Apple iBookstore Expands Smashwords Ebook Distribution to 26 New Countries

Apple this week dramatically expanded the international reach of Smashwords ebooks by distributing our catalog to 26 new iBookstores across Europe and Scandinavia.

Prior to this week, over 50,000 Smashwords ebook titles were available in Apple iBookstores in the US, Canada, U.K., Germany, France and Australia.

All Smashwords authors, publishers and agents enjoy immediate access to this expanded distribution.

Below is the list of new iBookstore countries now reachable through Smashwords.

Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland

Go Global With Smashwords

Within the next few years, the global market for ebooks will likely eclipse the US market. Already at Smashwords, I can report that prior to this news, almost half of our iBookstore sales were coming from outside the U.S.

Although the US represents the world’s single largest ebook market today and is still growing rapidly, the US market is also the most mature. Growth rates in the US, where the ebook market has more than doubled each year for the last several years, are likely to slow thanks to the law of large numbers (you can't keep doubling forever!). I expect the US will end 2011 with ebooks accounting for 15-25% of trade book sales.

Contrast this with markets outside the US, where ebooks will account for probably between 1% and 5% of the market this year. These markets are only now beginning to enter, or will soon enter, exponential growth phases that will take them to 15-25% the next few years assuming their growth trajectories follow similar patterns seen in the US and other English speaking countries.

Indie authors will reap a two-fold benefit. They now have access to more markets, and these markets will grow faster than the U.S. in the years ahead.

The necessary ingredients for this growth include availability of affordable ebook content in concert with low-cost e-reading devices (dedicated e-readers, multi-function tablets like the iPad, smart phones, personal computers) powered by local-language ebook stores.

This is exciting news for indie ebook authors, not only for authors here in the US but also for indie authors in these new territories. Because Smashwords is an Apple-authorized global aggregator for the iBookstore, authors, publishers and literary agents around the world can use Smashwords to quickly and easily distribute local-language ebooks into their country's iBookstore, as well as to Apple iBookstores outside their country.

My thanks to our friends at Apple for introducing Smashwords books to these new markets.

If you’re not yet distributing with Smashwords, visit our How to Publish and Distribute Ebooks with Smashwords page. In addition to distributing to the 31 Apple iBookstores, we also distribute your book to the online ebook stores operated by Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, the Diesel eBookstore and to major mobile app platforms such as Stanza and Aldiko.

How Ebook Buyers Discover Books

Most writers write to get read, so how do readers discover ebooks?

To discover clues to the answer, I posted a survey over at Mobileread, the online forum popular with many ebook readers.

I challenged readers to select the single most common criterion they follow to discover their next read.

The results provide some interesting data points Smashwords authors and publishers might consider in their marketing efforts.

To capture a broad range of usable data, I suggested 12 answers, one of which was "Other." Respondents were allowed to select one answer only since I wanted to identify the single most important discovery criteria.

As of this writing, 206 people answered the survey. Click the image to enlarge it.

Key findings, plus my observations:

1. The most-selected answer was "Recommendations from fellow readers on online message forums, blogs and message boards," with 29% of respondents choosing this. By contrast, only 4% selected, "Personal friend/family member recommends it to me." I think this is fascinating, because it implies readers might trust the collective wisdom of strangers and online acquaintances more than they trust the recommendations of immediate friends and family. At the risk of placing too many eggs in this basket, remember 71% selected something else.

2. The second most common answer was, "I look first for my favorite authors," coming in at 18%. This makes sense. As I mention when I present my Seven Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success talk, the author is the brand and if the author can earn the trust and loyalty of readers, readers will return to that brand for their next read. Readers in this group may also be more risk-averse. One respondent commented, "I'm at a point in life where I mostly stick with authors I already know and like. Why waste time and money on something I may not like?"

3. I found it interesting that the top two answers accounted for 47% of responses, with the other 53% of answers fragmented across ten other answers. This implies, I think, that in order for authors to reach the maximum number of readers, it requires them to orchestrate multiple touch points.

