The philosophy and business model behind Smashords - Schilling Publishing Executives Meeting, Copenhagen

ooh, pretty! Change is upon us

Darwin’s rules determine what happens next
We’re entering a new phase of rapid evolution in publishing
Mass extinction
Survival of the fittest
Exciting new opportunities to survive and thrive

Four macro trends to rock your world

Bookselling moving to the web Brick & Mortar Web Today?

Ebooks to overtake print Print books Ebooks Today?

Global ebook market to eclipse US market Global Today? U.S.

Power of publishing shifting to authors Author Today? Publisher

Enter Smashwords

About Smashwords
Global ebook distributor
Launched May, 2008
Largest supplier of indie ebooks

The radical (but simple!) idea behind Smashwords
Give authors freedom to publish
Free publishing and distribution tools
Publishing is a matter of free speech
Give readers freedom to decide what’s worth reading
Readers have always done this

What Smashwords offers authors and publishers
Faster time to market
Global distribution
Centralized metadata management
Aggregated sales reporting and payments
Our free tools produce high quality ebooks that sell (millions sold!)
85%+ net back to author/agent/publisher

What Smashwords offers retailers
Access to massive content catalog, world’s biggest indie authors
Efficient, low-cost title acquisition, ingestion and updating
Our strict human-vetting exceeds Apple’s high standards
Army of 30,000+ indie authors promoting our retail partners

How are we doing?

32,000+ Number of authors and publishers utilizing Smashwords platform

7,600+ ebooks released at Smashwords last 30 days

86,000+ ebooks now published at Smashwords

Indie ebooks published at Smashwords 140 6,000 28,800 86,000 (today)

How have we scaled so quickly?

We make ebook publishing easy

Step 1: All you need is word processor & manuscript Microsoft Word Open Office Writer The ordinary word processor is the world’s most powerful ebook publishing tool (when married to Smashwords)

Step 2 – Authors/publishers implement our formatting guidelines (over 130,000 copies downloaded!)

Step 3 – Upload Word .doc to Smashwords Meatgrinder (instant multi-format conversion) High-quality multi-format conversions for narrative & narrative + images, fast/free updating

Meatgrinder creates quality books that make readers and retailers happy
Reflowable
Custom styling
NCX navigation
Hyperlinks
Automatic error detection and correction
EPUBCHECK compliance

Step 4: Distribution

What’s Next for Smashwords
Evolve every facet of our business to better serve authors, publishers, retailers and readers
Make ebook publishing faster, easier, more profitable for authors and publishers
Expand global retail distribution network
Help retailers profit from our books
Many surprises planned

Final thoughts: A survival strategy for publishing
The old world
Publishers in charge
Capital intensive
Exploit the author’s assets to the benefit of the publisher
The new world
Authors in charge
Darwin rewards efficient resource utilization, value-ad
Exploit the author’s assets for the benefit of the author

Connect with us! Web: www.smashwords.com Blog: blog.smashwords.com Twitter: @markcoker Email: [email_address]

The philosophy and business model behind Smashords - Schilling Publishing Executives Meeting, Copenhagen

by Smashwords, Inc.

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The philosophy and business model behind Smashords - Schilling Publishing Executives Meeting, Copenhagen Presentation Transcript