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Lessons learned from a year as a self-published author

blog.leanpub.com

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Re: Lessons learned from a year as a self-published author

#41

Post by ilamont »

thejteam wrote: post #13

Does anybody have any experience with selling books like this outside of the software realm? By which I mean publishing beta books as you go or bundling other resources. and charging a premium. It seems to be something that the software community finds acceptable, but does this extend to other fields? Non-fiction or fiction.

Owner of a small publishing company here. We publish "how to" guides under the "In 30 Minutes" brand (Dropbox In 30 Minutes, LinkedIn In 30 Minutes, etc.) (1) but my company has also published two fiction titles.

You asked about selling books outside of the software realm. The In 30 Minutes guides are aimed at mainstream users, and I found through some early pricing experiments that attempting to charge more than $10 for these types of ebooks is very difficult. I have also found through more recent experiments that pricing ebook versions less than $5 leads to an immediate and sustained rise in sales.

I sell ebooks through Amazon, iTunes, and B&N as well as PDF versions on Gumroad. I have also made mobi/epub versions available on Gumroad, but very few people buy them -- Amazon, Apple and Android tablet manufacturers do not make it easy to transfer these types of files to their devices, which is a roadblock to most people in my target audience.

In my limited experience promoting fiction, factors such as categorization, whether or not the book is in a series, and the number of reviews on Amazon or Goodreads influence awareness and purchasing decisions. Because there is so much competition in the fiction realm, and most new titles by relatively unknown authors are priced at $4 or less, I think the reaction to an expensive fiction ebook by another unknown author would be negative.

For anyone who is interested in self-publishing, I wrote another HN post last year that a lot of people found useful. It includes tips on how to get started using a lean approach to writing, production, and marketing (2). Good luck!

1. http://in30minutes.com

2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6052075

Re: Lessons learned from a year as a self-published author

#42

Post by bloodorange »

sergiotapia wrote: post #15
leoplct wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you not afraid that people may send each other the .pdf file without paying ?

Cheaters will always cheat, and let me tell ya: I've spent more money on Leanpub than I have anywhere else with "proper drm". :) I guess developers have an honor code towards their fellow software developers.

I agree. I have never paid for ebooks before I came across Leanpub. If my game/book was being copied without me being paid for it, I'll be happy that people like it so much. It only means that more folks will see it and at it will pay off in better sales eventually.

I'm not inclined to dig it out right now, but if it interests you, do check out what Neil Gaiman said about his books being copied in a similar manner.

Re: Lessons learned from a year as a self-published author

#43

Post by chmars »

leoplct wrote: post #14
sergiotapia wrote: post #2

Congratulations on the success! Leanpub is the best platform I have ever bought a book on hands down. They just send you an email with a link to the downloadable pdf or you can log in and see your purchases with simple Download links. No DRM, not third party software downloaders, just a simple File > Save As. Really transparent and makes you feel safe buying things.

Are you not afraid that people may send each other the .pdf file without paying ?

That's even legal among close friends and within your family – at least in most European countries (private or personal use). And I consider it an absolute necessity since printed books can be easily shared and in a family, it's simply not feasible to buy the same content a few times.

Re: Lessons learned from a year as a self-published author

#44

Post by teh_klev »

peterarmstrong wrote: post #31
teh_klev wrote: post #27

Well done Josh, this looks like a book I'm going to pony up for on pay day. How did you manage the editorial, proof reading and technical review aspects of the book? Do LeanPub provide these services or do you do this yourself, if so how?

Authors do this themselves on Leanpub. But the thing is, readers of the in-progress book actually end up providing a lot of that in many cases, by providing feedback to the author via email, Disqus or Twitter. (Development and technical editors function as proxies for readers. We've found that readers also do a good job of that!) [Leanpub cofounder here]

Thanks for the clarification.

Re: Lessons learned from a year as a self-published author

#46

Post by SDMattG »

leoplct wrote: post #14
sergiotapia wrote: post #2

Congratulations on the success! Leanpub is the best platform I have ever bought a book on hands down. They just send you an email with a link to the downloadable pdf or you can log in and see your purchases with simple Download links. No DRM, not third party software downloaders, just a simple File > Save As. Really transparent and makes you feel safe buying things.

Are you not afraid that people may send each other the .pdf file without paying ?

I think the bigger worry should be regarding whether or not you're writing something people will buy.

The reason so many things suck these days is that people worry about edge cases, and build in rules/sucky experiences to protect against them.

Re: Lessons learned from a year as a self-published author

#47

Post by waqf »

peterarmstrong wrote: post #29
teh_klev wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious about this: "I've made about $1k on leanpub so far for the unfinished book (ebook buyers will get the full No Starch ebook when it's ready)." What happens if you burn out and decide you can't finish the book? Do people get their money back or did they pay less for a beta/unfinished copy and accept that this is what they're paying for?

[Leanpub cofounder here.] We have an unconditional 45-day refund policy. This is so readers of the in-progress book can judge whether they think it has stalled. If so, they can decide whether they've gotten their money's worth, and if not, get a refund in 2 clicks. In situations where books are abandoned after being dormant for a long time, we can't issue refunds since we literally can't. (We take PayPal and we take…

> we literally can't.

This is hard to believe. Couldn't you mail them a check or something?

Re: Lessons learned from a year as a self-published author

#48

Post by rmc »

leoplct wrote: post #14
sergiotapia wrote: post #2

Congratulations on the success! Leanpub is the best platform I have ever bought a book on hands down. They just send you an email with a link to the downloadable pdf or you can log in and see your purchases with simple Download links. No DRM, not third party software downloaders, just a simple File > Save As. Really transparent and makes you feel safe buying things.

Are you not afraid that people may send each other the .pdf file without paying ?

For self-published authors, obscurity rather than piracy is the largest business threat

Re: Lessons learned from a year as a self-published author

#49

Post by rmc »

poopsintub wrote: post #23
thejteam wrote: post #13

Does anybody have any experience with selling books like this outside of the software realm? By which I mean publishing beta books as you go or bundling other resources. and charging a premium. It seems to be something that the software community finds acceptable, but does this extend to other fields? Non-fiction or fiction.

I'm not sure how you would have a beta version of a fiction book. That would be like selling jumbled ideas. I have a friend whose mother just released her first book on amazon and I believe Barnes and Noble. It sat up next to Koontz on the amazon best selling new releases for the first few days in that category. She put it on sale for $.99 as a new release, then I assume, will raise the price to $2 or $3 eventually.…

I'm not sure how you would have a beta version of a fiction book.

Sell only the first few chapters. Or sell it in serial format.

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