Reviews of Smashwords Book Marketing Guide

Very informative, helped me greatly

Thank you Mark Coker for providing this treasure of a book for free. It is a must for anyone trying to publish an eBook on any platform. I have shared it on my website as well as your other two in the series. Thank you again.
Off Road Electric Scooter

Thank you Mark Coker for providing this treasure of a book for free. It is a must for anyone trying to publish an eBook on any platform. I have shared it on my website as well as your other two in the series. Thank you again.

Have been publishing on Smashwords for several years now and decided that I needed to add some improvements and expand my use of it as a platform. This book was excellent and increased my confidence in why I should continue to use the platform for promoting and selling my books.

This book is easy to understand and helpful. Highly recommended for authors.

Marketing, no matter the business or person, is always a challenge. This is even more so for independent (indie) authors who, initially at least, have never been exposed to such a world. Consequently, anything that provides quality insight into it is very welcome.

The author, Mark Coker, is the founder of Smashwords, a publishing and distribution platform he designed for the primary purpose of helping unknown, individual, independent authors. He was motivated to do this when he and his wife encountered difficulties in getting their first book published and available to a general readership. This was back in 2005. The Smashwords site was launched in 2008.

Mark Coker’s background is public relations, that, combined with his own subsequent experience with Smashwords, makes him an ideal author for a book about book marketing.

Every aspect of book marketing an author may think of, and some they probably have not, are covered: Author Branding; Platform Building; E-Mail; Blogging; The Media; Social Media; etc. In other words anything/any source where a book’s existence and content may be publicised. A wide range of tactics are considered and discussed in detail including ways for the author to make their book(s) the best possible. It should be pointed out some suggestions specifically home in on various facilities available within the Smashwords environment however, this does not detract from the information shared, nor would it hurt for authors to consider trying some of them out.

This is an ideal book for those new to authoring and book marketing. It is easy to follow and understand, comprehensive and far reaching. Naturally, it is entirely up to the reader whether they implement some or all of the ideas presented but it is a useful guide. Authors who have been on the path for a while will undoubtedly find much is not new to them nevertheless, it does not hurt to be reminded, from time to time, of what is available. Smashwords Book Marketing Guide deserves a place in any authors reference library.

Publishing, The Internet, and Social Media constantly evolve consequently, the author, generously it must be said in view of the extra work and time required, regularly publishes updated editions. This review relates to the 2018 edition though readers should note the 2020 one is now available.

I’ve been self-publishing now for ten years and Mark is absolutely right about everything he talks about in this book. Over the years, I’ve learned a great deal, made some mistakes and I hope that I learned from them, but my biggest mistake was getting too comfortable. I wrote, published, and did the basics. It really never occurred to me that there were big changes in self-publishing that I should learn about.
Ten years later and I realized that one of the biggest mistakes that I’ve made is not investing in myself by educating myself in this field. Mark mentions that in this book and it’s something that I really wish that I thought of years ago. I’ve been doing this for ten years, but now I’m at a point where I feel behind everyone.
I read through this book tonight and I found a few things that I never even thought of doing and realized that I should be doing a few things differently. I’m going to be implementing those suggestions immediately.
It was pretty cool seeing my name mentioned in this book. It made me cringe when I thought about those terrifying covers. They were bad, really bad and Mark is 100% correct when he tells you that a bad cover/great cover can make all the difference in the world.
I do a lot of the things he recommends in this book and they work for me and have made it possible for me to continue to do what I love. I highly recommend this book to authors at every stage, new and old. It’s definitely worth a read.

Thanks, Mark :) With this Style Guide I simply cannot go wrong! You've made it really easy for us. God bless you! May He increase you more and more, you and your children, and your children's children!

This book is required reading for any author or artist who is trying to create an online presence an it's written by the guy who created and manages this web site - www.smashwords.com. Like they say, take your investment advice from the rich, well you should create your social media marketing and online identity with advice from a person who has succeed at both - Mark Coker. There is so much to do when it comes to creating your online presence, what with Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram, Google, Amazon, iBooks, eReaders, on demand printing, mobile apps, blogs and websites and then there's multimedia videos, audio, graphics, games. It would be easy to spin your wheels and waste your time posting and everything else you can do online, to have countless hours add up to nothing. But in this book, there are many concrete actions and ideas that help direct all the energy you may have into key activities that are more likely to create success for you and your brand online. I see so many writers out there who create this huge following of other writers, they join all these writer's groups, and post about writing all the time, but in my opinion it is an epic fail for writers to connect with other writers online. Like Coker says in this book, set yourself apart and find readers (actual people who enjoy the kinds of books you write). Make connections with the actual people who are genuinely interested in your niche, and establish yourself as a personality (an expert) in that niche. Figure out what the people who are interested in your niche actually want. Give the people who are interested in your niche something genuine and new. This is the best advice I've had about creating an online identity.

Anyone interested in marketing and selling on line or building a following on social media should read this book. There are so many great ideas that I would not have thought of, plus the author goes into many details that you might not think of. Mark has been touring the world physically and virtually promoting smashwords, and he has no doubt met many creative and intelligent people who have shared their breakthrough ideas with him . . . and now he's sharing all the secrets to success right here.