Originally this article was supposed to be a book review of the upcoming O'Reilly title Subject to Change, but I was so appalled by its content that I felt compelled to shift focus to the more important issue of ethics in publishing. This book reflects a sinister trend in the tech book publishing industry that favors vapid, tedious material that serves to advise readers without revealing the big secrets. The purpose is for the authors (usually a group of writers, and most of them high-level managers) to promote their company and its services by giving readers just enough information. If they want the advanced material, they need to buy the rest at a premium price by going straight to the company for its professional services. Meanwhile, the publisher bathes in a sea of money while the authors relentlessly promote the book on their blogs and in their conference keynotes and panel discussions. Tech books have increasingly become corporate marketing vehicles, sacrificing the exciting A-list technical material that regular tech book buyers and enthusiasts have come to expect from companies like O'Reilly Media and Pearson Education. This isn't the first book I've seen that gives readers a 20,000-word marketing pitch -- that honor belongs to Enterprise Ajax (and it's about three times longer). I'm bothered -- sickened -- to see that not only is this trend continuing unabated, but it's actually become a habit.

Subject to Change is written by four people who hold high positions at a company named Adaptive Path. You've probably heard of that company because its CEO, Jesse James Garrett, is credited with coining the term Ajax in an essay he wrote a while ago. Other than that, there isn't anything particularly remarkable about Adaptive Path, other than the fact that it seems to be a successful consulting firm. But from reading this book, you'd think that Adaptive Path was the second coming. Its logo is splattered across every cover surface, larger and more prominent even than O'Reilly's. The authors speak in the first-person (usually plural, sometimes singular) and turn nearly every subject into a plug for their company.

The book's primary content reads like a marketing pitch for Adaptive Path services. It's packed with enthusiasm but entirely devoid of substance. There are whole paragraphs that meander around non-specific subjects, one leading into another until you're pretty sure you've got the gist of what the authors are trying to say, but you have no idea how to apply it to your business. Each chapter and section contains, in no specific order: Lots of inspirational hand-waving and encouragement, vague and wide-ranging advice on what to avoid in terms of policy, quotes from CEOs and news articles, examples from the industry -- both good and bad -- that are over-generalized and removed from all necessary context, and the brilliant solutions that Adaptive Path has provided its clients to solve these nebulously stated, over-worded, general business problems. Here's an example of the latter from page 118:

At Adaptive Path, we look to the other competencies within an organization and combine design with those to generate more effective solutions.

If that isn't a (badly phrased) line destined for a television commercial or print ad with a beautiful actor leaning toward a desk to point instructively at a computer screen to show guidance to another, seated, less attractive or lower status actor, then I don't know what is. It's the sort of rubbish meant to inspire cigar-chomping pointy-haired CEOs to pick up the phone and yell, "Johnson! Get in my office! I just saw a great TV commercial and I want these 'Adopt-A-Bath' people working for us, pronto!"

And as an example of its empty, overlong, non-promotional content, from the intro to chapter 4:

Creating engaging user experiences requires a solid understanding of the people you want to serve, which inevitably means doing research. Research is a reliable way to gain insight and deal with uncertainty, but to incorporate the ideas from chapter 3 you may need to reconsider how you think about research. In our experience, a lot of research does nothing but keep research staff busy; however, well-executed research can transform your organization's understanding of its customers, and help your team create compelling experiences.

I feel like I just walked in a big circle. I see a lot of words (most of them are one word -- research), but they're all inside of diluted phrases that individually offer a tiny kernel of useful information. This literary hand-waving pervades the entire book to the point that if it were properly condensed into concise, actionable information without any self-promotion, this book's text could fit comfortably on a CD jewel case booklet. There were so many editing 101 mistakes -- so many basic, elementary book management issues with this title that I am astonished that the usually sharp minds at O'Reilly let it pass with their approval.

People want to read tech books because they're excited at the prospect of expanding their technical understanding through an impassioned expert's narrative. Had Subject to Change been about Adaptive Path's company history and its business methods and corporate culture as a successful Web 2.0 company on the cutting edge of technology, that might be an interesting read. Similarly, a book that clearly taught all of Adaptive Path's A-list material -- the processes, philosophies, and practices that make it a leader in its industry -- would be successful as a niche book for those interested in industry trends and best practices. But this is neither. It pretends to be a book that teaches readers how to reshape their methods to be more innovation-friendly and client-oriented -- a compelling but not revolutionary concept -- but it offers absolutely no new thinking on the subject. The entire volume of useful information in Subject to Change can be summed up thusly: "Think outside the box, and pay attention to customer needs. And if you can't do that, hire us!" Take that to heart and save yourself the time and money wasted on this book.

Perhaps I should not be so surprised and offended at this book. It's not the first time I've seen it happen. Subject to Change is representative of a growing genre of corporate promotion books that are all wind and no sail. The people who write them are D-list Internet celebrities with successful blogs; they are people who speak at conferences and participate in panel discussions. As a result of their public speaking and presentation careers, these people make excellent book promoters and thus, excellent book authors as far as publishers are concerned. It doesn't matter if the book sucks, because it's going to be promoted as though it were the tech industry's Valley of the Dolls. It will sell regardless of the quality of its content. Having these pseudo-famous people write books is good business for publishers -- at least in the short term, while there is brand equity to burn.

From the author's point of view, such book deals are a once in a lifetime opportunity to promote his business. He doesn't care if he makes any money from book sales. It would take some kind of miracle book to eclipse his salary and stock options. Sure, royalty money is always nice, but the real money will roll in when tens of thousands of potential customers masquerading as readers flood his sales department with impassioned inquiries.

So on the one hand there are publishers that want to produce books that will sell, and having authors who can promote their own books is an added bonus. On the other hand there are potential authors who see an unprecedented opportunity to get more clients and improve their status in the industry. Mix the two together and you have a money-making machine that transfers the publisher's brand equity to the author's company. Eventually it may be that the majority of new, non-reprint technical books are corporate promotion deals -- that is, until readers wise up to this scam and start demanding quality. Maybe what we need is Tim O'Reilly 2.0 to come along and save us from this corporate promotional crap and deliver books that offer fascinating technical facts and details that inspire readers.

It makes my stomach turn to see that one of my heroes and idols -- Tim O'Reilly -- personally approved of Subject to Change and called it a "terrific book" on the inside cover, though most of his endorsement addresses the book's topic and not its actual implementation. His opinion is ill-conceived; he does not understand that commercial influences, be they internal ("We can't say that about our own product!") or external ("We can't say that about an advertiser's product!") are equally destructive to the integrity of good technical writing. They also apply in the opposite direction -- "We MUST say that about our product!" -- and that's what we have with Subject to Change.

There will never be a good book on innovative business thinking; no one qualified to write it would take any amount of money to give away his secrets. And so we have this spammy self-worshipping tripe in the form of books like Subject to Change.

As for me, I haven't decided if I should be more selective in the books I agree to write about, or if I should continue to call it like it is, naming-and-shaming the literary turds in the technology book pool. That is, if O'Reilly and Pearson aren't too offended at this article to continue sending me review copies. Frankly, it wouldn't break my heart if that happened -- reading bad books makes me miserable.