Smashwords

Smashwords Launches NaNoWriMo Promo

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:04:00 +0000

NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, kicks off November 1 with thousands of writers who will attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in under 30 days.

Smashwords has launched a special promotion to help NaNoWriMo participants publish, update, share and promote their Nano works-in-progress.

Participants can upload daily updates to Smashwords. Their works-in-progress will be made available as multi-format ebooks, readable on any e-reading device, personal computers and many mobile devices.

All participating writers will receive promotion at Smashwords.com within a special NaNo catalog, as well as distribution of their works-in-progress to Stanza, the e-reading app used by over 2.5 million people on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and to Aldiko, the e-reading app for Android smart phones.

NaNoWrimo participants who want to publish and update their works with Smashwords can visit the Smashwords/Nano Promo page. Writers who want to join NaNoWrimo should register at www.nanowrimo.org.

The Smashwords/NaNo promotion is an experiment in social publishing, and will provide readers unique insight into the writing process.

Smashwords is offering this free promotion as a public service to NaNoWriMo participants. Smashwords is not an official sponsor of NaNoWrimo.

Editor Unleashed and Smashwords Partner on New Writing Contest: Why do You Write?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:34:00 +0000

Why do writer's write?

This is the subject of a cool new essay writing contest over at Maria Schneider's Editor Unleashed writing community. Smashwords is co-sponsoring the contest, which carries a $500 prize for the winner.

Like the last Flash Fiction 40 contest we co-sponsored with Editor Unleashed, it's free to enter.

The top 50 entrants, as voted on by the Editor Unleashed community and a panel of expert judges, will be published at Smashwords in a free anthology (If you haven't seen the Flash Fiction 40 Anthology, download it here).

"Why Writers Write" will also be the subject of my next column over at Huffington Post. The topic fascinates me. As I wrote in my latest HuffPo column, like all artists throughout the centuries, most writers are severely under compensated for their work. Yet they keep writing, and they will always keep writing. Why?

Kudos to Maria for choosing such a fascinating and important theme. Learn more about the contest over at Editor Unleashed.

Tell me, why do you write? Add your comments in the comment field below.

Image credit: Editor Unleashed.

Do Authors Still Need Publishers?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:35:00 +0000

In my new post today over at Huffington Post, I ask the question, "Does Stephen King still need a publisher?"

I think the answer is no.

Once an author develops the platform and fanbase of a Stephen King, Dan Brown or J.K. Rowling, why not self-publish? They can hire their own team of editors, designers, marketers and sales force, partner with a couple big distributors, and sell their books for less yet still make 2-3X the profit.

If publishers are going to remain relevant, they need to do what Stephen King can do for himself, only better.

The HuffPo post is an updated derivative of one I originally wrote here back in April, in which I speculated the risk of publishing would shift to the author. Given the changes we've seen in the industry since April, I'm more convinced than ever that author will continue to shoulder a larger share of the risk of publishing, and this will lead to a dramatic transformation of the publisher-author power balance in favor of authors.

For most of the last couple centuries, if you wanted your book published, you had to work with a publisher, because they controlled not only the printing press but the means of distribution as well.

Over at the Huffington Post story, a great discussion is already taking place in the comments. MJ Rose, well known as an early ebook advocate, a self publisher, and now a mainstream commercial author, argues that publishers remain relevant because they control access to brick and mortar retailers. I don't disagree. Publishers still control access to physical shelves.

Looking ahead, especially as ebooks rise from a likely 5 percent market share in 2009 to 30 or 50 percent within the next five years, publishers will be hard pressed to maintain the same relevance.

If in five years half or more of the market has gone digital, then that's half the market any author can distribute to without the need of a traditional publisher. Smashwords already has agreements in place to distribute books to several major online retailers as well as the top mobile apps, and within the next couple years we'll have all the major retailers covered.

How do you think the role of publisher will change over the next few years? Do authors still need publishers? Comment here, or join the discussion over at HuffPo.

OCTOBER 18 UPDATE: The column at HuffPo has sparked some interesting debate and discussion, at HuffPo, on Twitter and in the blogosphere. Some Twitterers, apparently concerned I was questioning the value of publishers (I love publishers BTW!), created a special Twitter hashtag of #publishersmatter and a spirited debate ensued (click the link to view the thread). Kate Eltham, a writer out of Brisbane, Australia, and the CEO of the Queensland Writer's Centre, contributed to the discussion with an intelligent response on her blog, Alphabet Soup.

Stephen King photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinguino/ / CC BY 2.0

Self-Publishing Book Expo November 7

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:41:00 +0000

November 7 in New York is the first annual Self-Publishing Book Expo.

I'm presenting a session titled, The Rise of Ebooks. My presentation will review the past, present and future of ebooks, and provide attendees actionable advice on how to publish, promote and sell their books. Stop by and say hi!

If you live near New York and you're either already self publishing, or considering self publishing, you'll get a lot of out of this conference.

The conference is packed with several other great looking sessions and panel presentations covering publishing, book distribution, book publicity and social media marketing. Some of the speakers on the other sessions include Bob Young of Lulu, Janet McDonald of Ingram, Brent Sampson of Outskirts Press, Andy Weissberg of Bowker, and publishing consultant Laura Dawson who also runs Bloggapedia. See the complete list of speakers and sessions here.

The event will be held 9:30am to 5pm, Saturday, November 7 at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers at 811 Seventh Avenue, at the corner of 53rd Street. A mere $30 gets you in to the exhibits and session presentations. If you're an indie author and you want to show off your book with your own table in the exhibit hall, the cost is $325. Visit the Self-Publishing Book Expo web site for more information.

Why Ebooks are Hot

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:43:00 +0000

The subject of my second column at Huffington Post, clocking in at a healthy 1,200 words, is "Why Ebooks are Hot and Getting Hotter."

For those of you who want an abbreviated version (with a few new details thrown in), here are my top ten reasons:

1. Screen reading now rivals paper - Screens now offer a reading experience almost as good as paper. For some readers, especially those with vision impairments (like all of us over age 40!), screen-reading is often better than paper.

2. Proliferation of multiple high-quality e-reading devices - There are numerous killer e-reading devices, and odds are you're already holding one - your cell phone. Or, you're reading through one - your computer. More cool new e-reading devices and apps announced every month.

3. Oprah Winfrey - Oprah Winfrey sung her praises for the Kindle one year ago and set the ebook market on fire.

4. Early adopters are the new evangelists - Ten years ago, ebooks flopped due to high prices, limited content, poor screens and DRM complexity. Most early adopters were unimpressed. What a difference a decade makes. Today, most people who try an ebook have a "WOW" experience, and go on to evangelize ebooks to their friends.

5. Greater content selection - Hundreds of thousands of ebooks are available today, and many of them are free. Within a few years, it's likely nearly every book known to mankind will be digitized and accessible at a click.

6. Free books are gateway drug - Someone give Michael Hart a Nobel Peace price for creating Project Gutenberg, the non-profit, all-volunteer organization he founded in 1971 to distribute out-of-copyright works as electronic books. While it's difficult to name any single person as the father of e-books, it's fair to say Michael Hart shares DNA with the common ebook.

7. Portable library in the cloud - Books are moving from physical repositories (personal libraries, public libraries, book stores) to virtual repositories (personal online libraries, online public libraries, free online repositories, and online bookstores), and the reading world will be all the better for it. I still love my print books though.

8. The slush pile, digitally liberated - Indie authors are embracing ebooks in a big way. Why wait months or years for your book to be published in print when you can publish now on Smashwords in seconds? Like a giant slush pile of digitally liberated books, thousands of new titles - many born digital - are coming online each year. They comprise gems of undiscovered brilliance alongside works that might make your eyes bleed. Publishers are disintermediated as exclusive gatekeepers, the authors control their own destinies, and the readers decide what books go on to become big hits. Word-of-mouth meets viral social networking, and book marketing will never be the same.

9. Prices dropping - In my last HuffPo column, I argued Why We Need $4.00 Books. Response was generally favorable, though a few pundits thought I was nuts. This morning, I stumbled across this post from my buddy JA Konrath, who makes a strong case for why authors can earn more money self-pubbing low-priced ebooks as opposed to selling ebooks at the higher prices advocated by traditional publishers. Considering I've been preaching the concept of low priced ebooks = greater author profit for 18 months, I'm pleased Joe has proven the concept with real world experience. Check out his post.

10. Impulse buying - Ebooks are super-easy to sample and purchase in bulk. Some of the early data I've seen indicates ebooks readers buy more books. Very exciting. If anyone out there can point me to real data (supporting or contradictory - I want the truth!), let me know and I'll update this post.

If all of the above interests you, then my longer column over at HuffPo might interest you. Check it out, tweet it, share it and tell a friend.

Think 10 reasons aren't enough? Did I miss anything? Feel free to add a #11, #12, etc. below in the comment field.

