[OT] Packtpub?

[Mark Schonewille]

Hi Richmond,

Yes, it looks like they operate from India, but the owner of the company might be in Great Britain or somewhere else. They work with interns it seems, whom they may not have to pay. They don't pay reviewers/editors and I think they pay authors per book sold. So, that's pretty much a risk-less enterprise for them (or him).

They have no academic standing whatsoever. Perhaps their interns don't even know what that is. Actually, I might be misunderstanding your exact definition of academic standing as well.

I don't know their market reach, but they use their own website and Amazon and that seems to work well for them.

I got the same e-mail as you. Apparently, they collected e-mails on this list. I'm slightly offended, because they said I'd be _the_ ideal person, while apparently dozens or hundreds of other persons appear to be equally ideal. I'm not offended because I'm no more ideal than you, but because they don't mean what they write.

If you decide to do this, consider this a fun job. It is hardly worth mentioning on your c.v. If I decide to do this, it'll be to help out the author, not for them or for me.

They found the author by asking in a number of places, like forums, mailing lists, Facebook and LinkedIn. The author must have thought he was fit for the task and decided to respond to the request.

--
Best regards,

Mark Schonewille

Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering
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On 9 jul 2013, at 21:20, Richmond wrote:

> Packtpub, apparently an India-based published operation concerned largely with computer stuff
> have asked me to be involved in editing a publication.
> 
> What is unclear to me, and they don't seem to want to answer . . .
> 
> . . . is what their academic standing is as well as the extent of their market reach.
> 
> What is also unclear is how they select their editors as they have made no enquiry as to an academic qualifications I may have, years of experience in the field and so on. This strikes me as very odd indeed.
> 
> "I came across your discussion, and felt that you would be an ideal person to review this book for us."
> 
> Is opaque in the extreme: what discussion? where? and what on earth would that actually tell you
> about either my ability to review a publication or my academic bona fides vis-a-vis computer programming.
> 
> Now all they are offering me for my work seems to be a hard copy of the book plus another from their
> "stable" of publications. That is all very jolly, but it is not what motivates me; what does is the fact that my
> c.v. has got a bit thin on the ground recently, and the odd editorship and/or publication would spice things
> up a bit when/if I decide to apply for a new job.
> 
> What I am really wondering is whether this will have any sort of clout in a c.v at all, or is just a bit of
> fun to get a couple of books.
> 
> Richmond.
> 
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