Show HN: Softcover – A publishing platform from the author of the Rails Tutorial

Very nicely done. Just finished reading the whole. Hope you'd write the sequel.

Thanks, Erik! I remember that meeting fondly—in line at Long Beach Airport en route to Austin, if I recall correctly. I hope all is well!

Great questions, Antonio. I've just deployed an update to the front page at http://www.softcover.io/ answering some of them, but for convenience I'll answer them below as well.

1. Am I allowed to sell the files elsewhere? For example, sell the .mobi file on Amazon Kindle and publish a printed version via CreateSpace.

Yes, you retain copyright on everything you make and can do anything you want with the files. They get built on your system by Softcover's open-source toolchain, so you have complete control.

2. Are the files watermarked at all with Softcover's branding?

No, the books have no Softcover branding. The online version has an inconspicuous Softcover-branded footer by default, but even that can be removed with a simple config setting, as described in the manual (http://manual.softcover.io/book/marketing#additional_informa...).

3. Is this open to authors everywhere or are there restrictions?

Softcover is open to anyone, and there are no restrictions.

4. Will this handle sale taxes for authors? I'm a Canadian author with a PST/GST account, will I able to collect that from Canadian customers?

I don't know about this one. If you join the [Softcover Google Group](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/softcover-publishing), I'll introduce you to my cofounder Nick Merwin, who is in charge of stuff like this. If we don't currently support collecting Canadian sales tax, we might be able to add it.

Thanks, I manage the front-end design and development so hearing that warms my heart!

Indeed. So as somebody who justed started thinking about self-publishing a book, that raises a question. Should I go with the 'established' platform or this upcoming platform that seems more advanced? Will I suffer from a lack of recognition by potential buyers? Are there other non-technical (financial) differences between the two?

Looks like it's time to start reading and comparing.

Thanks for the kind words. We might not choose to highlight titles that could invite controversy (especially not early on), but our intent is to produce a flexible publishing tool that is limited only by the imagination of the author. If that imagination includes, e.g., erotica, I wouldn't in principle have any objections, especially if (as I would generally recommend to most authors) they opted to use a custom domain name.

Great to hear it! Don't worry about sales & hosting platform; Softcover supports custom domains, so you're never locked in. You could switch your domain over to your own website at any time. I just know from experience what a pain it can be, so we figure lots of people will be happy to pay a small percentage in exchange for the convenience of not having to build and maintain everything yourself.

Awesome, glad to hear it!

Thanks! Glad it looks tempting.

We've definitely looked into print. It's a tough nut to crack, and the ecosystem might not be mature enough yet for automatic integration. Lulu, for example, built an API, but not enough people used it, so they closed it to new developers. I'd love to offer a print solution at some point, though, so we'll keep an eagle eye on it.

In any case, the Softcover production system uses LaTeX, which is designed to make print-quality PDFs. The default output is optimized for tablets, but adapting it to a print-ready version is fairly straightforward. I expect we'll incorporate that into the typesetting system at some point. But unfortunately right now you'll have to do a lot of work by hand no matter which production system you use.

The Softcover sales platform includes a marketing page with slots for author bio, testimonials, FAQs, etc. (See, for example, Mark Bates's marketing page at http://conqueringthecommandline.com/) Softcover also supports an optional free HTML version of your book, which can be a great marketing tool. Finally, we are planning to develop a step-by-step "Marketing Wizard" to give authors detailed advice and guidance in their marketing efforts.

Thanks! I think the video issue has been fixed. Let me know if you still run into trouble.

Yeah... I wanted to do a big full screen stretching video. But probably easier to constrain it. Changed!

Thanks!

Sorry for the inconvenience. If you join the [Softcover Google Group](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/softcover-publishing) and post the error message there, I'll take a look and see if we can figure it out.

Thanks! The Softcover production system is available for free as open-source software under the permissive MIT License. Softcover just takes a cut of sales, so we only make money when you make money.

That is totally up to you. You can write your book and push changes to GitHub, store the book files in your Dropbox directory, tempt fate and just store them locally, etc.

Softcover just pulls in the HTML and eBooks that are compiled from the source code, as well as the book config files, and generates the views and links.

I know you are joking a bit, but if you were really thinking about jumping into writing a novel, being able to publish nicely formatted HTML chapters as you write them for free to people is a great way to get people interested from an early stage.

It's a model that has worked in the past for some people, including this recent example I heard about on NPR: http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/02/14/2014/andy-weir-th...

He slowly published each chapter, then when he finally finished the book, he posted the ebook versions for free on his site. Eventually he added it to Amazon (and had to attach a price to it because they don't let you give away ebooks) to help people load the ebook onto their Kindle with less friction than making them download and transfer the file, he found that he was selling more copies of the book than he was giving away for free on his site.

It's exactly that model of openly sharing what you are working on with the people that are going to use or be entertained by it that we want Softcover to encourage.

Softcover is based on the Rails Tutorial model, which differs from Leanpub in several key ways. I actually think Leanpub is a great service if it meets all of your needs as an author, and in fact if it had met all of my needs I might not have bothered building Softcover. (Of course, Leanpub didn't exist when I first started publishing the Rails Tutorial in 2009, but I might have used it for follow-on products.) Here are some of the important differences:

- Softcover comes with an industrial-strength, open-source production system. This means you can write heavily formatted books with cross-references, code listings, tables, etc., and interactively build them locally, all without being locked in to a proprietary system.

- Softcover's HTML books are first-class citizens. The online version of the Rails Tutorial is a key part of its marketing strategy, so it has to be polished and prominent.

- Softcover gives you your customer list. Letting customers opt-in to share their email is fine for more casual authors, but it isn't ideal if (like me) you're trying to build a business.

- Softcover supports custom domains. It's important to me to use a custom domain for branding/SEO and so that I own my own traffic.

It is! Idea was to signify our desire to consume traditional publishing with a new publishing model. Publishing eating publishing.

There is already a version of the Rails Tutorial book that builds on Softcover, and in the coming weeks I plan to move the full tutorial over to the Softcover platform (taking care to preserve things like legacy download links). Watch for an announcement once the change-over is complete.