BAIPA: Mark Coker, Smashwords — Ebook Publishing Best Practices
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Transcript of BAIPA: Mark Coker, Smashwords — Ebook Publishing Best Practices
Ebook Publishing Best Practices16 Secrets of the Bestselling Indie Ebook Authors
November 8, 2014
Mark Coker Founder, Smashwords
Twitter: @markcoker
Welcome
• What you’ll learn• The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success
• 16 Best Practices of the Bestselling Indie Ebook Authors
• Who this presentation is for• Indie authors, aspiring authors, published
authors and the people who love and support them
• No technical experience required!
Let’s talk best practices
Platforms like Smashwords make ePublishing and eDistribution Easy…
Reaching Readers is Difficult *
* most books don’t sell well
The Long Tail of Authordom
Author sales rank
Authorearnings
The Secret to Reaching Readers:
Best Practices!
Let’s review the best practices of the best-selling indie authors
Secret One
#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
• Readers prefer L O N G E R books
Longer Books Sell Better!
As word count drops, sales and sales rank drops. Visualize the power curve overlaid on this chart. Books ranked in the top 10, 50 or 100 will sell exponentially more units than books ranked 1,000 or worse
Secret Two
#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
• Should arrest reader with thumb nail
• Makes a promise to the reader
What’s this book about?
Don’t be sloppy
Don’t do this either
Great covers make a promise
Great covers make a promise
Great covers make a promise
Great covers make a promise
Great covers make a promise
Great covers make a promise
And now a case study…The evolution of one cover
to this cover
… to this cover…
The cover sparked a breakout at Apple
And landed her on the NY Times Bestseller List
Secret Three
#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
Bestselling Authors Publish More Books
Secret Four
#4 Give (some of) Your Books away for Free
• If you have a deep backlist, offer at least one full-length book for free• Makes it easier for readers to take a chance
on an unknown, untrusted author
• ~39X more downloads
• Turbocharges a series
• Free works for standalone promos too
• The highest grossing authors at Smashwords offer at least one free book
FREE Series Starters Turbocharge a Series
Secret Five
#5 Patience is a Virtue
• 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
• Ebooks are immortal• Never go out of print
• When your book lands at retailer, it’s a seedling, nourish it
• Never remove
• Let’s look at some examples…
Slow boil, breakout, slow boil, bigger breakout
Slow boil, breakout, slow boil, smaller breakouts
Slow boil to breakout
Ruth Ann Nordin’s An Inconvenient Marriage
Secret Six
#6 Maximize Availability, Avoid Exclusivity
• Ebook retailing is not like sports or politics
• If your book is not available at every retailer, it’s not discoverable or purchasable
• Exclusivity • angers fans
• limits audience
• limits merchandising opportunities
• increases your dependence upon a single sales outlet
Smashwords Distribution Network
Upload/Update Once, Distribute Globally
Secret Seven
#7 Build a Platform You Control
• Platform is your ability to reach and cultivate fans
• Platform gives you control, leverage
• Let fans decide how to connect
• Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn
• Blog and/or website
• Mailing list subscription
• Include “Connect with the author” links at the end of every book (more on this later!)
Secret Eight
Secret #8 Use Viral Catalysts to Drive Word of Mouth
• Books have always been a word of mouth business• Your readers determine your success
• Leverage viral catalysts
What’s a Viral Catalyst?
• A viral catalyst is anything that makes your book more available, accessible, desirable and enjoyable to readers
• Read the Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success (it’s FREE!) to learn how viral catalysts spur word-of-mouth
Viral Catalysts
• Every thing you do right increases virality
Great coverGreat bookBroad distributionFair priceGood categorizationProfessionally editedGreat formatting
Great titleGreat book descriptionGreat marketingSampling enabledMultiple formatsPatienceLUCK!
• Fall short anywhere, and you undermine true potential
Secret Nine
Secret #9 Pricing Strategy is Lever for Success
• Pricing strategy impacts unit sales
• Unit volume (sales and downloads) builds author platform, drives readers to your backlist
• Unit sales X royalty per unit = profit
• Pricing strategy essential to maximize both
Which Price Points for Fiction Get Most Downloads (% over/under
average)
Which Price Points Yield Highest Earnings
Secret Ten
Secret 10: Don’t Let Fear of Piracy Paralyze Your
Publishing
Everything you need to know about piracy
• Obscurity is bigger risk• Black hat pirates who steal your book
wouldn’t have purchased it anyway• Most piracy is accidental – it’s an
enthusiastic fan marketing your book for you
• Combat piracy by making your book easier to purchase than steal• Broad availability at all stores
• Low, fair price
Secret Eleven
Secret #11 Leverage Preorders!
• What’s a preorder? Advance book listing at major retailers Allows readers to reserve a copy in advance of
release date Customer credit card not charged until release
date Fast track to bestseller lists We’ll do a deep dive on preorders and preorder
strategy in the final segment today!
Secret Twelve
Secret #12 Practice Partnership and Positivity
• Your fellow authors and service providers are your partners• Develop relationships
• Their success is your success
• Share your secrets
• Positivity trumps negativity• Relationships give you upper hand
• Internet rants are permanent
• Google alerts keep no secrets
Secret Thirteen
Secret #13 Collaborate with Fellow Authors
• Identify authors you love and your fans will love
• Publish collaborations• Box sets of full-length
• Short story collections
• Joint promos• They have fans you don’t reach, you have
fans they don’t reach
• Everyone wins
Secret Fourteen
Secret #14 Add three sections to backmatter
1. About Yourname Lastname
• Short bio
1. Other books by Yourname Lastname
• Title 1
• Title 2
1. Connect with Yourname Lastname
• Facebook:
• Twitter:
• Web site:
• Blog:
• Smashwords author page:
Secret Fifteen
Secret #15 Think Globally
Apple, B&N, Kobo, Amazon and others are going global
You Have the Tools to Reach a Worldwide Market Today
The tools are FREE
The market for your English-language books outside the US will soon exceed the US
market
Apple operates iBooks in 51 countries. We distribute to Apple. In 2013, 45% of
Smashwords Apple iBooks sales were outside the US
Secret Sixteen
Secret #16 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
That’s it!
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