The Setup

A "Better than average" associate of mine approached me about contributing a chapter to a Flex book he was cowriting. My chapter was to focus on building Flex Components; something I do a lot of with my company, Flextras. It seemed like a good fit, so I agreed.

Eventually, talks with the publisher broke down. While I feel bad about leaving my friend in the lurch I'm not quite sure if this is my fault. This is my take on the situation because I want to get it out of my system.

The Build Up

First, I was approached last December about this opportunity. I've turned down Flex book authorship agreements before; but since this was just a single chapter the amount of effort was significantly lower. I was willing to sign on. I was put in touch with the publisher contact in early January and I requested a contract. They asked for chapter delivery in early February.

Can you please send me a contract?

I always ask two questions when asked to provide content to someone else with regards to such situations. The first is "What about ownership?" It is my long term goal, whether good or bad, to own as much of me as possible.

The second is "What is my compensation?" I always ask about compensation, never how much I get paid. Compensation can come in many forms, and sometimes recognition or exposure can take place of cash. In this case, I think the chapter authorship would have been a great way for me to promote my business of selling Flex Components.

The compensation offered was a flat fee, $400. My friend thought the rights of my contribution would revert to him and his main co-author. I was uncomfortable with that, but said I would have to see the final contract wording.

I waited for the contract from the publisher. They contacted me in the final days of January to extend the chapter delivery to the middle of February and to let me know that the contract was on the way.

I waited some more. In late February they contacted me to ask where my contribution was. I told them I was still waiting for the contract delivery before I would put the writing into my schedule. They said they would get back to me; and they did.

I finally got the contract the week before I left for the 360|Flex conference. As a sponsor and a presenter I had too much on my plate to even look at it; but I prioritized it for the day I got back from 360|Flex.

I decided that they had kept me waiting for 2 months; I could keep them waiting for two weeks. Perhaps that was my failure.

What does this contract really mean?

The day I got back from the conference, I reviewed the contract and sent them a list of questions and concerns. The contract was a work made for hire agreement; and I had to sign away all rights to the content. This was not unexpected on my point, but was a bit contradictory with what my friend had led me to believe. It may be possible that I'd be signing my rights to the publisher who would then be signing them over to the two main authors.

I wanted to clarify some things about the work made for hire and derivative works. There are only so many ways for a single person to regurgitate the same content. I, in theory, make money off selling Flex components and my primary means of promotion is through writing and presenting about how to create components. I needed to protect my right to continue to do that.

The chapter content could easily be considered a derivative work of screencasts I created with The Flex Show; or presentations I have given. I needed to protect my rights to still present and distribute said content. I also needed to protect my right to create future screencasts or presentations or articles on the same topics without them being considered infringement. I consider many of those things to be complimentary and non competing, but they are certainly derivative. I wanted the contract to clarify my ability to do that.

I also asked for some additional compensation, such as a listing in the "About the Author" page of the book. I also wanted to restrict the use of my name in promoting future editions of the book. If someone were to rip out, or re-write, my contribution at some future point I didn't want my name still attached to it.

I also asked for rights to distribute my chapter contribution digitally. I didn't expect that to fly; but wanted to ask anyway. I'd have loved to offer up the chapter to the readers of DotComIt's newsletter.

I also asked that, if the book were to ever go out of print, that the chapter rights would revert back to me. I wasn't sure this would fly, but I did negotiate such rights regarding my ColdFusion books.

I'm still Playing the Waiting Game

I waited two weeks. The publisher contacted me again, this time to ask for the status on my contribution. I said the contract issues were not settled and I was waiting on them. I re-iterated some of my concerns.

Silence!

I wait another month with no word before contacting them asking for status. They told me they no longer have need of the chapter. I asked why. But given their communication thus far, I am not expecting to hear anything back.

I feel slightly bad to have "ditched out" on my friends. The publisher put no effort into bringing me on board; so when the ball landed in my court I delayed due to other pressing issues. That was my reaction, which probably didn't help things along. But, all in all I was not the hold up.

