Simon Brown

Who are you?

I’m a software developer and have spent most of my career working in London for IT consulting companies where I built software for a wide range of organisations. I now live in Jersey (the largest of the Channel Islands) and work as an independent consultant, helping teams to build better software. Much of my work over the past couple of years has been helping software teams understand software architecture, technical leadership and the balance with agility. I primarily work with teams across Europe, teaching them about software architecture and how to adopt a “just enough” approach to up front design.

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

My Leanpub book is called “Software Architecture for Developers” and I describe it as a software developer-friendly guide to software architecture. Despite having some fantastic mentors during my career, I didn’t find it easy to understand what was expected of me when I was moving into my first software architecture roles. Sure, there are lots of software architecture books out there, but they seem to be written from a different perspective. I found most of them very research oriented or academic in nature, yet I was a software developer looking for real-world advice. I wanted to write the type of book that I would have found useful at that stage in my career - a book about software architecture aimed at software developers. It’s still in progress, but nearly complete.

What do you think about Leanpub?

I love the Lean Publishing concept and Leanpub provides an excellent platform that anybody can use to self-publish their own books and, unlike traditional publishing, actually make some money. The team are also super-friendly and responsive.

Why do you use Leanpub?

I use Leanpub because it allows me to focus on writing content. The platform takes care of creating and selling e-books in a number of different formats.

How did you discover Leanpub?

I pitched my book idea to a number of traditional publishing companies in 2008 and none of them were very interested. A few years later I decided to self-publish my book instead and I was about to head down the route of creating a PDF and EPUB version using a combination of Pages and iBooks Author on the Mac. At first I considered simply giving the book away for free on my website but, after Googling around for self-publishing options, I stumbled across Leanpub. Despite the Leanpub bookstore being fairly sparse at the start of 2012, the platform piqued my interest and the rest is history.

What’s your favorite Leanpub feature?

That I can write some super-simple Markdown, sync the files via Dropbox and publish a new version of my book within minutes.

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

I’ve mostly been using my blog, Twitter and conference talks to reach out to potential readers. It’s worked very well so far. I also provide a coupon at the end of my conference talks that attendees can use to purchase a discounted copy of the book. Every little helps!

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?

As I said previously, I love the Lean Publishing approach and I can’t think of any type of book that couldn’t be delivered using an iterative and incremental approach. My book is a collection of short essays that cover a number of topics related to software architecture. Rather than starting with essay number one and progressing in order, I tried to initially create a minimum viable book that covered the basics. I then fleshed out the content with additional essays once this skeleton was in place, revisiting earlier essays as necessary.

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

I signed up for Leanpub on January 22nd 2012 and clicked the publish button four weeks later. That first version of my book was only about ten pages in length but I started selling copies immediately. I probably wouldn’t wait four weeks next time!

How can we improve Leanpub?

I’d like to see a focus on building a community around books; including reviews, ratings and a more integrated feedback system. I’d also like the ability to have different prices for different parts of the world, as I suspect that there are huge untapped markets in India and China. I’m a techie so I have no problem with Markdown, but I know other authors that do. I can see the potential for a really nice user-friendly authoring system too.