Learn 16 secrets of the bestselling ebook authors. This presentation is Part Two in a two-part ebook publishing seminar series presented by Mark Coker and sponsored by the Sunnyvale Public Library. Learn how to increase the discoverability, desirability and sales of your self-published ebook. The 16 secrets presented here were all inspired by the best selling Smashwords authors, many of whom have hit the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists using these proven strategies for successful and professional publishing. Part one of this series, also available on Slideshare at http://www.slideshare.net/Smashwords/introduction-to-ebook-publishing-44045599 provides an introduction to ebook publishing.

1. Ebook Publishing Best Practices
16 Secrets of the Bestselling Indie Ebook Authors
PART II – Sunnyvale Public Library
January 27, 2015
Mark Coker
Founder, Smashwords
Twitter: @markcoker

2. Welcome to Part II
• What you’ll learn
• How to e-publish like a pro
• How to reach more readers and sell more
books
• 16 best practices of the bestselling indie
authors
• Who this presentation is for
• Aspiring authors, published authors, library
staff
• No technical experience required!

3. My Backstory

5. I evaluated our options
1.The rational option
 Admit we sucked, give up and accept
our fate as failed authors
1. The irrational option
 Believe in ourselves
 Try to fix the problem

6. The Three Essential Legs of the
Professional Publishing Stool
- 1 -
Printing
Press
- 3 -
Retail Distribution
- 2 -
Best practices
knowledge

7. My solution: Smashwords
• FREE eBook Publishing Platform
 Free ebook printing press
 Distribution to major ebook retailers and
libraries
 Free educational resources – best practices
knowledge - to help writers publish like
professionals

8. How Smashwords Works
1. UPLOAD
• Upload a Microsoft Word file, formatted to
our Smashwords Style Guide
• Ready for immediate sale online
1. DISTRIBUTE
• Distribution to major retailers
1. GET PAID
• Author receives 85% of net

9. Smashwords Distribution Network
Upload/Update Once, Distribute Globally

10. Ebooks published at Smashwords

11. Let’s talk best practices

12. Platforms like Smashwords make
ePublishing and eDistribution Easy…

13. Reaching Readers is Difficult *
* most books don’t sell well

14. The Long Tail of Authordom
Author sales rank
Author
earnings

15. The Secret to Reaching Readers:
Best
Practices!

16. Let’s review the best practices of
the best-selling indie authors

17. Secret One

18. #1 Your best marketing is a
great book
• With the power to publish comes the
responsibility to be a great publisher
• Honor your reader with a great book
• Move reader to a satisfying emotional extreme
• Turns 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

19. Longer Books Sell Better!
As word count drops, sales and sales rank drops. 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

20. Secret Two

21. #2 Create a Great Cover image
• Invest in a quality cover image
• Your first impression on path to discovery
• Look professional
• Resonate with target audience
• Should arrest reader with thumb nail
• Makes a promise to the target reader
• You must know your target reader with micro-
precision. For example, someone who enjoys
romantic suspense is much more targeted that
someone who enjoys romance.

22. What’s this book about?

23. Don’t be sloppy

24. Don’t do this either

25. Great covers make a promise

26. Great covers make a promise

27. Great covers make a promise

28. Great covers make a promise

29. Great covers make a promise

30. Great covers make a promise

31. And now a case study…
The evolution of one cover

32. to this cover

33. … to this cover…

34. The cover sparked a breakout at
Apple

35. And landed her on the NY Times Bestseller
List

36. Secret Three

37. #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

38. Bestselling Authors Publish More
Books

39. Secret Four

40. #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

41. FREE Series Starters
Turbocharge a Series

42. Secret Five

43. #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
• When your book lands at retailer, it’s a
seedling, nourish it
• Never remove
• Let’s look at some examples…

44. Slow boil, breakout, slow boil,
bigger breakout

45. Slow boil, breakout, slow boil,
smaller breakouts

46. Slow boil to breakout
Ruth Ann Nordin’s An Inconvenient Marriage

47. Secret Six

48. #6 Maximize Availability, Avoid
Exclusivity
• Ebook retailing is not like sports or politics
• If your book is not available at every retailer,
it’s not discoverable or purchasable
• Exclusivity
• angers fans
• limits audience
• limits merchandising opportunities
• increases your dependence upon a
single sales outlet

49. Smashwords Distribution Network
Upload/Update Once, Distribute Globally

50. Secret Seven

51. #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
• Include “Connect with the author” links at the
end of every book (more on this later!)

