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San Francisco Writers ConferenceDan Poynter of Para Publishing

Mark Coker of Smashwords

The Ebook RevolutionFebruary 13, 2010

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Is About to Begin

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Pioneering publisher & distributor of eBooks Founder of Smashwords

A free service Serving 3,500 authors and publishers—worldwide.

Contributing blogger to Huffington Post

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Selling downloadable documents since 1996 Speaking on eBook since early 1990s Publisher of eBooks Reader of eBooks

Dan is an eBook author, publisher, advocate & consumer

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How eReaders are Transforming Publishing

© 2010

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Attending the Writers Conference Deciding to wring more value out of your

work. pBooks to eBooks

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How many have a Kindle? Sony Reader? iPhone or iPod Touch? PocketPC? Other reader? Read eBooks on a computer screen?

How many publish eBooks?

Still write letters and buy stamps?

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9 editions of the same Work

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For credibility For promotion

Reviews To opinion molders & thought leaders

Uploading is faster then printing

S: Cape Town

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People on the move Portable Less weight & volume

Think outside the (paper) book

Audiobooks

My travels

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Less expensive No typesetting No printing No inventory No wrapping No physical shipping

Quicker to market Speed of light

S: Spm-2 editions

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Amazon Kindle books to iPhone. 1,000,000? Kindles. 45 million iPhones and iPOD Touches.

More hardware is coming.

Some reading devices are large enough to replace newspapers and magazines.

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tg/stores/d

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The World is your potential market We are selling information—not hard goods Distribute via the Internet

No cost to ship No import duty No sales taxes Instant delivery

SFWCSFWCN: Mark Coker

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Pioneering publisher & distributor of eBooks Founder of Smashwords

A free service Serving 3,500 authors and publishers—worldwide.

Contributing blogger to Huffington Post

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eBook publishing and distribution platform

Launched 24 months ago Authors upload Word .doc, we convert to

multiple eBook formats, publish instantly. 7,500+ eBooks published 3,500+ authors

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

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Only the delivery substrate changes

Each represents a different way to convey knowledge, information, entertainment

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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

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0

50000000

100000000

150000000

200000000

250000000

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009*

Data: AAP http://www.publishers.org/documents/S12008Final.pdfplus recent sales data. 2009 is an estimate based on YTD percentage growth rate Jan-Nov 2009, multiplied by 2008 sales

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0.0%

50.0%

100.0%

150.0%

200.0%

250.0%

300.0%

1/1/

2008

2/1/

2008

3/1/

2008

4/1/

2008

5/1/

2008

6/1/

2008

7/1/

2008

8/1/

2008

9/1/

2008

10/1

/200

8

11/1

/200

8

12/1

/200

8

1/1/

2009

2/1/

2009

3/1/

2009

4/1/

2009

5/1/

2009

6/1/

2009

7/1/

2009

8/1/

2009

9/1/

2009

10/1

/200

9

11/1

/200

9

All book sales

Ebooks only

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

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0.22% 0.27%0.47%

2.3%

0.00%

0.50%

1.00%

1.50%

2.00%

2.50%

2006 2007 2008 2009

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“When we have both (print and eBook) editions, we sell 6 Kindle books for every 10 physical books”

--Jeff Bezos/Amazon, January 28, 2010

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Early adopters new evangelists Screen reading rivals paper Proliferation of great eBook devices and apps

Dedicated devices: Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, B&N Nook, Apple iPad

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 Lower prices Impulse buying

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Superior reading experience Screens will become better than

paper Customizable reading experience Limitless library in the cloud Lower costs Instant gratification

Prices dropping for both eBooks and eBook reading devices

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

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Fastest growing segment of book publishing Instant worldwide market

Shelves everywhere Never go out of print Flexible publishing (short stories, full length) 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 availability

Image credit: http://photography.cemalkin.com

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Largeravailable market

LowCost

More sales& profit

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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)

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Example of Smashwords novel, All Good Things Die in L.A. by Anhoni PateliPhone, using the Stanza reader. User-selected options: Font: Verdana; Background pattern: Stone carving; text color: Dark Violet; Font size: larger than normal

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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 Obscurity a bigger risk to authors than

piracy Lead the inevitable change, don’t be

victimized by it

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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

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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

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

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Preparation Most print books originate in Word, InDesign and Quark Anticipate the shape shift Simplify formatting and layout, see Smashwords Style Guide at

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52 Conversion Options

Automated (e.g. Amazon, Smashwords) Direct from book layout software (e.g. save as

PDF) Conversion tools (Google ‘eBook conversion tools’) Complex books ( hire an eBook formatter/coder)

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printerPrint Publisher Shipper/w/d customerbookseller

customerebookseller

customerebooksellerE-distributor

customer

E-publisher

E-publisher

E-publisher

remainderpass along

Used bookstores

PRINT BOOKS

eBOOKS

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Proliferation of digital shelves Online retailers

Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com, Sony, Apple iBooks Dozens of smaller, specialized retailers (Smashwords, Omnilit, Diesel-Ebooks)

Hybrid retailersMobile E-Reading apps (Stanza, Aldiko, Kobo, Word-Player) Ebooks as apps (Apple, Android, Blackberry App World, Palm, Nokia)

Publishing platforms (Amazon, Scribd, Smashwords, Sony)

eBook Distributors (one to many) Ingram Digital, Mobipocket, Overdrive, Smashwords

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Determine objective Maximize readers, profits or both?

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 If you create insatiable desire, price matters

less High prices may encourage piracy

SFWCSFWCSource: Smashwords survey of 13,500 recent purchases, analyzing relative total net sales at each price point per title

Preliminary data. Revenue data for price points $11.00 and higher may lack statistical significance

due to lower underlying sample size.

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Source: Smashwords random survey of 353 “name-your-own-price” sales

Average, paid sales: $3.20Median, paid sales: $3.00Average, paid & free: $.49

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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

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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

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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

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“."

Where to find Mark Coker:Web: www.smashwords.com

Blog: blog.smashwords.com

HuffPo: huffingtonpost.com/mark-coker

Twitter: @markcoker

Email: first initial second initial @smashwords.com

Where to find Dan Poynter:Web: www.parapub.com

Sign up for the FREE Publishing Poynters ezine

Twitter: @danpoynter

Email: FirstnameLastname @parapublishing.com

SizzleReel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWl0fnBu7bs

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Electronic books are not going

anywhere—they are already here