As well as being available in print and as standalone eBooks, many Apress titles are also available via a number of online subscription services.
Our new Alpha Program gives you access to future Apress and friends of ED publications—right now! You'll have the opportunity to read and provide feedback on chapters as our authors submit them, and see a title grow from the first few alpha chapters to the finished book.
Just go to the book page from one of the links below to buy an Alpha Book at our regular eBook price. From there, you will then have access to the latest version of the Alpha Book in electronic format (whenever you want) and to a nonpublic feedback button. It's that simple.
Current Alpha Books
About the Alpha Program
Alpha Book versions are available for carefully selected Apress and friends of ED titles, and each will include a minimum of three chapters. From then until publication, chapters will be added and updated at regular intervals. We'll let you know of any major changes and additions, so all you'll have to do is revisit the Apress eBookshop and download the latest files.
Purchasing
Purchasing an Alpha Book is simple: just click the Buy Alpha Book button on the book's web page, and complete your purchase as you would a regular eBook. You get all updates and the final edited eBook at the end—at no extra cost! Buying an Alpha Book qualifies you to download the finished eBook once published, and the price is the same—30% below that of the printed book.
Updates and Feedback
Alpha Books are works-in-progress and should be viewed as such. That's half the fun—sure, you'll see typos and formatting errors, and there may be technical problems with code that we're working through or some tough beta bugs we're trying to find workarounds for! All content will be subject to change as the book develops from alpha to final readiness. We welcome feedback about any aspect of our Alpha Books, and all correspondence on a particular book will be read by its editor. The editor may be in touch with you to follow up depending on the nature of your feedback.
Please be aware that we're unable to provide source code with our Alpha Books, so it may not be possible to fully follow along with some of a title's examples.
Money-back guarantee!
Finally, if for any reason prior to the final publication you are not satisfied with the book, you may use the Feedback button to ask for your money back; just let us know why.