Exclusive Interview: Smashwords Founder on the Publishing Crisis

As major publishers struggle with the recession, smaller players are jockeying to fill new gaps.

Earlier this week, GalleyCat caught up with Mark Coker, founder of the digital self-publishing platform, Smashwords. The company offers authors an 85 percent cut of royalties and produces digital copies of a book in nine different formats for e-book readers.

Since opening last May, the company has counted 500 users, 90 authors, and about 120 books published on the site. Smashwords recently announced a deal with Stanza, the iPhone digital reader, as well. “E-book sales are growing by fifty to sixty percent. But for every e-book sold, ninety-nine print books are sold,” Coker told GalleyCat.

“We are still in the first inning of this game. We have a long ways to go. We as an industry have a lot of obstacles to overcome. There is a tremendous amount of prejudice against self-publishers.”

Nevertheless, the publisher felt that market pressures would open up opportunities: “If you look at the traditional publishing model, I think the book supply chain is broken … That model is not sustainable. Publishers will be forced to publish less books. I think that’s the sad reality,” Coker told GalleyCat. “We need to provide tools that help authors help themselves.”

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