Would you buy a book because it has my name on it?

I decided, in this post, not to make mention of the book or the two main authors. But, if you search on Amazon for my name; I'm apparently listed as an author. I have a slight problem with the publisher using my name to falsely promote their book. I'm pretty sure I am not the only contributing author beyond the two main authors; so why my name? Could it be because I'm moderately well known in The Flex Developer Community as the producer of The Flex Show perhaps?

Will my name sell books? I doubt it. If so, will it harm my personal brand if people buy a book with my name on it only to discover I had no contribution in the book? I'm not sure on that one...

Every once in a while on the Flextras Friday Lunch the conversation turns to business related topics. I talk about the difference between infinite digital goods and scarce goods. Digital goods can be easily copied and distributed. Scarce goods, such as services, are not easily replicated.

The record industry has been hit hard by this market switch. It is easy to find the music of many bands for free out there on the Internet and this is eroding the business of selling music. Movies appear to be following the same path and I suspect software isn't too far behind. When the "cash cow" goes away, how do you make a salary?

Content Creators in the Digital Economy

One method for making a living is to find people who find value in their work, then give them a way and reason to support them. Many musicians have started giving away mp3s in order to sell other scarce goods.

One such scarce good is the ability to create more music; many musical acts have connected with fans to fund the production of their next album. We've decided to try this approach with The Flex Show.

Support us, we'll give you stuff

About a week ago we launched a pledge drive, so our listeners can support The Flex Show in 2010. For as little as $5 we'll send you some stickers and thank you on the web site. For a bit more, we'll thank you in an episode. We didn't stop there.

You can control aspects of the show. Do you want to replace our theme song? Would you like more screencasts? Do you want to join us for a recording and approve the final edit? Or perhaps you'd like to see us go weekly in 2010? All these things are possible. We even have a few fun options in there, such as getting together for lunch, or hanging out at the next 360|Flex conference.

• Have you been listening to The Flex Show? We have over 110 episodes now.
• Do you know of a better, free, educational resource out there for Flex Developers?
• Would you like to see us keep going?

Then choose your option and show us you care. Thank you for the support.

A financial analyst recently found me on the web. He works for an independent company that collects data on market trends and then sells reports to other companies.

We had spoken once before about Adobe's Omniture acquisition. I told him about the differences between infinite digital goods and scarce goods. The software that Adobe sells is, unfortunately, a digital good that can be easily and infinitely copied. It is going to be harder and harder, over time, to sell digital goods.

Things like services and premium support are scarce goods. They cannot be easily copied and distributed. Over time I believe that all business models will move to giving away digital goods in order to promote the sale of scarce goods. I know that I'm not completely drinking my own Kool Aid yet, but look for more on that in the next six months or so.

Adobe's Acquisition of Omniture is one way of adding more scarce goods to the company's services. Collection, tracking, and analysis of data is something not easily shared, distributed, and copied.

Today the analyst is asking me about the open screen project and Max Announcements. I thought I'd post my thoughts because I could. :-)

[I] wanted to see what you thought about [the] announcements on Flash-Flash player 10.1, traction with the Open Screen Project and push to smartphones in early 2010, Flash Builder, Flash Catalyst, using Flash to develop iPhone apps, etc.

Any of this material in your mind, and will it help Adobe fight off competition and increase its share of creative pros, designers and developers?

One of the benefits of the Adobe Flash Player on the web is that it is ubiquitous. It is everywhere; and in most cases you can safely assume that if you build in Flash, people can view it on their desktop computer. However, the 'world' is changing and smart phones are increasingly becoming common as the medium of choice. Adobe's movement with the Open Screen Project is a way to extend Flash's ubiquity and keep Flash relevant for the next 10 or more years. Will it help Adobe fight off competition? I believe so.

Will it help Adobe increase it's developer base? I'm not quite sure. But, I do believe it will help smart phones increase their developer base. A lot of desktop or web based applications currently built on the Flash Platform will be ported to mobile devices as a competitive advantage. Accessibility of an app is a competitive advantage.

