Partner Program
Leanpub books, sold by partners on their own websites.
In June 2023, Leanpub launched a Partner Program, in which carefully-selected Partners can resell Leanpub books, bundles, courses and tracks via their own websites.
- 80%
- royalties on Partner sales, just like any normal Leanpub purchase
- Net 15
- Partners are typically invoiced monthly and pay within the month
- Opt out
- any time, on the Pricing page of your book, bundle, course or track
The program
Your work, in front of corporate learners.
Opted in by default
All Leanpub books, bundles, courses and tracks are opted in to our Partner Program by default. However, the primary author can opt out on the Pricing page for books, bundles, courses and tracks.
Carefully-selected partners
Our launch Partner was Learnerbly, a company which provides learning content to corporate clients with training budgets. A great many Leanpub books and courses are an excellent fit for them.
Starting small
We launched on Learnerbly with about 40 Leanpub books — no bundles, courses or tracks — using multiple-use free coupons, which need no custom programming. If it proves successful, we hope to grow from there.
Our launch Partner is Learnerbly. If the launch proves successful, we hope to grow the partnership from there, adding more books (and possibly bundles, courses or tracks) and adding single-use coupons created via our API.
How it works
Here's how a Partner sale works.
- Partner websites resell what Leanpub makes available to them, and which has not opted out. The list of which books, bundles, courses and tracks are provided to a given partner will be updated roughly once per month, so if you opt out there may be a period of time of up to a month before your book, bundle, course or track is taken down from the partner website.
- The price paid on the partner website is the suggested price on Leanpub. The partner website will only update the suggested price used roughly once per month, so there will be a period of time when the partner website can sell a Leanpub book, bundle, course or track at an outdated price.
- If the book has multiple packages, the default package is the one selected. Otherwise, it would be too confusing for the customers.
- Your book, bundle, course or track earns 80% royalties. Just like any normal Leanpub purchase.
- Partner sales are done via multiple-use free coupons created by Leanpub, or (later) via single-use coupons created by the API. Initially we use a multiple-use coupon with a new partner, but we expect to build API integrations with partners so that they can create single-use coupons via our API.
- Once a month, Leanpub invoices the Partner for the sales made via the free coupons. We check the number of coupons used against the purchase records of the Partner via their website, and use the records of the Partner in the case of a discrepancy. With multiple-use coupon codes there is always the possibility of coupon code sharing, and the Partner should not be liable if a coupon is overused. This is why the multiple-use coupon codes are a first step, and unique single-use coupon codes created via our API will replace them with various partners over time.
- Leanpub is typically paid Net 15 by Partners, so Partner Program royalties are paid in a similar timeframe to normal Leanpub royalties. Unless there is an issue, we are paid in the same month that we invoice a Partner. The royalties are initially tracked and paid via separate payments, also done monthly, using the payment method for normal royalties (PayPal or Wise). We expect to combine the royalties from normal Leanpub sales, the Partner Program and the Royalty Pool (for purchases of books which are free with membership) into a combined royalty payment with an itemized breakdown.
What a partner receives
An Excel spreadsheet, roughly once a month.
- The URLs of the books to include
- Their suggested prices
- A free multiple-use coupon for each of them
Over time, more of this will be automated, of course.
To be clear
Opted in doesn't mean provided.
Just because the primary author has not opted out of the Partner Program does NOT mean that Leanpub will provide the book, bundle, course or track to various partners.
We automatically exclude mature content, and we also use our judgment here. There are tens of thousands of books on Leanpub, and we are starting small. Providing content to partners is initially a manual process involving emailing an Excel spreadsheet containing lists of URLs of books to include, their suggested prices and a free multiple-use coupon for each of them.
Author, or potential Partner?
If you are a Leanpub author or a potential Leanpub Partner and you have any questions about our Partner Program, please email us.
Email hello@leanpub.com