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 ]
Consumer sales down to £204m last year and are at lowest level since 2011 – when Amazon Kindle sales first took off in UK Britons are abandoning the ebook at an alarming rate with sales of consumer titles down almost a fifth last year, as “screen fatigue” helped fuel a five-year high in printed... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Every day, digital publishers are challenged by the fragmentation of media. Third-party and social platforms appropriating content, mobile "snacking," low-quality "clickbait" competition and content recommendation services that drive visitors off-site are just some of the factors depressing... Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2017-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It can be cheaper to buy the physical copy of a book than a digital download thanks to changes in Amazon’s deal with publishersAt the start of this decade publishers feared the death of the paperback. Britons abandoned bookshops at an alarming rate, seduced by e-readers and cheap digital... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2017-03-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishers should make the most of the “golden age of opportunity” the industry is currently in, Dominique Raccah, publisher and c.e.o. of Sourcebooks has said, while urging publishers to use this opporuntity to redefine their roles. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-03-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hercule Poirot and Miss Marples are among golden age sleuths giving new inspiration to a genre tired of alcoholic divorcees and goth hackersForget domestic noir and put down all those books with “Girl” in the title. Crime fiction is turning back the clock to its golden age with a host of books... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-09-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The White Horse Bookshop is sponsoring the Richard Jefferies Society Writers’ Prize while the book trade is experiencing a “golden age of nature writing”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-07-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jeff Bezos has sold 1% of his stake in Amazon - which is just over a million shares, at a value of $671m (£465.2m) - the New York Post has reported. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jeff Bezos probably wasn't pleased to see his surprise spoiled this week, but ebook fans still have reason to get pumped. Amazon just pulled back the curtain on its new premium reader, the Kindle Oasis, and it's the slimmest and sleekest model the c... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2016-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BARCELONA, Spain—Media executives from television, online and magazine news organizations are optimistic that a mostly mobile audience will present new opportunities for reporting and engagement, even while revenue challenges remain. Speaking on a Mobile World Congress panel Thursday,... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2016-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The web giant’s move into bricks-and-mortar bookselling has upset many in the books community – but there is much to praise in this innovationYou could describe it as a troubling development in publishing: someone comes along with no real knowledge of the book business, a brash salesman who... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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"Steve Jobs" actor Michael Fassbender has been confirmed to star as Harry Hole in the film adaptation of Scandinavian crime writer Jo Nesbo’s global bestseller and thriller, The Snowman (Vintage). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-12-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Also this week, hiccuping through the Australian national anthem, Jeff Bezos is joining the space race, and a Jane Austen classic gets the zombie treatmentWith Thanksgiving over for another year and the heartwarming American tradition of Black Friday upon us, let’s start this week’s roundup with... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Beyond Belief, a new book by Charles Saatchi, brings together the most shocking advertising campaigns of the last century. From racism and sexism to dodgy health claims, nothing was out of bounds for the real-life Mad MenBeyond Belief: Racist, Sexist, Rude, Crude and Dishonest, The Golden Age of... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Trade journal Quill and Quire conducted a round-table discussion to ask: “Are we in a golden age of Canadian picture books?” The post Is This the “Golden Age” for Canadian Picture Books? appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-11-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury is publishing a new biography of Hillary Clinton in the lead-up to the 2016 US presidential election. Hillary: A Biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton (January 2016, £12.99) has been written by former financial journalist Karen Blumenthal right, also the author of Bloomsbury’s 2012... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-09-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At HarperCollins UK's annual summer party for its authors, UK CEO Charlie Redmayne could not have sounded more positive about the firm's direction in 2015. The post HarperCollins UK CEO says “Publishing Entering a Golden Age” appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2015-07-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Contrary to Sam Leith’s complaints last week, commercial publishers continue to take risks, and put out great and original workIn his article last week, Sam Leith deplored the state of mainstream trade publishing, saying it was “getting dumber by the day”, in contrast to the university presses... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When it comes to high-calibre non-fiction, risk-averse trade publishing houses are producing too many copycat ‘smart thinking’ books that promise more than they deliver. But praise should be given to the university pressesAmid the ambient wails of doom about the publishing industry, I’d like to... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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What's in store for the Dutch publisher whose titles have ranged from 'Becoming Steve Jobs' to erotic romance. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This week: Werner Herzog walks on ice, Oliver Sacks's new memoir, and the golden age of murder. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-04-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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