Five Questions for Mark Coker, Founder, CEO of Smashwords

Mark Coker founded Smashwords to change the way books are published, sampled, marketed and sold. During this short but informative interview Coker speaks about the differences and challenges of traditional versus indie publishing, gives his bold predictions for the future of Ebooks, and more.

Phillip Thomas Duck: 

There has been a great deal of debate at blogs and online forums pitting 

traditionally published authors against indie authors. So let me start off 

by asking you a question you likely are not asked very often.What do you

see as the benefits of the traditional route to publishing?

Mark Coker:

A good publisher assumes all the publishing risk for you.  They pay you 

an up front advance that they understand they're unlikely to earn back, 

and they invest significant sums of money to give your book a chance 

at success.

Here in the US, print books still account for 90% of all book sales, and

most of these sales are through brick and mortal retail stores.  So today,

if you want the chance to sell a lot of books, a traditional publisher is 

the best route because they have the power to get your book distributed 

overnight (well, 12-18 months after they acquire it) to thousands of

bookstores.  The operative word, however, is "chance." Most of those 

sales are derived from a handful of bestsellers, so most traditionally

published authors are destined for a quick trip to the remainder bins. 

The distribution benefit of the traditional publisher will diminish as 

print declines and ebooks rise, and as more and more book buying

(both print and ebook) shifts to the Web.

I see an entire spectrum of publishing options, ranging from 

self-publishing to traditional.  Many authors will enjoy the benefits 

of both.

A lot of authors mistakenly believe that publishing begins and ends 

with them writing a book and uploading it to Smashwords.  An indie

author must become their own publisher, and this carries a responsibility 

to fulfill the business obligations of the traditional publisher, such as editing, 

proofing, production, sales, marketing, distribution and backoffice 

accounting.  It's tough work. Traditional publishers have the power to 

put enormous weight and talent behind an author and title. 
  

A great publisher has the ability to do for the author what that author

cannot do, or may not want to do, for themselves.  A great publisher

can take a good book and make it great.  This power to transform an

author's work into something better is why I think the good publishers

out there still have a very bright future.

Phillip Thomas Duck:

Now, the more obvious question: Why should an author consider the

indie route and a distributor such as Smashwords?

Mark Coker:  

Next to Amazon and their DTP platform, Smashwords is probably the

largest ebook publishing and distribution platform for indie authors. 

We're now publishing and distributing nearly 19,000 original ebooks 

from over 8,000 authors around the world, and we're adding over 2,000

new releases each month.  Our platform provides the author

unprecedented control over all aspects of their book.

Ebooks are the fastest growing segment of publishing today, and 

Smashwords helps the author quickly and easily get their book 

distributed to all the most important retail outlets.  The book will 

never go "out of print." It's immortal.  If the author wants to be their 

own publisher, Smashwords is a no-brainer for them.  The author 

retains all the rights and we pay them 85% of the net proceeds (equal

to only 7.5% to 10% of the suggested retail price at retailers), and in

exchange for a small commission we distribute the book to a growing

network of the world's most important ebook retailers. Unlike with print

books, the distribution of ebooks is fully democratized.  A Smashwords

book appears alongside the books of traditionally published books.  

Some Smashwords books are already starting to find their way to the

best-seller lists.  A book's potential is limited only by the book's ability

to resonate with readers.

Phillip Thomas Duck:

Share with us THREE predictions you have regarding the future of 

publishing as well as your timetable for when you believe these things

will occur.

Mark Coker: 

1. Ebooks eclipse print books:  Ebook sales will exceed print sales 

by 2015.

2. Pro authors go indie:  In the next 12-24 months, we'll see a wave

of well-known authors go indie for their next books, driven by the 

opportunity to reach more readers, more profitably, by selling low

cost, high-profit indie ebooks. 

3. Indie authors to become tomorrow's best sellers:  Five years from 

now, multiple Smashwords authors will grace the charts of the NY 

Times best-seller lists.  It's inevitable, because we're enabling the

publishing and discovery of tomorrow's next big literary greats.

 
Phillip Thomas Duck:

You are stranded on an island with your e-reader of choice, what FIVE

books are you happy you downloaded?

Mark Coker:

I'll be happy that I remembered 5 other things:  a satellite phone, 

modem, solar power generator, e-reader and laptop so I can 

download anything I want.  :)
 

Phillip Thomas Duck:

Finish this sentence: Mark Coker is...
 

Mark Coker: 

on a mission to transform book publishing by liberating the creative 

talents of the world's indie authors.


Mark Coker

Founder

Smashwords, Inc. http://www.smashwords.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/markcoker

http://blog.smashwords.com

http://www.twitter.com/markcoker

Mark is co-author along with his wife, Lesleyann, of Boob Tube, a novel that explores the behind-the-scenes world of daytime television soap operas. It was Mark's frustration trying to get Boob Tube published that inspired him to start Smashwords. He believes Smashwords holds the promise to make publishing more enriching for authors, readers and publishers.  

With Mark's previous startup, BestCalls.com, which he launched in 1999, he helped level the playing field for small stock market investors, who at the time were denied access to the earnings conference calls of publicly traded companies. His work with BestCalls, as a champion for fair disclosure, was a catalyst for the SEC’s ground breaking Regulation FD. BestCalls was acquired in 2002 by Shareholder.com and is now owned and operated by the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.  

In addition to Mark's work with Smashwords, since 1993 he has owned Dovetail Public Relations, an award-winning Silicon Valley PR firm.  Mark is a long time angel investor and advisor to technology and media startups. He currently serves on the advisory boards of Knowledge Genie, a digital publishing startup, and GetQuik, a fast-growing provider of restaurant order automation technology and services. Between 2007 and 2009, Mark served on the advisory board for Flat World Knowledge, the leading publisher of open source textbooks.

Mark is a contributing columnist for the Huffington Post, where he writes about ebooks and the future of publishing.  You can find his previous columns here.

Mark is a graduate of the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley, where he received his B.S. in marketing.