PayPal, You've Met Your Match: Erotica Writers

Mark Coker of Smashwords became the leader of indie ebook writers--including some with dirty minds--in a fight against censorship and PayPal. He also has strong feelings about the DOJ's ebook pricing lawsuit.Mark Coker is the CEO of Smashwords, an ebook publishing and distribution platform. Coker recently won a highly publicized battle against PayPal, which briefly refused to work with Smashwords unless Coker removed certain naughty titles from the site. Fast Company caught up with Coker and learned, among other things, that writers of incest erotica can be very articulate.FAST COMPANY: What is Smashwords?MARK COKER: We’re probably the world’s largest distributor of self-published ebooks and ebooks from small independent presses. We were founded in 2008. A writer comes to Smashwords, uploads a Word document, which we instantly convert into multiple formats to be read on a Kindle or other device. Those are then available for sale at Smashwords.com at a price set by the author. 85% of all proceeds go to the author, so we flipped the compensation model upside-down. In traditional publishing, in the best case, an author earns 17.5% off an ebook’s list price. In 2008, we had 140 titles; in 2009, we had 6,000 titles; today we have just over 115,000.You recently came to prominence by picking a fight with PayPal, which threatened to stop working with you if you failed to remove some smutty titles from your store.On a Saturday, I received an email from PayPal notifying me I had... Continue reading at 'Fast Company'

[ Fast Company | 2012-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #swimming pool #jeff bezos #steve jobs #pricing model #golden age #david zax

Other Publishing stories related to: 'PayPal, You've Met Your Match: Erotica Writers'

PayPal, You've Met Your Match: Erotica Writers

Mark Coker of Smashwords became the leader of indie ebook writers--including some with dirty minds--in a fight against censorship and PayPal. He also has strong feelings about the DOJ's ebook pricing lawsuit.Mark Coker is the CEO of Smashwords, an ebook publishing and distribution platform.... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2012-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #swimming pool #jeff bezos #steve jobs #pricing model #golden age #david zax

Mike McCormack: ‘If I’ve one gift as a writer, it’s patience’

The award-winning Irish author on losing his father at 18, the drawbacks of English editors and the theme of imprisonment in his workMike McCormack was born in London in 1965 and raised on a farm in County Mayo in the west of Ireland. He published his first story collection, Getting It in the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-11-11 18:00:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #story collection #wider audience #solar bones #unending sentence #goldsmiths prize #returns home #started writing #irish author

Naomi Alderman: ‘A writer’s job is courage. You’ve got to be as honest as you can”

The bestselling author of The Power talks about her new techno-thriller, coping with grief and finding hope in the darkest of storiesNaomi Alderman, author of the bestselling novel The Power, is just getting over Covid and feeling a bit wiped out. “But don’t worry, I still seem able to talk for... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-11-04 09:00:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #finding hope #north london #middle east #iris murdoch #write fiction #good measure #bestselling author

IBM's Watson supercomputer may have met its match: the federal procurement mess

IBM's Watson, the computational genius that has bested "Jeopardy" champions, published a cookbook and even been unleashed in the fight against cancer, now has what is perhaps its greatest challenge: taking on the federal procurement morass. For years, government agencies have tried to find ways... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2016-03-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #government agencies #find ways

E-Readers and Erotica Are a Perfect Match

E-readers and digital publishing continue to foster the market for the hardest forms of erotic fiction, a market traditional publishers fail to serve. The post E-Readers and Erotica Are a Perfect Match appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-08-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #post e-readers #perfect match #erotic fiction

The day I met EL Doctorow: from Persian translations to his view of a writer's duty

After celebrated novelist’s death last week, Saeed Kamali Dehghan remembers an interview with him on everything from books to Iran’s copyright infringementMost famous writers don’t have a clue that their work has been translated into Persian and that they are literary celebrities in Iran. When... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #eventually find #copyright protection

Confessions of a Gay Erotica Writer in the Era of Indie Publishing

Self-published gay erotica writer M.P. Rey reveals his joy at moving from the dusty shelves of hidden rainbow-flag bookstores to better status on Amazon. The post Confessions of a Gay Erotica Writer in the Era of Indie Publishing appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #post confessions #indie publishing #dusty shelves

Denis Johnson, 'Writer's Writer's Writer,' Dead at 67

The award-winning fiction writer, poet, and playwright, whose best-known and most influential work, the story collection 'Jesus' Son,' turned 25 this year, has died. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #denis johnson #story collection

‘The crime writer crime writers read’: Garry Disher, author of 60 books and finding fame in his 70s

The Australian author is ‘incredibly influential’, but has had to survive decades of ‘cultural cringe’ and genre snobbery to make finally ‘a decent sort of living’Before parched and dusty towns across Australia became full of fictional sinister people; before the explosion of outback noir and... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-04-05 23:00:18 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #writing workshops #bestseller lists #australian author

Writer Mothers and Their Writer Children

Author Jill Hoffman, the daughter of a writer, explores her complex relationship with her daughter, yet another writer. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-05-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #complex relationship

Northern Writers' Awards gives £47k worth of prizes to 27 writers

Twenty-seven writers have been recognised at this year's annual Northern Writers’ Awards, sharing the £47,000 prize fund to enable their new writing in progress, across forms including prose, poetry and television.   Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-09 14:11:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #northern writers

Sam Adams | 'I just wanted to write and I’ve done so whenever I’ve had the opportunity'

For more than half a century, Sam Adams’ eclectic output has made him a stalwart of Wales’ literary scene. He discusses his latest novel Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-16 01:59:07 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #literary scene

Are You a New York Writer or an LA Writer?

You go to a coffee shop in order to focus on your craft. What do you order?  A. A black coffee.  B. An almond milk matcha.  What is your critically acclaimed debut novel about?  A. A man getting stuck on a subway train and revisiting the weight of all of the mistakes he’s made in […] The post... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-11-01 11:00:37 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #coffee shop #electric literature #debut novel

London Writers Awards celebrates 30 'underrepresented' writers

Spread the Word has chosen 30 writers from underrepresented backgrounds for its second annual London Writers Awards. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-23 16:49:46 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #underrepresented backgrounds

‘Writer’s Summit’ from London Book Fair and Writer’s Digest Announces Pitch Slam Agents

Now with a 'pitch slam' event in which writers present projects to agents, the November 'Writer's Summit' is co-chaired by The Guardian's Alison Flood. The post ‘Writer’s Summit’ from London Book Fair and Writer’s Digest Announces Pitch Slam Agents appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2017-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #alison flood

A 68-year-old aspiring writer accuses the Iowa Writers' Workshop of age discrimination

A 68-year-old man who was rejected by the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, claiming he was discriminated against because of his age. Dan Thomson, a former lawyer and self-published author, was among the 97% of applicants to the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2017-07-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #self-published author

Writer's writer William Zinsser dies

Author and writing coach William Zinsser, who penned the best-selling book On Writing Well, dies in New York, aged 92. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2015-05-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #best-selling book

These are the “most influential” writers of the year.

This week, TIME magazine published its annual list of the 100 Most Influential People of the year. Usually, when this list comes out, I complain (to the universe, I guess) that there aren’t enough novelists (“enough” meaning “more than one”) on it. Last year, though, there were four, which was a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-18 17:45:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #annual list #influential people #novelists

PW Bookstore of the Year 2024 Finalist: Writer’s Block Bookstore

In the past decade, Writer’s Block, which sells new books for both adults and children, has become a literary hub of the Greater Orlando metro area. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-18 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #pw bookstore #past decade #literary hub #bookstore