He also asked me about HTML5. IS HTML5 a threat to the Adobe Developer Ecosystem? At this time, HTML5 is not a real threat, for the same reasons previous HTML standards are not consistent. Until the browser compatibility issues are solved once and for all, I don't think anything in the HTML space will disrupt the Flash Platform dominance.

If Firefox and IE were to switch over to a web kit based browser, that would be hugely earth shaking, because most major browsers would use the same rendering engine. But, I'm not holding my breath for that one.

I love answering questions and helping out when I can. Although this isn't technical, this question comes in from a reader of my Blog; I'll call him Q.

I've been studying Flex for 3 years now, but it is not my day job, and I wanted to ask you for your advice if possible. I have a great day job at a great company, but I don't work in Flex, and I am itching to get a job in Flex full-time.

The problem is I've never been a full-time programmer or designer. I don't have a computer science degree, but I have a BA and an MBA, and in my 11 years in the software industry I have become proficient in Flex, ActionScript, Perl, Python, basic Java, and SQL.

My fear is that I apply for a Flex development position, get the job, and then after a while they decide I don't have the strong backend or hardcore programming experience a person such as yourself might have, and then I will be out of a job (and my wife will be very unhappy).

Is the Flex market such that someone who has honed some pretty good Flex skills can stay employed and not have a lot of the other skills, like ColdFusion, PHP, Java, etc? Thanks very much Jeffry. I absolutely love Flex, and am dying to get into it full-time, but am afraid to dive in.

I believe the Nike saying is "Just Do It" right? So, get over whatever fears you have and jump in.

Honestly, I have no idea if I'm really the best guy to be answering that question. I haven't looked for a full time job in about 10 years. I run DotComIt, an Adobe Solutions Partner and have traditionally done custom software development for small businesses. These days I'm trying to launch a component business for Flex Developers. The path I take to get clients would be different than what you'd need to take to get a full time job.

I personally see a huge demand for Flex Developers, and bet you'd have no problem finding a job if you started looking. I percieve that the demand has lessened in the past 9 months, but I do believe the demand is there. I think it is unlikely you'll get laid off immediately after accepting a new job assuming you do not lie about qualifications during the job interview and/or on resume. Your new boss should have a good idea of what they are getting into by hiring you and vice versa.

Most professional programmers I know do not have a CS degree. I'm a bit unique in that regards, because I have schooling. I'm thankful every day I have it and would definitely recommend it to others. But, it isn't the only way to learn about programming. I believe most companies would hire someone w/ 11 years of experience way ahead of someone w/ just a degree.

Can you have people vouch for your experience? Can you get letters of reference for a boss or colleague? Sometimes LinkedIn recommendations are easier to get than letters of recommendation because they feel slightly less formal.

Do you have any code to prove your skill? If not, consider contributing to some open source projects. There are plenty out there, both in the Flex world and in other places. You'll probably learn a lot if you do that, no matter what your skill level on the topic.

Have I mentioned you should network, network, network? Last time I heard statistics most jobs are found via networking, not job sites. Who do you know? Who do you want to know? Look at local user groups. Speak at local user groups. Adobe has a bunch of groups all over, but they are not the only groups in the area.

What do you want to do with Flex Development? You might want to ask yourself that question and then try to find a way to get paid doing it. If you have a clear path, it will be easier to spot companies that jive with your own goals.

I bet knowing a middleware tool will help you. Or you could position yourself as an interface design expert and that would help you. Or you could become the third Flex Developer with graphic skills. I think EUI hired the first two.

Readers, what advice would you give to Q to find a job?

If anyone out there is looking for a position, drop me a line and let me know. Recruiters call me on a routine basis, and it is rare I'm a fit, but it'd be nice if I could make a referral. Tell me your name, location, and what you want to do. Based on some ideas I stole from from Jesse Warden, I decided to keep my own list of developers.

I get a lot of spam comments on my various blogs, including this one you are currently reading. I get enough so that I have enabled comment moderation on all comments.