52. Secret Eight

53. Secret #8 Use Viral Catalysts to
Drive Word of Mouth
• Books have always been a word of
mouth business
• Your readers determine your success
• Leverage viral catalysts

54. What’s 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 (it’s
FREE!) to learn how viral catalysts spur word-of-mouth

55. Viral Catalysts
• Every thing you do right increases
virality
Great cover
Great book
Broad distribution
Fair price
Good categorization
Professionally edited
Great formatting
Great title
Great book description
Great marketing
Sampling enabled
Multiple formats
Patience
LUCK!
• Fall short anywhere, and you
undermine true potential

56. Secret Nine

57. Secret #9 Pricing Strategy is
Lever for Success
• Pricing strategy impacts unit sales
• Unit volume (sales and downloads)
builds author platform, drives readers
to your backlist
• Unit sales X royalty per unit = profit
• Pricing strategy essential to maximize
both readership and earnings

58. Which Price Points for Fiction Get
Most Downloads (% over/under
average)

59. Which Price Points Yield Highest
Earnings

60. Secret Ten

61. Secret 10: Don’t Let Fear of
Piracy Paralyze Your
Publishing

62. Everything you need to know
about piracy
• Obscurity is bigger risk
• Black hat pirates who steal your book
wouldn’t have purchased it anyway
• Most piracy is accidental – it’s an
enthusiastic fan marketing your book
for you
• Combat piracy by making your book
easier to purchase than steal
• Broad availability at all stores
• Low, fair price

63. Secret Eleven

64. Secret #11 Leverage Preorders!
• What’s 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 because all accumulated preorders
credit all at once toward your first day’s sales rank, causing
your book to rise in bestseller lists, which makes your book
more visible and desirable to readers
 Learn about preorders at http://smashwords.com/preorder

65. Secret Twelve

66. 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

67. Secret Thirteen

68. 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 don’t reach, you have fans they
don’t reach
• Everyone wins
• Learn how to do box sets:
http://blog.smashwords.com/2014/08/how-to-do-box-
sets-at-smashwords-for.html

69. Secret Fourteen

70. Secret #14 Add three sections to
backmatter
1. About Yourname Lastname
• Short bio
1. Other books by Yourname Lastname
• Title 1
• Title 2
1. Connect with Yourname Lastname
• Facebook:
• Twitter:
• Web site:
• Blog:
• Smashwords author page:
Learn how at http://blog.smashwords.com/2013/11/how-to-add-navigation-
to-smashwords.html

71. Secret Fifteen

72. Secret #15 Think Globally

73. Apple, B&N, Kobo, Amazon and
others are going global
You Have the Tools to Reach a
Worldwide Market Today
The tools are FREE

74. The market for your English-language books
outside the US will soon exceed the US
market
Apple operates iBooks in 51 countries. We
distribute to Apple. In 2014, 45% of
Smashwords Apple iBooks sales were outside
the US

75. Secret Sixteen

76. Secret #16 Pinch Your Pennies
• You’re running a business
• Profit = Sales minus Expenses
• Most books don’t 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

77. That’s it!

78. FREE RESOURCES

79. 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)

80. Learn how to e-publish like a pro with
Smashwords Tutorials at Youtube at
youtube.com/user/Smashwords

81. Q&A
Connect with Mark Coker and Smashwords:
Web: www.smashwords.com
Blog: blog.smashwords.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/markcoker
Facebook: facebook.com/markcoker
HuffPo: huffingtonpost.com/mark-coker
Twitter: @markcoker