Post on 12-Jan-2017
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Disrupting the world of document creation and distributionBruno Lowagie, CSO ThinkFree / iText Group
PDF Days 2016, Berlin
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Lesson learned in my second year as an engineer in the IT business (1997):
The secret to success is…… good documentation
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Prehistory
Online tutorials
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iText tutorialFirst iText tutorial released in 2000 (but I can’t find it anymore)A more substantial tutorial in 2004 (first revenue)
Google AdSense• 2004: $8,900• 2005: $14,500• 2006: $6,200• 2007: $2,350• 2008: $1,900• 2009: $1,500• 2010: $280• 2011: $520• 2012: $350• 2013: $160
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Claim to fame
Writing a book for an American publisher
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Book contract offersNovember 2004: Offer to write a book for O’ReillyApril 2005: Offer to write a book for ManningWhich publisher to choose? I went for Manning Publications
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Preparing a bookFirst contact: Publisher’s AssistantAfter evaluation: Acquisition Manager
Helps writing the book proposal Short summary Detailed table of contents Marketing overview
Industry review
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Book contractFive deadlines
Chapter 1 1/3 of the manuscript 2/3 of the manuscript 3/3 of the manuscript Final manuscript
Author launch
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Writing a bookDevelopment Manager assigns:
Developmental EditorHelps the writer develop their bookObey the Manning style guide!
Review ManagerCoordinates the review processAnonymized e-mails with feedbackMEAP releases
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ProductionProduction Manager assigns:
Copy EditorTechnical EditorLayout DesignerProofreader
Cover DesignerMarketing Manager: GO or NO-GOBack cover: written by the publisher himself!
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TimingFirst Edition:
May – July 2005: preparing the book (3 months) September 2005 – February 2006: writing (6 months) March – November 2006: production (9 months)
Second Edition: August – September 2009: preparing the book (6 weeks) October 2009 – April 2010: writing (7 months) May – August 2010: production (4 months)
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The result
1st Edition: 2006• 11,622 copies
• 8,528 paper• 3,094 eBook
• Approx. $33K
2nd Edition: 2010• 9,200 copies
• 6,006 paper• 3,469 eBook
• Approx. $30K
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Some disadvantagesWriting a book in Word is hard
In the meantime, the writing process at Manning has been fine-tuned
Illegal copies appear before you’ve received the first copy of your own book For the product: more people get to know the book For the publisher: loss of revenue
A book is expensive (and the author only gets 10% on the profit) People felt entitled to personal support if they had bought the book
You don’t own your own book If we wanted to give the book to customers: we had to buy vouchers Customers had to give their coordinates to the publisher; vouchers expired
A book is outdated by the time it is released
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Can I do this myself?
Experimenting with self-publishing
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Pure self-publishingStill working with WordYou own your own book
You can offer it for free Many people promote it
No reliable statistics Downloaded 5,000+ times / month How many are recurring downloaders How many clicked a link by accident
No way to manage the audience Who downloads the book? How to inform about updates?
No way to publish content on web site
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Publishing with LeanPubWritten in MarkdownPublished as:
PDF .ePub .mobi
Advantage: Reader can subscribe (early access) Author can inform reader (updates)
Author keeps copyright Can choose to offer the book for free Can set a minimum price:
Leanpub gets $0.50 / sale Author gets90% royalty
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Competition for books: StackOverflow
up-voted
answered
down-voted
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StackOverflow reputation
up-votes
down-votes
accepted
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Questions and Answers in Markdown
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#1 Referral site to itextpdf.com
Most of the answers on StackOverflow refer to a code sample that can be found on the iText web site.
This results in 200,000+ visits a year to our web site from 100,000+ new users.
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Do I need to write books?
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Who are the masters of PDF?
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What if…We could create a book from the Q&As posted on SO
‘Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike’ license Solve the problem of “I’ve answered this before, but I can’t find the answer” Avoid duplicate questions from iText newbies
We could reuse the Q&As posted on SO on our web site Create a new web site that accepts Markdown: copy/paste Q&As Better for SEO: good content
We could create a repository of examples in answer to SO questions We already had a large repository of samples in the sandbox, but The examples had to be maintained in different places: GitLab, website, download area
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Publishing revised
Creating a new publishing tool based on lessons learned
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Creating a Q&A bookAdvantages
SO uses Markdown; LeanPub uses Markdown Real-world questions Easier to query
Disadvantages Maintenance of the manuscript is hell (e.g. images) Still not published on our web site Still no solution for publishing examples
Next step Build a new web site
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New site: test with ZUGFeRD book
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On the site: readable examples
automatic links to API docs
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On the site: links to GitLab
code
resources
results
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Examples stored in one place: GitLab
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Web-site = authoring tool
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Instant gratification
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Designed for collaboration
workflow
workflow
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Ready to be translated
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Export book to LeanPub
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Generate book
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The result
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Metrics: PDF is king!
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New business models
Alternative ways to monetize documentation:• iText• Bookboon• Zerocopy
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Traditional model: pay for the bookYou can offer your book at a minimum price:
Readers can pay and choose to remain anonymous
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Free model: lead generation
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The Bookboon.com model
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Share your data, get a free book
Share data
Get book
Share book
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Empty space is used for ads
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The zerocopy.be model
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The target audience
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To be continued?
iText and Hancom joined forces in December 2015
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The future of PDF
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wepubl: co-publishing platform
Originally developed for ePubAfter joint-venture with iText: exploring publication as PDF
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flexcil: from e-reader to i-reader
See you at the PDF Days 2017For more info about wepubl and flexcil
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