The Challenge
Tell us about yourself and the nature of your work
My name is Chris Boissevain, and together with my wife and business partner Jennifer Jones, who is a licensed marriage and family therapist, we run LST Productions. Jennifer is a highly skilled and insightful psychotherapist, with over 20 years of experience in helping people better understand themselves and their relationships. My background is in industrial design and art, and I bring a creative approach to our work.
Our partnership was formed several years ago, with the aim of creating digital products based on Jennifer's writing and expertise. Our mission is to make the tools and knowledge of psychotherapy more widely accessible and to help people live happier and healthier lives.
What challenges did you face before using Kotobee?
Our biggest challenge was finding a way to generate revenue from our ebooks and protect our intellectual property. Initially, we used a plugin in InDesign to export our content into native app formats (e.g. iOS or Android apps), but unfortunately, this functionality was discontinued. We were then left without a reliable way to create ebooks as native apps. As a result, we had to explore alternative solutions to find a platform that would enable us to monetize our ebooks while maintaining control over our content.
What potential solutions did you explore that didn't work out?
We explored a range of solutions to create native apps for our ebooks, but unfortunately, not all of them were successful. For example, we worked with InDesign and Ajar Productions in5 software to develop HTML5 ebooks, which was great for creating free interactive web apps, but without any IP protection or efficient ways to monetize the content. Learning InDesign also proved to be a challenging process. We also attempted to use Adobe's software for exporting to native formats, but unfortunately, we were not able to try this option before the software was discontinued.
“We found that Kotobee provided a comprehensive solution that allowed us to create and monetize our ebooks in a more efficient way.”
The Solution
How did you hear about Kotobee?
While looking for solutions to create and publish ebooks, we came across Kotobee through a Google search. We found that Kotobee provided a comprehensive solution that allowed us to create and monetize our ebooks in a more efficient way, and we were excited to start using it.
What drove you to choose Kotobee?
We chose Kotobee to create and publish our ebooks for several reasons. Firstly, we were drawn to the platform's user-friendly interface, which made it easy for us to create and customize our ebooks to meet our specific needs. Additionally, we were impressed by Kotobee’s encryption and DRM security options, which gave us peace of mind knowing that our content would remain secure and protected from piracy and unauthorized use.
Finally, Kotobee's integrated system for exporting ebooks into various formats made it easy for us to distribute our content across a range of platforms and devices. This enabled us to reach a wider audience and monetize our work more effectively.
Is there a specific aspect of your ebook that you are particularly proud of?
We started with a goal of 12 books, which increased to 24, largely due to the ease of writing within the software product. We're really proud of the concise and accessible nature of our writing and design, which is geared toward helping people address specific personal problems related to relationships with others and themselves.
We believe that this approach will be particularly useful for individuals who may not be able to afford traditional psychotherapy or who prefer a more DIY approach to self-improvement. We are also proud that these resources serve as the foundation for our Advanced Training program for counselors themselves.
Additionally, we're excited about the potential impact that our ebooks could have on those who are currently in therapy and their therapists. Overall, we feel that our approach is unique and highly practical, and we're confident that it will be a valuable resource for many people.
“Kotobee's integrated system for exporting ebooks into various formats made it easy for us to distribute our content across a range of platforms and devices which enabled us to reach a wider audience and monetize our work more effectively.”
The Results
What metrics do you use to measure the success of your project? Has Kotobee affected those metrics in any way?
We have just recently published our ebook library on our website. We’re delighted with the esthetic quality, ease of use, versatility across various platforms, and secure method of distribution. The free reader app that comes with the books is very smooth and user-friendly.
Jen has already prescribed books to her psychotherapy clients, who found them very useful. Counselors are also beta-testing the books for their own development and to recommend them to their clients.
We are currently gathering feedback as our ebook collection gains a market audience. Proving to be useful for our readers is our most important criterion and measure of success. Of course, sales are important, and we will be monitoring traction as well.
The Future
What are your plans for the future?
For our ebooks, we are looking forward to using the upcoming Kotobee audiobook feature to convert all our books into audiobooks as well. We’re also exploring the integration of a custom translator into our books to achieve a more global reach.
In terms of producing other types of content, we will be upgrading our “LST Journal App” to include an AI feature, and have a few concepts to develop into additional apps.
Furthermore, we’re developing a short video series around the same themes as our ebooks, which we plan on creating in the next year, called Advanced Training. While this is geared toward counseling professionals, those who are eager to more deeply focus on self-development are targeted with this focus on applying LST materials.
