4. Creating Minimum Viable Book Products
help you to strip your book product to its
core and to test success probabilities at
different book lifecylce stages at low cost.
5. Ideally you are using between 5 and 20
MVBPs throughout your book lifecycle.
Each MVBP is a minimum version of the
bigger product you are trying to create
or testing at certain stages.
6. MVBP(s) throughout book lifecycles:
1) First book idea 2) First marketing idea
3) Proposal 4) First pages 5) First Cover
6) Marketing strategy 7) Chapters
8) Manuscript 9) Cover/Layout
10) Final Book
7. With MVBPs you are testing:
-> weather a thing will work or not
-> what kind of improvements you need
-> if it makes sense to go further or not
-> what your market really wants
-> where to invest / what to skip
8. 1) First book idea: Your book in one sentence
„A book about a girl who wants to draw her life on one sheet of paper.“
2) First marketing idea: Your hot marketing idea
„A contest where readers can win a prize for their own drawing.“
3) Proposal: Your mini business plan*
Contains all esential elements of your book project – Shows you if on track
Read more here: http://michaelhyatt.com/writing-a-winning-book-proposal
9. 4) First pages: Your first 3-20 pages
Used to ask readers if they are interested in reading more or not
5) First cover: Your inital book cover idea
This should be a draft presenting the inital idea to get first feedback
6) Marketing strategy: Your core marketing
Ideally you only need to focus on 1-3 things to get traction (simplify)
7) Chapters: Important chapters
Used to ask readers for their feedback and to enlarge your audience
10. 8) Manuscript: Your book manuscript
Your finished book - ready for feedback and further improvements
9) Cover/Layout: Your book cover & layout
Used to test weathe your book cover and layout are working
10) „Final“ book: Your finished book
Your „final“ book + Your „final“ book marketing
11. Why using MVBPs?
-> being in the know early saves time and money
-> getting early feedback improves „final“ results
-> thinking top-down sharpens your saw
-> reducing waste helps to focus
-> constant learning creates better books
-> drastically increase your success probability
13. 1) Your book publishing team
2) Your strangers council
3) Analytics (Services)
4) Feedback (Services)
5) YOU – Ask the magic question
14. 1) Your book publishing team
Engaging with a close group of advisors right from
the start is a critical success factor in LBP.
Ideally your team consists of 2-5 experts in the field
of book publishing and book marketing.
-> Get expert advice early!
15. 2) Your strangers council
In the end your book will be judged by strangers.
Be brave and seek feedback from strangers as soon
as possible. Getting harsh feedback in the beginning
is better than in the end.
-> Seek feedback from strangers early!
16. 3) Use Analytics (Services)
Use analytics to measure your progress/success.
-> If less than 100 contacts – measure manually
-> If more than 100 contacts – measure automatically
- Measuring web behaviour -> Google Analytics / Surveys / Interviews
- Measuring book sales -> Booktrakr / Amazon / Sales Data
- Measuring feedback -> Excel Charts / Get Satisfaction / Email
- Measuring progress -> Excel Charts / Goal Setting / Follower Growth
Try to measure only 1-3 highly important factors –>
Skip the rest. -> Measure manually -> Listen
17. 4) Use Feedback (Services)
Getting feedback is one of the most critical
elements of Lean Book Publishing. Use simple
services such as email, phone, chat, talk whenever
possible. Online services where you can present
your book (to strangers) are your website, Amazon,
Smashwords, Leanpub, Kickstarter or Bookslush.
-> Get feedback whenever possible -> Learn.
18. 5) YOU – Ask the magic question
Ask yourself constantly the magic question:
Would I?
Would I buy this book/love this cover/do XY, etc.
-> If you don‘t think your book is hot ->
Then you are in trouble in 99% of cases.
20. Do I create and test MVBPs?
Do I measure my success?
Do I have a book publishing team?
Do I ask strangers for feedback?
Do I learn from failure?
Do I constantly get and process feedback?
Do I constantly try to reduce waste?
Do I ask the magic question -> Would I?
If YES -> good | If NO -> change/go back to the start!
