I released a new ebook tonight, The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success. It's priced at FREE. The book represents my attempt to distill, organize, package and share the best practices of the most commercially successful Smashwords authors. The book is organized around 28 different "secrets," in which I explain not only what a writer should do, but also the thinking behind why they should do it. The book took me almost 18 months to write. We've been so crazy busy at Smashwords that most of the writing occurred at 35,000 feet on my frequent flights to here and there, and during vacations. The initial...

That's the title of an article in eBooknewsrer.  Here's the beginning: For some publishers, eBooks are a scary brave new world. To help these folks navigate the waters of the digital publishing revolution and learn by example, we’ve put together a list of some of the leaders in the eBook world. It is worth exploring the work of these leading digital publishers. We’ve listed 5 innovators whose work we are watching. In the coming weeks, we will be doing a series of posts listing leaders in the various aspects of the eBook business — from digital publishers,...

Paul forwarded to me an email from Michael O’Neil from the National Coalition Against Censorship, with a press release noting that the NCAC and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) are mobilizing to put pressure on PayPal to reverse its requirement that online bookshops stop carrying certain kinds of erotica. Scribd carries a copy of the open letter the organizations sent to PayPal. The press release says: The ABFFE and NCAC letter notes that PayPal’s policy has the potential to suppress important literary works.  “Incest, rape and bestiality have been depicted in world...

Welcome to my annual Smashwords year in review. 2011 was another strong year for Smashwords and our authors. We're ending the year with over 92,000 titles published, up from 28,800 at the end of last year. In my 2010 year in review post, 75,000 was my stretch goal for this year, so we beat it by a good margin. Smashwords today supports over 34,000 authors and small publishers around the world, up from 12,000 a year ago. I launched Smashwords four years ago with a crazy idea to change the way books were published, marketed and sold. I believed authors should have the freedom to publish...

From Publishing Perspectives comes an article by Mark Coker: COPENHAGEN: Approximately 90 Scandinavian publishing executives gathered earlier this month in Copenhagen at the historic Carlsberg brewery for the annual invitation-only Scandinavian Publishing Executive Meeting. Schilling, a strategic consultancy for Scandinavian publishers, organizes this annual confab. For the first time, Schilling held the conference entirely in English. Also for the first time, the conference took on a decidedly international theme by importing speakers from Spain, the U.K and United States, including yours truly representing Smashwords. What follows are some of my personal notes and observations from the conference. I invite other attendees to share their notes...

Most writers write to get read, so how do readers discover ebooks?To discover clues to the answer, I posted a survey over at Mobileread, the online forum popular with many ebook readers.I challenged readers to select the single most common criteria they follow to discover their next read.The results provide some interesting data points Smashwords authors and publishers might consider in their marketing efforts. To capture a broad range of usable data, I suggested 12 answers, one of which was "Other." Respondents were allowed to select one answer only since I wanted to identify...

From the O'Reilly site: Presented by: Mark Coker, Chad Jennings, Pete Nikolai, Bob Young Duration: Approximately 60 minutes. Cost: Free The lines between traditional and self-publishing is blurring. In fact, some traditional publishers are launching their own self-publishing imprints. We've lined up four leaders of the self-publishing world to share lessons learned and how we can all work together. The webcast features insights from Eileen Gittins (CEO of Blurb), Bob Young (CEO of Lulu), Mark Coker (Smashwords Founder) and Pete Nikolai (Director at Westbow Press, the self-publishing imprint of Thomas Nelson). You can register here....

Artist Nina Paley has created a cool collection of images for those ready to rail against DRM. She created versions for Readers Against DRM, Authors Against DRM, and Librarians Against DRM. If you share these sentiments, go to the ReadersBillofRights.info site, download the images and sprinkle them on your blog or web site. The images can be freely distributed, though please cite http://readersbillofrights.info as the source of the images. DRM stands for "Digital Rights Management." It's a copy protection scheme designed to prevent piracy. While few would disagree that authors deserve compensation for their hard work, the problem with DRM...

In the dark alleyways of publishing, an author uprising is brewing against Big Publishing. I’ve been thinking a lot about revolution lately thanks to the events unfolding in North Africa. My wife, Lesleyann, has friends in Egypt, and they’ve kept us up to date via email. Their dispatches alternate between fear, uncertainty, optimism and celebration. Revolutions are an awkward and messy business. They represent the end of one paradigm and the beginning of the next. While the root causes can trace back decades, when the uprising arrives it can occur with alarming rapidity. The events ...

Welcome to my annual Smashwords year in review where I report our progress and plans for the new year. 2010 was a breakout year for us. It was also a breakout year for our indie ebook authors and publishers. Exactly two years ago we were publishing 140 books from 90 authors. We thought that was fantastic for our first year in business. Last year at this time we hit 6,000 books from 2,600 authors and publishers. We were thrilled. Today we're listing 28,800 books from over 12,000 authors and publishers. We released 3,200 new ebooks in...

It's annual prognostication time when folks like me stick out their necks and try to predict the future. I invite you to join in the fun. Brush up your crystal ball and share your publishing predictions for 2011 in the comments field below. Earlier today, Jeff Rivera over at MediaBistro interviewed me for my ten book publishing predictions for 2011. I'll list five below, and then I encourage you to click over to Mediabistro for the full ten in his interview, Publishing Predictions for 2011 from Smashwords. If 2010 was the year ebooks went mainstream in the U.S., 2011 will be the year indie...

At first glance, Brian S. Pratt of Boswell, Oklahoma doesn't fit the stereotypical profile of a best-selling author. Yet he, and others Smashwords authors like him, represent the future of publishing. Pratt began publishing with Smashwords in early 2009. His first quarterly royalty payment was $7.82. While most authors would find that number discouraging, Pratt was encouraged. It was a start. In the quarters since, Pratt's earnings have grown, and in recent quarters he's become a veritable breakout success. Last quarter, he earned over $18,000 from sales across...