What we

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(No Transcript)
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Welcome

• What well cover
• 16 best practices of the bestselling indie
  authors
• Learn to
• e-publish with greater pride and professionalism
• Reach more readers and sell more books
• Who this presentation is for
• Aspiring authors, published authors, publishers
• No technical experience required!

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My Backstory
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My wife is a former soap opera reporter.
Together we wrote a novel about the soap opera
industry.
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We were repped by a top NY literacy agency. We
had a great agent.
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2004-2005 Publishers Said No

• Despite great effort from our agent, every major
  NY publisher said NO (TWICE!)
• Previous soap-opera themed novels had performed
  poorly

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My Epiphany

• Big publishers unable, unwilling and
  disinterested to take a risk on every author
• Publishing industry was failing to serve
• Authors
• Readers
• The future of books
• Judging books based on perceived commercial merit
• Publishers guess what readers want to buy
• Spaghetti against the wall

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I evaluated our options

• The rational option
• Admit we sucked, accept fate as failed authors
• The irrational option
• Believe in ourselves
• Try to fix the problem

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I Realized Publishers Provided Three Important
and Essential Services
I asked myself what if I could provide this as
a free service, what if I could give every writer
a chance?
- 2 - Retail Distribution
- 1 - Printing Press
- 3 - Expertise - Best practices knowledge
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My solution Smashwords

• FREE eBook Publishing Platform
• Free ebook printing press
• Opened distribution to major ebook retailers and
  libraries
• Free educational resources best practices
  knowledge - to help writers publish like
  professionals

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How Smashwords Works

• UPLOAD
• Upload an .epub or Microsoft Word file,
  formatted to our Smashwords Style Guide
• SELL IN OUR STORE
• Ready for immediate sale online
• Earn 85 net (about 80 list)
• DISTRIBUTE
• Distribution to major retailers
• Earn 60 list

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Smashwords Distribution NetworkUpload/Update
Once, Distribute Globally
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Ebooks published at Smashwords
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Lets talk best practices
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Platforms like Smashwords make ePublishing and
eDistribution Easy
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Reaching Readers is Difficult most books
dont sell well
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The Secret to Reaching ReadersBest
Practices!
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The Power Curve Most books dont sell well
Goal Every best practice you implement well
causes your books performance to shift to the
left (increases sales rank), leading to an
exponential increase in earnings.

Author earnings and/or sales rank
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Lets review the best practices of the
best-selling indie authors
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Secret One
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1 Your best marketing is a great book

• With the power to publish comes the
  responsibility to act like a great publisher
• Honor your reader with a great book
• Move reader to an emotionally satisfying extreme
• Wow them. Turn readers into evangelists
• Be fanatical about quality
• Edit, revise, edit, revise, repeat, proof
• Leverage beta readers
• Readers prefer L O N G E R books

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Longer Books Sell Better!
Visualize the power curve overlaid on this chart.
Books ranked in the top 10, 50 or 100 will sell
exponentially more units than books ranked 1,000
or worse

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Secret Two
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2 Create a Great Cover Image

• Invest in a quality cover image
• Your first impression on path to discovery
• Look professional
• Should arrest reader with thumb nail
• Must resonate with target audience
• Know your target with precision
• Makes an honest promise to the target reader

