The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success

Ebook Publishing Best Practices

June 21, 2013

Mark Coker Founder, Smashwords

Twitter: @markcoker

My Backstory

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

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

Publishers Said “No”

• Despite great efforts of our agent, every major NY publisher said NO (TWICE!)

I evaluated our options

1. The rational option Give up and admit we suck

2. The irrational option Find a solution that saves the world from the

tyranny of a broken publishing model

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

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Ebooks published at Smashwords

1406,000

28,800

92,000

191,000

230,000 June 2013

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

Let’s talk best practices

Self-publishing platforms like Smashwords make ePublishing and

eDistribution Easy…

Reaching Readers is Still Difficult *

* but achievable if you emulate 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

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

• Makes a promise to the reader

• Should arrest reader with thumb nail

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

What’s this book about?

Le Peuple de L’Etat de New York Contre Dominique Strauss-Khan

Great covers make a promise

Case study: Look what happened when this romance author went

from this cover…

… to this cover…

The cover sparked a breakout at Apple

It 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

Secret Four

#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

Secret Five

#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…

Slow boil, breakout, slow boil, bigger breakout

Slow boil, slow build, breakout, slow boil

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, 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

Ebook retailers want indie ebooks

Secret Seven

#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

Secret Eight

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

The Viral Dream

First reader

More Readers

Viral Decay, The Reality

First reader

Readers

Negative Virality

First reader

This booksucks!!!!

= Last reader

Fun fact: 29 of 30 Apple bestsellers had rating of 4.5 stars

How to Architect for Virality

• Implement the Secrets

• Eliminate friction that limits

• availability

• sampling

• purchasing

• enjoyment

• The answer:Leverage viral catalysts

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 FREE!) to learn how viral catalysts spur word-of-mouth

Viral Catalysts

• Every thing you do right increases virality

Great coverGreat storyProfessionally editedGreat titleGreat book descriptionGreat bookGreat marketingFair price

Social media enabledSampling enabledMultiple formatsBroad distributionGood formattingGood categorizationLUCK!

Secret Nine

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

How Price Impacts Units Sold

What Price Yields the Greatest Author Earnings?

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.

Secret Ten

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

Secret Eleven

Secret #11 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 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

Secret Twelve

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

Thanks for Listening, and Good Luck!

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)

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