(cofounder of Leanpub, here)<p>Thanks for the great post, Aaron. Lots of food for thought.<p>First, Aaron is really our ideal author: he has an audience, has some content that would make a great book and he values his time (i.e. he knows it's a bad idea to create a book generation workflow and setup a website to sell the book). Oh, and he's a good writer :).<p>What stood out for me is this line:<p><pre><code> My original plan was to deal with all the rendering myself, set up an
online storefront somewhere, and make it available that way. I wasn’t
crazy about that plan, but it seemed like that’s how most of the
self-published authors I’d read in the past handled it.
Then I stumbled across Leanpub.
</code></pre>
It pains me deeply that Aaron didn't know about Leanpub. It should be the first thing that crosses the mind of anyone on HN who thinks about publishing.<p>I think I'll finish up this feature I'm working on (which is awesome and our authors have been asking for it forever, don't get me wrong, but doesn't solve the problem of people not hearing about us) and then stick the marketing hat on my head with crazy-glue.