Please feel free to note things you find here though and I'll make sure they're addressed in the book (either in this version or the next) — I really appreciate it. Thanks!

OK, but don't expect people to buy the book if they see so many unaddressed issues in the forum. It would at least be courteous to reply to people who have helped you.

Like I said, I only have so much time, but I do try to get to as many as I can. Thanks for the feedback!

It wouldn't take more than a few minutes to at least thank them. If you're too busy to do even this it might be better if you gave up the project to somebody else.

The book is in production, or very close to it, so it's unreasonable for the author to give the project to someone else-- I'm grateful to him instead, for keeping the book updated to React 16, which must have necessitated some last minute editing, which would account for any delays.

>>The book is in production, or very close to it, so it's unreasonable for the author to give the project to someone else
I was asking why he hadn't addressed points made on the forum. I'm not sure what this has to do with 'giving the project to someone else'.

>>I'm grateful to him instead, for keeping the book updated to React 16, which must have necessitated some last minute editing, which would account for any delays
It's hardly a huge expectation that a book be up-to-date at the time of publication. It's not as though he's working for free.

>>which would account for any delays
I was referring to the six months taken to simply print the book. This is inexcusable in a fast-moving field such as this. In any case, it wouldn't have taken more than a day or so to update the code to React 16: not much has changed.

When you said he should give up the 'project' to someone else, that implies giving up the book and not just the task of replying to the forum. You should be more precise in your language if you meant the latter.

I'm not sure where you got the idea the book has been in printing stage since October (six months) but the author has stated in his post on Mar 12th that he's still addressing points in it, so apparently it's not gone to the printer's yet. And you're positive it should only take a day or two to update a book based on a change such as React 16? I think you underestimate the book writing process considerably; I'll note too that very few authors-- especially of tech books-- make a full time living writing, and Manning isn't providing six figure advances for their titles, so Mr Thomas has other obligations to fulfill.

I want the book completed as much as anyone. That said, I can sympathize with why it's taking the author as long as it has, and again appreciate his efforts to keep the book up to date. I've purchased other titles where the material was several versions behind when the book came out and it's no fun when that happens.

>>When you said he should give up the 'project' to someone else, that implies giving up the book and not just the task of replying to the forum.

I said that if he doesn't have time to finish the project (i.e., obviously, the book) he should hand it over to someone else. I was responding to his own comments in which he said that he didn't have enough time to address all the points raised in the forum.

>>I'm not sure where you got the idea the book has been in printing stage since October (six months)

He said that '16 came out very close to the time the book was finished being written,'. This was in September 2017. So the text was finished about eight months ago.

>>but the author has stated in his post on Mar 12th that he's still addressing points in it, so apparently it's not gone to the printer's yet.

That may be true. But, if so, what (if anything) happened between September 2017 and March 201?

>>And you're positive it should only take a day or two to update a book based on a change such as React 16? I think you underestimate the book writing process considerably

I have written two IT books, one of which was translated into German and published by top-tier publishers in both the UK and Germany. The writing process took about two months. In the case of a transition from React 15 to 16 only a few lines of code needed to be changed, which would have taken a day or so.

>>That said, I can sympathize with why it's taking the author as long as it has, and again appreciate his efforts to keep the book up to date. I've purchased other titles where the material was several versions behind when the book came out and it's no fun when that happens.

As you point out, it's the norm in the computer industry these days to publish books which are dead on arrival. However, it doesn't mean that we have to lower our standards to that level: there is no more reason to be 'grateful' that a book we have spent good money on is fit for purpose than there is to be grateful that a jar of peanut butter actually contains peanut butter.

>>Manning isn't providing six figure advances for their titles, so Mr Thomas has other obligations to fulfill.

These authors usually write a book to embellish their resumes - they're not professional authors who depend on advances and royalties for a living.

In any case, if the advance wasn't enough he shouldn't have signed the contract. And finally, Manning should have the sense to write contracts which stipulate when the book should be finished, just like every other publisher in the world.

I'm happy that you can write a technical book in two months (would love to know the subject) but in my experience, and in particular with the 30+ MEAPs I've bought from Manning and O'Reilly over the years, most pre-release books go from start to release in about a year. Some take considerably longer; three years is not unheard of. In that respect, 18 months, such as this one has taken, is about average. I'm aware that finishing a book doesn't mean it's published the next day, but it's not going to take anywhere near 10 months to publish a finished, written book that's been pre-commissioned and has an editor working alongside.

I'll state again my contention that a change in React from 15 to 16 takes more than a day or two to incorporate into a mostly-finished text. Reformatting the code and double-checking that all of your React 16 bits don't actually have leftover 15 text in them would itself take at least a day I'd figure, and that's without taking into account writing the new text and code snippets themselves.

