PUBLISHED NOV/DEC 2019 interview by Alexa Schlosser, Managing Editor, IBPA Independent magazine — The history of Smashwords—the world’s largest distributor of indie e-books—as told by the founder, as well as his thoughts on the future of e-book publishing. Mark Coker didn’t mean to get into e-book publishing. Prior to the founding of Smashwords in 2008, …

PUBLISHED MARCH/APRIL 2019 by Mark Coker, Founder, Smashwords — Here, Mark Coker explains how to make your book market itself by tweaking your viral catalysts Note: This is an excerpt from Smashwords’ Smart Author Podcast, episode 12, hosted by Mark Coker. Most of your new readership will come from readers who weren’t originally looking for …

PUBLISHED APRIL 2015 by Thad McIlroy, publishing analyst Mobile is where today’s customers are headed and where tomorrow’s customers already dwell. And mobile marketing requires a leader who can articulate a compelling technology strategy and keep it on course. This is a vexing issue for publishers. Mobile won’t succeed without a top-level commitment at the …

PUBLISHED JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 by Deb Vanasse, Reporter, IBPA Independent magazine — Watch Joshua Robertson’s video recap of this article! Which developments over the past year—e-books, audiobooks, artificial intelligence, Amazon—portend opportunity, and which pose obstacles to be navigated? With the turning of the calendar to a new year, publishers take stock of industry trends. E-books versus …

PUBLISHED AUGUST 2016 by Lynn Rosen, IBPA Independent contributing editor IBPA Independent’s consulting editor, Lynn Rosen, asked nine people in the publishing world about the ideas exciting them and the innovations they’ve been able to put into action. See their responses below. Brian O’Leary Principal, Magellan Media Consulting What is the most innovative thing happening …

(BLOG POST) by David Wogahn — (This article was originally posted on Sellbox.) Here is how some authors have been gaming self-publishing on Amazon: “Write a bunch of short books and get a bunch of friends (or paid reviewers) to give you 5 stars. Add your books to KDP Select—the program that pays authors every …

PUBLISHED MARCH 2015 by Mark Coker, Founder, Smashwords — After a decade of exponential growth in e-books, with indies partying like it was 1999, that growth has slowed. Indies have hit a brick wall and scrambling to make sense of it. In recent weeks, for example, I’ve heard a number of indie authors report that …

Selling Rights Around the World Parenting Press has sold Korean rights to two children’s picture books—The Way I Feel, by Janan Cain, and The Way I Act, illustrated by Cain and written by Steve Metzger—to Book Bank Publishing Co. The Press has also sold simplified Chinese rights to those titles in the People’s Republic of …

PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2014 by Mark Coker, Founder, Smashwords — There’s some confusion among authors, publishers, and media people about the difference between Amazon’s KDP and its KDP Select. KDP Select is the Amazon e-book self-publishing option that requires exclusivity. The regular KDP service does not require exclusivity. At nearly every writer’s conference I attend, authors …

(NEWS) This article was originally published February 20, 2014 in Publishers Weekly. By Mark Coker “With a debate brewing about how much indie authors can, and do, earn from their writing–much of it sparked by a blog post from author Hugh Howey—PW asked Mark Coker, founder of indie publishing platform Smashwords, to offer his two …