disrupting the document world

© 2016, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA© 2016, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA

Disrupting the world of document creation and distributionBruno Lowagie, CSO ThinkFree / iText Group

PDF Days 2016, Berlin

© 2016, iText Group NV, iText Software Corp., iText Software BVBA

Disrupting the world of document creation and distribution2

Lesson learned in my second year as an engineer in the IT business (1997):

The secret to success is…… good documentation


Prehistory

Online tutorials



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


Claim to fame

Writing a book for an American publisher



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



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



Book contractFive deadlines

Chapter 1 1/3 of the manuscript 2/3 of the manuscript 3/3 of the manuscript Final manuscript

Author launch



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



ProductionProduction Manager assigns:

Copy EditorTechnical EditorLayout DesignerProofreader

Cover DesignerMarketing Manager: GO or NO-GOBack cover: written by the publisher himself!



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)



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



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


Can I do this myself?

Experimenting with self-publishing



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



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



Competition for books: StackOverflow

up-voted

answered

down-voted



StackOverflow reputation

up-votes

down-votes

accepted



Questions and Answers in Markdown



#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.



Do I need to write books?



Who are the masters of PDF?



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


Publishing revised

Creating a new publishing tool based on lessons learned



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



New site: test with ZUGFeRD book



On the site: readable examples

automatic links to API docs



On the site: links to GitLab

code

resources

results



Examples stored in one place: GitLab



Web-site = authoring tool



Instant gratification



Designed for collaboration

workflow

workflow



Ready to be translated



Export book to LeanPub



Generate book



The result



Metrics: PDF is king!


New business models

Alternative ways to monetize documentation:• iText• Bookboon• Zerocopy



Traditional model: pay for the bookYou can offer your book at a minimum price:

Readers can pay and choose to remain anonymous



Free model: lead generation



The Bookboon.com model



Share your data, get a free book

Share data

Get book

Share book



Empty space is used for ads



The zerocopy.be model



The target audience


To be continued?

iText and Hancom joined forces in December 2015



The future of PDF



wepubl: co-publishing platform

Originally developed for ePubAfter joint-venture with iText: exploring publication as PDF



flexcil: from e-reader to i-reader

See you at the PDF Days 2017For more info about wepubl and flexcil



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