Most, but not all, of the blog spam is for gold sites for a massive multiplayer on-line game that will remain nameless. But, I got one piece on this post that surprised me a bit. In the post, I talk a bit about infinite goods and scarce goods in the "digital" economy and how they apply to Flextras. I also touch on DRM. I also make mention of FlashDen a site that allows Flash and Flex developers to sell stuff to other Flash and Flex developers.

[More]

So, I'm getting hitched, yada yada yada. There has been a huge photographer drama. my good friend let me rattle on about this for a bit. I think our conversation sums up my thoughts on the situation rather nicely. Here are some, excerpts. I expanded where I thought appropriate:

D: you are being educated about wedding photographers right now though
D: Did you find someone?
Me: : laughs:
D: I take that as a no, you can't agree on terms?
Me: Formally no. It's a very long story.
Me: The Photographer in question is one of T's grammar school friends. I think they reconnected on facebook about a year or so ago.
D: Ah
D: I've done my share of weddings myself
D: it's stressful
Me: So, they worked out a price--which is relatively cost effective--and I said send a contract, which they did. Apparently both T and the Photographer friend got seriously upset as I suggested alternate contract terms.

T is being wish-washy about the whole thing. She just wants two things. Her friend to come to the wedding and have fun and take pictures and give us the pictures. I'm fine with that. And she wants a professional photographer to create picture perfect pictures. I'm fine with that too.

Unfortunately, I don't believe that it can't be both ways.

If we want to invite her friend to the wedding and tell her to take pictures, awesome great. We'll tell everyone to bring cameras and pay no one for the privilege. Most of the guests will probably be taking pictures or video anyway.

But, if we want to hire a professional photographer, that's fine and dandy too. But, once money is changing hands, *I* need to treat it like a professional relationship; not as a "handshake deal" with a friend. By professional relationship, I mean getting a contract, defining roles of each party, defining the deliverable. I do this type of stuff every day. DotComIt has some serious troubles in our early years by not having a comprehensive contract.

The Photographer sent over a contract based on discussions with T and her had. I read through the contract and had one major sticking point. Payment was due in full a week before the ceremony. That means we'd be shelling all this cash before they do any work. As a business owner myself, I have serious issues with that, and had no problems saying it.

I know the photographers puts in time and I have no problems putting down a deposit. There is also a deliverable in the contract: Digital Copies of all the pictures they took on a CD [or DVD, I forget which]. That comes 4 weeks after the wedding. Why should we pay in full 5 weeks before the deliverable, and one week before they do any work at all?

If we pay in full a week before the wedding; what is their incentive to even show up?

I offered options, one of which was a 3 tiered payment plan (30/30/30) or even (50/30/20).

This conversation apparently upset both T and the photographer friend.

After much discussion, the photographer friend left 3 options on the table:

• Do it there way
• Pay "full price" (92% more), and get my preferred contract terms
• they don't come and it destroys the friendship forever

Quite frankly, anyone who puts number 3 on the table is not someone I want to do business with and is not someone I want at my wedding. What type of friend would say that to another?

I may have made things worse--as I sometimes inadvertently do. At some point early in the negotiation--before the poop was flying--T said to me "We may lose our photographer" and I said "Well, then we lose our photographer!" From my perspective, it is a business relationship and nothing I was asking for was unusual.

T is now worried that no matter what happens, that if this photographer is there, I'll be ornery in all the pictures; thereby ruining them all. I never thought of myself as one to hold a grudge until then. It sounds exactly like something I'd do. I wouldn't intentionally ruin pictures, but I'm just incapable of hiding my mood / feeling. Shame on the photographer who can't capture that on film. I believe I may be permanently tainted against that photographer.

I get the impression that the photographer's husband is giving her flack about the low cost she promised to do the photos for. And my requests just added stress to the process--although I don't understand why. Wouldn't a professional photographer deal with these types of negotiation all the time?

