From Program to Product: Turning Your Code Into a Saleable Product

By Rocky Smolin

This book is not a general software business reference, like our MicroISV book or the Eric Sink book. It's specifically for readers who have an existing project, or an idea for one, and want to turn it into a product. They can follow this book for the best chance of success. It is written in a non-technical, friendly, conversational style, and is filled with excerpts, advice, and war stories from someone who's been in the trenches for years.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590599713
• ISBN13: 9781590599716
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 201 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Yes, BUT... (Read this review to find out)

I think this book is most valuable for non-techies. Smolin does a pretty good job at explaining to them in easy-to-understand terms the overall picture and details like how databases work, etc. If you are a developer already, I'm not sure I can say this book would be as valuable to you as it would be to a non-developer. I definitely disagree with the above reviewer who rated it 5 and said "for the millions of programmers out there, this book speaks to you." It doesn't have any earth-shattering, mind-blowing AHA moments, which has kind of disappointed me (I was expecting something transformational). Having said that, what I think it does for developers is offers them a reminder of what they probably already know. It's more for developers who are busy and don't want to sit down and think the process through for themselves or do the organizational thinking on their own. For example, he says: "some of the folks you poll for feedback are going to express a bit of enthusiasm for the product... Ask if they would kindly agree to test your program once it's ready. And put them on your tester list." See, nothing earth-shattering! What you should do is read as fast as you can and compile for yourself a list of maybe 5 pages (or less) that you can refer to over and over again of the stuff that you need to watch out for and not forget. That's probably the best way to use this book. But as I said, if you're a developer, don't expect a blueprint of how to be a master at this. Good luck.

For the millions of programmers out there, this book speaks to YOU!

Mr. Smolin's book isn't for the Sergei Brins or the Linus Torvalds of the world. If you think that the author is going to reveal the most sure-fire software development environment that will have the greatest chance of acceptance in the marketplace, you'd better look elsewhere. Actually, there IS no elsewhere because there is no such source that can deliver on such a claim. Those that think that Mr. Smolin should have shown Java or C# examples in his book are entirely missing the point: this is a book that shows EVERY factor a developer should consider BEFORE releasing his much-beloved software to an unsuspecting public. The development environment particulars have no bearing on the business of selling software. Do you really believe that a jewelry shop looking for something to help keep track of all the parts needed for jewelry design really cares one way or another whether your program is written in C# or Cobol? If you're looking at this book for guarantees, you won't find any. Software writing is a business, and anyone that indulges in wishful thinking is lost right from the start. You may think some feature you've written is just the coolest thing you've ever seen, but it may be the one thing that annoys a potential buyer so much that he'll pass your cool program right by without a second thought. The 67 pages of interviews take up about a third of this book. I was charmed, informed, and bemused by them all at once. The interviews in this book read like direct transcripts from the tapes. There seems to be little editing; nothing, say, like "Ten Questions for Lotta Miles" in People Magazine. But the flow is very natural and Mr. Smolin makes an engaging interviewer. I think he felt it important to devote such a large portion of his book to the interviews because it serves up a huge dollop of authenticity. None of his interview subjects have household names. Sure, an interview with the founders of Google or with Bill Gates would certainly have increased the general public's interest in this book and helped the sales considerably. But what do you really expect from an interview with a top flight software developer that hasn't been seen before? The people that are likely to buy this book will appreciate interviews with people that made a go of it by selling small, targeted software products to limited markets. That's going to make a heck of a lot more sense to developers looking to target small markets with their software products! The "secret" to success in software development is the same as it is in every business: work hard, pay attention to what your customers say, get the details right, work hard, keep promoting your product, make sure to have enough capital at the start and keep your fiscal house in order, keep up with your taxes, work continuously on improvements to your product, work hard, watch your competitors like a hawk, don't let yourself become discouraged, keep on top of your billing, don't borrow too much mon

Learn from the mistakes of others...

Most programmers at some point think they have something they've built that, with a little luck and hard work, can be the next Visicalc of the computer world. In reality, there's a lot more that goes into it than that. Rocky Smolin talks about that process in the book From Program to Product: Turning Your Code into a Saleable Product. You'll know some of the stuff already, but it will keep you from making some other mistakes that could keep you from getting all you could from your brainchild. Contents: Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?; So What Do I Do First?; The Program - From The Outside Looking In; The Price of Success; Legal Matters; Some Financial Considerations; Sample Software Licence; Index Smolin has a couple of different product offerings that he's taken from idea to saleable product. He uses that experience to talk about the perils, pitfalls, and payoffs of selling your work to others. Much of what he covers is how to take a step back and actually plan the product. This ideally should be done *before* you build it, but you may already have the program built and working for the original intended purpose. He shows how it's best to have that architecture and analysis done before you actually release it, as it will give you the foundation you need to create something that is solid and doesn't start breaking down under the strain of multiple customers. Probably the best information is on licensing and other legal issues (like escrow). We may be good at slinging code, but we're not all that hot at making sure the legal groundwork is done. Without it, you may find yourself giving up all your hard-earned profits to lawyers and disgruntled customers. Worth reading and considering before you make the mistakes. There are a couple of nits I have with the book itself. Smolin is mainly an Access/SQL Server developer, so pretty much all the examples, interviews, and colleages mentioned in the book hail from that software niche. That doesn't make the core information any less valuable, but it does tend to get a bit old having all the examples showing the same type of software technology. Also, I'm not sure the interviews at the end of each chapter work as well as they could. They are nearly verbatim transcripts, so you have too many sequences of answers consisting of single word "yes" and "no"s. I realize that gives you the realism of the interview, but it also reads in an awkward fashion. I think I would have chosen clean up that area a bit more. This book is worth reading if you plan to go down the independent software vendor route. It'll save you the hassles of repeating the common mistakes that nearly everyone ends up making.