Smashwords Billion Word March

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:16:00 +0000

We just hit 150 million words of original indie ebooks published at Smashwords, up 50 percent from only seven weeks ago.

I believe in big goals, so here's crazy one: Come join with Smashwords as we strive to reach one billion words by the end of 2010.

It took us 17 months to get where we're at today. Can we grow 700 percent in 15 months? Sure, why not, let's go for it.

As Smashwords grows, it opens up exciting new opportunities for our authors and publishers to connect with readers around the globe.

Please encourage every author and publisher you know to upload their books to Smashwords. We offer free, easy and instant ebook publishing, and free distribution to major online retailers. No hidden fees or packages to buy. 85 percent net back to the author or publisher.

To learn how to make your books available to a worldwide audience in minutes, visit this link for How to Publish at Smashwords.

Update - November 3, 2009: We hit 200 million words today, up 33% in less than a month.

Time for the $4.00 ebook?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:39:00 +0000

The Huffington Post launched a new books section today, and I'm one of their new bloggers. For my debut column, I challenge publishers to offer $4.00 ebooks.

No, I'm not suggesting we destroy the livelihoods of publishers and authors. Instead, I want to help save publishing from its slow downhill march to irrelevance as more and more readers abandon books in favor of lower cost forms of information and entertainment.

Books today are too expensive for the vast majority of the world's literate consumers. Imagine how much smaller the book market would be today if books were only offered in hard cover? We need lower cost formats, now.

I don't argue that all books should be priced at $4.00. The new price point would be for ebooks only, and only for a subsection of a publisher's catalog. For example, wouldn't it make sense to resurrect a publisher's out of print backlist via $4.00 ebooks?

While I'm sure some people will think I'm smoking opium to suggest such a low price point, my proposal isn't really that outrageous. Book prices are already dropping, and authors are helping to drive the drop. At Smashwords, we already have hundreds of authors who set the price of their books at zero. Don't quote me on this, but the last time I checked, about 20 percent percent of our titles were priced at free yet they accounted for over 80 percent of our downloads.

Authors and publishers should consider creating new lower cost formats for their books, just as trade paperbacks and mass market paperbacks are lower cost alternatives to the old hard cover book.

Since ebooks cost so little to produce, print and distribute, the format is ideally suited to the $4.00 book. For authors who sell a $4.00 book at Smashwords, they still net $3.05, or about eight times more than the average 5 percent royalty on a mass market paperback.

If we don't offer the consumer what they want, publishing is in for a world of hurt. The challenge is to learn how to balance what the consumer wants against the rights of authors, publishers and booksellers who deserve fair compensation for bringing us these books.

Read the column at Huffington Post.

Smashwords Signs Distribution Agreement with Sony, Helps Power Sony Publisher Portal

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:19:00 +0000

Sony and Smashwords today announced a relationship that significantly expands sales and readership opportunities for Smashwords authors around the world.

Sony has launched the Sony Publisher Platform, powered in part by Smashwords, that makes it easy for self-published authors and small publishers to sell their books at the eBook Store from Sony.

Concurrent with the Sony Publishing Platform relationship, Sony will soon begin distributing Smashwords ebooks.

This distribution relationship with Sony follows our distribution agreement with Barnes & Noble announced four weeks ago. Thanks to these relationships, any author, anywhere in world, can receive distribution from two of the three most prominent online ebook retailers in a matter of days.

This relationship has several positive implications for Smashwords authors and retailers, and for the future of publishing...

For Smashwords Authors:

This distribution is provided for FREE. No fees, no packages to buy, no hidden costs, no sales reps calling to sell you something.

The author/publisher receives 85% of the net, and we receive 15%

For Smashwords Retailers:

Smashwords is optimized to serve as a rapid publishing platform. We're an efficient onramp through which retailers can gain access to ebooks from small presses and self-published authors from around the world.

Because Smashwords serves as both an aggregator and distributor of original ebook content, retailers who partner with Smashwords gain immediate access to thousands of multi-format ebooks.

For the Future of Publishing:

For most of the last two centuries, a small handful of publishers controlled the means of book production and distribution. If you wanted to publish and sell a book, you worked through a publisher. Today, thanks to our humble little publishing service and the wonders of digital publishing, the means of ebook production and distribution are now available to all authors at no cost.

The current print publishing supply chain (how a book gets from publisher to reader) is woefully archaic and inefficient. Publishers take enormous risks to get a book out to market. Multiple gatekeepers stand between the publisher and reader, and each gatekeeper extracts their fee. With the new ebook supply chain we're helping to build, authors and publishers get closer to their reader. This cuts fat from the supply chain which is good for publishers, authors and readers alike.

Digital rights will become more valued by authors and publishers alike. I spoke with one successful midlist author a couple weeks ago who told me he plans to sell the print rights for his next book, but is considering retaining digital rights. He says he can do the ebook distribution on his own using Smashwords since we can get him essentially the same mainstream digital shelf space but at a royalty level twice the amount he'd receive from a commercial publisher.

How to Distribute Your Books with Sony (It's FREE!)

If you're not yet registered for Smashwords - Visit the Sony Publisher Portal and click the link to Smashwords. This will then take you to a co-branded signup page that will qualify your books to appear quickly at Sony. Next, carefully format your manuscript per the requirements of the Smashwords Style Guide, and review the Smashwords Distribution Information page for additional guidelines. Once your book is formatted per the Style Guide, your book will earn inclusion in the Smashwords Premium Catalog, which entitles you to distribution at Sony, Barnes & Noble, Fictionwise, and other online retailers served by Smashwords. It's quick and easy to qualify if you follow the simple instructions on the two pages above. Have questions? Use the customer support link at the top of any Smashwords page.

Current Smashwords authors and publishers - Your current Smashwords books will appear at the eBook Store from Sony in approximately two to three months. If your books have already been accepted into the Premium Catalog, there's nothing you need to do. Please visit your Dashboard's Channel Manager feature, where we will update expected ship dates once we have a firmer date.

We're excited about this relationship with Sony and we look forward to making it a smashing success for Sony and our authors and publishers.

What's next for Smashwords? Stay tuned.

Image credit: Courtesy of ReadWriteWeb

Speaking Tuesday about Future of Digital Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:09:00 +0000

I'm speaking on a panel Tuesday night in San Francisco about "Plugging into Digital Publishing," hosted by the Northern California chapter of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.

We'll discuss how the rapid changes in digital publishing will impact the lives of authors, journalists and other writers. Should be fun.

But don't come to see me - come to listen to my two fellow panelists. They'll have Robert Cauthorn, former VP of digital media for the San Francisco Chronicle and now the founder of CityTools, a social journalism site; and Ivory Madison, founder and CEO of the Red Room, a cool social media website for authors.

The event takes place at the Mechanics Institute Libary at 7:00pm, and is only $5 for ASJA members and $10 for non-members. To RSVP or learn more, visit the event listing at Mediabistro.

Much thanks to ASJA chapter president and Smashwords publisher, D. Patrick Miller of Fearless Books, for his kind invitation for me to speak.

Smashwords Supports Operation Ebook Drop

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:41:00 +0000

The other day on the Amazon Kindle message boards, Smashwords author Ed Patterson met a U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq who wanted to download ebooks for his Kindle, yet Whispernet (Amazon's wireless download service) didn't work in Iraq.

Ed offered to email the soldier all 13 of his ebooks, for free. The soldier gratefully accepted.

Following the chance encounter with the soldier, Ed, himself an Army veteran, queried other indie authors on the Kindleboards message boards, asking if they too would be willing to offer their ebooks for free to troops deployed overseas.

In a matter of days, about twenty authors volunteered their books. Almost immediately, Ed began receiving additional requests for ebooks from soldiers and their families.

Ed and some of the authors started using Smashwords as the platform for distributing the ebooks to soldiers. Using the Smashwords Coupon Generator feature, authors are emailing 100%-off coupons to the soldiers.

I stumbled across the thread at Kindleboards yesterday, and was pleased to learn about Ed's project and see so many Smashwords authors participating. I immediately decided I wanted to get Smashwords more involved.

I got on the phone with Bill Kendrick, Smashwords' CTO (and chief magician), and together we brainstormed how we could help take Ed's campaign to the next level. Then late last night, Ed and I spoke on the phone for more brainstorming.

What began as "Operation Kindle Ebook Drop" has now morphed into something much bigger - "Operation Ebook Drop," in recognition of the multiple ebook-reading devices - cell phones, Kindles, Sony Readers, laptops, etc. - people use to read ebooks.

With Ed's encouragement, over the next week or so, we'll begin notifying our 1,300+ Smashwords authors and publishers about the opportunity to participate in Operation Ebook Drop.

The campaign, as we kick it off today, will roll out in stages.