4. Several answers indicate buyers prefer a random discovery approach. Readers like to browse. Taken in the aggregate, random browsing rivals the single largest discovery method, with over 25% of respondents. The following are all random browsing methods: I browse book covers, and if it grabs me I investigate further (7%); I browse randomly then look at reviews (7%); I read free ebooks, and if I like the authors I buy their other titles (5%); I browse paper books at brick and mortar bookstores, then search for the ebook online (4%); I'll sample anything, and if it grabs me I'll download/buy it (4%). Most other answers involve some element of random browsing.

5. The Mobileread community has apparently abandoned traditional print media as their first choice for reviews and recommendations, with only 3% citing this as their preferred book discovery method. This isn't surprising, considering Mobileread is a hyper-focused community dedicated to e-reading. It's not representative of the entire population of book buyers. However, I think Mobileread does serve as a leading indicator of how consumer sentiment will change once readers make the transition to e-reading. Looking at the answers in aggregate, it's clear that over 90% of ebook discovery is occurring in the online realm.

6. I was surprised only 3% of respondents looked first to the bestseller lists, which scored just as poorly as print media reviews. Possibly it's a flaw in how I structured the survey. I was also surprised that retailer recommendations, such as the "people who bought this bought that," scored only 5%. Maybe if I asked, "Name the top three methods you use for discovery," these would have scored higher.

7. The "Other" answers, where I invited Mobilereaders to leave comments and elaborate, elicited 11% of responses. Judging from their comments, several of them found it difficult to choose a single favorite discovery method (in other words, they didn't follow the survey instructions which asked them to choose their #1). Of those who provided true "other" answers, several mentioned they discover books at libraries, or select primarily by title or book description (I should have included these as a survey options).

What to make of the results? How might authors and publishers focus their e-publishing efforts based on the data above? I think it boils down to the following:

• Write a great book that resonates with readers and gives them something to talk about
  
• Target readers who are active in online communities because they influence their fellow readers (The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide provides 30 online marketing ideas)
  
• Maximize the availability of your book so readers can randomly stumble across it and sample it
• Boring titles, unprofessional cover images and poorly written book descriptions are instant turn-offs

Do the findings above match your experience as a reader or author?

Ebook Readers Buy More Books, Says New Harris Interactive Survey

A new Harris Interactive survey published today finds surging interest in ebooks and rapid adoption of e-reading devices.

Key findings:

• E-reader usage is surging - 15% of Americans now use an e-reading device, up from 8% one year ago. One in six Americans who don't yet own an e-reader plan to buy one in the next six months.


• Those with an e-reading device read more books - Whereas 16% of Americans read between 11 and 20 books a year and 20% reading 21 or more books in a year, among those who have an e-reader, 32% read 11-20 books a year and 27% read 21 or more books in an average year.


• E-reader users buy more books - 32% of Americans report they have not purchased any books in the past year compared to only 6% of e-reader users. Whereas only 10% of Americans purchased between 11 and 20 books and 9% purchased 21 or more books, 17% of e-reader users purchased between 11 and 20 books and 17% of e-reader users purchased 21 or more books.

Click here to read the full ebook survey results from Harris Interactive, which also includes data on the most popular genres.

The survey was based on interviews with 2,183 American adults and was conducted in July.

Smashwords at Upcoming Conferences and Events

This weekend kicks off a busy speaking schedule covering eight conferences, seminars and workshops and at least a dozen panels and presentations.

If you're attending any of these events, please say hello. It's always great to meet Smashwords authors, agents and publishers.

Each event is hyperlinked so you can learn more. For most events, some or all of the event is open to the public but please pre-register in advance to confirm attendance.