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Whats this book about?
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Dont be sloppy
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Dont do this either
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Great covers make a promise
Horror fans want to be scared. This cover
promises to scare you, so its a great cover.
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Great covers make a promise
This is a scary post-apocalyptic novel. Note the
bloody hands as two friends walk down the road.
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Great covers make a promise
Target reader Teens and new adults looking to
experience sweet romance.
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Great covers make a promise
Fiction is about fantasy. Target reader Will
appeal to adults looking for a hot and sexy
interracial romance story featuring a powerful
billionaire (and probably an equally powerful
woman). Great cover.
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Great covers make a promise
Target reader Hankering for a fantasy involving
a hunky shipwrecked bad boy pirate (comes with a
chest full of loot!). Another great cover.
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Great covers make a promise
Target reader One look and you instantly know
this is science fiction with lots of action.
Images speak to us faster and easier than words.
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Great covers make a promise
Target reader Will instantly appeal to readers
who enjoy Westerns.
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Great covers make a promise
Target reader Fantasy readers with strong female
protagonist and werecreatures. Although fantasy
is mostly read by women, this author enjoys
strong female readership because he features
strong women. Know your target audience.
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And now a case studyThe evolution of one cover
A great aspect of indie ebook publishing is that
your book (and cover) can evolve over time. This
romance author decided this cover wasnt making
an appropriate promise to her target reader, so
she upgraded it to
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to this cover
This cover is better, but it still did a poor job
of making a promise to her target reader. You
wouldnt know this was a romance. Despite the
poor cover, the author was selling books every
day and getting great reader reviews (because
shes an awesome writer). She decided to upgrade
her cover to the following.
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to this cover
This cover makes a great promise. Although the
cover is unconventional (when this is thumbnail
size, the title and author name are invisible),
the author stumbled upon a brilliant discovery
about the importance of the the cover making an
appropriate promise. Look what happened when
Smashwords delivered the new title to Apple
iBooks .
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The cover sparked a breakout at Apple
Daily unit sales at Apple. A simple cover change
sparked a breakout. We now know the prior cover
was creating unnecessary friction. It was
scaring away readers. And look what happened
next (for a book that had been on the market for
five months already!)
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The cover sparked a breakout and two weeks later
the book landed on the NY Times Bestseller
ListShe has since continued to evolve her
cover to make it better and better.
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Secret Three
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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

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Bestselling Authors Publish More Books

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Secret Four
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4 Give (some of) Your Books away for Free

• If you have a deep backlist, offer at least one
  full-length book for free
• Makes it easier for readers to take a chance on
  an unknown, untrusted author
• 39X more downloads
• Turbocharges a series
• Free works for standalone promos too
• The highest grossing authors at Smashwords offer
  at least one free book

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FREE Series Starters Turbocharge a Series

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Secret Five
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5 Patience is a Virtue

• 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
• Ebooks are immortal
• Never go out of print
• Never unpublish (remove) your book
• When your book lands at retailer, its a
  seedling, nourish it
• Lets look at some examples

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Slow boil, breakout, slow boil, bigger breakout
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Slow boil, breakout, slow boil, smaller breakouts
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Slow boil to breakout
Ruth Ann Nordins An Inconvenient Marriage
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Secret Six
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6 Maximize Availability, Avoid Exclusivity

• Ebook retailing is not like sports or politics
• If your book is not available at every retailer,
  its not discoverable or purchasable
• Avoid Amazon KDP Select Exclusivity
• angers fans
• limits audience
• limits merchandising opportunities
• increases your dependence upon a single sales
  outlet

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Smashwords Distribution NetworkWith
exclusivity, youll miss out on all these
channels
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Secret Seven
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7 Build a Platform You Control

• Platform is your ability to reach and cultivate
  fans
• Platform gives you control, leverage
• Let fans decide how to connect
• Facebook
• Twitter, Google, LinkedIn
• Blog and/or website
• Mailing list subscription
• Add Connect with the author links to your
  backmatter (more on this later!)

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Secret Eight
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Secret 8 Use Viral Catalysts to Drive Word of
Mouth

• Books have always been a word of mouth business
• Your readers determine your success
• Wow books convert readers into superfans, spark
  word of mouth evangelism
• Viral catalysts are the triggers that drive word
  of mouth

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Whats 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
  (its FREE!) to learn how viral catalysts spur
  word-of-mouth

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Viral Catalysts Connecta Book to Readers

• Every thing you do right increases virality

• Great formatting
• Professionally edited
• Preorder
• Great marketing
• Sampling enabled
• Multiple formats
• Patience
• LUCK!