For stage one, we'll encourage Smashwords authors to email Ed to opt-in to participate. On a regular basis, as Ed receives requests from deployed soldiers, he'll pass these requests on to the authors, who will directly email the soldiers hyperlinks to their book pages at Smashwords, along with Smashwords coupons which the troops can redeem to download the book in multiple formats, readable on any e-reading device.

For stage two, we'll look to create a more automated system of matching soldiers with ebooks, so that rather than the manual process described above, we'll create a catalog, either hosted at Smashwords or by the military, where service members can access the books.

The biggest challenge we'll face is authentication, but we think this can be achieved with some simple hyperlinks originating from within secure websites and intranets operated by the military. Ed has already started reaching out to different military branches to explore opportunities for collaboration on this important project.

How to Participate

Authors and Publishers - If you're a Smashwords author or publisher, email Ed and tell him if you'd like to offer free ebooks to participating troops. His email is ed#w#pat# @ #att#. #net (remove the #s and spaces). To create a 100%-off coupon, log in to your Smashwords account and click on the Coupon Manager link. Ed will email you book requests, and then you simply email the soldier a hyperlink to your book page, and the corresponding coupon code. From your Dashboard, coupon redemptions will show up in your Sales & Payment History Report, and you'll also receive instant email notification. If you're not yet a publisher with Smashwords (why not?), you can learn how publish with us by visiting our How to Publish with Smashwords page.

Deployed troops - All coalition military personnel deployed overseas who need multi-format ebooks are eligible. According to Ed, "If you're overseas and away from your home and loved ones, your dependence on reading might increase - and so we a gifting you ebooks for Kindle, Sony, iPhone, Blackberry etc." For free ebooks, please email Ed at the address above. Please note that the ebooks you receive may be shared with fellow deployed service members, but may not be distributed or shared elsewhere. Please also consider the coupon codes you receive as privileged information, not to be shared elsewhere. The participating authors are pleased to offer you their books.

Where to Learn More
The unofficial staging area for Operation Ebook Drop campaign is over at the Kindleboards message boards. Check it out, help out, and support the young men and women in uniform with some great reads!

October 15, 2009 Update: Ed Patterson and I were interviewed at PodioRacket tonight with an update on Operation eBook Drop. Listen to the interview here.

Ebook Retailers to Faciliate Revolution in Book Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:17:00 +0000

Smashwords author Mary Anne Graham has published a whimsical allegory - complete with castles, knights and magicians - on her Quacking Alone blog in which she romanticizes our campaign at Smashwords to democratize publishing for the benefit of authors, publishers and readers.

She complements Barnes & Noble for partnering with Smashwords and calls on other retailers to do the same:

To my fans (come on, they exist – or at least I believe they exist the same way I believe in them) I say that all of my e-books – the historicals – Brotherly Love, A Faerie Fated Forever, A Golden Forever and A Six Sense of Forever, and my contemporary – E-mail Enticement, should be on Barnes & Noble and Fictionwise soon. I expect that other e-book retailers will come to share the wise vision of B&N and Fictionwise – the e-book retailers who understand the American thirst for choice and who are bold enough to embrace change rather than scurry out of its path.

Read Mary Anne's post here, or visit her Smashwords author page for a complete listing of her Smashwords titles.

Thanks for your support, Mary Anne! Stay tuned. We're just getting started.

Smashwords Profiled on GetPublishedTV

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:40:00 +0000

I was browsing the Twittersphere tonight and stumbled across this pleasant surprise.

Dale Beaumont, an Australian author and entrepreneur behind a very cool Internet television show I hadn't heard of before, GetPublishedTV, has produced an engaging nine minute video segment on Smashwords.

I'm flattered and tickled pink. I don't know what it is about Australians. So many of them on are the cutting edge of digital publishing and indie publishing - there's Mel Keegan, Alan Baxter, Joanna Penn and several others. I just want to give 'em all a hug. Special thanks to Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn for introducing Dale to Smashwords. And of course my thanks to Dale for the fabulous introductory profile of Smashwords!

SEPTEMBER 6 UPDATE: Dale has released a second video titled, "Marketing Your Book on Smashwords," explaining Smashwords from a publisher's perspective.

Enjoy!

Barnes & Noble to Distribute Smashwords Ebooks

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:41:00 +0000

Smashwords has signed an agreement with Barnes & Noble to distribute Smashwords ebooks.

As you might imagine, we're thrilled.

Until today, it was difficult if not impossible for many independent authors and publishers to gain such mainstream digital distribution. Now with Smashwords, virtually any deserving author, anywhere in the world, can receive broader distribution for their ebook.

We trust this is good news for Barnes & Noble as well because it makes thousands of new titles accessible to their customers. As any large retailer can attest, you want to carry the broadest possible selection for your customers yet it's virtually impossible to strike relationships with every individual author or publisher who walks in the door.

Even with ebooks, where an online store can offer virtually limitless online shelf space, it's still a challenge to sign on promising authors, because each business relationship requires technical setup, contracts, accounts payable systems, automated data feeds, sales tracking and more. We're an onramp that makes it easy for Barnes & Noble to accept and sell books from indie authors and publishers.

This is an important milestone for Smashwords. 15 months ago when we launched, we were an ebook publishing platform for self-published authors. Earlier this year we opened our services to publishers. And today, we expand our role to that of an ebook distributor as well.

Smashwords ebooks are now distributed via multiple online channels, including Smashwords.com, Stanza (the e-reading app used by 2 million + people on the iPhone/iPod Touch), Aldiko (for Google Android phones) and soon, the Barnes & Noble network (Barnesandnoble.com, Fictionwise, Ereader app, others).

If you're an author or publisher, I invite you to join with us today. We'll make it easy for you to publish and distribute your book to a worldwide audience. Our services are free. As the author or publisher, you keep up to 85% of the net (net = proceeds to Smashwords multiplied by .85). We offer you free social media-enabled tools to help you take control over your marketing and promotion.

As part of this development, we're creating a Premium Catalog, which contains Smashwords titles that meet the mechanical requirements for distribution. We posted a page to inform our authors and publishers about how to gain inclusion in the Premium Catalog: http://www.smashwords.com/distribution. Pardon our dust. These guidelines will surely evolve as we work out the inevitable kinks and bugs along the way.

Stay tuned. We're just getting started.

Ebooks on the Airwaves with Frank Gromling

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:45:00 +0000

I'm appearing tomorrow, Saturday, at 11:30am Eastern on the "Cover to Cover" radio show with Frank Gromling, aired on WNZF radio and streamed on the Internet.

We'll talk about ebook publishing trends, ebook publishing opportunities for authors and publishers, and Smashwords. You can listen to the show as it airs by clicking the LISTEN LIVE! link on the this web page. If you live near northeast Florida, you can tune in live at 1550AM and 106.3FM. After the show airs, it'll be archived here.

We taped the show Wednesday. Before I met Frank, I didn't know there was a mainstream radio show dedicated to the business of publishing. Each week, Frank examines all aspects of the book publishing world -- from what titles are hot, to up-and-coming authors, to how books are produced and marketed. His guests come from every aspect of the book world, including publishers, authors, illustrators, buyers and reviewers.

Frank is a strong advocate for independent publishing. He's the founder and publisher of Ocean Publishing, a small press that specializes in nonfiction titles about nature, marine life, environment and conservation. He's also past-president of the Florida Publishers Association, board member of the Independent Book Publishers Association, and author of Frank's Whales. Ocean Publishing has 18 titles in print and publishes four to five books a year.

Soon, we hope to welcome Ocean Publishing to the growing ranks of independent publishers who distribute their books on Smashwords.

Frank tweets on Twitter at @oceanpub and blogs at http://oceanpub.wordpress.com.

Flat World Offers Smarter, Fairer Model for Textbook Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:00:00 +0000

The traditional model for textbook publishing is broken. High college textbook prices are threatening to render college unaffordable to many students and their families.

Textbook price increases have exceeded inflation for the past 20 years. The average textbook can run a student $100 or more, and especially for community college students, the price of textbooks can exceed the price of tuition.

As usually happens whenever business models get out of sync with what's fair and right, free market alternatives soon emerge to remedy the pain. In the case of textbooks, the solution has been the used textbook aftermarket and, more recently, textbook rentals.

Although used textbooks offer students lower prices, the aftermarket denies authors and publishers any additional revenue. In response, publishers accelerate publishing cycles by introducing new versions with little more changed than the page numbers. This hurts students, because they need to shoulder the increased expense. It hurts educators who need to modify their curriculum around the text (how often does a textbook on Microeconomics really need to change?).

Whenever you anger your customer, the customer reacts in creative (and predictable) ways. For some college students, the answer is piracy. College students can find free digital versions of nearly every college textbook, even new ones, via the underground file exchange services. For others, it's the used market.

The current model for textbook publishing is unsustainable for students, publishers, authors and educators.

A Smarter, Fairer Model for Textbook Publishing

Enter Flat World Knowledge. I first blogged about Flat World last year (As I disclosed then and I'll disclose now, my enthusiasm for them is not entirely impartial. I'm a Flat World investor, a former advisory board member, and the PR firm I own, Dovetail, represents them).

