Presentation on Lean Publishing for Digital Publishing, Digital Strategy workshop at SFU (http://tkbr.ccsp.sfu.ca/digital2010/).

1. Lean Publishing
Peter Armstrong

2. Is the physical
book dead?

3. "It's happening. It not happening in
10 years. It's happening in 5 years."
-Nicholas Negroponte (at Techonomy conference, 2010-08-06)

4. "Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos predicts that
e-book sales will surpass paperback
sales within the next 12 months, and
combined hardcover and paperback
sales soon after that. This despite the
fact that the 600,000 titles in the
Kindle bookstore represents only a
fraction of Amazon's inventory."
- http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/30/amazon-kindle-economy-environment-opinions-
columnists-reihan-salam.html

5. That’s NOT the
most important
question!

6. Are publishers dead
if/when the
physical book dies?

7. That’s NOT the
most important
question either!

8. Are books dead?

9. NO!
(yay!)

10. Books
will outlast
TV networks.

11. So, what is the
most important
question?

12. How should authors
publish their books?

13. NOT Stieg’s way.

14. Traditional Publishers?
Self-Publishing?

15. What are the
problems for
AUTHORS
of traditionally-
published books?

16. Horrible
Royalty
Percentage
(especially on e-books)

17. Delay

18. Irrelevance,
Failure and
Obscurity

19. Is there a solution?

20. NO.
There’s no universal
solution--some books are
just lousy.

21. Is there an
improved approach
for some authors
and books?

22. Lean Publishing

23. Lean
Publishing
1. Manifesto
2. Theory
3. Practice

24. 1. Manifesto

25. Lean Publishing
Elevator Pitch

26. Imagine a world
in which authors
can actually
make money
writing books...

27. Imagine a world in which
authors can have a meaningful
conversation with their readers
about their books. Now
imagine if this was possible
before these books were even
finished...

28. Isn't Lean Publishing
Just Self-Publishing?

29. Self-Publishing:
A way to publish
finished books.
Lean Publishing:
A way to
write and publish
in-progress books.

30. Isn't Lean Publishing
the same as the
Beta Books, Rough Cuts
or Early Access programs
of certain
traditional publishers
of computer books?

31. A Book is a Startup

32. 1. There are market
risks, technical risks
and a very low
probability of
success.

33. 2. Both writing a
book and creating a
startup are highly
creative processes
undertaken by one
or a few people
working closely
together.

34. 3. Historically it has
taken about a year,
often spent in
isolation or "stealth
mode", to develop
and release the first
version.

35. 4. Historically,
startups have been
funded by VCs and
authors have been
funded by
publishers, both of
which are hit-driven
businesses.

36. Consequence: It's
Very Easy To Create
Something Nobody
Wants

37. Solution: Use Lean
Startup Principles

38. 2. Theory

39. The Lean Startup and
Customer
Development

40. Steve Blank:
Customer Development

41. Eric Ries:
Customer Development +
Agile Methodology =
The Lean Startup

42. Open Source
Software:
Release Early,
Release Often
and Listen to
your
Customers

43. Lessons Learned
from Lean Startups

44. Publish Early
(Fail Fast)

45. Publish Often and
Listen to Your
Readers

46. Build a Community
of Readers

47. Lessons Learned
from Blogs

48. Good Blogs are
Beta Books

49. Successful Blogs
Build Communities

50. 3. Practice

51. The Lean Publishing
How-To Guide
(Non-Fiction Version)

52. Step 1:
Blog, Tumble
and Tweet to Find
Your Voice and Build
an Audience

53. Step 2:
Write the
Minimum Viable
Book

54. Step 3:
Start Marketing and
Selling the
In-Progress
Minimum Viable Book

55. Step 4:
Finish the Book with
Constant Feedback
from your Readers

56. Step 5:
Market and Sell the
Completed Book,
Possibly with a
Traditional Publisher

57. Tangent:
Why does Lean
Publishing make so
much sense for
technology books?

58. The Technology
Adoption and
Information
Distribution Lifecycle

65. Lean Publishing Is
Not Just For
Technical Books

66. Non-Fiction

67. Fiction (?)

68. Case Studies

69. 37signals:
Signal vs.
Noise, Getting
Real and
Rework

70. Sell the Blog:
Startup Lessons
Learned
and
The Venture Hacks
Bible

71. Flexible Rails
(The origin of Lean Publishing,
as well as of Ruboss and Leanpub.)

72. What Does Lean
Publising Mean for
Publishers?

73. Authors will have a
better BATNA.
(Sorry.)

74. Publishers add most
value at the
end of a book.
(indexing, copy editing, technical editing,
marketing, printing [while that matters],
distribution channels, etc.)

75. Only the most
successful books
need all this; the rest
can stay self-
published more
profitably.

76. This will especially
be true if/when
there are only 3
channels (Kindle,
iBooks and PDF) that
matter
-- all of which don’t
require publishers.

77. Publishers will take
less risk and authors
will get a better deal.
This is just like the emerging new
dynamic between VCs and founders
of consumer internet companies.
*

78. *These predictions assume that neither
Amazon nor Apple will end up with a total
victory. If either of them do, it’s all over.
As long as they are fiercely competing, the
situation is very good for authors (and
Leanpub) and tolerable for publishers.

79. Thanks!
Peter Armstrong