September 16-18 (San Luis Obispo, CA): 27th Annual Central Coast Writers' Conference. The keynoter is NY Times best-selling author Jonathan Maberry, who, btw, ran an in-depth interview with me on his blog yesterday. I'm participating in four sessions. On Friday, I'm participating the Tech, Toys and Digital Tools pre-conference workshop, and then on Saturday I'm on a fun panel that will do an American Idol-style evaluation of writers in the audience who request critiques (this should be interesting, at Smashwords I deliberately avoid judging author works). On Sunday I'll do a workshop on ebook publishing best-practices, and then at the end of the day I present a wrap-up keynote where I'll talk about the biggest trends impacting the future of publishing. My thanks to Laurie McLean, an agent at Larson-Pomada Literary Agents for introducing me to Judy Salamacha, the organizer of this conference who assembled such great speakers and workshops.

September 20 (Los Angeles, CA): Writers Guild of America. I'm speaking at a WGA workshop alongside authors Lee Goldberg (on Smashwords) and Alexandra Sokoloff (also on Smashwords). Topic: "E-Publishing: Self-Help for WGA Members."

September 21 (Los Angeles, CA): Northwestern University Entertainment Alliance. Topic: E-publishing Seminar. I'll provide a primer on ebook publishing, talk about big trends in publishing and how indie authors can exploit these trends, and then I'll wrap with my latest Seven Secrets talk where I review the best practices of the most successful Smashwords authors.

September 26 (New York, NY): PublishersLaunch Ebooks for Everyone Else, a conference produced by Michael Cader of Publisher's Lunch and Mike Shatzkin of IdeaLogical. It's full day seminar covering a bunch of cool topics of interest to authors, small publishers and literary agents. I'll talk a few minutes about how authors, agents and publishers can leverage automated conversion services such as Smashwords or those offered by some retailers to produce high-quality, low-cost ebooks. Also appearing at the conference: Jane Dystel of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, Robert Gottlieb of Trident Media Group, Michael Tamblyn of Kobo, Scott Waxman of Diversion Books and the Waxman Literary Agency, David Wilk of Booktrix, Joshua Tallent of eBook Architects and other smart cookies you'll find here.

October 10 (San Francisco, CA): LitQuake. This conference looks so super cool I'm sorry I'm missing it. Adding to the coolness factor is Bill Kendrick, our CTO. He'll appear the evening of October 10 in a session titled, Want That Book Published? How to Navigate the New World of Publishing. Bill's fellow panelists include literary agent Ted Weinstein (Ted's on Smashwords!), Laura Mazer of Soft Skull Press and Penny Nelson of Manus and Associates Literary Agents.

October 19-23 (St. Pete Beach, Florida): Novelists, Inc. 23rd Annual Conference. Theme: New Rules, New Tools: Writers in Charge. I'll participate in multiple sessions. One session will explore the new publishing landscape, and will feature fellow panelists Don Weisberg of Penguin, Linda Quinton from Tor, Carolyn Pittis from Harper Collins, and Lou Aronica, a New York Times bestselling co-author, novelist, and former Publisher of Avon Books and Berkley Books. In another session, we'll explore how professional authors can maintain reader excitement between big book projects. This second panel features Don Weisberg, Linda Quinton and also includes the awesome David Wilk of Booktrix. Looking forward to meeting several Smashwords authors at the conference! Full speakers list here.

October 29 (Sunnyvale, CA): E-publishing workshop sponsored by the South Bay Writers chapter of the California Writers Club. I'm presenting an intensive 1/2 day seminar covering virtually everything you need to know to produce, publish, promote and sell an ebook. Click here for the workshop brochure (opens a PDF). I'll start with an introductory primer on ebook self-publishing, present the Seven Secrets of Ebook Publishing Success, and then will wrap with some advanced topics exploring issues like ebook pricing and retailer sales rank.

November 2 (San Francisco, CA): Ebooks for Everyone Else comes to San Francisco. The one-day information-packed seminar will feature several fresh faces not at the first event in New York City from September 26, including yours truly. I'll talk again about how authors, agents and publishers can leverage automated conversion systems such as Smashwords to produce high-quality, low-cost ebooks. Several agents will be on hand to discuss their indie ebook initiatives, including Deidre Knight of The Knight Agency, Laura Rennert of Andrea Brown Literary Agency, Scott Waxman of Waxman Literary Agency and Diversion Books, and Ted Weinstein of Ted Weinstein Literary Management. As I blogged earlier, I'm so excited about the opportunity for literary agents to help their clients do indie ebooks I created The Literary Agent's Indie Ebook Roadmap to assist their planning and strategy. Find the full list of speakers here.