Flat World is a publisher of commercial open source textbooks. They offer their professionally produced, peer-reviewed books to students for free online, and then they monetize the books by offering low cost printable downloadable PDF ebooks, digital study aids, audiobooks and low cost print on demand versions.

Instructors are free to modify the texts to suit their exact classroom needs. They can cut chapters, add their own case studies, whatever they want.

Last semester, Flat World books were used by 1,000 students at 30 colleges around the world. The company announced this morning that this Fall semester, 40,000 students at 400 colleges will utilize Flat World texts in their classrooms. In an interesting twist not typical of the traditional textbook sales process, more and more instructors are requesting Flat World books without an intermediary interaction with a sales person. In short, Flat World is taking off, with important implications for publishers of all stripes.

There are several stories out about the news today, with more varied and independent analysis than I can provide here. For your reading and research pleasure, learn more about Flat World here:

BNET, by David Weir - Flat World Knowledge: A Disruptive Business Model

GalleyCat, by Jason Boog - Flat World Knowledge to Reach 40,000 Students This Fall

Publisher’s Weekly, by Jim Milliott - Number of Students, Colleges Using Flat World Knowledge Digital Texts Soars

ReadWriteWeb, by Dan Oshiro - Open Textbooks Gaining Ground: Flat World in 400 Colleges

Teleread, by Paul Biba - Flat World’s textbook sales show huge increase

VentureBeat, by Camille Ricketts - Open-source textbook co. Flat World goes back to school with 40,000 new customers

Wired, by John Abell - Open Source Textbook Company Now BMOC At 400 Colleges

ZDNet, by Dana Blankenhorn - Some 40,000 college students studying on a Flat Worl d

InformationWeek, by Serdar Yegulelp - Flat World: Freemium Made Workable

Click here to visit the Flat World Knowledge web site.

Android Ebooks Coming to a Phone Near You

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:42:00 +0000

As of today, Smashwords ebooks are available on Android phones thanks to our new distribution relationship with Aldiko.

If you're not familiar with Android, then you probably don't yet understand why the news above matters. If you're an ebook author, publisher, or reader, and you're looking to sell or discover ebooks, I wrote this post for you. Consider it an "Ebooks for Android" primer.

First, let's start with what you know. Many ebook fans are familiar with the iPhone. The iPhone has become one of the most popular ebook reading platforms, thanks in part to its fantastic touch screen, but also thanks to a proliferation of great e-reading apps such as Stanza, eReader and BookShelf.

These apps, created by independent software developers, add value to the iPhone by letting you do cool things with your phone, like reading ebooks. Smashwords ebooks, for example, are discoverable by more than two million users of Stanza because they're listed in Stanza's native catalog.

The iPhone, like many other "smart phones," isn't really a phone at at. It's a computer. And like any other computer, it relies on an operating system (just like Windows is an operating system) to allow the apps to work their magic. The iPhone uses a proprietary operating system, which means Apple controls it.

Now that Apple has demonstrated the profitability of selling an app-happy computer wrapped in a telephone's clothing, other phone makers are looking to get in on the action. To turn their phones into smart phones, however, they need an operating system.

Rather than build their own operating system, several handset makers have decided to adopt a new mobile operating system standard called Android. Android is one the most promising developments you'll hear about this year in mobile phones.

A little history on Android: A few years back, Google acquired a company by the same name, which was creating an operating system for smart phones. In late 2007, after shepherding the project along, Google and 47 other companies created the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of phone makers, software developers and other interested companies who wanted to further develop the Android system and make it available as an open standard that all smart phone companies could utilize.

Several million Android phones have already been sold, and by the end of 2009 nearly two dozen new Android-enabled phones will be on the market. Like any other operating system, be it Microsoft Windows or Android, the real value of the operating system is in running applications created by independent software developers, like e-book reading apps.

According to Flurry, a company that helps techies develop their mobile apps, app developers are excited about Android, probably because so many phones are coming out that support Android. Flurry tracks the number of their developers starting new app development projects for different platforms. As you can see in the chart below, the number of new Android projects is growing quickly, while the number of new iPhone projects is declining. These new project starts are an indication of the type of explosion we're likely to see in applications for Android. Bring on the ebook applications!
The advantage of developing an Android app is obvious to many developers. By developing, for example, and ebook reading app for Android, the app will work on multiple smart phones from multiple manufacturers. So they can build it once and sell it on any device. Apps developed for the iPhone, by contrast, only work on Apple's devices.

All these different Android phones represent potential ebook discovery platforms for authors, publishers and readers.

With today's news of our partnership with Aldiko, Smashwords authors, publishers and readers can benefit from any growth in the Android handset market.

If you're a Smashwords author or publisher, and your books are available in our EPUB format, your books are ready for immediate sampling and sale on Aldiko.

If you own an Android phone, with a lot of patience and a little luck you might locate Aldiko at the horribly designed Android Market, which is the official online marketplace for Android apps. The good folks at Aldiko inform me that if you point your Android phone's camera at the bar code below, it'll help you download their app more easily.

<-- Scan this barcode with your Android camera

Why Print Books are Like Zombies

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:01:00 +0000

Print books are like zombies. They don't die easily.

When I told my wife Lesleyann I was considering titling this post, "Why Print Books Must Die," she flashed me an icy stare that said, "Don't you dare!" In deference to Mrs. Smashwords, I changed the title.

Don't get me wrong. I love print books. Lesleyann and I collect them. Every Friday, we do date night at the book store. Books form narrow hallways in our house. I'd say I'm cursed by print books except it's really more of a blessing, as anyone sharing our affliction will tell you.

I don't want print books to go away. The real purpose of this post is to make a point about DRM. More about that in a second.

From an early age, we're taught to respect books. We know and love them as receptacles of knowledge and entertainment, and as artifacts and souvenirs. They're expressions of personal identity and personal desire. It's quite amazing, really, how books can envelop our lives like, uh, mossy green zombie goo.

There's a dark side to these zombies of the printed page. We never throw them out, so they're difficult to kill. We pass them on to friends who read them, and then they pass them on again. We sell them, or trade them in for credits at a used bookstore, or we donate them to a library and they change hands again and again and again. Each time they pass from the previous owner to the next, the author and publisher who invested so much effort to create the book don't see a cent. I'm not the first person to raise this point, and I won't be the last.

What do book Zombies and DRM have to do with one another? Quite a lot, actually. DRM, or digital rights management, is a scheme designed to prevent ebook customers from illegally copying and sharing ebooks (most ebooks are licensed like software - you're not legally allowed to share them with friends, or resell them). There's a big debate in publishing circles about whether or not books should be protected (afflicted?) with DRM.

I, and many other progressive book people, think DRM is a bad thing. It treats law abiding customers like criminals by limiting their ability to enjoy their book their way. Others, like a concerned author who emailed me the other day, fear that without copy protection, customers will pirate their books and soon, millions of unpaid copies will be in the hands of ungrateful readers.

Lost in this debate about whether publishers can trust their customers to do the right thing is the zombie elephant in the room. Each time a print book passes to a new owner, the author and publisher earn nothing. It's not piracy, but it has the same effect.

While I think piracy is a bad thing, and chronically under-compensated authors and their publishers deserve more money for their work, it bears remembering that book piracy pre-dated ebooks.

Ebooks, even DRM-free ebooks, could help mitigate the book piracy problem.

Here's how:

Assuming publishers continue producing zombie print books, the incremental cost to create an ebook is infinitesimally small. Smashwords, for example, will convert a finished Microsoft Word manuscript into nine ebook formats at no cost. Many free conversion tools to do the same.

Once in ebook form, ebooks cost virtually nothing for the publisher to print (duplicate) and ship. Unlike Zombie books, ebooks have no inventory, no returns and theoretically (if customers for the most part are trustworthy, as I think they are), no sharing or reselling.

Ebooks are cheap to make, so the publisher can offer them to customers at a lower price. By lowering the price, publishers expand the affordability of the book to a wider potential audience, including folks who can now purchase the book as opposed to seeking out a pirated copy. Bigger market, bigger profits, cheaper books, no zombies. It's a win/win/win for author/publisher/customer.

Want more zombies? Click here for Smashwords ebooks about zombies.

New Tele-class Wednesday: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Publishing Digital Books

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:14:00 +0000

Shelley Lieber has invited me back to VIP Authors for a live encore performance Wednesday at 2:00pm Eastern time of the ebook publishing tele-class we first presented back in June.

The theme this time around is, "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Digital Publishing (but were afraid to ask)." If you're an author or publisher, and you want to learn how to make the move to ebooks, come join us. Don't forget to bring your questions.

