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Our Simple Mission <ul><li>Make ebook publishing & distribution </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Fast </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Free </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Simple and… </li></ul></ul>

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

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

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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.

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How are simple books working for us?

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

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7,000+ ebooks released at Smashwords last 30 days

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82,000+ ebooks published at Smashwords

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

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How did we do it?

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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.

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

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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.

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

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Here’s how we make books

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

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

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

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

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Meatgrinder limitations <ul><li>Although we think Meatgrinder is cool, it’s not without limitations, so here’s where we think we need improvement </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Doesn’t support direct .epub/.mobi/.pdf/ etc uploads of pre-formatted files </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Drop caps weak </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Support for bullets and numbered lists needs improvement </li></ul></ul><ul><li>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??) </li></ul>

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

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

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