A primer on ebook publishing for travel writers. This presentation was given by Mark Coker May 21, 2011 at a meeting of the Bay Area Travel Writers association at the the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

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: Reading Moves to Screens, Ebooks Overtake print

12. Reading moving to screens

14. Ebooks to overtake print Print books Ebooks Today?

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

17. TREND THREE Authors Become Publishers

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

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 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. Secret Four

43. Secret Five

45. Secret Six

47. Secret Seven

49. BONUS Secret Eight

51. The Viral Dream First reader More Readers

52. Viral Decay, The Reality First reader Readers

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

57. 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 Facebook: facebook.com/markcoker Email: first initial second initial at smashwords dot com