Learn the best practices of the bestselling ebook authors. This comprehensive tutorial, presented by Mark Coker of Smashwords, teaches authors 16 best practices for reaching more readers. Topics covered include book marketing, cover design, how to use FREE ebooks to draw more readers to priced books, how book sales develop over time, retail distribution strategy, platform building, maximizing viral word-of-mouth with Viral Catalysts, pricing strategy, piracy, preorders, how to collaborate with other authors to build readership, global book markets, connecting with fans, and tips to build a more profitable self publishing business. View the video of this presentation at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnd7jYcjqm8

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

2. Notes for the Slideshare edition of this
presentation
This is the companion deck to a Smashwords video workshop
available on YouTube
Here are links to each video in this 5-part series:
#1 - An Introduction to Ebook Publishing (a primer and e-publishing checklist)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khM4czIJUVM
#2 - The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success (best practices secrets for reaching more readers)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnd7jYcjqm8
#3 - Smashwords Survey Helps Authors Sell More Books (pricing strategy and fun metrics)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rrl4NExo3Y
#4 - 10 Trends Driving the Future of Authorship (indie authors are the future of publishing!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbT7r-DUa6M
#5 - How to Reach More Readers at Apple iBooks (merchandising secrets to grow sales!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKwwcL_FS_c
The complete video collection is at http://www.youtube.com/user/smashwords
View more Smashwords presentations on Slideshare at
http://www.slideshare.net/Smashwords/presentations

3. About this video
• What you’ll learn
• 16 best practices tips for reaching more
readers
•
Topics covered include book marketing, retail
distribution strategy, pricing strategy, cover
design, author platform building, preorders and
more
• Who this video is for
• Writers, aspiring authors, published authors
• No technical experience required!
•
If you’re new to ebooks, check out our
Introduction to Ebook Publishing video on Youtube

4. This is me

5. My Backstory

7. In 2002, we decided to write a
satire about the daytime
television soap opera industry

9. 2004-2005: Publishers Said “No”
• Despite great efforts of our
agent, every major NY
publisher said NO (TWICE!)

10. I evaluated our options
1. The rational option
 Accept failure
1. The irrational option
 Believe in ourselves
 Mortgage our home and try to fix the
problem

11. The problem
• The publishing industry was
failing to serve
 Authors
 Readers
 The future of books
• Publishers could only guess what
readers wanted to buy
• Throwing spaghetti against the wall

12. I imagined a publishing revolution
where writers would rise up and take
control

13. Writers needed the tools for
revolution..
.. tools that would enable them to
professionally publish without
publishers

14. My solution: Smashwords
• FREE eBook Publishing Platform
 Free ebook printing press
 Distribution to major ebook retailers and
libraries
 Best practices knowledge to help writers
become professional publishers

15. The Smashwords Mission
• The goal:
• Make it fast, free and easy to publish
an ebook
• Give writers the freedom to publish
what they want
• Give readers the freedom to decide
what’s worth reading

16. 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

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

18. Let’s talk best practices

19. Smashwords make ePublishing and
eDistribution Easy…

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

21. Let’s review 16 best practices of
the best-selling indie authors
FREE at all
major
ebook
retailers
Download
to learn all
30 best
practices

22. Secret One

23. #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

24. Secret Two

25. #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
Check out “Mark’s List” of low cost cover designers. Email
list@smashwords.com

26. What’s this book about?

27. Don’t do this

28. Don’t do this either

29. Great covers make a promise

30. Great covers make a promise

31. Great covers make a promise

32. Great covers make a promise

33. Great covers make a promise

34. Great covers make a promise

35. A case study: Look what
happened when the author went
from this cover

36. … to this cover…

37. The cover sparked a breakout at
Apple

38. And landed her on the NY Times Bestseller
List

39. Secret Three

40. #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

41. Secret Four

42. #4 Give (some of) Your Books
away for Free
• If you have a deep backlist, offer at
least one full-length book for free
• Eliminates financial risk for first-time
readers
• ~91X more downloads
• Turbocharges a series
• Free works for standalone promos too
• The highest grossing authors at
Smashwords offer at least one free
book

