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From The Complete Guide to Google Wave: How to Use Google Wave

The Complete Guide to Google Wave First Edition is now available!

What Readers are Saying

"An excellent job of explaining what Google Wave is and how it can be used."—Charles Hamilton, NY Times^[1]

"A super-handy reference if you’re still stuck on how to get the most out of Wave."—Pete Cashmore, Mashable^[2]

"A straightforward, well-organized volume that goes a long way toward demystifying a new and complex tool."—Jay Hathaway, Download Squad^[3]

"I understand Wave because of you."—Reader Eric Booth^[4]

How Your Print Book Purchase Supports a Great Cause

The Complete Guide to Google Wave is an experiment in independent publishing that puts us, the writers, in control of the book's design, distribution, license, and even printing and fulfillment methods. When we researched our options for printing the hard copy of the book, we realized how expensive existing print-on-demand services can be--especially for color books. If we had to hike up the price of our print edition at all, we wanted to do it for a really good reason. Our partnership with a worthy charity is that reason.

Partnerships with Industry (PWI) is a San Diego-based charity which provides jobs for developmentally disabled adults, and they're helping us get this book into your hands.^[5] So, when you buy a hard copy of The Complete Guide to Google Wave, you're helping to create a taxpayer out of someone able, ready, and willing to work.

Our first-time book publisher, 3ones, describes how our partnership with PWI works:^[6]

For every print copy of the book we sell, half of the revenues go directly to PWI. They are, in every sense of the word, partners with us in this venture. They are doing the fulfillment, customer service, and have even invested directly into the project as a way of building domain expertise in e-commerce. For them, partnering with us is a chance they have to take control of their destiny. Rather than relying on state funds for their income, they are creating their own revenue streams.

PWI printed 2,500 copies of the book at their own cost. When you complete a purchase of a print book, PWI clients do the fulfillment: they pack the book in an envelope, include your receipt, slap a shipping label on the front, seal it, load it, and ship it. They work with our e-commerce system (Google Checkout) to send you notification that the book is shipping and, in the unlikely event that the book you receive is something you want to return, process the return. They do all of this in order to share in the revenues on each sale. How much revenue? Half. For each $25 book we sell, $12.50 goes to PWI. They have the talent and they deserve it. We couldn't be happier to share our wealth with theirs.

Thanks for supporting both our efforts and PWI.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are answers to some of the most commonly-asked questions we get about the book.

Is there any way to donate to this project without buying the book?

Not currently, no. The only way to support us financially is to purchase a paperback or the ebook.

If I bought the Preview Edition, will I have to buy the First Edition?

We're thrilled to be able to say: NO! As a one-time deal for our Preview Edition buyers only, we're doing a free new edition upgrade. Thank you for supporting us early on. If you purchased the Preview Edition PDF, keep an eye on your email inbox for the First Edition. It should arrive shortly.

If the web site content is licensed under Creative Commons, does that mean I can buy the PDF and make it downloadable on my web site or on a document-hosting site?

No. While the contents of this web site are free to share, if you purchase an electronic copy of the book, the PDF file is meant for your exclusive, personal use only. Please help us pay the bills and don't share or distribute a paid copy of the book. We appreciate your help.

Can I pay for the book using any method other than Google Checkout, like PayPal?

Not right now, no.

I've purchased the PDF, and I see that my name is at the bottom of every page. How did you do that?

We used the excellent DocMonk service for the PDF personalization. We highly recommend them.

Will translated versions of the book be available for purchase?

No. Book translations will only be available at completewaveguide.com.

I would like to write a book like this. How did you convert the book from the wiki to a PDF/print copy?

Our publishers, 3ones, copyedited, designed, and converted the wiki into a PDF and print book. Contact kelly at 3ones.com to inquire about how 3ones can help you do the same.

I want to use the wiki skin on completewaveguide.com on my wiki. Is the skin available to the public?

The skin is not available to the public right now, because it has lots of completewaveguide.com elements hardcoded into it. However, it's a straightforward modification to MediaWiki's built-in MonoBook skin. If you want a custom skin for your wiki, try starting with MonoBook and modifying it for your needs like we did.

Why did you release this book so early, when Google Wave is still invitation-only and not available to the public yet?

Since we're publishing this book as we go and offering its contents for free on the web, we wanted to help the early adopters by documenting what we know so far about how Wave works. Almost every public wave in the Wave Preview includes a discussion between users about how Wave itself works, and we thought that putting all those how-to's into one place would help everyone and evolve over time. Our hope is that by the time Wave is public, this book will be complete, well-edited, and reviewed by hundreds of early readers already.

References

1. ↑ What Is Google Wave, Anyway? New E-Book Explains, NYTimes.com via Web Worker Daily
2. ↑ Google Wave Guide: User Manual Released for Wave, Mashable.com
3. ↑ Confused about Google Wave? Now you can read the bleeping manual., DownloadSquad.com
4. ↑ Eric Booth, Twitter.com
5. ↑ PWI Launches Joint Venture in Print on Demand, PWI works
6. ↑ Complete Wave Guide Partnership, 3ones.com