This presentation was given by Mark Coker of Smashwords on May 14, 2011 to the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association. The presentation begins with discussion of macro trends facing the publishing industry, then provides a summary of how to produce, publish, price and distribute an ebook. It concludes with The Seven Secrets of Ebook Publishing Success, a collection of best-practices gleaned from the best-selling authors at Smashwords.

2. My Backstory

6. Indie ebooks published at Smashwords 140 6,000 28,500 75,000 (est)

7. THREE BIG TRENDS RESHAPING THE RULES OF PUBLISHING (and what it means to you)

8. TREND ONE Bookselling moving to the Web

10. Percentage of book purchases made online vs B&M, P- and E- Brick & Mortar Web Today?

11. TREND TWO Authors Become Publishers

13. Number of books published indie vs. traditional Indie books Today? New trad. books

14. TREND THREE: As Reading Moves to Screens, Ebooks Will Overtake print

15. Reading moving to screens

16. Ebooks as a percentage of US wholesale trade market Source: Association of American Publishers, publishers.org

17. Ebooks to overtake print Print books Ebooks Today?

22. How to produce and publish an ebook

27. Pricing

29. Distribution

30. Ebook retailers want indie ebooks Mobile apps

31. Content Distribution Options Direct to customer Direct to retailer Distributor Publisher Pros High margin, direct contact with readers, retain all rights Good margin, exposure to millions of readers, real time reporting, retain rights Good margin, time-savings, access to multiple retailers , aggregated reporting and analytics, retain rights, priority support Advance, access to B&M retail, editing and revision, marketing and promotion, prestige Cons Customer service burden, credit card processing fees, tough to attract traffic Time consuming to manage multiple relationships, not all retailers offer direct option, distributors may offer higher margins Delayed reported from retailers (1-4 weeks), takes 7.5-10% commission on retail price Low royalties, reporting delayed up to six months, limited distribution, Lose rights, can go out of print quickly

32. The Seven Secrets to Indie Ebook Publishing Success (how to participate in the ebook revolution)

33. Secret #1

35. Would You Buy This Book?

36. Professional Covers Not Expensive (this was $45)

37. Secret Two

39. Secret Three

41. Ebook retailers want indie ebooks Mobile apps

42. Secret Four

44. Secret Five

46. Secret Six

48. Secret Seven

50. BONUS Secret Eight

52. The Viral Dream First reader More Readers

53. Viral Decay, The Reality First reader Readers

54. Negative Virality First reader This book sucks!!!! = Last reader

59. Thank you for listening! Q&A Connect with Mark Coker: Web: www.smashwords.com Blog: blog.smashwords.com HuffPo: huffingtonpost.com/mark-coker Twitter: @markcoker Email: first initial second initial at smashwords.com