. . . If you have to have a policy manual,
                Publish the Ten Commandments . . .

Over the last decade, the economics of printing and publishing books have changed radically. You can now print and bind a 100-page book for around four dollars per copy in print runs of one hundred copies. In 1990, to obtain this price point, you would have had to print ten thousand copies.

As a more extreme example, my colleague Bob Goodenough and I recently published Invest In Company Evolution—a 168-page book in full colour throughout, at a price point of about ten dollars per copy in an initial print run of 2,000 books.

Marketing and Distribution, the key elements to publishing, have similarly undergone several revolutions. You can do you marketing via the Internet (just make sure you do not Spam!), and have your credit card merchant services performed by third parties. You can establish a partnership with Amazon.com to carry and sell your books.

These changes in pricing, marketing, and distribution, mean that you can test the market with a new book, in small print runs, and spend minimal money up front. Your risk is vastly lowered. Additionally, you can create books that you can mutate over time as you receive feedback from people who bought your book.

DeHart's On-Demand Printing in the Bay Area can print and bind small runs of books economically.

Don Lancaster and Synergetics contains resources for what Don calls Book On Demand Publishing.