Smashwords Reaches Three Billion Words Published

Smashwords reached another milestone yesterday. One of our authors published the three billionth word.

We reached two billion words four months ago, and one billion 11 months ago.

To put this in further context, in the last four months we averaged 8.3 million words a day. This works out to about 350,000 words per hour, 5,700 words per minute or almost 100 words per second. Can you hear the keyboards clicking?

Smashwords is an ebook publishing and distribution platform. We're simply a tool that enables the efficient publication, distribution and management of ebooks. Our mission is to unleash the literary talent of writers from every corner of the globe.

We're now publishing over 70,000 books from 28,000 authors. In our first year, 2008, we published 140 titles. That grew to 6,000 in 2009, 28,800 in 2010, and will likely surpass 90,000 this year.

We take none of this for granted. This growth is entirely thanks to Smashwords authors, agents, publishers, retailers and customers who have granted us the privilege to distribute and sell these books.

Every day, the 11 of us at Smashwords are working to better serve you. My thanks to you for your continued trust, confidence and partnership. With your help, the best is yet to come.

How to Self-Publish an Ebook with Smashwords: 32 Authors Share Their Tips and Tricks

The other week, I invited Smashwords authors and publishers to help their fellow authors by writing a "How to Publish an Ebook on Smashwords" blog post.

32 authors and publishers below shared their smarts in an engaging and diverse collection of first-person tips, tricks and experiences.

For their effort, each will receive a collector's edition Smashwords coffee mug.

If you know an author who's not yet publishing ebooks, please share this collection with them. Used in concert with our Smashwords Style Guide (the ebook formatting bible for Smashwords), these posts will make their publishing adventure faster, simpler and more enjoyable.

