lean book publishing tools

www.leanbookpublishing.com

1) Create your Minium Viable Book Product(s)

2) Measure your book success3) Use the Lean Book Publishing Checklist

Lean Book Publishing Tools help you

to publish more successfully and to incorporate Lean Book

Publishing Principles into your book project

1

Create your Minimum ViableBook Product(s) [MVBP]

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.

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

createor testing at certain stages.

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) Chapters8) Manuscript 9) Cover/Layout

10) Final Book

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

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

4) First pages: Your first 3-20 pagesUsed 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 marketingIdeally you only need to focus on 1-3 things to get traction (simplify)

7) Chapters: Important chaptersUsed to ask readers for their feedback and to enlarge your

audience

8) Manuscript: Your book manuscriptYour 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 bookYour „final“ book + Your „final“ book marketing

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

2

Tools, Groups and Services for measuring book success

1) Your book publishing team2) Your strangers council3) Analytics (Services)4) Feedback (Services)

5) YOU – Ask the magic question

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!

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!

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

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.

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.

3

The Lean Book Publishing Checklist

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!