Pioneering technology visionary uses self-publishing to convince large publisher to accept his terms

William Mougayar

best-selling author of The Business Blockchain (Wiley, 2016)

Bitcoin/blockchain expert William Mougayar approached us in late 2015 with a problem. He already had several offers from publishers on the table for his book The Business Blockchain, and yet, despite the financial appeal of these contracts, William was concerned about the proposed timelines.

Due to the nature of large or even medium-sized publishers, books often take months or even years to produce. For William, the possibility for such a long timeline was unacceptable, since the content he was working with could and would change drastically over a much shorter period. The flexibility of self-publishing and our small team allowed us to produce William's book in 2 weeks rather than the typical 6–18 months. 

The original design for The Business Blockchain featured a structured web of nodes, intended to visualize concepts of blockchain and decentralization presented in the book.

William's dedication to producing his own book—regardless of potentially sacrificing sales—piqued the interest of the publishers at John Wiley & Sons, who understood and appreciated William's haste. We were only a few days away from delivering final files for self-publication when William informed us that Wiley had presented him an offer he couldn't refuse. Beyond offering him an accelerated publishing timeline (one of the fastest turnarounds in their history we've been told), Wiley agreed to work with us as a design partner for the book.

To meet Wiley's strict design and production standards, the book had to be redesigned almost overnight. As a result of our efforts, The Business Blockchain spent many weeks on a handful of international best-seller lists and was translated into numerous languages. It also propelled William into the international spotlight as an expert on bitcoin and blockchain technologies. His follow-up book, Centerless, is scheduled to be published by Wiley in 2018.