I really like Shelley's approach. There's no PowerPoint presentation. It's just Shelley and I on a conference call with Shelley asking smart questions, and then we open it up to audience questions. This time around we're reserving up to 45 minutes for the audience segment. We're also going to invite folks on Twitter to tweet Shelley questions. Shelly is @wordywoman and I'm @markcoker.

If you're not familiar with Shelley, check out my Q&A interview with Shelley from a few months back here on the Smashwords Blog. Shelley's a great advocate for all authors, so I highly recommend you learn about her and get involved with her VIP Authors program.

The class runs from 2:00pm - 3:30pm Eastern. It's free to listen to the live call and ask questions. Click here to learn more and register.

Priceline Threatens to Sue Smashwords

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:52:00 +0000

Alright, this is god awful silly. I don't know whether to laugh or get mad. I'm leaning toward mad, judging from the adrenaline.

It always bugs me when big swinging ding dongs try to throw their weight around using lawyers and the threat of legal action to bully or intimidate.

The ding dong in question is Priceline.com.

A couple hours ago, I received the email below. Priceline is threatening to sue Smashwords if we don't take down our experimental web site, Name-your-own-price-ebooks.com, which is one of a constellation of sites that comprise the Smashwords Satellites experiment we launched a few weeks ago.

Apparently, I offended the sensibilities of their trademark by using the sacred words in a domain name. While they're at it, maybe they should sue Publisher's Weekly for using the term in a book review to refer to Radiohead's innovative experimental pricing model, or sue Amazon.com for reprinting the review, or sue Chris Anderson for using the Publisher's Weekly review to promote his book, Free.

I've always been a huge fan of William Shatner, but I think Priceline.com just lost a customer.

Some background, for those of you who care:

Yesterday, our office received a call from someone inquiring about the above-mentioned domain, which I registered in my name and the name of the PR firm I own, Dovetail Public Relations.

The message I received was cryptic, usually the sign of someone trying to sell me something I don't need. If you ever want to make me not what to return your call, inquire about a domain name that's hardly worth the $8.00 I paid for it. Did she want to purchase the domain? It's not for sale. I only responded because I thought there was a chance she might be a Smashwords customer, possibly having trouble with an ebook.

Personally, I think it's a poor domain name, judging from the fact that as of yesterday, according to Google Analytics (click on the screen shot at below), the site has attracted a grand total of (drum roll please) nine unique visitors for a total of ten visits in about 16 days. No, those aren't typos. I'm not rounding to the nearest million or thousand.

The average time spent on name-your-own-price-ebooks.com, according to Google Analytics, was zero minutes and zero seconds, making me wonder if only robots and web crawlers have visited this particular Satellite. It also makes me wonder if the lawyer bothered to visit the site before billing Priceline.com a few sweet hours to write the toothy letter below.

If she had visited the site, or studied Smashwords, she'd know we don't auction off ebooks. At Smashwords, we give our ebook authors and publishers multiple options by which to price their books, and name your own price is one of them (though we call it "You set the price!" Can we get sued for that too?). Radiohead inspired us to introduce the pricing option 15 months ago, not Priceline.com or my man William Shatner (hey, did you hear him reading Sarah Palin's tweets as poetry on Conan the other night? Hilarious.) .

It's curious Priceline would care about our little Smashwords Satellite experiment. Back in 2005 or 2006, Priceline.com began de-emphasizing their opaque "Name your Own Price" option in favor of more transparent price comparisons, according to these articles in USA Today and the San Francisco Chronicle. The company received quite a bit of criticism for its Name Your Own Price Option, because some customers could overpay if they accidentally bid too high, according to travel author and journalist Edward Hasbrouck of The Practical Nomad who blogged about the practice in 2003 and wrote:

From its start, Priceline.com has required you to "name your own price". Priceline.com determines a minimum offer that they will accept, based on how much their consolidator contracts require them to pay the cheapest airline for your tickets. But Priceline.com doesn't tell you that price. You have to guess, and if you offer more than necessary, Priceline.com keeps the difference as a windfall of pure profit. This is, quite clearly, the system of price "negotiation" most disadvantageous to the consumer.

Clearly, it's not at all similar to what we're doing at Smashwords. Some of our authors want their customers to set the price of their book. Often, it's whatever the customer wants to pay, or is capable of paying. A price of zero is acceptable and quite common. I'd apply for a trademark on "Free Stuff" but that would be silly.

The letter below accuses me of some nasty things, and these accusations just make me all the madder. Some sample gems:

I'm engaging in "calculated infringement of Priceline's NAME YOUR OWN PRICE Mark." (No.)
I'm "trading on the goodwill of their famous service mark" (oh really?)
I "plainly intend to mislead Web users into believing that [Smashwords] is approved of, sponsored by or affiliated with Priceline." (uh, yeah, are you trying to make me laugh? Can I sue you for such a lie?)
My "actions also put Priceline at risk of irreparable injury through tarnishment of its reputation." (Uhm, write me more letters. Maybe if Priceline.com treated their customers with the respect Smashwords treats its customers, you'd have a better reputation than, say, "the bottom of the heap" according to the latest results from the Foresee Survey of ecommerce customer satisfaction, as reported earlier this year by Web Pro News.)

The silliest thing about all this is that this particular Smashwords Satellite, name-your-own-price-ebooks.com, was already a candidate for my chopping block. I shared the stats above. Now I'm not so eager to pull the plug.

When we launched the Satellites, we made clear they were an experiment. Whether some or all of them become permanent standalone sites, or if we kill some, or merge some into the Smashwords.com mother ship (maybe I should refer to it as the Smashwords Starship Enterprise?), remains to be seen. So far, customers have been uniformly positive on the experiment. Customers appreciate the ability to browse and discover ebooks sliced and diced into so many specialty categories, and they like how the user interface allows them to control the information presented.

Oh, as an aside, here's an irony only ebook people and techies will understand: Her firm's web address is www.drm.com.

The letter asks me to respond in writing. So here's my response: Maybe.

(rec'd at 2:12pm Pacific time, August 1 2009.  I replaced her name and contact information with XXX.  It's not her fault, so don't blame her.  She's just doing the evil bidding of Priceline.com.  ~mc.)

Dear Mark,

We represent Priceline.com Incorporated ("Priceline"), the owner of numerous U.S. service mark registrations for its famous marks, including NAME YOUR OWN PRICE(r) (the "Mark").  This Mark has accrued enormous and invaluable goodwill with the public since 1998. Priceline has invested substantial sums in the last decade in popular national advertising campaigns featuring NAME YOUR OWN PRICE, which as a result is now a famous mark, as that term is defined in the Trademark Act.

Our attention has recently been directed to your registration, on behalf of Dovetail Public Relations, of the domain name name-your-own-price-ebooks.com, which links to an active commercial site where users can bid on e-books.  The service mark NAME YOUR OWN PRICE EBOOKS is displayed prominently at the top of each Web page.  The registration and use of name-your-own-price-ebooks.com and the use of the mark NAME YOUR OWN PRICE EBOOKS for a Web site that allows users to bid on e-books by using Priceline's NAME YOUR OWN PRICE Mark and proprietary auction model violates Priceline's valuable intellectual property rights by trading on the goodwill of that famous Mark.  This is illegal under federal and state law.

Web users seeking the services of Priceline are being deliberately and deceptively lured to the name-your-own-price-ebooks.com Web site through your calculated infringement of Priceline's NAME YOUR OWN PRICE Mark.  By using name-your-own-price-ebooks.com and NAME YOUR OWN PRICE EBOOKS, you plainly intend to mislead Web users into believing that your business is approved of, sponsored by or affiliated with Priceline.

That e-books are being auctioned rather than travel services provides no defense.  The NAME YOUR OWN PRICE Mark is so famous and so closely identified with Priceline that the scope of protection from dilution afforded the Mark under federal law extends to any product or service.  You may therefore be held accountable for any sales attributable to consumer traffic improperly diverted to your site as a result of the violation of Priceline's rights.  These actions also put Priceline at risk of irreparable injury through tarnishment of its reputation.

Any further use of name-your-own-price-ebooks.com and NAME YOUR OWN PRICE EBOOKS as a service mark or business name must immediately cease, as must the use of any other infringing trademarks, service marks, domain names, electronic identifiers, URL addresses, metatags, promotional communications and the like, wherever they may appear, that incorporate "NAME YOUR OWN PRICE" or obvious variations of it.

Accordingly, we demand that you reply in writing (e-mail is acceptable) confirming that:

(a) name-your-own-price-ebooks.com will immediately be disabled, remain inactive, not be transferred, and not be renewed when it expires on June 16, 2010;

(b) any and all use of name-your-own-price-ebooks.com and NAME YOUR OWN PRICE EBOOKS will immediately cease; and         

(c) you will not use "Name Your Own Price," "Name Your Own Price Ebooks" nor any other variation of the Mark, in any domain name or service mark, on any Web site, or anywhere at all in the future.