• Great cover
• Great title
• Great book
• Broad distribution
• Fair price
• Good categorization
• Great book description

• Fall short anywhere, and you undermine your true
  potential

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Secret Nine
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Secret 9 Pricing Strategy is Lever for Success

• Pricing strategy impacts unit sales and earnings
• Each sale or download generates a reader and a
  royalty
• Readers more important in the long run than short
  term royalty
• Unit sales X royalty per unit profit
• Pricing strategy essential to maximize both
  readership and earnings

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Most Common Fiction Price Points

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Which Price Points for Fiction Get the Most
Downloads ( over/under average)

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Which Price Points Yield Highest Earnings

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Most Common Non-Fiction Price Points

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Non-Fiction Only Which Price Points Yield
Highest Earnings

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Highest Earning Smashwords Authors Utilize Low
Price Points

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Secret Ten
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Secret 10 Dont Let Fear of Piracy Paralyze
Your Publishing
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Everything you need to know about piracy

• Obscurity is bigger risk
• Black hat pirates who steal your book wouldnt
  have purchased it anyway
• Most piracy is accidental its an enthusiastic
  fan evangelizing your book to a friend
• Combat piracy by making your book easier to
  purchase than steal
• Broad availability at all stores
• Low, fair price

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Secret Eleven
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Secret 11 Leverage Preorders!

• Whats a preorder?
• Advance book listing at major retailers
• Allows readers to reserve a copy in advance of
  release date
• Customer credit card not charged until release
  date
• Fast track to bestseller lists - all accumulated
  preorders credit all at once toward your first
  days sales rank, causing your book to rise in
  bestseller lists
• Learn about preorders at http//smashwords.com/pre
  order

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Secret Twelve
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Secret 12 Practice Partnership and Positivity

• Your fellow authors and service providers are
  your partners
• Develop relationships
• Their success is your success
• Share your secrets
• Positivity trumps negativity
• Relationships give you upper hand
• Avoid all negativity in social media - Internet
  rants are permanent, divisive and turn off
  readers and potential partners
• Google alerts keep no secrets

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Secret Thirteen
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Secret 13 Collaborate with Fellow Authors

• Identify authors you love and your fans will love
• Publish collaborations
• Box sets of full-length
• Short story collections
• Joint promos
• They have fans you dont reach, you have fans
  they dont reach
• Everyone wins
• Learn how to do box sets http//blog.smashwords.c
  om/2014/08/how-to-do-box-sets-at-smashwords-for.ht
  ml

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Secret Fourteen
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Secret 14 Add three sections to backmatter

• About 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

Learn how at http//blog.smashwords.com/2013/11/ho
w-to-add-navigation-to-smashwords.html
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Secret Fifteen
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Secret 15 Think Globally
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Apple, BN, Kobo, Amazon and others are going
globalYou Have the Tools to Reach a Worldwide
Market Today The tools are FREE
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The market for your English-language books
outside the US will soon exceed the US
marketApple operates iBooks in 51 countries.
We distribute to Apple. In 2014, 45 of
Smashwords Apple iBooks sales were outside the US
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Secret Sixteen
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Secret 16 Pinch Your Pennies

• Youre running a business
• Profit Sales minus Expenses
• Most books dont sell well (!!!!)
• NEVER borrow money to publish a book
• NEVER spend or invest money you need for food and
  shelter
• DIY then reinvest
• I want you to succeed. Approach this like a long
  term business

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Thats it!
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FREE RESOURCES
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Learn Best Practices

• 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)

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Learn how to e-publish like a pro with Smashwords
Tutorials at Youtube atyoutube.com/user/Smashwor
ds
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QA
Connect with Mark Coker and Smashwords Email
mc_at_smashwords.com Web www.smashwords.com Blog
blog.smashwords.com LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/markcoker Facebook
facebook.com/markcoker HuffPo huffingtonpost.com/
mark-coker Twitter _at_markcoker