No Fooling (Oh and…)

I am doing a new experiment with an old retailer.

Smashwords, based in Los Gatos, California, is an e-book-distribution platform founded by Mark Coker for independent authors and publishers. The company began public operation in 2008. Wikipedia

Okay maybe Smashwords isn’t that old but it is older than my Indie Adventures.

So, here’s the deal. Smashwords has a publishers option to let…

Entrepreneurs small and large, don’t need a crystal ball to see some of the biggest shifts in business. Mark Coker has proven time and again that he has an eye for predicting how the self-publishing markets will change – or must change!  And that the future should be in the hands of every publisher and author and not in that of online retailers! .

KDP Select: Writer Beware! Mark Coker: “December…

"Romance writers have led the e-book revolution..." Here's an LBTC bonus clip with Mark Coker of Smashwords​!

Mark Coker: Kindle Unlimited could imperil the greater e-book market

I wasn’t quite able to attend Mark Coker’s BEA presentation on the ten trends transforming the future of publishing. But Coker sent me the extremely detailed slide deck he used, and there’s plenty in the slide deck that bears consideration.

Coker begins with the disclaimer that he loves both self-publishing and traditional publishers, literary agents, and everyone else who brings value to books.…

Smashwords releases results from its 2016 survey

Smashwords has released its latest survey results looking at the habits of bestselling authors on its site.

It’s important to note that what works for one author may not always work for another. So many authors use different tactics to get the best results.

Here are few key takeaways as noted by Mark Coker:

– Nearly 90 percent of sales were fiction titles. – Romance accounted for 50 percent of…

Scribd will change its subscription service from unlimited to semi-unlimited

Scribd has just announced it is making another change to its “unlimited subscription” business model beginning next month. It’s going to be moving from a fully-unlimited model to a hybrid limited/unlimited model. CEO Trip Adler explains that the company is paring down its selection of titles that are available for fully-unlimited reading, and changing them out on a rotating basis. It will be…

Mark Coker and the rise of Smashwords: A true story to tell your Luddite uncle next time he says e-books are dying

Eight years or so ago, more than 99 percent of book sales were from print.

If publishers turned you down, you could always print your own copies, or your could hire a vanity press—but good luck finding your way into the stores.

A gifted but frustrated writer with a knack for Internet-related PR ran past me a plan to help people get their works into e-book form for distribution on the Internet.

Transcription of interview with Mark Coker

[...]

Joanna Penn: And what about the stigma?

Because again, when you and I talked back in 2010, there still really was an issue with being self-published. Has that completely gone or where is the shift there?

Mark Coker: It’s not completely gone.

Seven, eight years ago, self-publishing was the option of last resort for authors. It was seen as the option for failed authors. And that was really the reality of the situation because the authors who were self-publishing then, typically were not doing it by choice, they were doing it because they had been rejected by the publishers. Back when the publishers controlled the publishing industry, if they rejected you, you were a failure.

So that’s where everything was seven, eight years ago, but what we’ve seen is that many indies, and I have just enormous respect for those very first indies who entered the scene, and you were among the first as well, who really believed in themselves. And it wasn’t about vanity.

It was about believing in yourself and wanting to have a chance to be judged by your readers.

A lot of those indies took the leap, despite the stigma, and achieved commercial success. With each commercial success for each Indie, it helped really educate all other authors that yes, you can publish with pride, professionalism, and success as an indie author.

When we look at the state of the stigma today, the stigma has declined markedly.