If these steps are taken promptly, we will monitor name-your-own-price-ebooks.com but not pursue the matter further.  We will visit the name-your-own-price-ebooks.com Web site shortly.  If we find it still active we may, without further notice to you, file a complaint under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy with the World Intellectual Property Organization, or take such other legal action as we deem necessary to terminate your tortious interference with Priceline's business.  We are hopeful you will choose the path of least resistance.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

XXX | Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC
Associate | Intellectual Property Law Group
199 Main Street, PO Box 190 | Burlington, VT 05402-0190
XXX
XXX| www.drm.com

Admitted in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Coker [mailto:XXX
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 5:27 PM
To: XXX
Subject: Re: Smashwords

XXX,

Let's do it over email.  How can I help you?

mark



XXX wrote:

> Hi, Mark,
> 
> Please call me on Monday.
> 
> Thanks,
> XXX
> 
> 
> XXX | Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC
> Associate | Intellectual Property Law Group
> XXX
> XXX| www.drm.com
> 
> 
> Admitted in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Coker [mailto:XXX
> Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 1:08 PM
> To: XXX
> Subject: Smashwords
> 
> Hi XXX,
> 
> You called?  How can I help you?
> 
> Best,
> mark
> 
>


--
--
Mark Coker
Founder
Smashwords, Inc.  http://www.smashwords.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/markcoker
http://www.twitter.com/markcoker

Interview with Author Dan McGirt: How Ebooks Can Resurrect Out of Print Books

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:31:00 +0000

Most books quickly go out of print, relegated to the aftermarket dustbins of used book resellers.

It's a shame, really. After years - or a lifetime - invested in writing and publishing a book, an author can watch their work vanish in the blink of an eye.

Author Dan McGirt and his fictional dragon-slaying protagonist Jason Cosmo will have none of that, thank you.

Some readers may remember the Jason Cosmo series of fantasy adventure books when they first appeared in stores in the late '80s. The series met with reasonably good commercial success with around 40,000 copies sold.

Dan recently brought Jason Cosmo back to life by publishing Hero Wanted, the first book in the series, on Smashwords as a multi-format ebook.

Dan's decision to independently re-publish the series illustrates the opportunity facing millions of out of print authors: Thanks to the wonders of ebooks, authors can digitally resurrect their out of print titles for the benefit of new and old fans alike.

Please join me in welcoming Dan McGirt and Jason Cosmo back to a (digital) book shelf near you.

[Mark Coker] What's the story behind Jason Cosmo?

[Dan McGirt] I wrote my comedic fantasy novel Jason Cosmo when I was in college. It was published as a mass market paperback by Signet in 1989. Two sequels, Royal Chaos and Dirty Work, followed under Signet's Roc imprint. I didn't get rich, but the books helped pay my way through school.

[Mark Coker] How did the book review?

[Dan McGirt] Publisher's Weekly called Jason Cosmo an "energetic fantasy adventure" but also complained that "For the most part, McGirt's teeming inventions are sophomoric," which I didn't mind, having been a college sophomore when I wrote it. PW also said "McGirt seems prepared to stoop to the lowest literary levels to set up a joke," which is absolutely true, and concluded "His book may become a harmless, entertaining diversion for nerdy adolescent boys," which was probably a slam, but that is pretty much the prime audience for humorous fantasy, isn't it? I took it as high praise.

[Mark Coker] What other authors have you been compared to?

[Dan McGirt] My books have been compared - not always favorably, mind you - to those of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. They are definitely irreverent romps through the epic fantasy landscape. Jason Cosmo is a reluctant hero who may or may not be the reincarnation of the Mighty Champion of legend. Mercury Boltblaster is a cranky and cynical wizard he befriends. There are sword fights, dragons, trolls, an Incredibly Dark Forest, evil wizards, scantily clad damsels in distress - all the good stuff.

[Mark Coker] What led you to form your own publishing company, Trove Books?

[Dan McGirt] My publisher declined to add a fourth book to the series and gradually the books vanished from bookstore shelves. When I got a royalty check for 80 cents (minus my agent's commission) I figured that was curtains for Jason Cosmo.

About ten years ago, I put up a simple web page. I started getting emails from what I call Loyal Readers all around the world. Most were some variation of "loved your books/whatever happened to you/when are you writing another one?"

I decided to relaunch the series and, after studying various options, decided to start my own publishing company, Trove Books, to do so. The main thought behind that decision is that I already published these books the traditional way, so I may as well experiment in bringing them back.

[Mark Coker] Hero Wanted is your first book on Smashwords. I love the cover. Tell us about the book.

[Dan McGirt] Hero Wanted is the first book in the new series. It is a revised and expanded version of the original title Jason Cosmo. Award-winning fantasy artist Richard Hescox painted the super-awesome cover. What makes that double cool is that he did the cover art for the original 1989 book. I looked him up and hired him to do a brand new cover. It's fun to be the publisher!

The print edition goes on sale today. I wanted an ebook edition too - both for readers who prefer e-books and for readers in other countries who might not be able to get the print book easily.

[Mark Coker] What brought you to Smashwords?

[Dan McGirt] I've done due diligence on just about every ebook format, device, publisher, and service provider to rise and fall over the last decade, but none of them gave me the combination of simplicity, control, market reach, and transparency that Smashwords does.

When I first read about Smashwords, it sounded too good to be true--but I was pleasantly thrilled to learn this service is the real deal. Smashwords is what I was waiting for. Easy to use and lots of options to experiment with.

For instance, I released the Hero Wanted ebook for free as a thank you to my longtime Loyal Readers who have waited patiently since my last novel was published in 1993. I like having the option to do that.

I'm sure I'll be experimenting with the coupons, affiliate program, and other bells and whistles Smashwords has developed as I go forward.

I appreciate the powerful tool you and your team have created for authors and publishers--as well as readers!--and your demonstrated commitment to being a resource for the 21st century publishing community. I look forward to publishing the rest of the Jason Cosmo series with Smashwords!

[Mark Coker] Thanks Dan!

To learn more about Dan McGirt, or to download Hero Wanted for free, visit his Smashwords author page at visit his personal web site or the the site for his publishing company, Trove Books.

If you want to purchase the dead tree version of the book, it's out today at Amazon. Click here to buy it.

Knowledge Genie: Package, Publish and Sell your Smarts

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:07:00 +0000

For most non-fiction authors, you write a book for the credibility it gives you, and then you monetize your smarts by going on the road 300 days a year doing speaking and consulting gigs.

But what if you could clone yourself and sell your smarts another way? What if you could take the static content of your book, and combine it with various other information, content and links, then make it so your customer can interact with it on the web, almost like a virtual coach?

That's the idea behind Knowledge Genie, a cool new digital publishing startup that launched today (Disclosure: I'm an advisor to the company, and the PR firm I own reps them. So although my enthusiasm for what they're doing is genuine, I encourage you to check them out and form your own opinion).

Ever since I launched Smashwords over a year ago, I've talked about how ebooks would evolve to the point where they serve as both the hub and the spokes of richer online applications. When the founders of Knowledge Genie first contacted me, this is why I was so excited about them.

Let's face it. Most content delivery today is static. Just words on some substrate medium (paper, screens, or even air if you want to want to count skywriters). Knowledge Genie is one of first examples I've seen where we get a hint of how books might contribute to the evolution of more fully formed content experiences.

Like a book, a Knowledge Genie app is what the author makes it, so it'll be fun to what types of creativity will emerge from Knowledge Genie authors and publishers.

Knowledge Genie might also serve as a platform for a new breed of publisher who takes previously published book content and brings it to live as a dynamic online web application.

Start building your first Genie today for free at Knowledge Genie.

David Weir has an excellent analysis of Knowledge Genie's potential over at BNET.

How to Develop an Ebook Strategy: IBPA Publishing University Class Tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:39:00 +0000

I'm presenting a one-hour online class tomorrow at 2:00pm Eastern, sponsored by the Independent Book Publisher's Association (IBPA) titled, "Making the Move to Ebooks: How to Develop an Ebook Strategy."

The class tomorrow expands upon a class I co-presented with Dan Poynter at the Publishing University conference in New York in May.

From the IBPA web site, here's a partial summary of what I'll cover:

Why ebooks are hot
Latest market sales data
Will ebooks cannibalize or complement print books?
How ebooks fit within overall publishing strategy
What books work best as ebooks
How Ebook formatting is different
Why multi-format is important
Evolving distribution models: The new ebook supply chain
How Amazon is vertically integrating its ebook business: friend or foe to the independent publisher?
To DRM or not DRM?
Ebook pricing models

To learn more, or to register, visit the Publishing University Online registration page. The class is $49.00 for IBPA members and $69.00 for non-members. 100% of the proceeds go to IBPA, a wonderful organization I'm so pleased to support.

Flash Fiction 40 Anthology Published at Smashwords

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:20:00 +0000

The Flash Fiction 40 Anthology is now published at Smashwords.

