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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The novelist Kathryn Davis' memoir, 'Aurelia, Aurélia," is a Virginia Woolf-inspired whoosh of experiences in the aftermath of her husband's death. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-03-01 18:31:42 UTC ]
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Frequently given shortlist and longlist attention, Cal Flyn's socio-ecological study 'Islands of Abandonment' wins Young Writer of the Year. The post Awards: Cal Flyn Wins the £10,000 Young Writer of the Year Honor appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-03-01 17:30:05 UTC ]
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As women writers adapted to a changing post-WWII job market, so too did they adapt in their work, translating their skills into writing suspense for television and turning short stories into screenplays. In her essay on adaptation and “gendered discourses,” Shelley Cobb writes that “feminist... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-02-28 09:50:01 UTC ]
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Photo credit: Nigel DaviesSunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award marks the 30th anniversary with one of it's most decorated shortlists to date:• Irish novelist Megan Nolan for her darkly funny debut novel Acts of Desperation;• US-based writer Anna Beecher for her novel... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2022-02-16 14:40:41 UTC ]
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Interviews The creative writing of the twenty-first century will be remembered for having sanctioned the passage of text from paper to digital support. But is it really true that the author’s cards have disappeared? And how do contemporary authors write... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-08 20:43:39 UTC ]
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Abimbola Salami and Diane Ewan have won the inaugural Jericho Prize, a competition for unpublished and self-published Black-British writers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-27 15:04:19 UTC ]
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United States Artists, a Chicago-based arts funding organization, announced that six writers are included in this year's slate of 63 USA Fellows, each of whom is receiving an unrestricted $50,000 award. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-01-26 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The shortlist for the 2021 Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Trust award includes poetry, nonfiction, and three novels. The post The UK’s Sunday Times Young Writer Award Names Its 2021 Shortlist appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2022-01-25 12:58:34 UTC ]
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Want to be a fly on our bookshelf? These are the novels, short stories, essays and cookbooks that writers and editors are reading this year. Continue reading at The Huffington Post
[ The Huffington Post | 2022-01-24 10:45:02 UTC ]
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The Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Trust Young Writer of the Year Award shortlist has been revealed featuring Megan Nolan, Costa Prize-winning Caleb Azumah Nelson and Cal Flynn among others. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-23 07:16:43 UTC ]
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Andrew Lipstein’s entertaining debut novel mines comedy from an aspiring author’s ethically questionable path to publication. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-01-19 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Femi Kayode’s début novel, which is based on the real-life lynching of four undergraduates in Nigeria, is the first title in a forthcoming series from Raven Books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-16 02:03:47 UTC ]
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The ’90s are back, as if they could ever truly peace out. Between Fear Street and Captain Marvel and the Alanis Morissette musical, the last mostly-offline decade is getting a gargantuan nostalgia polish. For my memoir Sticker—an exploration of my childhood in Charlottesville, Virginia via 20... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2022-01-14 12:00:00 UTC ]
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More than 300 prominent writers and publishers including Bernardine Evaristo, Alan Hollinghurst and Malorie Blackman have signed a letter to the Times opposing the Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Bill, which is being voted on in the House of Lords over the next two weeks. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-13 12:40:06 UTC ]
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Roxane Gay is launching a new one-year fellowship programme which will see her support three aspiring writers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-12 16:04:26 UTC ]
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How book-loving communities on social media are helping authors break barriers to become bestsellersTalia Hibbert was rewatching a Spider-Man film and eating a meal in her living room when she received life-changing news. Her romance novel Act Your Age, Eve Brown, which she wrote at the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-12-30 08:00:44 UTC ]
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If you want to expand your picture book horizons past the classics, pick up one of these hidden gems of the format! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-12-29 11:34:00 UTC ]
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Waterstones is partnering with the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award to celebrate the best emerging talent in the UK and Ireland, hosting exclusive accompanying content across all its channels. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-20 08:28:44 UTC ]
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Eight new writers have been chosen to join this year's Penguin Random House UK’s WriteNow mentoring programme, with a focus on children's writers. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-15 07:50:03 UTC ]
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