New Tele-class Wednesday: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Publishing Digital Books

Shelley Lieber has invited me back to VIP Authors for a live encore performance Wednesday at 2:00pm Eastern time of the ebook publishing tele-class we first presented back in June.

The theme this time around is, "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Digital Publishing (but were afraid to ask)." If you're an author or publisher, and you want to learn how to make the move to ebooks, come join us. Don't forget to bring your questions.

I really like Shelley's approach. There's no PowerPoint presentation. It's just Shelley and I on a conference call with Shelley asking smart questions, and then we open it up to audience questions. This time around we're reserving up to 45 minutes for the audience segment. We're also going to invite folks on Twitter to tweet Shelley questions. Shelly is @wordywoman and I'm @markcoker.

If you're not familiar with Shelley, check out my Q&A interview with Shelley from a few months back here on the Smashwords Blog. Shelley's a great advocate for all authors, so I highly recommend you learn about her and get involved with her VIP Authors program.

The class runs from 2:00pm - 3:30pm Eastern. It's free to listen to the live call and ask questions. Click here to learn more and register.

How to Develop an Ebook Strategy: IBPA Publishing University Class Tomorrow

I'm presenting a one-hour online class tomorrow at 2:00pm Eastern, sponsored by the Independent Book Publisher's Association (IBPA) titled, "Making the Move to Ebooks: How to Develop an Ebook Strategy."

The class tomorrow expands upon a class I co-presented with Dan Poynter at the Publishing University conference in New York in May.

From the IBPA web site, here's a partial summary of what I'll cover:

1. Why ebooks are hot
2. Latest market sales data
3. Will ebooks cannibalize or complement print books?
4. How ebooks fit within overall publishing strategy
5. What books work best as ebooks
6. How Ebook formatting is different
7. Why multi-format is important
8. Evolving distribution models: The new ebook supply chain
9. How Amazon is vertically integrating its ebook business: friend or foe to the independent publisher?
10. To DRM or not DRM?
11. Ebook pricing models

To learn more, or to register, visit the Publishing University Online registration page. The class is $49.00 for IBPA members and $69.00 for non-members. 100% of the proceeds go to IBPA, a wonderful organization I'm so pleased to support.

Smashwords 'Read an Ebook Week' Promotion Kicks off this Sunday

This Sunday March 8 marks the kick off for Read an Ebook Week, an international online literary event designed to raise awareness about the benefits of ebook reading. Smashwords is one of several sponsors.

During the week-long event, ebook authors around the world will offer their ebooks at deep discounts, or even free, to generate excitement about ebooks.

Participating Smashwords authors will offer their books for free, or for discounts of 25% or 50%. Smashwords authors can enroll by visiting the Read an Ebook Week enrollment page.

Participating authors will benefit from inclusion in a special catalog appearing on the Smashwords home page during the week. The catalog will also be available in the Smashwords bookstore on Stanza, the #1 most downloaded e-reading app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Smashwords will also publicize the event in a press release, a member mailing, and in other promotions.

Smashwords an Official Sponsor of Read an E-Book Week March 8-14

Smashwords today announced its official sponsorship of Read an E-Book Week, to be held March 8-14. I encourage readers of this blog to get involved at a local level by hosting ebook read-ins and ebook device demonstrations at schools, libraries, bookstores and coffee shops.

At Smashwords, we're going to work with our authors to create special ebook promotions during the week, including free books and discounted books. Stay tuned.

From the press release:

"The mission of Read an E-Book Week is to raise international awareness about the benefits of ebooks to authors, readers, educators and the media," said Rita Toews, founder of the non-profit event. "As a sponsor of the event, Smashwords will help promote the initiative, and will work with its authors to develop special Smashwords book promotions during the week."

Digital reading is on the upswing. According the IDPF, ebook sales in the United States grew 108 percent year over year for the month of November alone. The dramatic sales increase came despite weak overall book industry sales (for in-depth analysis, see our previous post on the rise of ebook sales).

"We're pleased to sponsor and endorse Read an E-Book Week," said Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords. "We hope to introduce thousands of new readers and authors to the joys of ebooks. Thanks to advances in e-reading devices such as the iPhone+Stanza, the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader, electronic reading is often more enjoyable than paper reading. Once book lovers try ebooks, they're hooked."

Click here to read the rest of the press release.

Click here to visit the web site for Read an E-Book Week, and to learn how you can get involved.