Prepress

Smashwords Previews Breakthrough ebook Publishing Platform Where Authors Control the Pricing, Sampling and Marketing of Their Works

Monday 11. February 2008 - Authors Earn 85% of Net Sales Proceeds

O’Reilly Tools of Change — Smashwords, a new digital publishing startup, today previewed a breakthrough ebook publishing platform for authors and publishers at the O’Reilly Tools of Change publishing conference in New York City. The company began accepting applications today for a limited number of beta testers.

Smashwords allows anyone to become a published ebook author in minutes. The site is ideal for full length novels, short fiction, essays, poetry, personal memoirs, non-fiction and screenplays. Authors receive 85% the net sales proceeds from their works, and retain full control over sampling, pricing and marketing.

The site offers authors free viral marketing tools to build readership, such as precent-based sampling; dedicated pages for author profiles and book profiles; support for embedded YouTube book trailers, author interviews and video blogs; widgets for off-site marketing; reader reviews; and reader “favoriting.”

“We plan to do for ebook authors what YouTube did for amateur video producers,” said Mark Coker, founder and CEO of Smashwords, based in Los Gatos, Calif. “We make digital publishing simple and profitable for authors and publishers.”

For fans of the written word, Smashwords provides an opportunity to discover new voices in literature, poetry and non-fiction. The site offers useful tools for search, discovery, and personal library-building.

It’s easy to publish on Smashwords. Authors simply upload the word processing file of their work to the site; assign sampling rights to make up to 99% of the book available as a free sample; and then assign pricing (including the “Radiohead” honor system option where authors let customers decide what to pay). Smashwords automatically converts the book into multiple DRM-free ebook formats (.txt., .rtf, .mobi, .epub, .pdf), making the book available for download or online reading.

The inspiration for Smashwords grew out of founder Mark Coker’s frustrations as an aspiring novelist. In 2002, Coker and his wife, Lesleyann, co-authored a roman a clef novel entitled Boob Tube that explores the behind- the-scenes world of daytime television soap operas (Lesleyann is a former reporter for Soap Opera Weekly Magazine). Despite two years of representation from one of New York City’s most respected literary agencies, their agent was unable to land a book deal. Some publishers said they rejected the manuscript because they questioned whether soap opera fans read books.

Coker concluded that in today’s digital age, there’s no reason why authors shouldn’t be able to publish anything they want – and readers should determine what’s worth reading, not just publishers. He also determined that ebooks were the solution to enable low-cost, universal publishing for the benefit of authors and readers around the world. Thus Smashwords was born.

“The traditional book publishing industry is broken from the perspective of authors, readers and publishers,” Coker says. “Most authors are never published. Authors lucky enough to land a book deal rarely sell enough books to earn royalties beyond their initial $5,000 to $10,000 advance. Trade publishers lose money on nearly 80% of the books they publish because of the high costs of production, warehousing, distribution and marketing. Further dampening profitability for authors and publishers is the fact that bookstores often return up to 50% of their unsold inventory for a full refund.”

“I think ebooks will become increasingly important to the book publishing industry, and will make books more affordable to a worldwide audience,” continued Coker. “By digitizing a book, authors and publishers can immortalize their works, making them permanently discoverable to new audiences. For authors and publishers of out of print books, ebooks offer a great way to bring these works back to life.”

According to a survey published in May 2007 by the Association of American Publishers, ebooks are the fastest growing category of books in an otherwise moribund book publishing industry, clocking an average five year annualized sales growth rate of 65% vs. the overall industry average growth of 2.4 %. However, ebooks represent only two tenths of one percent of the overall US book market. Despite the rapid growth of ebooks, they have not yet achieved their full potential. Several factors have conspired to dampen the acceptance of ebooks:

1. Many publishers insist on crippling their ebooks with draconian
digital rights management (DRM) schemes and proprietary file formats
in a misguided attempt to reduce piracy. Consumers, however, resent
being treated like criminals. They want the freedom to read the book
on the multiple devices, or print the book at their home computer.

2. Most ebooks are overpriced. Consumers understand that ebooks cost
publishers a fraction of what it costs to print and ship a print book,
so they expect digital books to be priced differently (with
Smashwords, an author or publisher can sell an ebook for $4.95 and
make a per-unit profit tens times higher than if they had published a
mass market paperback for $6.95). Publishers have insisted on high
prices because they fear ebook sales will cannibalize print sales.
While industry experts debate the veracity of this fear, with
Smashwords, authors and publishers can earn higher per-unit profits at
lower costs to consumers.

3. Digital books aren’t paper. Although digital books hold great promise,
it’s tough to match the readability, portability and simplicity of a
paper book. Yet over the last few years, significant advances in
digital ink and LCD computer displays have begun to narrow the gap. At
the current rate of technology advance, it’s not unreasonable to
expect that digital screen technology will soon approximate or
supersede print on paper. The latest generation of ebook reading
devices, such as the Amazon Kindle, the IREX Iliad and the Sony
Reader, for example, deliver a satisfying reading experience for most
people. Nevertheless, it’s not necessary for digital books to supplant
paper books. The two represent complementary means of consumption.