The Lean Publishing Manifesto

It's a very provocative piece, and it seems to dovetail quite nicely with the release of works-in-progress on such sites as Kickstarter.

That said, this model presently works a lot better for nonfiction than it does for fiction. Unless we're talking about a return to the serialized novel. And that may not necessarily be a bad thing. If certain app developers release their games in "chapters," I see no reason why authors couldn't do the same. In fact, that may even be a better way to make a living as a fiction writer than by releasing whole books every year (so long as the installments are substantial enough to warrant the price tag). And, in the interest of seeing this thought experiment through to its conclusion: who's to say that a la carte book sales are the final word on pricing? Will we eventually see authors selling subscriptions to serialized works?

This is somewhat unrelated, but if I may pick your brain for a moment, what are your thoughts on this article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/30/self-e-publishin...

I've contributed an edited, shortened version of this manifesto to http://leanpub.com/uncensored, a benefit book for the EFF that Hunter Walk and Eric Ries edited and Leanpub created.

I found their discussion of the place for self-published e-books , blogs, and print books in the context of the “Technology Adoption Lifecycle" interesting.

I suspect that many HN readers who write blogs will find the manifesto interesting even if they don’t want to publish a book, don’t want to try what they call “lean publishing," or don’t intend to use their particular service.