43. Secret Five

44. #5 Patience is a Virtue
•
Ebooks are immortal
•
•
When your book lands at retailer, it’s a
seedling, nourish it
•
•
Never go out of print
Never remove
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…

45. Slow boil, breakout, slow boil,
bigger breakout

46. Slow boil, slow build, breakout,
slow boil

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

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

49. Secret Six

50. #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
• limits merchandising opportunities
• increases your dependence upon a
single sales outlet

51. Ebook retailers want indie
ebooks

52. Secret Seven

53. #7 Build your Platform
•
Platform gives you control, leverage
•
Platform is your ability to reach and cultivate
fans
•
Let fans decide how to connect
•
•
Mailing list subscription
•
Facebook
•
•
Blog and/or website
Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn
Include “Connect with the author” links at the
end of every book

54. Secret Eight

55. 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

56. The Viral Dream
First reader
More Readers

57. Viral Decay, The Reality
First reader
Readers

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

59. How to Architect for Virality
• Implement best practices
• Avoid mistakes that undermine
• Eliminate friction that limits
• availability
• discoverability
• sampling
• purchasing
• enjoyment
• Leverage viral catalysts

60. 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

61. Viral Catalysts
• Every thing you do right increases
virality
Great cover
Great book
Broad distribution
Fair price
Good categorization
Professionally edited
Great formatting
Great title
Great book description
Great marketing
Social media enabled
Sampling enabled
Multiple formats
LUCK!
• Fall short anywhere, and you create
unnecessary friction

62. Secret Nine

63. 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

64. How Price Impacts Units Sold

65. What Price Yields the Greatest
Author Earnings?

66. Secret Ten

67. Secret 10: Don’t Worry about
Piracy

68. 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

69. Irrational fear of piracy leads
leads to obscurity
• The only reliable method of piracy
prevention is to NEVER PUBLISH
• Anti-piracy measures such as DRM only
limit availability, accessibility and
enjoyment (they create FRICTION)
• Combat piracy by making your book
easier to purchase than steal
• Low, fair price
• Broad distribution

70. Secret Eleven

71. Secret #11
Leverage Preorders!
• Catalyst for increased sales
• At Apple and Kobo, accumulated sales
credit all at once on “onsale” date
•
Increased visibility leads to virtuous, selfreinforcing cycle of sales, also boughts
•
Capture the reader’s order
• Budget 4-6 week preorder “runway”
• Execute multi-part advance marketing plan
• Increases retailer merchandising opps
• NEW! - Smashwords delivers preorders
to Apple, B&N and Kobo!

72. Secret Twelve

73. Secret #12 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 keep no secrets

74. Secret Thirteen

75. Secret #13 Collaborate with
Fellow Authors
• Identify authors you love and your fans
will love
• Publish collaborations
• Short story collections
• Box sets
• Joint promos
• They have fans you don’t reach, you have
fans they don’t reach
• Everyone wins

76. Secret Fourteen

77. Secret #14 Think Globally

78. You Have the Tools to Reach a
Worldwide Market Today
The tools are FREE

79. The Global Ebook Opportunity
•
Countries outside the US are entering the
exponential growth phase of their ebook
markets
•
Ebook retailers going global
•
•
Apple iBooks (51 countries), Amazon (~13), Kobo
(14+), B&N (US, U.K.+)
~45% of Smashwords/iBooks sales global

80. Secret Fifteen

81. Secret #15 Add three sections to
backmatter
•
About the Yourname Lastname
•
•
Short bio
Other books by Yourname Lastname
•
•
•
Title 1
Title 2
Connect with Yourname Lastname
•
Facebook:
•
Twitter:
•
Web site:
•
Blog:
•
Smashwords author page:

82. Secret Sixteen

83. 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

84. Thanks for Listening, and Good Luck!

85. Free Ebook Publishing Resources
•
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)

86. Connect with Smashwords
Connect with Smashwords:
Web: www.smashwords.com
Smashwords FAQ:
https://www.smashwords.com/about/supportfaq
Connect with Mark Coker:
Blog:
blog.smashwords.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/markcoker
Facebook: facebook.com/markcoker
HuffPo: huffingtonpost.com/mark-coker
Twitter: @markcoker