Rapid and Participatory PublishingLeverage the Web to make your publishing timely and relevant.

C. David Gammel, CAEHigh Context Consultingwww.highcontext.com

Beta Publishing

Agile Web Development with Rails was one of the first books published in this manner.

Beta Publishing Requires

High interest topic;

Few to no available resources;

Optimized publishing processes for issuing betas;

A willing author.

Beta Publishing Process

Identify high interest, under-served, topics.

Recruit willing author.

Launch blog for author to discuss ideas in book, solicit feedback.

Prepare infrastructure and processes for publishing PDF versions of drafts.

Beta Publishing Process

Launch sale of first draft as a PDF with option to pre-purchase hard copy.

Deliver PDF on purchase and provide access to new drafts to past buyers.

Solicit feedback, supply to author.

Repeat until book is complete.

Transition sales to hard copy and/or PDF download of final product.

Short-form eBooks

O’Reilly Media provides a great example with their Short Cuts series of PDF-based, short form, books.

Short Form eBooks Require

Topics that are:

New and rapidly developing;

Too narrow in scope for a full book.

Optimized authoring, editing and publishing process.

Effective electronic document sales system.

Authors who can work fast.

eBook Process

Identify new, evolving, topics and/or under-served niche topics.

Recruit author(s) to write the ebook.

Develop optimized authoring system for speeding edits and production.

Develop online, electronic document sales system.

Launch product for sale as a download.

Short Form to Long

Collection of short-form eBooks can be republished as a print collection.

Hybrid Approach

Incorporate participatory practices into short-form ebook development as well as with full length book projects.

Your Publishing Program

What are the hot, new, topics in your field?

Who are your niche markets?

How can you serve them better with these methods?

Analyzing Your Ideas

TopicNew/Rapidly

EvolvingBroad or

Niche InterestExisting

Resources?

Extreme Widget Wrangling

New sport. Niche Few to none.

Making It Happen

Biggest challenges?

Best opportunities?