Smashwords Authors and Publishers Share their Smarts

1. Julia Group - Publishing Wizard & Spy on Smashwords : Easy, peasey, lemon squeezee
   
   
2. Kristy K. James - Helpful Tips For Getting Published On Smashwords
   
   
3. AG Claymore - Publishing an eBook with Smashwords
   
   
4. John H. Carroll - How to Publish and Distribute Ebooks with Smashwords
   
   
5. Aaron Majewski - How to Publish and Distribute Ebooks with Smashwords
   
   
6. Jeff Hendricks - Self-Pubishing eBooks with Smashwords
   
   
7. Linda Pendleton (and Don Pendleton) - Ebook Publishing With Smashwords
   
   
8. Red Haircrow - Sharing the Smashwords Love: My Story On Why & How I Came to Self-Publish
   
   
9. Ian Thomas Healy - The Care and Feeding of THE MILKMAN: Super Secret Extra Cheesy Edition on Smashwords
   
   
10. Susanna Mahoney - Smashwords.com is the first step to publish your book for the world to enjoy
    
    
11. Anna Patterson - My Road to Publishing a Book
    
    
12. Dennis R. Blanchard - How I published THREE HUNDRED ZEROES with Smashwords
    
    
13. Kevin Domenic - How to Publish and Distribute Ebooks with Smashwords
    
    
14. Carol Anita Ryan - How you can publish on Smashwords
    
    
15. Wendy Maddocks - My publishing experiences with smashwords.com
    
    
16. Carolyn Brown - Tips for Publishing eBooks with Smashwords!
    
    
17. J.L. Murphey - Publishing Smashwords Style
    
    
18. Tommie Lyn - ...about formatting for Smashwords
    
    
19. John O'Brien - How I published A New World: Chaos with Smashwords
    
    
20. Jaye Seay - How to Publish and Distribute Ebooks with Smashwords
    
    
21. Karen Woodward - Publishing With Smashwords
    
    
22. Maranda Russell - Tips for Publishing on Smashwords
    
    
23. Jody Kihara - Smashwords, Formatting, and Special Characters (Em-dashes and En-dashes)
    
    
24. Lillie Ammann - Publishing Ebooks on Smashwords
    
    
25. D.C. Sargent - How To Tackle Smashwords
    
    
26. Dr. Tae Yun Kim - How the “Seven Steps to Inner Power” ebook was Published with Smashwords!
    
    
27. Cameron D. Garriepy - How to self-publish via Smashwords
    
    
28. B.C. Young - How to Publish and Distribute eBooks with Smashwords
    
    
29. SiewJin Christina Jee - Smashwords, a blue mug and I
    
    
30. David Derrico - How To Self-Publish With Smashwords
    
    
31. Ruby Barnes - Ignore Smashwords at your Peril
    
    
32. Sue A. Lehman - How I Published at Smashwords!
    
    

The Customer Perspective
We received this submission from a Smashwords customer in France who blogs and writes book reviews under the name, TheSFReader. Although it's not a how-to for authors, it provides interesting perspective on why one avid ebook buyer shops first at Smashwords (and also provides copius suggestions for future Smashwords features, so thanks!).

TheSFReader - I Love Smashwords, Don't You?

My thanks to everyone above for taking the time to share their tips and tricks for the benefit of fellow authors, publishers and readers.

Share your Smashwords Smarts, Earn a Shiny Mug

Share your Smashwords smarts and we'll send you a shiny new collector's edition Smashwords coffee mug, hot off the presses.

Each month, thousands of new authors and publishers join Smashwords, and many come to us with no prior knowledge about ebook publishing and distribution. For some, Smashwords is a breeze. For others, there's a steep learning curve.

Are you a Smashwords pro? What tips can you share with fellow authors and publishers to help them get up and running quicker, easier and with less frustration?

Here's how to earn your mug (plus other fab benefits):

1. Write a blog post titled something like, "How to Publish and Distribute Ebooks with Smashwords," or, "How I Published [Book Title] with Smashwords," or whatever else you think is fitting for an informative how-to post.

2. In your own words, explain to the uninitiated what Smashwords is, and how authors and publishers can use Smashwords as a tool to get their ebooks out there.

3. Now for the best part. Share your smarts. How did you do it? What tips and tricks did you learn along the way to make it faster and easier to get your books properly formatted, in the Premium Catalog, and selling to readers? What other Smashwords authors inspired you along the way? Give 'em a plug!

4. Provide helpful hyperlinks in your post to the resources at Smashwords you found most useful as you were getting up to speed (possibly the Smashwords Style Guide, the FAQ or its glossary of ebook terminology, the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide, the Smashwords Blog, the How to Publish and Distribute with Smashwords page, or the Smashwords Facebook forum?). Also be sure to include your book cover image in your post (this is an opportunity for you to promote your book too!), and add a hyperlink to your Smashwords author/publisher page and book your book pages so readers can view your finished work.

5. Add the Smashwords logo. Right mouse click on the one at left to save it to your desktop so you can add it to your post.

6. Once the blog is complete, post a link to it in the comments below and then email your complete mailing address to mug at smashwords.com. Once all the submissions are in, I'll feature the best of them (or all of them, if they're all great) in the body of a new blog post for early September titled something like, "Smashwords Authors Share Smashwords Tips and Tricks," which will become a collection of first-person how-to posts for other authors. Not only will you earn a mug for your trouble, you'll help your fellow authors and publishers. You also get some traffic to your blog because we'll promote this collection as a resource for other authors and publishers (so put your best foot forward and make your fellow authors proud!).

7. We'll limit this to the first 40 respondents who submit their posts by September 3. If the response is stronger, I'll give you a rain check for the next batch of mugs we produce in a couple months.