I was presented with various arguments that were completely unrelated to the root of my problem. Here are some of them and why I don't care:

• They'll have to pay for gas: I'll admit it's going to be a trip down from Boston area. But, transportation costs are just part of doing business. They'd have to pay for gas regardless of how much we are paying them.
• They'll have to take time of work: What work? I thought we were hiring professional photographers to come to photograph our wedding. They will be working our 'wedding' not the wedding of someone else. This is work!
• They have to rent a camera and other equipment: A photographer doesn't have a camera? Oh, I understand it is a special camera just for this event. But, even so that is the expense of the person I'm hiring and should not be used as an excuse to charge me more.
• They Deserve More Money: I'm not sure how to quantify this issue. The amount being paid out has come up multiple times in conversations w/ T. But, I don't understand why. It is not something I ever once tried to negotiate, or even complained about. The original number was also proposed by the photographer, not by us. I do have cash flow considerations as I'm trying to start a new business selling ya'll Flex Components, So, yes money outflow is a consideration. But, I never once tried to negotiate the cost. That was never a sticking point with me.

I have spoken to some people who hire photographers for their time; and any prints / pictures they want to buy are covered at a later date. In that case, I can rationalize paying in full on the day or week of the wedding. We have that type of arrangement with the caterer. But, that is not the case with the photographer agreement, which has a clearly defined deliverable 4 weeks after the ceremony.

Here is the finish up of my conversation w/ Dee:

Me: This has been a bone of contention for the past few days. :-) Did my words get heated when it came up?
D: HA, yes very much on fire

I went over the number of gallons I pre-paid for my heating oil this year. In fact this is the highest amount of oil I've used in the past 5 years. Every single year it has gone down as I've "learned" the house more. Along with the bill from the oil company, I sent them this letter:

Included you will find a check for XXXX for the oil delivery that occurred on April 8th, 2009.

I have to say I was very surprised to find out that I had used up the pre-pay amount, so I reviewed my records. This is my highest oil usage in 5 heating seasons, and I am 118 gallons over the average of the last 3 years. This year's calculations do not yet accommodate for a 'final' delivery that has traditionally happened in the end of May or beginning of June.

During our yearly cleaning / inspection at the beginning of the season, I had your technician turn down the heat on my hot water heater, which I expected would help limit my usage.

All this makes me wonder if the first fill up (11/3/08) accidentally went into my neighbor's tank. The fill location is labeled left side; however there is no fill valve on the left side of my house. I attached a copy of said receipt for your own amusement.

The overrun hurts extra since I locked the price in at what turned out to be an obscenely high amount, and I am currently not generating any income.

If there is anything you can do on your end, or you have any thoughts to share on the matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

What would the oil company do next?

A stellar customer service move would be to credit my account for the initial fill up. It would make me a customer for life.

An okay customer service move would be to not charge me for the overrun. They'd say things like "It was ~6 months ago; we may have screwed up, but don't know. You should have been watching the tank to be sure it was full every time you got a fill-up." This is kind of like splitting the difference. If they do this, there is a ~75% chance I'd stay w/ them as a customer.

A realistic business decision would be to say "It's way to late to complain about something that may have happened 6 months ago. We're sorry, but tough luck." I'd shrug my shoulders and say "whatcha gonna do." At this point, there is a 50% chance I'd stay as a customer. Could something else have cause the discrepancy?

A horrible customer service response would be to cash my check and not contact me at all. This wouldn't surprise me. 25% chance I'd stay with them for the next heating season.

Last time I had a complaint with a different oil company, the person yelled at me on the phone saying everything was my fault. I not only stopped being a customer, I filed a complaint to the BBB.

I wish I knew more. I wish I knew that they did something incorrectly. I wish I caught the mistake--if there was one--back in November.

Julie writes in to ask about paying taxes on items sold through iTunes. It is a slightly different question compared to the technical stuff I usually deal with, but I was happy to help out.

