If you haven’t heard of us before, you may be surprised to learn that we’ve been publishing books for professional programmers since 1974. In fact, our books on IBM mainframe subjects like COBOL, CICS, DB2, and JCL have been the best sellers in that field since the mid-1980s.
And today, the current generation of programmers is discovering our books on web, mobile, desktop, and database programming. That includes books on subjects like HTML, jQuery, JavaScript, Java, C#, Visual Basic, C++, ASP.NET, JSP, PHP, SQL, and Android.
When people discover our books, they are often so delighted by the experience that they take the time to let me know. Here are just a few of the comments I’ve received:
“Great book! My co-workers won’t let me have it back.”
“If I’d seen your Java book first, I wouldn’t have wasted my money (and time) on 6 other books!”
“Simply put, I’m stunned with the quality of your product. I am currently buying every one of your books that is pertinent to my current situation.”
“I recently purchased your SQL, VB, and ADO.NET texts. Geesh. I wish I would have found you a long time ago. Your books are the best learning method I have ever come across.”
And:
“How is it that a small company in Fresno of all places can make books that are so much better than the competing books?”
What makes our books “so much better than the competing books”
Whenever I get an email like that last one, I’m tempted to list all of the features in our books that no other books have. Like our “paired pages” format that lets you learn faster by reading less. Like the dozen or more complete business applications in every book that show you how all of the components of an application work together. Like the carefully selected sets of the skills, classes, and methods that you’ll use 90% of the time. Like our subset/expansion approach that gets you started doing real work fast and lets you learn additional skills whenever you need them.
But it isn’t just these features that make our books better, because these could be copied (although it would take more time and training than most authors have). The real difference between our books and the competing books is that no other publisher works the way we do.
– Instead of using freelance writers with no training who get a 10% royalty and write their books in their spare time, our books are written by a full-time staff of paid programmers and writers who are trained in our proven presentation methods.
– Instead of using copy editors who don’t understand the subject matter, our editors are technically competent, with the programming skills they need to insure the accuracy of the text and code.
– Instead of publishing 40 or 50 books a year, we focus our skills on publishing just a few titles that we know developers will use.
– And instead of rushing out an 800-page book in 3 months with 4 co-authors who’ve never met, we never let schedule or budget interfere with quality.
We’ve been working that way for 35 years now because that’s the only way to make sure that every book we publish is the best one on its subject. Although that may not be the quickest or best way to get rich, it sure is satisfying. And it feels so good when a customer writes to say: “I got your book yesterday afternoon and stayed up half the night reading it.” Or, “What a tremendous resource your book is.” Or, “I feel like I’ve found some saints in the corporate world.”
So, if you haven’t ever tried one of our books, I hope you’ll try one soon. If you’re like most of our customers, that will make you one of the thousands of developers who look for the Murach book first whenever they need to learn a new subject. Then, if you have a minute or two, I would enjoy hearing from you because that means so much to all of us.