8. Optional Bonus: Now that you've taken the time to create a great resource for your fellow authors and publishers, share it. Are you in a writing club? Offer to contribute it to your next newsletter. Email it to your friends who aren't yet doing ebooks. Facebook it, tweet it. Offer it as a guest blog post to your favorite blogs (see more blog marketing ideas in the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide). Create a PowerPoint and post it to Slideshare.net (my recent Powerpoint, The Literary Agent's Indie Ebook Roadmap, has had over 9,000 views already. Wow. I love Slideshare.net. For more on them, see my August 7 Site Updates post). Share your smarts, help your fellow authors.

About the Mugs:

They're high-quality, made in the USA cobalt blue mugs with white, black and silver metallic printing. Only 70 of them exist. They're not for sale.

The front of the mug shows the Smashwords logo on a shiny silver background (they're actually small amount of real silver in that ink).

The back summarizes the benefits of the Smashwords service (click the image at below to enlarge). There's also a note that it's a collectors edition mug commemorating our first 65,000 ebooks (a milestone we zipped past about two weeks ago).

Thanks to our good-looking models Aaron Fernandez, who works on our vetting team, and Angela Schiavone, who works on our support team (she was a Smashwords author long before she was a Smashwords employee). Also thanks to Jim Azevedo, our new marketing manager who took the photos.

Have fun!

Smashwords Adds Adult Filter

Smashwords today added an adult filter to the Smashwords.com website.

The filter prevents first time visitors and others from viewing content rated adult by the author/publisher unless the visitor specifically asks to see such content. It filters out such content from the home page, search results, category listings and tag queries.

The adult filter was inspired by Google's "Moderate Safe Search" option, which is the default option for all users of the Google search engine.

A clearly visible "ON/OFF" toggle link appears in the upper right portion of the visitor's home page screen so they can easily set their preference. Click the ON or OFF and it toggles your setting to the other option.

Our new Adult Filter replaces what was previously known as our Prude Filter, a name that offended many. We agree, it was inappropriately named. It filtered out all adult material, not just erotic content. More importantly, the previous filter was not the default setting, which meant first time visitors, children and others not looking for adult content were exposed to inappropriate images, words and descriptions on the home page without their consent.

The filter has no bearing on our Smashwords Terms of Service regarding the types of books we will publish and distribute. It simply makes viewing adult content an opt-in choice. We trust this moves us one step closer toward fulfilling the promise of our tag line, "your ebook, your way."

The Literary Agent's Indie Ebook Roadmap

I mentioned previously I think the next chapter of the indie ebook revolution will be written by literary agents.

It's starting to happen. In the last few months several literary agencies began working with Smashwords. I look forward to welcoming others in the months ahead.

Today I posted a presentation at Slideshare titled, The Literary Agent's Indie Ebook Roadmap to review the opportunity I see for literary agents and their clients.


As I mentioned in my prior post on agents, literary agents can add a lot of value to the publishing process. They're the trusted author advocates charged with helping authors maximize the commercial potential of their works. A great agent brings passion, smarts and relationships that can multiply an author's success several-fold.

Literary agents represent some of the most commercially successful authors and author estates.

In the presentation below, I share my ideas for how literary agents can better serve their clients by adding e-publishing services to their clients services mix.

The Literary Agent's Indie Ebook Roadmap

Access the complete collection of Smashwords presentations here: Smashwords Slideshare Library

I view the publishing services ecosystem as a spectrum.

At one polar extreme you have traditional publishers who provide a wide range of service capabilities to authors, including editing, production, sales, distribution, marketing to accounts payables/receivables, and more.

Publishers take risks on books by investing their resources to bring them to market.

With the rise of ebooks and self-publishing, authors now have the opportunity to perform many of these publishing functions on their own, should they choose.

On the extreme left side of my spectrum I have what I call the "DIY Anarchists." These are the rare minority of hermits who do everything themselves and only sell on their personal website for fear of sharing a cut with a retailer or other intermediary that sits between them and their reader.

The vast majority of indie authors are somewhere in the middle. Many might use Smashwords for ebook conversion, publishing and distribution, then use POD printers for their print book. They might perform some responsibilities themselves, or they might farm out roles to specialist freelancers or service providers.

