Making Simple eBooks and Making eBooks Simple
San Francisco, November 2, 2011
Mark Coker Founder, Smashwords
@markcoker
Our Simple Mission
Make ebook publishing & distribution
Fast
Free
Simple and…
… and profitable for our authors, publishers, agents and retail partners
Simple is Good
• Simple is faster, smarter, cheaper
• ~80%* or more of ebook units sold are “simple”
• Simple = well-formatted straight narrative, or narrative + images
• Complexity bad
• Added cost & risk for publisher
• Added cost to consumer
*BISG estimates 51% of ebook units sold are fiction. Fiction is narrative. My assumption: 60%+ of remaining 49% is narrative, or narrative + images
What Matters to Readers?
“Foo foo” is the frilly stuff most readers won’t miss if it’s not there, like drop caps. Kind of like lint in the belly button. Readers want well-formatted,
accessible and quality books with great words. This is what I think. You’re welcome to think different.
How are simple books working for us?
31,000+Number of authors, publishers, agents served by Smashwords
7,000+ebooks released at Smashwords last 30 days
82,000+ebooks published at Smashwords
0100002000030000400005000060000700008000090000
2008 2009 2010 2011
Indie ebooks published at Smashwords
140
6,000
28,800
82,000 (11/2/11)
How did we do it?
Bags of VC Money?
No. We haven’t accepted a penny of venture capital money, nor do we want it. We’ve been profitable for 13 months.
Army of super-hero ninja squirrels ?
No. We’re 11 people (up from 3 one year ago).
Did we shake down authors?
It’s against our DNA to charge fees. We earn a commission if we sell something, and earn nothing if we don’t.
No bags of money, squirrels or shakedowns.
We provide FREE publishing and distribution tools
We never stop making our tools faster, simpler, better
Here’s how we make books
Step 1: BYO Word Processor & Manuscript
MicrosoftWord
Open OfficeWriter
Step 2 – Implement our Formatting Tips(over 130,000 copies downloaded!)
Step 3 – Instant, FREE ConversionSmashwords Meatgrinder
High-quality multi-format conversions for narrative & narrative + images, fast/free updating
Meatgrinder creates quality books that make readers happy …
Reflowable
Custom styling
Hyperlinks
NCX navigation
Automated formatting error detection and correction
EPUBCHECK compliance
Instant updates/revisions
Meatgrinder limitations
• Although we think Meatgrinder is cool, it’s not without limitations, so here’s where we think we need improvement
• Doesn’t support direct .epub/.mobi/.pdf/ etc uploads of pre-formatted files
• Drop caps weak
• Support for bullets and numbered lists needs improvement
• Hand-coded books (as opposed to automated conversions) will always provide more precise control (but do readers really care about foo foo for simple books??)
Step 4 - Distribution to Apple, B&N, Kobo, Sony, Diesel, others
Final Thoughts
• Simple works great for vast majority of books readers want to buy
• fiction
• narrative non-fiction
• Simple is good for books, good for authors/publishers/agents/retailers
• simple books can also = high-quality books
• cuts production costs/risks
• faster time to market
• enables lower prices for consumers
Thanks for listening!
Connect with Mark Coker:
Web: www.smashwords.com
Blog: blog.smashwords.com
Twitter: @markcoker
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