How to Reach More Readers with Self-Published Ebooks

How to Reach More Readers with

February 18, 2013

Mark Coker Founder, Smashwords

Twitter: @markcoker

My Backstory

I met Lesleyann

We made wrote a book together

Publishers Said “No”

• Every major publisher said NO (TWICE!)

I evaluated our options

1. The rational option Acknowledge we sucked and weren’t good enough to

be a published author

Curl up in fetal position and cry

Give up

2. The irrational option Believe in ourselves

Get mad

Try to fix the problem

How to fix a problem

1. Identify the problem Big 6 Publishers!!!

Toxic to the future of publishing

Don’t value all writers

Unable to take a risk on all writers

2. Visualize the utopian solution Every writer should have the right and the ability to

publish

Readers should have the power to judge what’s worth reading

3. Create the Solution

My Answer: Smashwords

• Free Ebook Publishing Platform

• Provide writers free tools so they can become their own ebook publishers

• Open up the printing press to all

• Open up distribution to major ebook stores

Indie ebooks published at Smashwords

1406,000

28,800

92,000

191,000

Ebooks as a percentage of US wholesale trade market

Source: Association of American Publishers, publishers.org. 2012 Smashwords estimate

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012

How Smashwords Works

• UPLOAD

• Author follows our Style Guide, uploads a Word .doc file … or (NEW), upload .epub

• Instant, free ebook conversion

• Sell today to global audience

• DISTRIBUTE

• Distribution to major retailers

• GET PAID

• Earn 60% list for books sold at retail

• Quarterly payments

Smashwords offers Free publishing and distribution

85% net royalties (commission of 10% list price at retailers. Author earns 60% list on prices $.99 and up)

Unlimited free updates

Centralized metadata management

Aggregated sales reports

Free marketing tools (Coupons!)

Global community of 50,000+ fellow Smashwords authors, publishers, agents

Professional development resources

Learn (for FREE!) to Become a Professional Self-Publisher

• Smashwords Style Guide (how to create and publish an ebook)

• Smashwords Book Marketing Guide (how to market any book)

• Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success (best practices of successful authors)

Let’s review the best practices of the best-selling indie authors

Secret One

#1 Your best marketing is a great book

• Honor your reader with a great book

• If your book doesn’t make readers go, “WOW!” you’re not done yet

• Must turn readers into evangelists

• Be fanatical about quality

• Edit, revise, edit, revise, repeat, proof

• Leverage beta readers

Secret Two

#2 Adorn your book with a GREAT cover image

• Invest in a quality cover image

• Your first impression

• Look professional

• Should arrest reader with thumb nail

• Visual

• Genre/category appropriate

• Makes a promise to the reader

Here’s a promise

Here’s another promise

Look what happened when the author went from 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

Secret Four

#4 Give (some of) Your Books away for Free

• After book quality & cover image, FREE is the next most powerful 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/publishers at Smashwords offer at least one free book

Secret Five

#5 Maximize Availability, Avoid Exclusivity

• Exclusivity

• angers fans

• limits audience

• increases your dependence upon a single retailer

• Ebook retailing is not like sports, religion or politics

• If your book is not available at every retailer, it’s not discoverable or purchasable

Ebook retailers want indie ebooks

Secret Six

#6 Patience is a Virtue

• When your book lands at retailer, it’s a seedling, nourish it

• Never pull out by the roots, 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

• Breakouts are unpredictable

• 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 Seven

Don’t Worry about Piracy

Everything you need to know about piracy

• Obscurity is your biggest risk

• Black hat pirates who steal your book wouldn’t have purchased it anyway

• Most piracy is accidental – it’s enthusiastic fans marketing your book for you

• Combat piracy by making your book easier to purchase than steal

Irrational fear of piracy leads leads to obscurity

• The only reliable method of avoiding piracy is to NEVER PUBLISH

• Anti-piracy measures such as DRM only limit availability, accessibility and enjoyment

• Fear gone too far will scare readers:

• Bio: Dear all, Mohammad Nashir is a poet, foreign language poet and writer. Laws: If you have been found stealing or maintaining theft of any of this material you will be taken to court, have an injunction be contacted by fraud squads or have the police at your door.

Secret Eight

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

Viral Catalysts

• Every thing you do right increases virality. Iterate until you get right formula

Great coverGreat storyProfessionally editedGreat titleBroad distributionCompetitive priceGreat book descriptionGreat marketing

Social media enabledSampling enabledMultiple formatsGood 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

Data source: http://blog.smashwords.com/2012/04/can-ebook-data-reveal-new-viral.html

What Price Yields Highest Earnings?

Data source: http://blog.smashwords.com/2012/04/can-ebook-data-reveal-new-viral.html

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

Retailers are going global. Apple iBookstore (50 countries), Kobo (15/180), B&N (2), Amazon

(~12)

Nearly 50% of Smashwords iBookstore sales 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

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)

Thank you!

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