Some indie authors, basking in the new-found freedom to publish on their own terms, have an inclination to take on more than they should. Just because you have the power to assume all the responsibilities of a publisher doesn't mean you should bear the burden alone. This is where the publishing services specialists come in.

In the end, the decision to outsource some or all of your publishing services to an intermediary comes down to time. How can you best utilize your time?

For many authors, as I noted in my post, The Seven Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success, their time is usually best spent writing great books. Focus your energy on writing a book that sells itself. If your book sparks intense passion with readers, they'll market your book for you. I tell folks if they have $2,000 to invest in marketing they're probably better off investing that money with a professional editor who can help drive the next revision (I also advise authors to pinch their pennies; never spend money you don't have; and never go in debt to publish your book).

Literary agents have a unique opportunity to do for their clients what many of them do not want to do - or cannot do - for themselves.

What does the entry of agents into the publishing services field mean for you, the author? I think it's great news. Over time, it should allow agents to take more risks on more authors.

I've spoken with numerous agents who've shared how they loved an author's work but were unable to sell it, or unable to rep it because publishers wouldn't buy it. For agents who got into the business for their love of books and helping authors, it's a soul sucking experience.

Now agents have another reason to say yes. They can help release books think readers would want to read, rather than being forced to focus on books they think they can sell to a publisher. What publishers want to buy and what readers want to buy are usually VERY different things.

It's in every indie author's best interest, as well as the best interest of readers, that more agency-repped authors release their books as indie ebooks. Books usually get better when touched by an agent. Speaking from personal experience, I know the novel my wife and I wrote got better thanks to the feedback of our former agent at Dystel & Goderich.

Every indie ebook released by an agent creates a rising tide that lifts all authors and brings new credibility to this humble practice otherwise known as self-publishing.

Smashwords Style Guide Updated; Downloaded 100,000+ Times

We updated the Smashwords Style Guide today to include improved instructions for building linked Tables of Contents, controlling your NCX, building intra-book links for footnotes and endnotes, and troubleshooting. The new instructions are included in an expanded Step 20. Download the latest Style Guide here.

Over the last three years, we've made continuous enhancements to our Meatgrinder conversion engine, backed by over 50 updates the Style Guide where we capture our best practice recommendations for producing high quality multi-format ebooks.

Today, the ebook production quality possible through Smashwords rivals that of many hand-coded books that would cost the author hundreds of dollars were they to hire a professional ebook designer. We still have a ways to go, however. Our support for bulleted and numbered lists needs improvement, for example.

Thanks to the flexibility of our Meatgrinder conversion engine, we also make it possible for you to update or upgrade your book at any time without expense.

Separately today, we reached an exciting milestone. Today, the 100,000th copy of the Smashwords Style Guide was downloaded at Smashwords.com. Thousands of additional copies have been downloaded through our retail distribution network and Amazon.

Smashwords Acquires 50,000 New ISBNs

Smashwords this week acquired 50,000 new ISBN numbers from Bowker.

We offer these ISBNs for free to authors, publishers and agents who publish and distribute ebooks with Smashwords.

We buy them so you don't have to.

ISBNs are required for distribution to the Apple iBookstore and the Sony Reader Store.

There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding ISBNs. Despite the best efforts of Bowker and the international ISBN agency to educate authors and publishers about ISBNs, it's still common for authors to believe that the ISBN somehow impacts copyright or ownership of a book, or somehow makes a book more credible.

An ISBN is simply a unique digital identifier tied to a book that helps ebook supply chain participants track a book as it travels from publisher to distributor to retailer.

The value of a unique identifier is that the identifer stays the same even if the book's title, price, description, cover image or content changes.

To learn more about ISBNs, visit the Smashwords ISBN FAQ where you'll find links to other ISBN resources. Smashwords authors and publishers will find additional ISBN information at their ISBN Manager page.

Agents Entering E-Publishing Services Arena

Back in December, I predicted the next chapter in the indie ebook revolution would be written by literary agents.

It's starting to happen, but like any new idea the early agency and author adopters may face vilification before they're recognized as heroes.

