Mark Coker of Smashwords presented this ebook publishing workshop October 29, 2011 at the South Bay Writers chapter of the California Writers Club. The presentation is divided into three sections: 1. Background on the current state of publishing, five big trends impacting publishing; 2. How to produce, publish and distribute an ebook; 3. Best prcactices for selling ebooks.

2. Part I: My backstory, state of the industry, big trends Part II: How to produce, publish, price and distribute an ebook Part III: Selling ebooks: Best practices for commercial success Outline for SBW Ebook Publishing Workshop

3. My Backstory

8. Indie ebooks published at Smashwords 140 6,000 28,800 81,000 + (10/29/11)

9. LET’S GET STARTED

10. TECHNOLOGY IS COLLIDING WITH PUBLISHING

11. Technology Represents the Means by Which Consumer Desires are Realized Accelerates Creative Destruction Things Touched by Technology Transformed to Something Faster, Smaller, Cheaper, Accessible

13. We Must Save Books

14. BIG PUBLISHERS ARE MAKING THE PROBLEM WORSE

15. They judge books on commercial merit

16. UNTIL RECENTLY, BIG PUBLISHERS HAD A MONOPOLY. THEY CONTROLLED THE PRINTING PRESS AND DISTRIBUTION TO BOOKSTORES

17. IT WAS A SWEET RACKET FOR PUBLISHERS Readers wanted books Publishers controlled the supply $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

20. BUT THEN THE INTERNET HAPPENED

22. and Amazon happened

23. … THE RULES CHANGED FOREVER

24. ooh, pretty! Big Publishers Not Equipped to Deal with Change

25. It’s Tough for BIG Publishers to Transition from a Print-Centric to an E-Centric World… … they have many self-inflicted wounds

27. … their expenses are too high

29. Publishers mitigate risk by giving bean counters increased influence

31. When publishers act less like publishers, authors ask: 1. What can a publisher do for me that I can’t do for myself? 2. Can I reach more readers without a publisher?

32. Against this backdrop, the world of publishing is changing

33. FIVE BIG TRENDS IMPACTING THE FUTURE OF PUBLISHING

34. TREND ONE Bookselling moving to the Web

35. Percentage of book purchases made online vs brick & mortar, P- & E- Brick & Mortar Web Today?

37. TREND TWO: Reading Moving to Screens

38. Reading moving to screens

39. Ebooks to overtake print Print books Ebooks Today?

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

43. TREND THREE The Rise of Self-Publishing (a.k.a indie publishing)

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

48. TREND FOUR Content Explosion

50. Content explosion Indie books Online alt content Today? Zombie books New trad. books

51. TREND FIVE Ebook Prices to Decline

52. Ebook Prices to Decline Today?

54. TO SAVE BOOKS, WE MUST CHANGE BOOKS AND CHANGE PUBLISHING

57. ! Q&A - BREAK ! Next up: Primer – How to Produce, Publish, Price and Distribute an Ebook

58. Planning your move to ebooks

61. Ebook Formatting

62. Formatting is the process of preparing your book for conversion to an ebook

65. Formatting for Smashwords Over 120,000 Downloads!

66. Cover Image

69. Don’t be Lazy

70. Don’t be Dim Le Peuple de L’Etat de New York Contre Dominique Strauss-Khan

71. Most of us design poor covers

72. So I Hired a Pro for $45.00 Send email to: [email_address] for “Mark’s List”

73. Conversion

74. Conversion = Turning your manuscript into an ebook file readable on multiple ebook reading devices

75. E-reading Devices

77. Offer Book in Multiple Ebook Formats

79. Pricing

81. Considerations Beyond Price

83. ISBN

86. Copyright

88. Gather Ye Metadata

90. Distribution to Retailers

91. Ebook retailers want indie ebooks Mobile apps

93. Content Distribution Options Direct to customer Direct to retailer Distributor Pros High margin, direct contact with readers Pays 35-70%, real time reporting Pays 60% (for some retailers, pays more than going direct), time-savings, quickly access multiple retailers, aggregated reporting and analytics, priority support 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 better margins Slower sales reporting (1 - 4 weeks), takes 5-10% commission on retail price

94. How Royalties Compare Retail Price Smashwords retail site B&N Distributed Via Smashwords B&N Pubit $.99 $.56 $.60 (60%) $.40 (40%) $2.99 $2.21 (74%) $1.80 (60%) $1.94 (65%) $9.99 $7.99 (80%) $6.00 (60%) $6.50 (65%)

95. Upload

97. How about a live demo?

98. Let’s Publish a Book about Squirrels

99. Smashwords Demo

101. ! BREAK ! Next up, Part III: Ebook Best Practices, 7 Secrets

102. Let’s talk best practices for indie ebooks

103. The Seven Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success Best practices of the most commercially successful indie ebook authors

104. Secret #1

108. Would You Buy This Book?

109. Good Covers Not Expensive (this was $45)

110. And then there are the rule breakers … Ebook cover for Why Me? by Sarah Burleton

111. Now in Third Week on NY Times Ebook Bestseller List

112. Secret Two

114. Secret Three

116. Ebook retailers want indie ebooks Mobile app

117. Secret Four

119. Secret Five

121. Secret Six

123. Secret Seven

125. BONUS Secret Eight

127. The Viral Dream First reader More Readers

128. Viral Decay, The Reality First reader Readers

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

132. BONUS Secret Nine

134. BONUS Secret Ten

141. The Plan Forward

142. You are the future of publishing

143. You are your own gatekeeper

144. YOU decide when your manuscript graduates to PUBLISHED BOOK

145. Support ALL your retailers Diversify your exposure

146. Take risks, experiment

147. Think Globally

148. Within a Few Years, the Market for Your Books Outside the US will Dwarf the US Market Already, ~50% of Smashwords Apple iBookstore Sales are Outside the US

149. You Have the Tools to Reach a Worldwide Market Today

152. Thank you for listening! Q&A Connect with me: Web: www.smashwords.com Blog: blog.smashwords.com Twitter: @markcoker Facebook: facebook.com/markcoker HuffPo: huffingtonpost.com/mark-coker Email: first initial second initial @smashwords.com