This presentation, given June 21 2013 at the Crested Butte Writers Conference, identifies the best practices of the most commercially successful ebook authors. Learn how to make your ebook stand out from the crowd by making your book more discoverable, more enjoyable, and more desirable to readers.

1. The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success
Ebook Publishing Best Practices
June 21, 2013
Mark Coker
Founder, Smashwords
Twitter: @markcoker

2. My Backstory

3. My wife, a bookworm, is a former reporter for Soap Opera Weekly. We
wrote a novel together about the soap opera industry.

4. Beta readers, especially soap fans, told us they loved it. We found a
great agent at a top literary agency who loved it too.

5. Publishers Said “No”
• Despite great efforts of our
agent, every major NY
publisher said NO (TWICE!)

6. I evaluated our options
1. The rational option
 Give up and admit we suck
1. The irrational option
 Find a solution that saves the world from
the tyranny of a broken publishing model

7. My Answer: Smashwords
• * FREE * eBook Publishing Platform
• Free ebook printing press
• Distribution to major ebook retailers and
libraries
• Free learning materials help writers
become professional publishers

8. 0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Ebooks published at Smashwords
140
6,000
28,800
92,000
191,000
230,000
June 2013

9. How Smashwords Works
• UPLOAD
• Author uploads their manuscript to
Smashwords (Word .doc or epub)
• Instant, free ebook conversion
• For sale within 3 minutes
• DISTRIBUTE
• Distribution to retailers and
libraries
• GET PAID
• Author earns 60-80% list
• Quarterly payments

10. Let’s talk best practices

11. Self-publishing platforms like
Smashwords make ePublishing and
eDistribution Easy…

12. Reaching Readers is Still Difficult *
* but achievable if you emulate best practices

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

14. Secret One

15. #1 Your best marketing is a
great book
• With the power to publish comes the
responsibility to be a great publisher
• Honor your reader with a great book
• Move reader to a satisfying emotional extreme
• Turns readers into evangelists
• Be fanatical about quality
• Edit, revise, edit, revise, repeat, proof
• Leverage beta readers

16. Secret Two

17. #2 Create a Great Cover image
• Invest in a quality cover image
• Your first impression on path to discovery
• Look professional
• Resonate with target audience
• Makes a promise to the reader
• Should arrest reader with thumb nail

18. Don’t create an ebook cover image
by photographing your print book_

19. What’s this book about?
Le Peuple de L’Etat de New York Contre Dominique Strauss-Khan

20. Great covers make a promise

21. Case study: Look what happened
when this romance author went
from this cover…

22. … to this cover…

23. The cover sparked a breakout at
Apple

24. It 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
• Most effective 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 at
Smashwords offer at least one free
book

29. Secret Five

30. #5 Patience is a Virtue
• Ebooks are immortal
• Never go out of print
• When your book lands at retailer, it’s a
seedling, nourish it
• Never pull out by the roots
• 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
• Let’s look at some examples…

31. Slow boil, breakout, slow boil,
bigger breakout

32. Slow boil, slow build, breakout,
slow boil

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

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

35. Secret Six

36. #6 Maximize Availability, Avoid
Exclusivity
• Ebook retailing is not like sports, religion or
politics
• If your book is not available at every retailer,
it’s not discoverable or purchasable
• Exclusivity angers fans, limits audience,
increases your dependence upon a single
sales outlet
• Retailers, libraries & device-makers invest
millions of dollars to attract readers to your
books
• Maximize availability at retailers AND
libraries

37. Ebook retailers want indie
ebooks

38. Secret Seven

39. #7 Trust Your Readers and
Partners
• Don’t worry about piracy
• Copy protection is counterproductive
• If you don’t trust your readers to honor your
copyright, you’ll reach fewer paid readers
• Trust your supply chain partners
• If you limit distribution due to lack of trust,
you’ll limit your sales

40. Secret Eight

41. Secret #8 Architect for Virality
• Books have always been a word of
mouth business
• Your readers determine your success
• Understand the power of your “First
Reader”
• Reach First Readers with marketing

42. The Viral Dream
First reader
More Readers

43. Viral Decay, The Reality
First reader
Readers

44. Negative Virality
First reader
This book
sucks!!!!
= Last reader
Fun fact: 29 of 30 Apple bestsellers
had rating of 4.5 stars

45. How to Architect for Virality
• Implement the Secrets
• Eliminate friction that limits
• availability
• sampling
• purchasing
• enjoyment
• The answer:
Leverage viral catalysts

46. What’s a Viral Catalyst?
• A viral catalyst is something that makes your
book more available, accessible, desirable
and enjoyable to readers
• Read the Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success (it’s

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

48. Secret Nine

49. 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

50. How Price Impacts Units Sold

51. What Price Yields the Greatest
Author Earnings?

52. Making use of the previous two slides:
Q: If given the choice of a low price or a high
price, and you’ll net essentially the same
earnings, which price is best?
A: The lower price is better, because at $2.99 or
$3.99, you’ll reach four times as many readers as
$10+. A reader is a potential fan, and fan is a
potential super fan. Super fans market your
books to other readers. This is why indie ebook
authors have significant competitive advantage
over traditionally published ebook authors. Indies
are building fan bases faster at lower prices.

53. Secret Ten

54. 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

55. Secret Eleven

56. Secret #11 Think Globally

57. Apple, B&N, Kobo, Amazon and
others are going global
You Have the Tools to Reach a
Worldwide Market Today
The tools are FREE

58. The market for your English-language books
outside the US will soon dwarf the US market
Apple operates iBookstores in 51 countries.
We distribute to Apple. In January 2013,
~48% of Smashwords Apple iBookstore sales
were outside the US

59. Secret Twelve

60. 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

61. Thanks for Listening, and Good Luck!

62. 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)

63. 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