The Rise of Ebooks How to Publish, Promote and Sell Your Ebook

Self Publishing Book Expo

Mark Coker Founder, Smashwords

November 7, 2009

The Backstory on Smashwords

• Hell knows no fury like an author scorned• Launched Smashwords 18 months ago

• Ebook publishing and distribution platform• 4,300+ ebooks published

• Over 200 million words published

• 1,950+ authors

• Mission: make ebook publishing fast, easy, FREE and profitable for authors/publishers

Will ebooks replace print books?

Ebooks are just another format

Each format offers packaged units of words Each delivers words on a substrate medium Each represents a different way to enjoy a

book

The Past and Present of Ebooks

Ebooks bombed in the ‘90s

• Made poor first impression on early adopters• Screens poor substitute for paper

• Overpriced

• DRM = confusion, frustration

• Limited selection

• … yet the failure of ebooks was greatly exaggerated

Wholesale ebook revenues 2002-2009

Data: AAP http://www.publishers.org/documents/S12008Final.pdfplus recent sales data. 2009 is an estimate based on YTD percentage growth rate Jan-Aug 2009,

multiplied by 2008 sales

0

50000000

100000000

150000000

200000000

250000000

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009*

Year over year monthly sales growth, ebooks vs. all books, 19 months

Data: AAP http://www.publishers.org/

-50.0%

0.0%

50.0%

100.0%

150.0%

200.0%

250.0%

Jan-08

Feb-08

Mar-08

Apr-08

May-08

Jun-08

Jul-08 Aug-08

Sep-08

Oct-08

Nov-08

Dec-08

Jan-09

Feb-09

Mar-09

Apr-09

May-09

Jun-09

Jul-09 Aug-09

All book salesEbooks only

Ebooks as a percentage of overall book sales

0.22%0.27%0.47%

4.9%

0.00%

1.00%

2.00%

3.00%

4.00%

5.00%

2006 2007 2008 2009

Stats understate what’s really happening

Build it and they will come AAP - stats US-only, don’t include all

publishers Amazon - For books available in both e- &

p-, in October ‘09 Amazon reported 48% of sales were ebooks

Why ebooks are hot• Early adopters new evangelists

• Screen reading now rivals paper

• Proliferation of great ebook devices and apps• Dedicated devices: Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, B&N Nook

• Mobile phones: Ebook-ready smart phones, including iPhone, Blackberry, Android phones

• Ebook apps: Stanza on iPhone (2.5 million users) and Aldiko on Android phones (100,000 users)

• Free books are gateway

• Greater content selection

• Prices dropping

• Impulse buying

Why ebooks will become more popular than paper books

Superior reading experience• Screens will become better than paper

• Customizable reading experience

• Limitless library in the cloud

• Lower costs

• Instant gratification

• E-reading device costs dropping• Ebooks as hubs and spokes for richer, more

immersive content experiencesPhoto credit: http://alittlehut.blogspot.com/2007/12/decorations-la-tinker-toys.html

The ebook opportunity for authors

Ebook opportunity for authors and publishers

• Fastest growing segment of book publishing

• Digital = instant worldwide market• Shelves everywhere, instant sampling/purchase

• Ebooks never go out of print

• Favorable economics• Faster, easier, cheaper to publish an ebook than a

print book

• Little to no incremental cost to go from P- to E-

• No printing, inventory, returns, shipping

• Lower retail cost + worldwide availabilityImage credit: http://photography.cemalkin.com

The virtuous cycle of ebook economics

Largeravailable market

LowCost

More sales& profit

Ebook Production

Planning your move to ebooks

• Forget (some of) what you know• Don’t try to make e- look like p-

• Ebooks consumed differently that print

• Less = more with ebooks

• Liberate text from complex formatting and layout

• Ebooks are shape shifting creatures (see next slide)

Ebook devices (and customers) shapeshift text

• Example of Smashwords novel, All Good Things Die in L.A. by Anhoni Patel

• iPhone, using the Stanza reader. User-selected options: Font: Verdana; Background pattern: Stone carving; text color: Dark Violet; Font size: larger than normal