Click here to view or download the Flash Fiction 40 Anthology.

Check out this incredible collection of short fiction under 1,000 words from 40 of the most talented up and coming writers today. It's free.

The Flash Fiction 40 is a product of a free writing competition sponsored by Editor Unleashed and Smashwords.

Special thanks to Maria Schneider of Editor Unleashed for doing such a tremendous job managing and judging the contest. Thanks also to the more than 280 writers around the world who participated in the competition, and the hundreds more in the Editor Unleashed forum community who participated in the judging. Also special thanks to Next Chapter Communications for designed the ebook cover and the Flash Fiction 40 logo and other assorted digital badges associated with the contest.

Interview with Alan Baxter: How to Set Up a Blog Tour and Why Print Books Will Become a Niche Market

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:13:00 +0000

Smashwords author and indie publisher Alan Baxter embarks on a worldwide blog tour this coming week to promote his dark fantasy novels, RealmShift and MageSign.

As a result of his blog tour, his books and his name will gain exposure to thousands, possibly tens of thousands of new potential readers. What did this fancy blog tour cost him?

Nothing but his time.

What's a blog tour, you ask? If you never heard of a blog tour, drop everything and read on. Even if you're familiar, read on because you might still learn something new.

Why do blog tours matter? Because all authors, whether traditionally published or indie, need media coverage if they're going to draw significant readership to their books. The nature of media has evolved in recent years to the point today where the term, "media" encompasses not only traditional media such as print newspapers, magazines and television but also "social media" such as blogs, podcasts, social networks like Twitter and Facebook and YouTube.

Media is anything that can carry your message, and a blog tour is intended to get your message out on many blogs in a short period of time.

In this interview, Alan tells us how to set up a blog book tour to promote your book. I'm particularly impressed by how he makes creative use of Smashwords Coupons as an integrated element of his promotion.

He also makes a bold prediction about the future of print books (one, I'm sure, many of our readers will agree with). Read on!

[Mark Coker]: Alan, you're doing a blog tour for your Smashwords titles, RealmShift and MageSign. For the benefit of other Smashwords authors who are new to blog tours, what's a blog book tour?

[Alan Baxter]: A blog book tour is essentially taking your books out on the virtual road, in much the same way that authors would traditionally tour the country, visiting various bookstores promoting their work. In this case, an author visits a different blog every day where they engage in various activities (interviews, guest posts, reviews and so on) and make themselves and their books known to the audience of that particular blog. There's great cross-promotion as the writer's audience gets exposed to a variety of blogs they might not have discovered otherwise (which is good for the blog owner) and the blog's audience learns about the author.

[Mark Coker]: What are the other benefits of such a tour?

[Alan Baxter]: The benefits, other than the cross traffic I mentioned above, include opening not only your own books but the concept of online book promotion as a whole to a wide variety of people. My books are available in print as well as ebook format and I also have a novella available exclusively through Smashwords, Ghost Of The Black: A 'Verse Full Of Scum. By taking my two novels on the road, I'm opening up my other work, my Smashwords exclusive work and Smashwords itself to a wide audience that may not have ever considered ebooks before, or may not have heard of Smashwords. It also helps to increase exposure to my indie press, Blade Red Press. Building an author platform online is essential for indie authors and a blog book tour like this is a great way to expand that platform.

[Mark Coker]: Describe the promotional tie in with Smashwords.

I really wanted to make an aspect of this tour something special - a special offer for people following along. It's difficult with the print editions through Amazon or anything like that to make any changes in the short term. With Smashwords, however, there's an excellent degree of control for the author/publisher. With any title you have through Smashwords it's possible to generate vouchers to vary the cost of your books however you please. So that means that I've been able to set up a voucher code that will be made available to anyone following the tour, valid only for the duration of the tour. If those people then come to Smashwords to buy RealmShift or MageSign they can enter that code (Enter ZR95S for RealmShift and SF97B for MageSign) and the books will only cost them $1 each. Both books for $2, only through Smashwords.

Anyone not familiar with the tour will still see the normal price of $3.50 each, so my overall sales don't risk taking a hit. But anyone that supports me by following the tour gets rewarded for it.

I've used this function as well to get reviews. If someone is willing to review an ebook copy of RealmShift or MageSign, I direct them to the site and give them a code that gets them the book for nothing. There are two things that really make Smashwords a cut above in my mind - the complete control of pricing and the variety of ebooks formats in the one place. Nothing else compares. That's why I've used Smashwords to exclusively give away my Ghost Of The Black novella too.

[Mark Coker]: How much publicity can an indie author expect to receive on a blog tour?

[Alan Baxter]: How much work can an indie author put in? With anything in this game it's all about how much work you put in. It's also about working smart. If you get involved with a variety of blogs, with a widely varying audience, and you ask those people to promote the tour for you, then a lot of publicity can be generated. You can also make sure that you and those others involved cross-media promote with things like Twitter, Facebook and so on. I'm also involving Smashwords directly with a special offer on my books, which is another avenue of exposure.

[Mark Coker]: How does one go about arranging such a tour?

[Alan Baxter]: Firstly you need a quality product to promote. Then it's a case of contacting the owners of blogs that you think are relevant. For me it was based on blogs that I read a lot or that are owned by other indies I've met. There's also some blogs of friends and one blog that I'm an active contributor to. I contacted them all, asked if they'd get involved and asked what sort of thing they could host for me. I explained how the extra traffic could be a boon for them and then, if they agreed, we worked together to decide what I would do there.

It's important to have variety. If you just go to a different blog every day and say, "Check out my book!" you're going to bore people pretty quickly. It was essential in my mind to create something that people would want to follow every day, to see something new each time. The best explanation is to show the itinerary of the tour we've arranged. I've ended up with a ten day tour that looks like this:

Day one: Guest post: Dark Fantasy – What is it exactly? - Monday 20th July at The Creative Penn. This is a blog all about indie authorship, but Jo is hosting a blog from me about the genre of my writing. It's something new for her readers and hopefully interesting for everyone.

Day Two: Interviewed by Leticia Supple - Tues 21st July at Brascoe Books Blog Brascoe Books is an small press in South Australia, so Leticia is interviewing me about the nature of going it alone, the process of editing and so on.

Day Three: Guest post: Writing a good fight scene - Wed 22nd July at David Wood Online
David is another indie author - he writes action adventure novels. As I'm often complimented on writing convincing fight scenes (my "day job" is as a kung fu instructor) he asked me to write about writing fight scenes.

Day Four: Interviewed by April Hamiltion - Thurs 23rd July at Publetariat Publetariat is a hub site for indie authors, telling them all they need to know about self-publishing and indie publishing, from print to ebooks to just about everything. This is the site I'm a contributor too already, so April is interviewing me about my experiences.

Day Five: Guest post: Demons and where to find them - Friday 24th July at Joan De La Haye’s blog Joan writes in a similar genre to me and has a fascination with demons. She always has a Demon Friday post where she writes about a different demon every week. In this case, she's given the Friday over to me and I'm writing about demons in general. Again, this is something different for her readers as well as being something interesting for those following the tour.

Day Six: Wily Writers publishing my short story “Stand Off” (featuring Isiah, the protagonist from RealmShift and MageSign) as both text and podcast - Sat 25th July.

Day Seven: Ruthie reviews MageSign - Sun 26th at Ruthie’s Book Reviews This one is a bit of a risk. Ruthie agreed to review the second book, MageSign, and post the review to coincide with her day of the tour. So I really hope she liked it. She gave RealmShift 4/5, so fingers crossed.

Day Eight: Pat Bertram interviews Isiah, the protagonist from RealmShift and MageSign - Mon 27th July at Pat Bertram Introduces Pat often hosts interviews with the characters from books, which is a great idea. This was a fun one to do.

Day Nine: Guest post: Indie authors and the future – Tues 28th July at Musings Of An Aussie Writer Brenton is another Aussie author and he asked me to talk about the nature of indie publishing and how I see things progressing as time passes.

Day Ten: Guest post: The inspiration for RealmShift and MageSign, what they’re about and what’s next – Wed 29th July at The Furnace The last day here is me talking directly about the books, which is the first time on the tour that I've done that, and also talking about my future projects.

As you can see, I tried to build an interesting and varied experience for everyone involved to enjoy. Hopefully plenty of people will follow the tour, comment on those blog posts and generate some discussion and interaction.

[Mark Coker]: In addition to writing the three books above, you're also the founder of Blade Red Press. Does Blade Red Press only publish titles from Alan Baxter, or are you signing other authors, and if so, what publishing services do you offer?

