Diana Larsen

Who are you?

Diana Larsen partners with leaders to design work systems, improve project team performance, and transition to Agile methods. Diana co-authored Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great!, Liftoff: Launching Agile Teams and Projects, Name This Book: Five Rules for Self-Sufficient Learning, Quickstart Guide to Five Rules for Accelerated Learning, and “Your Path Through Agile Fluency” http://futureworksconsulting.com

Can you describe your Leanpub books? Are they in-progress or complete? What types of books are they?

I’m a co-author on two Leanpub books with Willem Larsen.

Name This Book: Five Rules for Self-Sufficient Learning is still in progress though we have published it.

Quickstart Guide to Five Rules for Accelerated Learning is largely complete, though we still make small tweaks from time to time.

What do you think about Leanpub?

I’m excited about Leanpub and its potential to transform the way publishers work to shorten the distance between authors and readers, as well as to create a closer partnership between authors and publishers. What started as a grand experiment in opening up the conversations has become a mutually supporting community.

Why do you use Leanpub?

For the experiment, for the ease of getting started, for the fast support for new ideas and troubleshooting.

How did you discover Leanpub?

I learned about it from a colleague early on, then told Willem about it and he used it to publish his first book. When we decided to co-author, it was my opportunity to experience it firsthand.

What’s your favorite Leanpub feature?

The underused potential for reader feedback.

How have you reached out to potential and existing readers of your books?

In talks and on twitter. Not very effectively…yet.

What are your thoughts on the Lean Publishing approach? What types of books, and what types of authors, do you think it is good for?

I think it’s brilliant.

Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, many types of books. Recently someone wrote into the list about using it to publish a children’s picture book written and illustrated by the author. Consensus on the discussion list was that Leanpub wasn’t great for that purpose. Probably other kinds of innovative art books (e.g. with fold-out bits) will find it a challenge, for now. Who knows what other new features may emerge?

How long was your first Leanpub book when you first clicked the publish button? Would you publish earlier or later next time?

Don’t remember really. For one of them, it seemed about 30% done at the time, my opinion of that has changed over time. For the other, it was about 60%. It think timing of publication has more to do with the type of book, kind of content, and audience than a simple heuristic.

How can we improve Leanpub?

Make it even easier for readers to give feedback and submit preferences to authors.