Ask HN: Advice for self-publishing books

I recommend putting your e-book on an established selling platform, like Leanpub. This is crucial especially when you don't have an established following.

Make a dedicated e-book selling website as well.

Regarding monetization, there are many tricks. Make different price brackets, include extras in pricier packages. For example, if your book is a programming tutorial, offer team licences. In your book content, try to up-sell your other products if you have them. Create many micro launches every time you update your book. Collect e-mails by providing a free book sample. You can read more on this matter in a blogpost I have written: http://codeandtechno.com/posts/tips-for-writing-an-indie-ebo...

Leanpub is a great platform for self-publishing: https://leanpub.com It has multiple input (.doc, GitHub, ...) and output sources (PDF, EPUB, MOBI). In the end, you can publish the book on their platform or simply use the files for your own platform or Amazon.

Friend of mine used Lulu for self-publishing his Lisp book. Nathan Barry has a good ebook on writing your own ebook called Authority.

I write for a small publisher and they use gumroad and mailinglists filled with contacts they gathered via squeeze pages.