My friend Phil Simon, author of Why New Systems Fail and The New Small, is about to self-publish his fourth book, The Age of the Platform. Unlike people who talk about writing books but never do it, Phil bootstrapped himself, and started a writing career all on his own.

With his new book about to release, I asked him about his process, to share with other aspiring authors.

SB. You’re publishing your fourth book. What made you decide to start?

I started because it seemed a good release of knowledge. I amassed experience in IT and had strong opinions. What better way to get them out? And to avoid spending a bunch on shrinks. That’s why I started in 2008.

I also enjoy writing—and the challenge of longer-form texts. I like to blog, but books are major challenge to pull off properly. Plus, when you write, you can see yourself evolve and improve. It’s a rush to watch yourself get better. I had also seen the success friends had in writing. That demystified the process. When a friend of yours has written books, it somehow personalizes it. That doesn’t make it easy; it just makes it possible.

Next, books are just good business. Non-fiction works can be big, thick business cards. They confer expertise. They can also generate passive income. Finally, I have great respect for the written word. I’ve always been a reader and want to add to the collective body of knowledge out there.

SB. What are the biggest mistakes you’ve made in self-publishing? Would you recommend it?

The first edition of Why New Systems Fail was a great learning experience. I assumed I could do everything myself. I did—and the book suffered. I learned you have to hire professionals to produce professional work. This includes a cover designer, design person, proper editor, indexer, and proofreader. Just because you can do these things yourself doesn’t mean that you should. The New Small was the first book from Motion Publishing and I was pleased with the results., although I should have hired a professional indexer.

As for self-publishing, I do recommend it —with reservations. If you don’t know what you don’t know, then go with a traditional publisher first. Then you can learn the ropes—even if from the outside. You can also use subsidy presses like Lulu, but you don’t have the same control as being on your own. If you self publish, do it properly—and don’t be afraid to spend money. Don’t put out a book of poor quality.

SB. Your upcoming book, The Age of The Platform, is your second book developed using Kickstarter. How has that helped you work without a publisher?

For one, it mitigates financial risk. If you’re going to publish you should raise as much money and awareness as possible—beforehand. Many people focus so much on the writing they forget to concentrate on what to do after the book comes out. The last thing you want to hear is crickets after months and months of hard work on your magnum opus.

SB. Haven’t platforms been around for a long time? Microsoft, Apple, and AOL all had developer platforms where they sold services and created business opportunities for 3^rd parties. What has changed?

The notion of a platform isn’t new—and I discuss that in the new book. So, what’s changed? Technology has become democratic. Thousands of companies are piggybacking off of platforms created by The Gang of Four: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. Bezos, Zuckerberg, and others realize that they can make more money and innovate faster by partially outsourcing innovation. It’s not buying or crushing other companies; it’s trying to work with them to grow the pie. Open APIs and development kits make innovation arguably easier than it was the closed source era of the 1990s.

I’m an example. I’m a small business of one. Yet, I am an Apple partner. I make money—as does Apple—when people buy my books for the iPad. I also created with a development company an app based on the last book. I make money when people buy my books on Amazon and I can use Google to monetize my site via AdSense. Look at what Zynga does for Facebook—and vice versa. The possibilities are limitless.

These days, many entrepreneurs and startups are either building their own platforms or trying to be planks in existing ones. The platform is now a business model—and an incredibly important one.

Check out The Age of Platform, now out on amazon.com.

I’m a fan of footnotes. Most of my books have 40 to 50 of them, and some fans have told me one of their favorite things about my books are how fun and enhancing they are to their experience with the main text.

Years ago, I asked my readers which they preferred, endnotes or footnotes, and a long, opinionated conversation ensued. Readers care more about form that you’d think.

For several reasons, e-books are less kind to footnotes.  Some e-book creation services, like bookbaby, relegate footnotes to endnotes, which few people read.

Alexandra Horowitz has a good article in the NYTimes about the history, and the future, of the footnote. She writes:

The footnote jousting could soon be moot, as the e-book may inadvertently be driving footnotes to extinction. The e-book hasn’t killed the book; instead, it’s killing the “page.” Today’s e-readers scroll text continuously, eliminating the single preformed page, along with any text defined by being on its bottom. A spokesman for the Kindle assured me that it is at the discretion of the publisher how to treat footnotes. Most are demoted to hyperlinked endnotes or, worst of all, unlinked endnotes that require scrolling through the e-reader to access. Few of these will be read, to be sure.

When we change mediums, content changes as well. If you watch a movie in a theater vs. on television, many nuances designed for one medium don’t convert well to the other.  It’s always worth asking someone who was bored by a movie you found fascinating if they watched in on a theater or on TV (or even worse, on an airplane) .  Cinematographers design shots and lighting to work in one form, and conversion to another is something they may never have considered. Old school writers who write footnotes, write the main text assuming those footnotes are there. Move the footnote, and you’ve change something important about how the text will be read.

I think Kindle, iPads and all digital book formats can support footnotes better than they do. But there is so little pressure to do it that I suspect Horowitz is right. It won’t happen all at once, but as the popularity of digital books continues to rise to majority status, we’ll see footnotes continue their slide into esoterica.  Perhaps we’ll see more parentheticals  (like this) or hyperlinks to specific notes, but that will never be quite the same form of expression as the footnote is.

Read the full article: Will the E-Book Kill the Footnote? – NYTimes.com.