O'Reilly Rough Cuts: Get behind the scenes to stay ahead of the curve

O'Reilly Rough Cuts: Get behind the scenes to stay ahead of the curve

"Rough Cuts is a new service from Safari Books Online that gives you early access to content on cutting-edge technologies -- before it's published. It lets you literally read the book as it is being written. The beta version of the Rough Cuts service is debuting in January 2006, with four works-in-progress from O'Reilly Media. We'll be adding features and titles throughout the year.

When you buy a book on the Rough Cuts service, you get access to an evolving manuscript. You can read it online, download as a PDF, or print. Once you've purchased a Rough Cuts title, you have a chance to shape the final product - you can send suggestions, bug fixes, and comments directly to the author and editors.

Rough Cuts content usually becomes available anywhere from two to six months prior to a book's publication. It's updated as the author and technical reviewers progress, so you'll have access to new versions as they're created. Chapters won't necessarily be written and posted in the order in which they'll appear in the published version.

Rough Cuts titles live up to their name - they haven't been fully edited, subjected to final technical review, or formatted for print. In other words, they'll be very current, but they won't be pretty."