eBooks, particularly through Amazon and Apple, have created a new market for beginning writers to break into the market. Thanks to the decentralization of publishing, nearly anyone can build an audience and sell their books. But there’s also a platform out there to help people sell do-it-yourself books written by enthusiasts that are delivered through the web and Apple’s iBook.
MIT PhD Eric J. Wilhelm started Instructables was in 2005 as a way to encourage others to post their own experiments, projects, recipes and more. The books are mostly accessed online, but some readers are downloading the content as ePubs — 750,000 downloaded to date. Which is not that high a number considering they have 10 million viewers a month.
Most of the content is free, though readers can go pro for a couple dollars a month, which gives them unlimited access to the ePubs. The business is driven primarily by ads, so this comes a secondary revenue stream for the company.
The site is fairly interactive, allowing others to comment on anything that’s been posted and to post competing ideas and how-tos. And it’s very easy to publish content for whatever it is you’re interested in, from modding computers to cooking to customizing gear for role-playing or Cosplay. Think eHow, but higher quality and more detailed.
Access on a tablet or mobile device is obviously becoming very important, even for relatively simple publications like these. It will be interesting to see how how-tos like the For Dummies series can compete with such low-cost, hands on knowledge becoming available on the same publishing platform.