Paul Bradshaw
Who are you?
Paul runs the MA in Online Journalism at Birmingham City University and is a Visiting Professor in Online Journalism at City University London. He also runs Help Me Investigate, an award-winning platform for collaborative investigative journalism. He is the author of a number of books and book chapters about online journalism and the internet, including the Online Journalism Handbook and Scraping for Journalists.
Can you describe your Leanpub books? Are they in-progress or complete? What types of books are they?
The books include a longform investigation, a report on the state of online journalism, a technical book that was published in-progress but is now complete, and an introductory book on spreadsheets.
What do you think about Leanpub?
Leanpub is a wonderfully flexible publishing platform that allows me to publish for users on multiple devices, providing updates when needed, while retaining control over pricing and timing.
Why do you use Leanpub?
The update facility and high royalty rates.
How did you discover Leanpub?
A colleague - Andrew Dubber - recommended it.
What’s your favorite Leanpub feature?
Push updates.
How have you reached out to potential and existing readers of your books?
Twitter and my blogs. I also have a Facebook page for readers of one book.
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?
It’s excellent for books where the context is still changing - for example technology. Also as a way of maintaining the profile of a book beyond a one-off ‘launch’.
How long was your first Leanpub book when you first clicked the publish button? Would you publish earlier or later next time?
A couple thousand words. I’d still publish at about that threshold, depending on how long the eventual book was likely to be.
How can we improve Leanpub?
More information on the recommended and bottom prices when sold (in the sales data). The ability to create tables - Markdown tables don’t seem to work.