[Alan Baxter]: At the moment we have one other book available through the press, by another Aussie author called Michael Fridman. His book is available at Smashwords for free, incidentally! As time allows I intend to offer the press to other authors as well. The criteria are that I will only publish good quality, dark speculative fiction. That makes us a genre specific press, which will help to establish our profile. While I will vet the work I accept, I won't be offering any deals or contracts. I'll simply be offering the opportunity for those authors to have their work made available under the Blade Red Press banner which means POD sold through Amazon, etc. at a much cheaper cover price than, say, Lulu, or other author service companies like that, and they will also have their work listed here at Smashwords under the Blade Red Press banner. They will essentially be self-publishing just like myself and Michael, but they'll have earned the Blade Red stamp of approval. That means quality writing, quality editing and professional production. Then it's up to them to make it work!

[Mark Coker]: Tell me about the inspiration for RealmShift, MageSign and Ghost Of The Black: A 'Verse Full Of Scum

RealmShift is the story of Isiah, a powerful immortal that has the unenviable task of keeping some kind of balance between all the gods that people believe in. It's Isiah's job to prevent any one god gaining too much power, therefore throwing out the balance of free will in humanity. In this instance he has to track down a nasty blood mage, Samuel Harrigan, that has reneged on a deal with the Devil and caused all kinds of problems. The trouble is, the Devil wants Harrigan too. The inspiration was really born of a desire to explore the nature of faith and belief and wrap it all up in a cracking action thriller.

MageSign is the sequel to RealmShift, where Isiah goes after the guy that taught Samuel Harrigan all his blood magic. Isiah wants to prevent this guy, known only as the Sorcerer, from making any more dangerous mages like Harrigan. Except Isiah quickly discovers that the Sorcerer has more followers than he ever imagined and a truly diabolical plan. Again, it explores what people believe in, why they do so, the power people have and the things they do with that power. And again, it's a cracking good yarn, full of action and intrigure, magic and martial arts.

The third Smashwords title I have is Ghost Of The Black: A 'Verse Full Of Scum. This is the first of my serialised novella following the activities of Ghost, a hardened galactic bounty hunter. This was something a bit removed from my other work, though I still explore similar themes. I originally published this story in weekly episodes throughout 2008 on my website. It's still available to read there, but if you want the whole thing in a one volume ebook (with a very sharp cover!) that's available exclusively here at Smashwords, and it's free!

[Mark Coker]: My sense from this side of the equator is that there's a vibrant publishing community in Australia, and many Australian indie authors including yourself have been at the forefront of indie ebook publishing. For the benefit of the our readers around the world, tell us a bit about the book culture in Australia, and the opportunity you see for authors to leverage ebooks as vehicle to reach a global audience.

[Alan Baxter]: Well, [print] books are expensive in Australia and we only have twenty million people. But Australians love to read. That means that the big publishers don't see us as much of a profitable market (as there's so few of us) and that makes it hard to get published here. So there are a lot of niche indie presses around and a lot of us are grabbing the opportunities that ebooks present. Not only are the overheads zero, but we get to expose our work to a global audience on an equal footing with everyone else. I upload a book to Smashwords and it's available instantly all over the world. For us here on the far side of the planet, that's an unprecedented opportunity. And ebooks are certainly the way of the future. I love having my books in print, they sell in print and there will always be a market for print. But I think that print will slowly become the niche market and ebooks will become the mainstream. Especially as ereaders become cheaper and better, the ebook will continue to rise. Leveraging that kind of swell in public consumption with a site like Smashwords is a chance for authors to gain a huge following all over the world.

[Mark Coker]: Thanks, Alan!

Interview with Writer Laurel Wilczek, Winner of the Flash Fiction 40 Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Coker) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:57:00 +0000

Last week, writer Laurel Wilczek was selected the grand prize winner of the EditorUnleashed/Smashwords Flash Fiction 40 writing contest, beating out a talented field of nearly 279 other entrants.

Laurel's compelling entry, "Fairy Tales", tells a haunting story of a robbery, a beating, a rape and a suicide. Yet in this interview, Laurel tells us the story is actually much more than that.

Please meet Laurel Wilczek, a talented writer I'm sure we'll hear more from in the months and years ahead.

[Mark Coker]: Congratulations on winning the Editor Unleashed/Smashwords Flash Fiction 40 Contest. What was your inspiration for this story?

[Laurel Wilczek]: The idea for my story "Fairy Tales" came to me during a period of time in which I was rereading Grimm's Fairy Tales. I've always been fascinated by this collection of macabre children's stories. The opportunity to reverse the standard structure of a fairy tale, to start at the end instead of the beginning and then to find happiness by returning to the past, was too tempting to resist. Of course, this kind of tale calls for a darker element to be present and I think the robbery and rape by "fairies" under a full moon offers a modern twist on the traditional evil that characterizes a Grimm's story.

[Mark Coker]: What do you think made Fairy Tales stand out from the 279 other entries?

[Laurel Wilczek]: I think the magical overtones throughout the story made it appealing to many readers. The use of fairies and fireflies kept this story within context of a fairy tale, while the rape and the burglary made it real. It's a contradiction in this world that children become aware of as they age. As adults, I think we all remember and long for the tales told about worlds that abide by a different set of rules. Rules that allow for a different outcome than what is found here.

[Mark Coker]: How long have you been writing Flash Fiction, and what other writing
do you do?

[Laurel Wilczek]: I've been writing short stories for over a decade. The length of each story varies from 500 to 7,000 words. Just as in "Fairy Tales, many of my stories include a quality of magic that frees the character's universe from the rules governing the "real" world. Some stories contain an element of humor along side of a dark, morbid theme. I enjoy contrasts. I enjoy using fantastical elements, although I don't consider my stories to be completely within the genre of fantasy. I define my work as magic realism. For me, the pleasure of this genre lies in the freedom to explore exotic themes in mythology and see how they stand up in the modern world. I see each of my stories as a sphinx posing a riddle for me to solve.

[Mark Coker]: What are your goals as a writer? Are you holding out for commercial
publication, or are you publishing now as an indie?

[Laurel Wilczek]: I'm interested in commercial publication. My goal is to publish a story collection and write a series of novels. I'm working on a second draft of a first novel rooted in magical realism. It's similar to "Fairy Tales" in that it is created with the mainstream reader in mind, but has some literary undertones.

I believe there's a market for it.

I haven't thought about publishing as an indie, mostly because that's a new option that I have yet to explore. A cursory glance through the options at Smashwords reveals that this is an intriguing possibility for new and established writers. I'll be looking closer at this as I move ahead in my career. At present, I have no plans to self publish.

[Mark Coker]: Do you enter contests often, and if so, why? What do you view as
the key qualities of a good contest?

[Laurel Wilczek]: I like contests. I cut my teeth in local contests then moved up to more difficult competition online. Contests can be a means by which a writer can measure her improvement, but only if the contests are selected with careful deliberation. I prefer contests with reputable names, like Writer's Digest, Byline, Glimmer Train, and Editor Unleashed. In the past, I've won first place in the Byline Literary Short Story Contest along with several honorable mentions. I've also won an honorable mention in the 77th Writer's Digest Competition, placing 62 out of 17,000 manuscripts. A reasonable entry fee is fine if the magazine is well known in the publishing world. The reputation of the contest host should boost your reputation as well. Prize money is attractive, but I won't dismiss a contest if the magazine showcases the work of excellent writers. In the publishing world, you are the company you keep. Money will buy ink for the printer, but reputation will earn you an audience for future stories and the interest of agents.

[Mark Coker]: Where else can readers go to read your writing?

[Laurel Wilczek]: You can read my latest story, "The Pond", in the January issue of T-Zero Literary Magazine at www.writersvillage.com Click on the link to T-Zero Magazine. I also have a blog at www.ravenlaw.wordpress.com where you can read my comments on various aspects of writing.

[Mark Coker]: Tell us more about your background, what makes you tick as a writer, some of the training you've received, and anything personal you'd like to share

[Laurel Wilczek]: When I was four years old, I asked my parents, "Why is the sky blue?" and I heard the standard reply given to every child, "Because." I didn't like it then, I still don't like it. There are some people who understand and accept this world as it is. Others spend their lifetime trying to fix it. I prefer to be one of those holding a screwdriver. If you ask me why the sky is blue, I'll tell you because it's magic.

I'm a graduate of Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I've spent a decade honing my writing skills in classes at the local community college and at East Stroudsburg University. I've also been active at online writing sites and in critiquing forums at Writers Village University, Editor's Unleashed, and A Novel Approach. Recently, I completed a year-long study of the classical and modern short story form in the Writers' Village University MFA Short Story Program. I credit much of my success to my writing groups and to the writers who have worked beside me across the years. I live with my husband, two daughters, three nosy dogs, and a cockatiel named Pipkin in the beautiful Pocono Mountains.

[Mark Coker]: Thanks, Laurel!

Laurel's Grand Prize story will be published at Smashwords in the next few weeks as part of an anthology featuring the other 39 Editor's Choice winners.

In the meantime, you can read Fairly Tales at the Editor Unleashed Forum (may require free registration).

To learn more about Laurel, you can read her interview at Editor Unleashed with Maria Schneider.