Lessons learned from a year as a self-published author

#1

Post by joshearl » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 12:45 PM UTC

Lessons learned from a year as a self-published author
blog.leanpub.com

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

#2

Post by sergiotapia » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 1:39 PM UTC

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.

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

#3

Post by danso » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 1:56 PM UTC

I also have to second the notion of Leanpub being a great platform for distribution...being able to go from Markdown to PDF/mobi/etc is wonderful. I've half finished a book on regular expressions (and shamefully haven't done updates in awhile) but earned about $1,700 so far, despite the book being free and not doing much promotion for it besides occasionally tweeting it: https://leanpub.com/bastards-regexes

The publish-as-you-write model is similar to Greenlight's Early Access, and easy to maintain on the author's side.

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

#4

Post by pmtarantino » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 1:56 PM UTC

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.

And what about epub or mobi files?

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

#5

Post by Cyph0n » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 1:56 PM UTC

Very nice post. The most interesting part for me was your pricing - brash, yet smart at the same time. Good for you, man. You'll hit $50k in not time. Keep it up.

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

#6

Post by sergiotapia » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 2:04 PM UTC

pmtarantino wrote: post #4

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.

And what about epub or mobi files?

I think they do them to, but I never use them because I don't read programming books on anything other than my PC since I keep the book and the code side by side.

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

#7

Post by citricsquid » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 2:08 PM UTC

pmtarantino wrote: post #4

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.

And what about epub or mobi files?

They provide all 3 formats: pdf, epub, mobi. They also have the option to set a kindle address through the site to send books to a kindle (if the file size is okay). I agree with sergiotapia by the way, it really is an excellent service.

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

#8

Post by pitchups » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 2:15 PM UTC

danso wrote: post #3

I also have to second the notion of Leanpub being a great platform for distribution...being able to go from Markdown to PDF/mobi/etc is wonderful. I've half finished a book on regular expressions (and shamefully haven't done updates in awhile) but earned about $1,700 so far, despite the book being free and not doing much promotion for it besides occasionally tweeting it: https://leanpub.com/bastards-regexes The publi…

That is great - but just curious, how do you earn $1700 from a free ebook?

Edit : Never mind - figured out by visiting the link to the book on Epub :)

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

#9

Post by carlmcqueen » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 2:17 PM UTC

I find it more refreshing to read success stories of $16,920.12 rather than $250,000 on my first book success stories.

Perhaps it comes from the fear of the 'I know a guy who...' stories that you hear as an anecdote why someone who really shouldn't take a huge risk is about to take one.

Congratulations on your first book, hopefully the lessons learned will lead to continued success with future endeavors.

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

#10

Post by johnward » Thu, Jan 09, 2014, 2:40 PM UTC

carlmcqueen wrote: post #9

I find it more refreshing to read success stories of $16,920.12 rather than $250,000 on my first book success stories. Perhaps it comes from the fear of the 'I know a guy who...' stories that you hear as an anecdote why someone who really shouldn't take a huge risk is about to take one. Congratulations on your first book, hopefully the lessons learned will lead to continued success with future endeavors.

When I heard huge successes I tend to think "well they already had a well established network". That's not always true the. I'm pretty sure Nathan Barry didn't and I would call what he did a big success.