Planning your move to ebooks

• Migrate your easy books first• Fiction/Poetry/Biographies easy

• picture books, complex layout, more challenging

• Avoid DRM Copy Protection• Adds complexity and expense

• DRM treats law abiding customers like criminals

• Use DRM-free as competitive advantage

• Lead the inevitable change, don’t be victimized by it

Multi-format is essential

• There are many different ebook formats

• Why multi-format matters• PDF does not = ebook anymore

• Multi-format lets customer enjoy your book their way

• Expands your distribution options

• Expands selling opportunities

Ebook format primer

• EPUB - An open standard for eBooks. Critical format.

• PDF - A good format if your work contains fancy formatting, charts or images. Horrible for straight form narrative.

• Plain Text - The most easily read format, works on virtually any screen

• .MOBI - For Amazon's Kindle reading device, others

• RTF - Cross-platform document format supported by many word processors and devices

• LRF - Used on Sony Reader ebook devices

• PDB - PalmDoc is primarily used on Palm Pilot devices, but used on other devices as well

• Learn more in the Smashwords Style Guide: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52

Most popular ebook formats

Learn more: http://blog.smashwords.com/2009/03/why-multi-format-ebooks-matter.html

Preparing conversion from p- to e-• Preparation

• Most print books originate in Word, InDesign and Quark

• Simplify formatting and layout, see Smashwords Style Guide at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52

• From This to That

• From MS Word to ebook: Easy to convert directly into multiple ebook formats using conversion tools or free services

• From InDesign/Quark to ebook: Export to intermediate format (usually RTF or Word .doc), then clean up prior to conversion, or export directly to one or two ebook formats such as PDF or EPUB. Quality may disappoint

• From PDF to other formats: For masochists only

• For super-complex books, hire an ebook formatter/coder

Multi-format conversion options

For Brave Souls - Google: Conversion Toolswhich leads to first result: http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_conversion

Smashwords – One to many

Ebook publishing, distribution, marketing and selling

The print book supply chain compared to ebook supply chain

printerPrint Publisher Shipper/w/d customerbookseller

customerebookseller

customerebooksellerE-distributor

customer

E-publisher

E-publisher

E-publisher

remainderpass along

Used bookstores

PRINT BOOKS

EBOOKS

Ebook distribution

• Distribution channels

• Online retailers

• Amazon

• Barnesandnoble.com

• Sony

• Hundreds of smaller, specialized retailers

• Mobile platforms

• Stanza

• Aldiko

• Shortcovers

• Others

How Smashwords publishes and distributes ebooks

More logos coming!!

author

Ebook pricing

• Price lower than print• The higher the price, the smaller the

market

• Non-fiction supports higher prices than fiction

• Price is not sole determining factor• Create insatiable desire and price matters

less

• High prices encourage piracy

The power (and danger) of FREE

• Free as a strategy for audience building• eliminates friction

• conversion opportunities

• opportunity to sell things that go with your free stuff

• builds goodwill

• Danger• can devalue content

• Alternatives to free• free samples that lead to sales

• contests with free ebook prizes

Ebook marketing• Marketing begins BEFORE you finish book• You are the brand, your book is your product• Word of mouth most important• Go viral with social media

• make easy for fans to share links to your book via social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin)

• shareable samples and coupons

• blog tours instead of book tours

• support community reviews (bloggers, Librarything, Goodreads, Shelfari)

• widgets (shareable, interactive ads)

• more ideas in the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/305

Final words• Develop and implement an ebook strategy now

• Your readers want ebooks

• Experiment

• Digitize easy books first• Design for plain and simple

• Get closer to your customer• Enlist readers and fans as your sales force

• Don’t abandon print

Thank you for listening!Q&A

Where to find Mark Coker:

Web: www.smashwords.comBlog: blog.smashwords.comHuffPo: huffingtonpost.com/mark-cokerTwitter: @markcokerEmail: first initial second initial @ smashwords.com