I'm still unclear what you were asking the author to do vis-a-vis the book; you go from saying that if he doesn't even have time to spend in the forum he should cede control of it to someone else, to saying about his perceived lack of forum time that "I'm not sure what this has to do with 'giving the project to someone else'" to stating again that if he can't even spend time in the forum he should hand the book over.

In fact, looking at the forum history I see the author answering questions all the time-- see his responses on React.CreateClass on Jul 12th 2017, to the 'Waffle' question of Feb 2nd, to numerous others. The only ones at a glance in the past year I didn't see him answer directly were the slew sent by 'abergquist' on Oct 23rd and 24th, which were all of a sort that read 'typo on page 26' or 'misplaced figure #45' that in my view, didn't need individualized answers.

I'll say again that I'm also eagerly awaiting the book's publication; I don't believe the author has shortchanged us on his effort and time.

>>I'm happy that you can write a technical book in two months (would love to know the subject) but in my experience, and in particular with the 30+ MEAPs I've bought from Manning and O'Reilly over the years, most pre-release books go from start to release in about a year. Some take considerably longer; three years is not unheard of.

The main problem, as you mentioned, is that these are often not full-time authors.

I wrote my books almost full-time. (The subject was a threaded interpretive language once used to control radio telescopes and robots.) There was quite a bit of code and a lot of complicated diagrams, which I had to produce myself. I have a friend who regularly writes three large computer books a year in between doing other things. It's quite possible (and, in fact, essential, because the books don't make him much money).

Really, the problem lies with the publishers: they know that the field is fast-moving, and they should therefore make sure that the book is wrapped up within a tight deadline. A year is too long and three years is outrageous. I have bought about eight MEAPs, and have constantly been frustrated by the fact that they drag on endlessly. For this reason, I have stopped buying the pbooks entirely.

>>In that respect, 18 months, such as this one has taken, is about average.

I agree. However, that doesn't make it reasonable. Let's not forget that a newspaper is written, typeset, printed and distributed in less than 24 hours. I have books in my collection which I know were written, typeset and published in a week and which sold hundreds of thousands of copies. These weren't IT books and this was Hungary, not the US. However, it's obviously possible.

>>I'm aware that finishing a book doesn't mean it's published the next day, but it's not going to take anywhere near 10 months to publish a finished, written book that's been pre-commissioned and has an editor working alongside.

It should take about a couple of weeks. It would also be good if they could find proof-readers who didn't miss half the punctuation mistakes. I have just been reading an O'Reilly book with at least two punctuation mistakes on every page. Manning's proof-reader is no better.

>>I'll state again my contention that a change in React from 15 to 16 takes more than a day or two to incorporate into a mostly-finished text. Reformatting the code and double-checking that all of your React 16 bits don't actually have leftover 15 text in them would itself take at least a day I'd figure, and that's without taking into account writing the new text and code snippets themselves.

OK, but it would take a few days at most - not eight months.

>>I'm still unclear what you were asking the author to do vis-a-vis the book; you go from saying that if he doesn't even have time to spend in the forum he should cede control of it to someone else, to saying about his perceived lack of forum time that "I'm not sure what this has to do with 'giving the project to someone else'" to stating again that if he can't even spend time in the forum he should hand the book over.

>>In fact, looking at the forum history I see the author answering questions all the time-- see his responses on React.CreateClass on Jul 12th 2017, to the 'Waffle' question of Feb 2nd, to numerous others. The only ones at a glance in the past year I didn't see him answer directly were the slew sent by 'abergquist' on Oct 23rd and 24th, which were all of a sort that read 'typo on page 26' or 'misplaced figure #45' that in my view, didn't need individualized answers.

MEAP authors should address all forum questions and issues as soon as they come out. It shows a lack of professional pride and a lack of respect for their customers if they don't do this. I didn't seriously expect the author to give up the project. However I was angry to see yet another MEAP in which the author had gone AWOL for months with no attempt by Manning to push the project back on track. I was also annoyed at his comments that he didn't have time to thank the people who had contributed feedback.

>>I'll say again that I'm also eagerly awaiting the book's publication; I don't believe the author has shortchanged us on his effort and time.

As I mentioned, I blame the publisher more than the authors for the endless delays. As for it ever being published - I have given up buying the pbooks because I know that, by the time the books are published I will have moved on and won't need them any more.

When the Print book will be available ?

Probably sometime in the next six months.

The physical book will be available next week, June 4th. ePub/Kindle to follow on the 17th. Thanks!

The Manning website says 5th for the pBook and 18th for the Kindle and ePub versions. There's no indication of when the final version of the PDF will be ready (or is this one the final version?) Amazon claims that the pBook is 'temporarily out of stock'.