Some critics claim that agents-as-publishing-service-provider creates a conflict of interest. Hogwash. Agents owe it to their clients to consider all opportunities to connect an author's books with readers.

Some indie authors have piled on Joe Konrath for his decision to allow Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (DGLM) to manage the e-publishing of his forthcoming title, Timecaster Supersymmetry. At least one anonymous poster claimed Joe is a hypocrite for abandoning the indie ethos he has so effectively championed for several years.

His detractors miss the point. Joe's not a hypocrite. He's a smart business person.

The power of publishing is shifting to authors, and authors have the flexibility to enter into myriad business relationships of different shades and colors. Now is the time to experiment and take chances.

The author is running a business. The most successful authors are great writers who make smart business decisions. I often see talented authors undermining their success with poor business decisions grounded in fear and uncertainty (I touched on this last year in my post, the Seven Secrets to Ebook Publishing Failure). Joe's critics succumb to the FUD.

Smart businesspeople realize that just because they can do something on their own, doesn't mean they should do it on their own. Smart businesspeople align with business partners that add value.

Consider everything involved in getting a book from a writer's brain to the eyeballs of readers.

There's research, writing, revising, more revising, editing, proofing, book production, cover design, pre-pub marketing, sales, distribution, post-sales marketing, retailing and fulfillment.

These essential inputs are services. At one far end of the spectrum, the indie can go 100% Do-it-yourself and perform all the services on their own. At the other extreme end of the spectrum is the full-service traditional publisher.

Between these two extremes lies a vast middle ground where indies can avail themselves of the value-added capabilities of service providers like agents.

Literary agencies have an opportunity to do for authors what some authors don't want to do on their own. The trend also means agents now have the ability to engage at a deeper level with all their clients.

Some of the commenters on Joe's post questioned the value of agents' e-publishing ventures. In response, Barry Eisler poked fun at the DIY-extremists:

I just wanna say that real self-published authors write their books longhand using quills they've made and inks they've concocted from materials culled from the forest floor, on parchment they've pounded out with their own fists from trees they've felled with their own neolithic tools, and sell these books by hand in the public square, which they reach shoeless and on foot, eating roots and berries they gather along the way. Anything else is corruption, sabotage, and hypocrisy! Fight the man, people!

I'm surprised by the number of writers so quick to pass up opportunities in favor of jealously guarding that X%. Some writers have a near-allergic aversion to allowing any intermediary to profit from their book.

The Equity Equation

There's a simple analysis any author can perform when deciding whether or not to cede that XX% to an agent, a distributor, a retailer, a publisher or whomever.

Paul Graham, the venture capitalist, published an elegantly simple formula in 2007 called The Equity Equation that entrepreneurs can use to determine the benefit they must receive to justify giving XX% of their company to an investor.

The formula works equally well for authors. When Joe gives DGLM 15%, it's easy to determine the minimum amount of value-add DGLM must provide for Joe's decision to be a smart one.

Using the formula of 1/(1-n) where n = .15, we see that if DGLM's involvement can increase Joe's results 17.5% above what he'd otherwise accomplish on his own, then Joe's ahead in this partnership. Good agents can earn their entire keep with a single phone call, and great agents work that magic continuously for the lifetime of the relationship.

Top tier agencies like DGLM are successful because they're expert at delivering multiples of that 17.5% for their clients.

Joe gains not only from DGLM's investment of time, money, smarts, connections and enthusiasm, but he also gains time to produce more writing.

I'm reminded of a pearl of wisdom from my mom:

If you plant a $15 tree in a $5 hole, you get a $5 tree.

The writer's book (or the writer's career) is the tree, and the hole is the environment you create to establish roots and acquire the life-sustaining nourishment of readers and sales.

If a quality service provider is willing to invest alongside an author and fertilize the effort, the author is penny-wise and pound foolish not to consider the options.

Should agents provide indie ebook publishing services to their clients? Definitively yes. They'd be irresponsible not to.

A growing number of literary agents are beginning to use Smashwords for their clients' ebook distribution. This is good news for all indies.