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
Trigger warning: unpopular opinion. I have long despised the idea of writers’ retreats. I entirely agree with the concept itself but felt it was in desperate need of diversification in order to suit different personality types and minds. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-02 05:17:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#personality types
Bristol arts hub and charity Knowle West Media Centre is seeking a writer who identifies as working-class to participate in a mini residency as part of the centre's Working Class Writers Festival. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-01 12:58:06 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
The Madeleine Milburn Mentorship Programme, introduced in 2020 to champion new and exciting voices and launch their writing careers, has chosen eight authors for 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-30 16:42:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#writing careers
Literary agency Greene & Heaton is to launch a submissions initiative and mentoring scheme for writers from underrepresented backgrounds, as part of The Greene Door Project. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-19 09:26:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#mentoring scheme
#underrepresented backgrounds
#literary agency
Indie 404 Ink has landed The Arena of the Unwell, the fiction debut of music writer Liam Konemann, due to publish next April. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-16 02:03:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#fiction debut
Laura Dave’s suspense novel is impossible to put down. But how satisfying is that conclusion? Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-12 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#ve read
A new anthology offers essays by Jane Smiley, Carmen Maria Machado and many others that explode the popular trope of white, privileged equestrians. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-08-11 13:30:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#jane smiley
#anthology
A group of creators will publish new comic book stories, essays and how-to guides on the platform as a way to connect directly with fans. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-08-09 18:28:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#connect directly
#comic book
Vintage has acquired an essay anthology examining the craft of writing through the lens of race and culture, edited by novelists Deepa Anappara and Taymour Soomro. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-07 11:56:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#taymour soomro
#anthology
The Women’s Prize for Fiction is partnering with Good Housekeeping magazine to launch a new initiative celebrating writers of fiction aged 35 and under. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-06 23:54:31 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Known as one of his country’s foremost intellectuals, he also presided over the influential publishing house Adelphi Edizioni. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-08-02 11:32:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
The Internet has opened up new modes of self-publishing for writers: subscription services like Substack and Patreon, online releases on platforms like Gumroad, and even NFTs. Now, we’re seeing the debut (to my knowledge) of a new self-publishing model: writer Aurora Mattia has published her... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-07-30 16:50:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#subscription services
#self-publishing platform
The RSL has announced the recipients of the inaugural 2021 Sky Arts RSL Writers Awards, which celebrate and nurture British writers of colour at the beginnings of their careers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-27 17:54:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
How Richard Lange went from literary short stories to crime fiction and his new gothic horror tale, 'Rovers,' about a '70s vampire biker gang. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-07-26 13:00:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#crime fiction
#short stories
Samantha Silva’s novel brings to life Mary Wollstonecraft: feminist, novelist and mother of Mary Shelley Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-07-17 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#mary shelley
The story of the “rich and weird” guidebooks produced by a Depression-era project. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-07-16 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Ms. Giff wrote more than 100 books, ranging from an exploration of the Irish potato famine to a humorous series about the antics of second graders. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-07-02 22:56:53 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book writer
#children’s book
The organisers of the 2021 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival have apologised for not including any female writers of colour in the programme . Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-02 16:32:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#female writers
During a long life of social activism, she participated in the civil rights movement and was an outspoken advocate for Mexican Americans and women. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-07-02 05:19:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#social activism
#outspoken advocate
#mexican americans
Academic publisher Springer Nature has launched a name change policy to enable transgender scholars and writers to update their name on published works. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-29 23:20:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#published works
#academic publisher