Making Simple eBooks and Making eBooks Simple

Our Simple Mission
Make ebook publishing & distribution
Fast
Free
Simple and…

… and profitable for our authors, publishers, agents and retail partners

Simple is Good
Simple is faster, smarter, cheaper
~80%* or more of ebook units sold are “simple”
Simple = well-formatted straight narrative, or narrative + images
Complexity bad
Added cost & risk for publisher
Added cost to consumer
* BISG estimates 51% of ebook units sold are fiction. Fiction is narrative. My assumption: 60%+ of remaining 49% is narrative, or narrative + images

What Matters to Readers? “ Foo foo” is the frilly stuff most readers won’t miss if it’s not there, like drop caps. Kind of like lint in the belly button. Readers want well-formatted, accessible and quality books with great words. This is what I think. You’re welcome to think different.

How are simple books working for us?

31,000+ Number of authors, publishers, agents served by Smashwords

7,000+ ebooks released at Smashwords last 30 days

82,000+ ebooks published at Smashwords

Indie ebooks published at Smashwords 140 6,000 28,800 82,000 (11/2/11)

How did we do it?

Bags of VC Money? No. We haven’t accepted a penny of venture capital money, nor do we want it. We’ve been profitable for 13 months.

Army of super-hero ninja squirrels ? No. We’re 11 people (up from 3 one year ago).

Did we shake down authors? It’s against our DNA to charge fees. We earn a commission if we sell something, and earn nothing if we don’t.

No bags of money, squirrels or shakedowns. We provide FREE publishing and distribution tools We never stop making our tools faster, simpler, better

Here’s how we make books

Step 1: BYO Word Processor & Manuscript Microsoft Word Open Office Writer

Step 2 – Implement our Formatting Tips (over 130,000 copies downloaded!)

Step 3 – Instant, FREE Conversion Smashwords Meatgrinder High-quality multi-format conversions for narrative & narrative + images, fast/free updating

Meatgrinder creates quality books that make readers happy …
Reflowable
Custom styling
Hyperlinks
NCX navigation
Automated formatting error detection and correction
EPUBCHECK compliance
Instant updates/revisions

Meatgrinder limitations
Although we think Meatgrinder is cool, it’s not without limitations, so here’s where we think we need improvement
Doesn’t support direct .epub/.mobi/.pdf/ etc uploads of pre-formatted files
Drop caps weak
Support for bullets and numbered lists needs improvement
Hand-coded books (as opposed to automated conversions) will always provide more precise control (but do readers really care about foo foo for simple books??)

Step 4 - Distribution to Apple, B&N, Kobo, Sony, Diesel, others

Final Thoughts
Simple works great for vast majority of books readers want to buy
fiction
narrative non-fiction
Simple is good for books, good for authors/publishers/agents/retailers
simple books can also = high-quality books
cuts production costs/risks
faster time to market
enables lower prices for consumers

Thanks for listening! Connect with Mark Coker: Web: www.smashwords.com Blog: blog.smashwords.com Twitter: @markcoker

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Making Simple eBooks and Making eBooks Simple

by Smashwords, Inc.

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Making Simple eBooks and Making eBooks Simple Presentation Transcript