
Ask HN: Best way to publish a free book online? - simonebrunozzi
What&#x27;s the best way to publish a free book online? Possibly by allowing readers to comment and interact? Topic would be technical evangelism.<p>I am looking at https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gitbook.com. Have you used it? Do you know any good alternative?
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lovelearning
See if sphinx-doc[1] suits your needs. [http://d2l.ai](http://d2l.ai) is a
good example of an online book done using Sphinx. Supports discussions through
Discourse integration.

You write content using reST or Markdown (HTML is also possible). Sphinx
generates a static site. JavaScript can be used for dynamic content
integration. Supports built-in keyword search using only JS. A theme like
mxtheme makes it look good too.

Another option is Jekyll. Similar thing, except that Sphinx requires Python
while Jekyll requires Ruby. [https://course.fast.ai](https://course.fast.ai)
is a good example.

[1] : [https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/](https://www.sphinx-
doc.org/en/master/)

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totetsu
There is a fork of gitbook honkit discussed here
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23659451](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23659451)

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thomas536
I ran across this person's blog, who seems like they have some different
slants on publishing that might interesting to you:

[https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/6-lessons-learned-self-
pub...](https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/6-lessons-learned-self-publishing-
my-first-book)

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cpach
Maybe just make a site for your book using Hugo (or Jekyll/Pelican/etc).

If you expect high traffic volumes, put it behind a CDN such as Cloudfront.

Offering multiple download options such as EPUB and PDF might entice more
readers.

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asicsp
mdBook [1] is an option if you want to convert markdown to a static website.
There's plenty of customization options but I don't know if it is possible or
easy enough to add comments.

Or just publish it on GitHub? There's a discussions feature but I don't think
it is out of beta yet. Until then you could use issues for discussions. Or
reddit may be?

[1] [https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook](https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook)

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Fiveplus
Have you looked into the Amazon Kindle Self-Publishing option?[1]

[1][https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/](https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/)

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simonebrunozzi
Yes, but my understanding is that the final product is "static", meaning that
there is no way for readers to contribute to the book or comment on sections
of the book.

~~~
Fiveplus
Oh I see, my apologies for an incorrect suggestion in that case.

~~~
simonebrunozzi
No apology needed - you were trying to help and I fully appreciate that. :)

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valuential
I suggest you to try gumroad.com I have used it in the past.

