Books are the one friend that is never going to leave you, period. In the age of modern internet, perhaps that sentiment shares less of a resonance with those who’re used to reading tutorials and learning things by pure trial and error, but the amount of knowledge that a book contains is very hard to replace with single-minded tutorials and walkthroughs. Some of our most popular content has been strictly books.
- Books to Get You Started with Meteor
- Books for Beginning a Web Designer Career
- Books & eBooks for Linux
ah yes. There also are eBooks, a very trending format for digital content. We do stand by eBooks that are well-written and perhaps substitute a book in a more concise manner. The one thing on our minds has always been this — where do we get more books for topics such as web development and web design? Are there any publishers who publish books strictly from these categories only? After some research, it turns out there are. Quite a few of them actually!
So without any further introduction, the following are the most popular book publishers who focus on topics such as design, computer science and technology as a whole. Some of these you might know very well, some of these you might not know at all. We hope that you will share with us any great publishers that we may have missed in the comment section at the bottom of the post.
1. The Pragmatic Bookshelf
After writing two best selling books with a traditional publisher, Dave and Andy decided to publish their next books themselves. After all, how hard could it be? (right…)
We had no idea how publishers should work, so we created a business based around the sound ideas from software development: automate everything, keep books as plain text in version control, keep code separate, so it can be tested when the book gets built, be transparent with authors, and pay them 50% of all income.
We were typical readers of the books we produced, so we set things up the way we’d want them: no DRM, ebook purchases get you all formats (PDF, epub, and mobi), and beta books give you access to content as it is being developed. The content is never dry: our professional editors apply modern learning theory to guide our authors to create interesting narratives. And there’s no fluff—most publishers ask for a minimum number of pages; we set a maximum.
We still read every book we produce, and we’re proud of them all. We think you’ll enjoy them.
2. Manning Publications
Manning is a slightly larger publication that focuses on many software development topics and languages such as Microsoft, and Java. The Manning team is focused on publishing books of professional grade and cares deeply about the quality of books that you can find on their catalog. On top of that, they happily work with authors to get the most out of them and their ideas.
3. O’Reilly Media
This is probably one of the most widely known software books publishers out there. O’Reilly Media has been operating for nearly four decades and has published thousands of books, with many more still being lined up today. In recent years, training videos have also become a big part of the site and now attract many eager students who want to take on software development.
4. Peachpit
Peachpit offers unique learning experiences in the fields of photography, graphic design, Web design and development, digital video, and more. There are several thousand titles available from Peachpit, many of which are related to design, but also web development and web design. Over a thousand authors have published their work on this publisher, with the list of authors being publicly available.
5. No Starch Press
These guys are truly passionate about their work. Their main areas of expertise are computing, open-source, infosec, programming, science and mathematics to name a few. Any book published by these guys is thoroughly edited by the No Starch team itself, as well as carries the personality and wit of the author who has written the book. If you’re looking for intellectual brain dumps in a friendly way, these guys are the ones to pick.
6. Packt Publishing
Packt Publishing provides books, eBooks, video tutorials, and articles for IT developers, administrators, and users. They’ve been operating for over a decade, with continuous growth and development in areas such as software development and technology. One of their goals is to help push out books of smaller volumes that bigger publishers don’t want anything to do with. The focus is to allow authors express themselves on topics that the normal average publisher would not want to take on.
7. Que
Que is an amazing publisher and resource for developers and technology enthusiasts who want to learn from professionals and industry leaders in a professional way. They cover the majority of computer and internet apps at all learning levels. Que is dedicated to bringing forward content and material that reflects the current state of technology industry and possibilities. There are also a lot of free articles and tutorials available from these guys.
8. Leanpub
Leanpub is more of the indie type of publisher, not to say that there isn’t great material to be found on their catalog. Quite the opposite, there’s plenty of good stuff to be found on Leanpub, and many self-taught developers are now actively sharing books on topics such as JavaScript and its latest technologies, as well as many other web development and design languages that are the industry standard.
Book Publishers for Developers and Designers
We’re fond of all these publishers and truly grateful for the work that they do in order to help authors bring about great books, but also to help us learn more about the technologies that we so much love and adore.