Here is Julie's slightly modified text:

This may sound odd, but I saw your post on a message board about iTunes. Im a singer songwriter, and I want to get my stuff up on iTunes. I don't have a label, and will be doing this all myself from creation, to publishing, duplication cost..etc. Will I have to pay taxes on income earned from each download? I know the cd sales I sell out of my car are mine- but what about the money that comes to me from each download? does the IRS track that and come after me for each one? im so new at this, and any info would be helpful. Thanks Julie

Disclaiming this response with the fact that I am only aware of US based laws and I am not a lawyer or accountant...

Most likely you'll have to pay taxes. As a business owner myself, I budget for 40% of my income to go the government. As a self employed individual, you pay the same taxes you do as if you had a day job (~33%). If you had an employer, that employer is paying ~7.5% to Social Security in your behalf. If you're self employed, you pay that amount yourself.

You also have to pay taxes on the CDs you sell out of the back of your car. They qualify as income.

The benefit of claiming this income on your taxes is that you can also claim deductions. For example the cost of printing the CDs is tax deductable. If you buy equipment such as a microphone, guitar, mixer, guitar strings, or mic stand that is tax deductible. If you drive a vehicle to and from a gig that mileage may be tax deductible. If you buy clothes / costumes for your performance that is deductible. If you rent a professional studio or hire a producer / mixer / etc... that is all valid business expenses and deductible.

In my 10+ years of being in a band, I think I never had a year where the band income was more than the band expenses. One year we had an operating profit, however equipment we were deducting over time offset that profit for tax purposes. That is why I am no longer trying to be a professional musician. I didn't have the people skills to be good at the business side of it.

Tons of bands play dive bars once a month for $300 a night and split it between 5 people. I doubt the IRS would go after those people (But don't quote me on that). On the other hand, if you're playing 200 shows a year, have thousands of fans, and are generating a half million a year they'll probably notice you.

A lot of musicians want to wait until they make enough money to be noticed before they address this issue. However, that seems wrong to me because a lot of the tax benefit is going to be now / today when you're struggling, spending, and making almost no money.

You're going to want to talk to an accountant and/or lawyer for specifics in your area, though.

I'm searching for caterers for a wedding reception big backyard BBQ picnic this summer. I'm pretty sure that we have one chosen, but nothing is signed yet. One of the other potential vendors asked me why we didn't choose them as the top pick. "Was it the cost?"

This is my response to them (with minor mods for the sake of the public posting):

Price is always a consideration. But, in this case, our top pick is roughly 40% higher than your quote. Did you want to try to convince me you're the better option? I'll give you the chance if you want it, but you have an uphill battle.

Our top pick was more responsive, and her proposal was easier to understand. Those were the two primary reasons she rose to the top.

The first thing you did was send me two documents in my response. To this day, I could not tell you the difference between the Burger Bar Fancy and The Fundamental BBQ. They seem to be the exact same thing, except one doc had more detail on the menu. The price per person was not obvious in the original docs you sent me, nor was the total cost. Is cost even in the fancy document? I can't find it.

I didn't realize, until you mentioned later, that the initial two docs you sent were not custom proposals prepared for me. You wanted to chat; which is great, but you left me hanging for ~3 weeks and did not call me until I followed up. If it is not a priority to bring me on as a client, what sort of priority will you give us once we sign and start coughing over money?

The 2nd and more customized proposal you sent over is significantly improved over the initial menu docs. I'd even say it is the 2nd best proposal we've seen. Had it not been pulling teeth to get it out of you it would have warranted more serious consideration.

And there it is. That is probably why you didn't get my business. In my 9+ years of being in business, I've found that price is rarely the deciding factor.

I get a lot of questions from readers of this blog and listeners of The Flex Show. I try to answer a lot of them, but some fall through the cracks.

I've decided to make use of my Adobe Community Expert Connect Account to try some live Q&A sessions. You can ask me anything you want, about building Flex Components, producing The Flex Show, writing books, or anything.

Just go to My Connect Room at 1pm on any Friday in February. Use TimeAndDate.com to find out when this is in your own time zone.

This is a bit experimental for me, but I look forward to chatting with you in a bit more real time. Come with questions ready.