Best books for indie hackers?

Below is my (rather long) list of books split into rough categories and with Goodreads scores in brackets. Perhaps not purely indie focused, but these have proven to be helpful and insightful for me personally:

• Idea Validation: The Mom Test (4.3), Lean Customer Development - Building Products Your Customers Will Buy (4.2)

• Product: Inspired - How to Build Products Customers Love (4.2), Hooked: How to Build Habit Forming Products (4.1), Monetising Innovation (4.2)

• Sales & Marketing: Traction - How Any Start up Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth (4.1); Building a Story Brand (4.3), The 1-Page Marketing Plan (4.3), Obviously Awesome (4.3), Closing the Chasm (4.0), Influence - the Psychology of Persuasion (4.2)

• Strategy & Approach: The Lean Start-up (4.1), The Innovation Stack (4.2), Zero to One (4.3), Start-up Owner’s Manual (4.1), The Cold Start Problem (4.2), The Hard Thing About Hard Things (4.2)

"Start small, stay small" from Rob Walling.

Hands down the most influential book to me that proved to me that going the indiehacking route is doable, sustainable and totally worth it. A must read.

• Zero to One
• The Mom Test

The OG still stands strong to this day: The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. Follow that up with Tools of Titans.

The three books that were foundational to my Indie Hacking success were:

• Built to Sell by John Warrillow (in which I learned what a good and sellable business looks like)
• The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber (in which I learned how to structure a business and find my role in it)
• The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris (in which I found the motivation to start my own business)

Countless others have inspired me along the way, but these three were the most impactful ones. In fact, Built to Sell actually made me want to write my own book on building a SaaS, which I did after we got acquired. I’m not going to plug it here.

LOVE this list! I’ve just added them all to my wish list. Not strictly Indie Hacking but my favourite book to date as one to live by is The Almanac of Naval Ravikant. This is the one I want my kids to read, if nothing else.

The Four Steps to the Epiphany. It covers it all, from idea validation to growth. Another great book is ReWork.

"Zero to One" by Peter Thiel
It's not a great book for starting a small business, as it's more suited to starting a large business. But it explains many important topics related to entrepreneurship: from personal psychology, to the culture of different geopolitical zones.

It's a must read book.

I recommend Don’t make me think by Steve Krug.
Great straight to the point book on UX design.

Good suggestions here!

Whenever I'm full of too many tasks or wrestling with distraction, I always revisit DEEP WORK by Cal Newport.

The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini PhD

the one and only, "Getting Real" by basecamp

I just bought The minimalist entrepreneur by Sahil Lavingia and I have high hopes for it. Also Running lean is a great book for understanding modern startup frameworks and thinking :)

Make by Pieter Levels

Derek Sivers comes to mind. Also Dane Maxwell. The former for building and staying small. The latter for figuring out products and viable markets.

Thank you so much for these recommendations! It seems to me that currently studying at home or remotely can be quite difficult for a child. I advise you to pay attention to the site https://assignmentbro.com/ae/do-my-homework where I recently found professional help in writing my research, which was related to homeschooling and distance learning.

there is no authentic book to learn hacking. you can keep learning and grow your self like when you are not skater but try and try make you best. so far more practice keep your more expertise.

This book is not specifically for indie hacking, but still can be relevant and very useful: if you are interested in psychology and how you can take control over your mind and find enjoyment in what you do, I highly recommend Flow by Csíkszentmihályi Mihály.

• Intercom on starting up by intercom
• Obstacle is the way by Ryan Holiday

The Navalmanack is my overall favorite. It’s a book of Naval’s tweets on wealth and they are the closest thing to a perfect framework I’ve ever encountered. It made me think more long-term and more cooperatively.

My favorite tactical book for bootstrapping is The Millionaire Fastlane (scammy sounding title but great book).

For inspiration and thinking about PR and fundraising, I like The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution That Swept Virtual Reality.

I read Rohan Chaubey's books
https://www.amazon.in/Books-Rohan-Chaubey/s?rh=n%3A976389031%2Cp_lbr_books_authors_browse-bin%3ARohan+Chaubey

I found them very useful and full of tricks you would never think of
I'm following him, nowadays he is mostly working with Reddit as his marketing channel and he is quite successful

Reboot by Jerry Colonna

I think this book is a must! :)

I will vote for @levelsio "Make Book". It's really friendly for newbies.

Zero to Sold was really attractive
https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/zero-to-sold/

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It

In the WBE Space we have a slack channel where members share their favorite entrepreneurial books. "Hooked" and "The Mom Test" are crowd favorites...

This is my list on Hardcover:
https://hardcover.app/@ste/lists/startup-101

Added some books recommended here to it 👍

I really like e-myth revisited by michael gurber. It's kinda an old book but has a lot of info about the common trap we indie hackers fall into of the "technician thinking he is an entrepreneur."

Sounds like common sense nowadays but it was really eye opening for me when I first read it.

Hello!
Self-Development, Investing Books - Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street; The Miracle Morning.

The Nathan Hobbes write an amazing e-book for hacker which has include all of thread which actually you have been face during coding and hacking I thing at once you must need to read his are ghost longboards good

💪 My favorite one about JTBD: WHEN COFFEE & KALE COMPETE

I would recommend the following 3 that speak about getting users, marketing your product/service and eventually exiting it:

1/ Traction by Gino Wickman

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8549192-traction

2/ Built to sell by John Warillow
(particularly if you have more of a service/productized service business)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10075698-built-to-sell?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=1L77tyeDUh&rank=1

3/ The 1 page marketing plan by Allan Dib

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41943000-the-1-page-marketing-plan?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=1mzIGOf14Q&rank=1

Then the classics:

• Zero to one
• 4 hour workweek
• The hard thing about hard things
• The goal
• ...

Which other books did you already read and enjoy? Please share :)

The millionaire mind secrets

The best ones in my opinion are not indie hacker related ones. Indie hackers are hard workers and we deserve a break!

I started reading the Harry Potter series and its a blast!

Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup.

Apart from all the other great suggestions, I would add "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products"

Super insightful book for builders that want to get better traction on their products.

You can build a great product, but if it doesn't convert, you've got a problem. In order to improve product landing pages and actually convert into paying customers i'd recommend the Landing Page Hot Tips ebook by Rob Hope

It helped me, so I hope it helps others 🤙