Mark Coker: Significant Disruption For Traditional Publishers Still To Come

Suw Charman-Anderson, Forbes Contributor

Smashwords, the self-publishing platform that allows authors to reach all the major ebook retailers except Amazon, recently published its 5 billionth word and continues to grow hand over fist. Launched four years ago, after founder Mark Coker and his wife Lesleyann found it difficult to gain traction for their novel, Boob Tube, Smashwords has been steadily expanding its stable of independent authors. In its first year, 2008, it published 140 books, and growth since then has been astonishing. Last year Smashwords helped authors publish more than 92,000 books, and in 2012 the running total is already at 130,000.

I recently had a chat with Coker and in this, the first part of our interview, we talked about trends in the self-publishing industry and the disruption still to come for traditional publishers.

Mark, how has the self-publishing industry developed over the last few years? CLICK HERE to read the full article.

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