This is the story of our little publishing company that wants to make it cheaper for people to own technical books. Our flagship title is The Complete Android Guide, which is the world'
Please refer to the slide notes to see the finer points. Otherwise, this presentation might not make sense.
2. Before I forget
• Find out more about me and my company:
• kelly@3ones.com
• @kellyabbott
• http://3ones.com
• Find out more about the books and sites here:
• http://completeguides.net
• http://completeandroidguide.com
• @completeandroid
• @icompleteme
27. 7,000 total buyers of book or app in the past.
5000 books sold (ePub or PDF) - ASP $6
Most popular day we sold 1000 books in a day (99
cent promo went viral)
We've sold the app 1500 times - ASP $1.25 and it's
been installed on 2000 devices.
We've licensed the app for 250,000 tablet owners
through an OEM deal.
10,000 visitors per month (pre-OEM deal). Post is
TBD.
12% of opt-ins re-purchased the book at least once.
Publishing rethunk $40,000 gross revenues
This is a presentation about the new publishing model we’re pioneering at completeguides.net and the flagship book we’ve published in a variety of formats. You can find that book at completeandroidguide.com. Enjoy!\n
This is me. \n
How many of us are dog people?\n
How many of us are cat people?\n
How many of us are Owl people? More to the point. How many of us have a book like this on our shelves?\n
And how many of us have a shelf like this at home or work?\n
How much have you paid for a technical book like those published by O’Reilly? $50? Perhaps.\n
Have you paid $30 for a technical book? Most likely yes. \n
How about $10? Not so much.\n
A bookshelf like this costs over $500. A typical buyer might fill a bookshelf like this every year. \n
Over time, the technical book buyer has a lifetime customer value of $5000. That’s a lot to pay for dead tree technology. We ask if there’s a better way. A way that makes publishing quality technical books cheaper and more valuable to the reader. \n
The traditional publishing model that ships atoms instead of bits pits the needs of the stakeholders against each other. Publishers want money. Writers want to share their expertise. Readers have a thirst for knowledge. \n
We;ve found a model where readers can get books for less money. Writers can establish street cred and connect directly with readers. And the publisher is happy to distribute content in a low-cost, efficient manner and still maintain a profit. First, let’s make a case for the need we saw from a reader’s perspective....\n
Two years ago, I bought a paperback book on Wordpress. When I got home I discovered that the book I bought was 6 months behind the technology available to me. \n
Even today when I search for books on Wordpress at Amazon.com, only 1 of them has been published in the last 2 months. All books available are at least a full .1 release out of date from the technology.\n
While the books are not as expensive as purchasing books in brick and mortar stores, the majority of books cost more than $10.\n
And they look like this. The content is good, but it could be a little more visual and a lot more user friendly. \n
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Now let’s look at The Complete Android Guide, our flagship title. It’s the most popular book about the Android operating system in the world. It was written with the goal of making Android users get more enjoyment out of and be more productive with their phones and tablets. \n
Here’s a sample from the ePub version of our book. It’s very visually pleasing. Formatting is more like HTML and less like a traditional book. It contains hyperlinks, screenshots, captions, headers and is searchable like a web site. \n
We challenge ourselves to make every page also contain an image. Pictures are worth more than words. \n
Clear instructions teach owners how to get the most from their devices. Think about how hard it is to learn something like “changing your wallpaper” without a visual guide. Users would never discover this feature on their own. \n
We also publish the book online for free. Not only can users read this content online, but they can log in, make comments and even request the ability to edit the content. What’s more, through tracking user comments and searches, the writer and publisher know what content people are hungry to read. We make updates based on what users are telling us explicitly through comments and implicitly based on their search queries. \n
Finally, we also publish the book in iOS and Android apps. The content is forever fresh and if you own the app, you never need to buy another copy.\n
The site is free. Buying the eBook in any format costs $9. Or buy the app for $1.99.\n
From the writer’s perspective, publishing with Complete Guides is both easier and more profitable. This table shows the difference in the experience. It costs us less to publish the book, but not at the expense of quality or profits. We can offer the book inexpensively and in much shorter turnaround. Thus the content is never out of date. \n
After 18 months, we’ve grossed $40K in revenues which we are happy to share 50/50 with the author. What’s more, we have new routes for getting the book into the hands of more readers and on more devices through OEM sales and inexpensive “re-ups” of eBooks for previous buyers. \n
We want to duplicate this model with more titles. Please contact us at http://completeguides.net to learn how to become a writer. \n
Together, let’s take this whole bookshelf and make it as valuable as possible.\n
