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Brian Sawyer—Hacks Series editor and another partner in crime on Flickr Hacks—just uploaded every figure from Flickr Hacks to Flickr in a gallery appropriately titled Flickr Hacks Color Figures. (Flickr.) So as you're reading along in the book and want to see a much larger image than you find on the printed (or HTML/PDF-ized) page, you can browse to the gallery and take a look by figure number. And don't forget about the All Sizes button on the image detail page if you really want to study a figure more closely.

This image is from Hack #43, Mash Up Your Photos.

Safari Books Online just launched a new service that gives you access to books before they're released. It's called Rough Cuts—here's a press release: Safari Books Online Launches New Rough Cuts Service. Flickr Hacks is one of the first books offered through Rough Cuts. We're not finished with the last round of editing yet, but you can get access to the full text of the book as it is now for $12.99 if you'd like: Flickr Hacks Rough Cuts. (You can pay $27.99 if you want the hard copy in addition to the online version once it's printed in a month or so. The printed book alone will be around $16.99.)

One of the most frustrating aspects of working on print books for me is the lag time between writing something and getting it out to an audience. The applications I'm writing about change quickly, so it's critical to get information out quickly. The editorial and review process is fantastic, and I love tightening text and tuning code. But it's frustrating watching your work expire while the book is in process because an application has changed. I think Rough Cuts will be a way to shorten the cycle. I also think it'll be great to get feedback from early adopters of the books so O'Reilly can tweak things before printing. Every book has errata, and with more people consuming books before they're out the door, hopefully more of that errata can be eliminated before the book is printed. (With enough eyeballs, all errata is shallow?)

So yeah, I'm excited about this new service—especially because Flickr Hacks is one of the inaugural titles. The author side of me is a bit nervous about letting people in early, but it's natural to the Web developer side of me. A few days ago I read through the entire book again as part of the editorial process and really enjoyed it. I know I'm biased, but I'm also proud of the book. (And let's face it, Flickr is fun!) And now you can read an early version too.

Update: For insights into the economics of publishing, check out Tim O'Reilly's take on Rough Cuts: The Long Snout.

Update (1/30): The Rough Cuts version of Flickr Hacks now has color figures. Check out Jim's Squared Circle mosaic in the Flickr Hacks Preface.

Flickr Hacks has a cover!



You can't tell from this tiny version, but seeing the cover is also fun because it mentions that Caterina has written/is writing the foreword—it must be true! It's great to see the book coming together. Click the cover to see a larger version at Amazon.

As you can tell things have been quiet around here. The ink is barely dry on Yahoo! Hacks and I'm already working on my next project: Flickr Hacks! (Note to parents: Flickr is a photo-sharing application on the surface, but it's much more than that.) I'm especially excited about this book because I'm going to be working with the amazingly talented Jim Bumgardner. Jim started the Flickr Hacks group, put together some beautiful collaborative posters with Flickr images, and generally knows Flickr and the Flickr API inside and out. Check out Jim's Photostream to get a sense of his work.

If you've written a Flickr extension or found a novel way to use Flickr, don't be surprised if Jim or I contact you about including it in the book. (But feel free to contact me as well!) The book is part of the Hacks series, and Flickr Hacks is meant to be a gallery featuring many voices and many different technologies that enhance or build upon Flickrspace. I already have my head down trying to meet writing deadlines, but part of my time will be devoted to finding what's out there—and I've been playing with a lot of fun Flickr toys over the past couple of weeks. I'd love to hear about your favorites.

So once again this weblog will probably be dormant while I'm working on the book, but I'll still be here working away behind the scenes. I've been a member of Flickr since it was a chat-based application, and it's been fun watching it grow. I'm continually amazed at the creativity Flickr has inspired in both photography and application design, and I'm excited to be able to work around and with the incredible Flickr community. I'm hoping I can help translate some of that energy into book form. See ya on Flickr!

ps. here are my photos at Flickr.