MARK COKER IS THE CEO OF SMASHWORDS, THE LARGEST EBOOK DISTRIBUTOR IN AMERICA. MARK WAS KIND ENOUGH TO OFFER ME AN INTERVIEW, AND HIS ANSWERS ARE TRULY FASCINATING, A MUST READ FOR ALL READERS AND WRITERS.
Smashwords is a wonderful platform for authors and publishers. What sparked the idea for Smashwords?
Smashwords grew out of my personal experience trying to sell a novel my wife and I co-wrote.
My wife is a former reporter for Soap Opera Weekly Magazine. About 12 years ago we wrote a novel titled Boob Tube that explored the dark underbelly of Hollywood celebrity.
Despite enthusiasm from beta readers and representation from a top New York literary agency, traditional publishers rejected it. Our agent told us that previous novels targeting soap opera fans had performed poorly which made publishers reluctant to take a chance on our book.
Our failure to land a publishing deal opened my eyes to what I perceived as a horribly broken publishing ecosystem that was no longer working for authors and readers.
Read the full answer and interview here
Hannah Howe 
5 replies on “The Mark Coker Interview”
I can’t say enough good things about Mark Coker and Smashwords. Thank you for sharing this.
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I’m a big fan too. Thank you for your comment 🙂
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An incredibly enlightening interview. I will look seriously at transferring my titles totally to Smaswords
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The great thing with Smashwords is they distribute to Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and many others, and you can have your books on Amazon at the same time.
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Reblogged this on Grant Leishman – Author.
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