While not directly related to PHP and its community, several potential technical book authors out there will probably be affected by this. The popular publishing platform, Leanpub, has announced a change in their pricing to create new books with the service.

Leanpub is a powerful platform for serious authors. This platform is the combination of two things: a publishing workflow and a storefront. Leanpub is more than the sum of its parts, however – by combining a simple, elegant writing and publishing workflow with a store focused on selling in-progress ebooks, it’s something different.

[...] Our workflow is flexible. Authors can use our simple in-browser editor or upload completed ebook files, but most choose to write their manuscripts on their own computers, using either plain text (formatted using Markdown or Markua markup) or Word documents. [...] Our storefront is an elegant way to sell in-progress or completed ebooks. [...] Our royalty rate is better than Amazon’s and Apple’s royalty rates for any book over $2.99, and it is far better than Amazon’s royalty rate for books over $10.

[...] Today we are changing the pricing of Leanpub. Until now, Leanpub has been totally free for authors to use. [...] Going forward, it will cost money to create a new Leanpub book. Here’s the cost: $99 per book.

Previously the only charges were a percentage of the sales for books on the storefront but moving forward, there will be a flat $99 USD cost for new books created wth the service (in addition to the same royalty rate as before). This helps to fund this great service and keep the level of quality authors have enjoyed so far. More details about the changes for new books and the "grandfathering" of current books can be found on this pricing page.