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 ]
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Through a deal with PayPal, Deutsche Telekom is letting mobile users purchase digital goods and get billed on their regular mobile phone accounts.Deutsche Telekom has a presence in 14 markets throughout Europe, with some 144 million mobile customers, and is working with PayPal to offer the... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2014-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Little Friendly Orgy and other porn stories have been sold as work by the author of The Eagle Has LandedReaders fancying a journey into the world of the bestselling thriller author Jack Higgins may be getting a different kind of thrill, courtesy of another writer selling erotic novels under... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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WikiLeaks founder a mercurial character who could not bear his own secrets, according to writer Andrew O'HaganThe ghostwriter who collaborated with Julian Assange on his abortive 2011 autobiography has broken his silence to describe his months working with the WikiLeaks founder, which culminated... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A digital publishing house is conducting a semi-legal, large-scale search for the next great incarcerated author. The reaction from authorities isn't what you'd expect.Jack London, Ken Kesey, William Burroughs, Oscar Wilde, Malcolm X, Voltaire, Cervantes, E.E. Cummings, Martin Luther King, Mark... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2014-02-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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There is no need to turn to the US for great writers, the publisher of one of the Folio Prize-... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-02-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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While authors have appeared in person, via Skype or via telephone at book clubs before, Book the Writer has the clubs pay for the author's appearance. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The anonymous figure behind the Twitter handle is reported to be releasing a book titled 'Straight to Hell: True Tales of Deviance and Excess in the World of Investment Banking' this October. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Advocates for women writers – working to counter what is seen as bias towards males in the literary community – suddenly seem to be everywhere. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Digital Book World survey revealed that 54% of “traditionally-published” authors (and nearly 80% of self-published authors) earn less than $1,000 a year. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-01-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Xiaolu Guo warns that English-language mainstream has warped a broader 'reading habit', on panel with Jhumpa Lahiri and Jonathan FranzenAmerican literature is "massively overrated", the award-winning author and film-maker Xiaolu Guo told the Jaipur literature festival – and fellow panellist and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Figures show the vast majority of authors, both traditionally and self-published, are struggling to make a living from their workThe publishing industry has never been so sharply divided. In the week when the erotica writer Sylvia Day signed a staggering eight-figure two-book deal with St... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2014-01-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Scribd executive acknowledged the problem of pirated content on Scribd and also outlined the company's efforts to prevent unauthorized uploads. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publishing Perspectives' #EtherIssue debate on the allegedly slowing ebook market reveals apparent contradictions in self-publishing interests. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Following OxTales (2009) and OxTravels (2011), Profile Books will publish fundraising collection... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Indie publishing via online writing communities and ebooks can provide valuable feedback, and even set you on the path to mainstream successNews that a quarter of the top 100 Kindle books on Amazon.com are from indie publishers doesn't surprise me. I started out writing online. Fed up with the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Science fiction has a long tradition in North Korea and SF authors enjoy greater freedom to explore edgy subjects, such as crime and violence, than their counterparts. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-12-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hilary Mantel, Jonathan Franzen, Mohsin Hamid, Ruth Rendell, Tom Stoppard, Malcolm Gladwell, Eleanor Catton and many more recommend the books that impressed them this yearChimamanda Ngozi AdichieFive Star Billionaire by Tash Aw (Fourth Estate) is a brilliant, sprawling, layered and unsentimental... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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PEN American Center's report "Chilling Effects," offers some disturbing data about the effect of government surveillance on free expression and self-censorship in the literary world.PEN American Center’s report “Chilling Effects,” officially released Tuesday morning, offers some disturbing data... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2013-11-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As USA Today celebrates the 20th anniversary of its bestseller list, the organization says romance novels, children's books, and inspirational books defined the last two decades of reading. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-11-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Taken by the T-Rex might sound like a joke book title to you, but it's part of an odd and oddly popular self-publishing subculture of monster erotica. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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