This presentation was given by Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, at Self Publishing Boot Camp in San Francisco on February 18. The presentation summarizes the best practices of the most successful self-published ebook authors.

1. How to Reach More Readers with
February 18, 2013
Mark Coker
Founder, Smashwords
Twitter: @markcoker

2. My Backstory

3. I met Lesleyann

4. We made wrote a book together

5. Publishers Said “No”
• Every major publisher said NO
(TWICE!)

6. I evaluated our options
1. The rational option
 Acknowledge we sucked and weren’t good enough
to be a published author
 Curl up in fetal position and cry
 Give up
1. The irrational option
 Believe in ourselves
 Get mad
 Try to fix the problem

7. How to fix a problem
1. Identify the problem
 Big 6 Publishers!!!
 Toxic to the future of publishing
 Don’t value all writers
 Unable to take a risk on all writers
1. Visualize the utopian solution
 Every writer should have the right and the ability
to publish
 Readers should have the power to judge what’s
worth reading
1. Create the Solution

8. My Answer: Smashwords
• Free Ebook Publishing Platform
• Provide writers free tools so they can
become their own ebook publishers
• Open up the printing press to all
• Open up distribution to major ebook stores

9. Indie ebooks published at
Smashwords
191,000
92,000
28,800
6,000
140

10. Ebooks as a percentage of US
wholesale trade market
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012
Source: Association of American Publishers, publishers.org. 2012 Smashwords estimate

11. How Smashwords Works
• UPLOAD
• Author follows our Style Guide,
uploads a Word .doc file
… or (NEW), upload .epub
• Instant, free ebook conversion
• Sell today to global audience
• DISTRIBUTE
• Distribution to major retailers
• GET PAID
• Earn 60% list for books sold at retail
• Quarterly payments

12. Smashwords offers
 Free publishing and distribution
 85% net royalties (commission of 10% list
price at retailers. Author earns 60% list on
prices $.99 and up)
 Unlimited free updates
 Centralized metadata management
 Aggregated sales reports
 Free marketing tools (Coupons!)
 Global community of 50,000+ fellow
Smashwords authors, publishers, agents
 Professional development
resources

13. Learn (for FREE!) to Become a
Professional Self-Publisher
• Smashwords Style Guide (how to create and publish an
ebook)
• Smashwords Book Marketing Guide (how to market any book)
• Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success (best practices of
successful authors)

14. Let’s review the best practices of
the best-selling indie authors

15. Secret One

16. #1 Your best marketing is a
great book
• Honor your reader with a great
book
• If your book doesn’t make readers go,
“WOW!” you’re not done yet
• Must turn readers into evangelists
• Be fanatical about quality
• Edit, revise, edit, revise, repeat, proof
• Leverage beta readers

17. Secret Two

18. #2 Adorn your book with a GREAT
cover image
• Invest in a quality cover image
• Your first impression
• Look professional
• Should arrest reader with thumb nail
• Visual
• Genre/category appropriate
• Makes a promise to the reader

19. Here’s a promise

20. Here’s another promise

21. Look what happened when the
author went from this cover

22. … to this cover…

23. The cover sparked a breakout at
Apple

24. And landed her on the NY Times Bestseller
List

25. Secret Three

26. #3 Publish Another Great Book
• The best-selling authors on
Smashwords offer deep backlists
• Each new ebook offers
opportunity to
• cross-promote other titles
• Build trust with your reader
• Build your brand

27. Secret Four

28. #4 Give (some of) Your Books
away for Free
• After book quality & cover image, FREE
is the next most powerful marketing
tool
• If you have a deep backlist, offer at
least one full-length book for free
• Eliminates financial risk for first-time
readers
• Turbocharges a series
• The highest grossing
authors/publishers at Smashwords offer
at least one free book

29. Secret Five

30. #5 Maximize Availability, Avoid
Exclusivity
• Exclusivity
• angers fans
• limits audience
• increases your dependence upon a
single retailer
• Ebook retailing is not like sports,
religion or politics
• If your book is not available at every
retailer, it’s not discoverable or
purchasable

