It’s easy to draw parallels between publishing and music recording industries. In both cases, the traditional gatekeepers (record labels and book publishers) have faced withering disruption while digital has empowered artists to take more control of their own careers. But arguably writers can enjoy a faster path to success than musicians thanks to the emergence of publishing platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and the more mainstreamed process of writing versus recording (fewer production tools needed). That’s why APE: How to Publish a Book, a new book by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch, is so important: it’s the most comprehensive book on the market for writers to learn how to write, publish, finance, and market their own books. APE is a manifesto for writing in the digital age.