31. Ebook retailers want indie
ebooks

32. Secret Six

33. #6 Patience is a Virtue
• When your book lands at retailer, it’s a
seedling, nourish it
• Never pull out by the roots, never remove
• Ebooks develop differently
• Traditional print books – big sell-in, then yanked
from shelves, then sales go to zero
• Ebooks – can start small and grow slowly before
breakout
• Breakouts are unpredictable
• Let’s look at some examples…

34. Slow boil, breakout, slow boil,
bigger breakout

35. Slow boil, breakout, slow boil,
smaller breakouts

36. Slow boil to breakout
Ruth Ann Nordin’s An Inconvenient Marriage

37. Secret Seven

38. Don’t Worry about Piracy

39. Everything you need to know
about piracy
• Obscurity is your biggest risk
• Black hat pirates who steal your book
wouldn’t have purchased it anyway
• Most piracy is accidental – it’s
enthusiastic fans marketing your book
for you
• Combat piracy by making your book
easier to purchase than steal

40. Irrational fear of piracy leads
leads to obscurity
• The only reliable method of avoiding
piracy is to NEVER PUBLISH
• Anti-piracy measures such as DRM only
limit availability, accessibility and
enjoyment
• Fear gone too far will scare readers:
• Bio: Dear all, Mohammad Nashir is a poet,
foreign language poet and writer. Laws: If
you have been found stealing or maintaining
theft of any of this material you will be
taken to court, have an injunction be
contacted by fraud squads or have the
police at your door.

41. Secret Eight

42. Leverage Viral Catalysts

43. What’s a Viral Catalyst?
• A viral catalyst is something that makes your
book more available, accessible, desirable
and enjoyable to readers

44. Viral Catalysts
• Every thing you do right increases
virality. Iterate until you get right
formula
Great cover Social media enabled
Great story Sampling enabled
Professionally edited Multiple formats
Great title Good formatting
Broad distribution Good categorization
Competitive price LUCK!
Great book description
Great marketing

45. Secret Nine

46. Secret #9 Unit Volume is Lever
for Success
• Unit volume (sales and downloads)
increase platform, drives readers to
your backlist
• Unit sales X royalty per unit = profit
• Pricing strategy essential to maximize
both

47. How Price Impacts Units Sold
Data source: http://blog.smashwords.com/2012/04/can-ebook-data-reveal-new-
viral.html

48. What Price Yields Highest
Earnings?
Data source: http://blog.smashwords.com/2012/04/can-ebook-data-reveal-new-
viral.html

49. Secret Ten

50. Secret #10 Practice Partnership
and Positivity
• Your fellow authors and service
providers are your partners
• Help them be successful
• Learn from them
• Share your secrets
• Positivity trumps negativity
• Relationships give you upper hand
• Internet rants are permanent
• Google alerts keeps no secrets

51. Secret Eleven

52. Secret #11 Think Globally
Retailers are going global. Apple
iBookstore (50 countries), Kobo (15/180),
B&N (2), Amazon (~12)
Nearly 50% of Smashwords iBookstore
sales outside the US

53. Secret Twelve

54. Secret #12 Pinch Your Pennies
• You’re running a business
• Profit = Sales minus Expenses
• Most books don’t sell well (!!!!)
• NEVER borrow money to publish a
book
• NEVER spend or invest money you
need for food and shelter
• DIY then reinvest

55. Free Ebook Publishing Resources
• NEW! Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success (best
practices of successful authors)
• Smashwords Book Marketing Guide (how to market any
book)
• Smashwords Style Guide (how to format an ebook)

56. Thank you!
Q&A
Connect with Mark Coker and Smashwords:
Web: www.smashwords.com
Blog: blog.smashwords.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/markcoker
Facebook: facebook.com/markcoker
HuffPo: huffingtonpost.com/mark-coker
Twitter: @markcoker