Smashwords – About Smashwords — Management Team

Smashwords – About Smashwords — Management Team: The Smashwords Team

Smashwords Founder, Mark Coker

Mark Coker founded Smashwords in 2008 to change the way books are published, marketed and sold.

Mark is co-author along with his wife, Lesleyann, of Boob Tube, a novel that explores the behind-the-scenes world of daytime television soap operas. It was Mark's experience trying to get Boob Tube published that inspired him to start Smashwords. He believes Smashwords holds the promise to make publishing more enriching for authors, readers and publishers.  Mark is also the author of The Smashwords Style Guide (how to format an ebook), The Smashwords Book Marketing Guide (how to market any book) and The Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success (best practices of the most commercially successful ebook authors).  These three free ebooks about ebook publishing best practices have been downloaded nearly 750,000 times, making them essential reference guides for thousands of professional indie authors around the world.

In the seven years since its launch, Smashwords has grown to become the leading ebook distributor serving indie authors, small presses and literary agents.  Over 100,000 authors from around the world publish and distribute over 350,000 books with Smashwords.

In June 2010, The Wall Street Journal named Mark one of the "Eight Stars of Self-Publishing."  In March 2012, MediaBistro named Mark one of the "Five Ebook Experts to Watch."  In June 2012, Forbes profiled Mark in feature story titled, Apple's Biggest (Unknown) Supplier of E-Books.  In both 2013 and 2014, Forbes Magazine named Smashwords one of America's Top 100 Most Promising Companies.  In 2014, INC. Magazine named Smashwords to its INC 500 list of America's fastest growing private companies.

With Mark's previous startup, BestCalls.com, which he launched in 1999, he helped level the playing field for small stock market investors, who at the time were denied access to the earnings conference calls of publicly traded companies. His work with BestCalls, as a champion for fair disclosure, was a catalyst for the SEC’s ground breaking Regulation FD. BestCalls was acquired in 2002 by Shareholder.com and was owned and operated by the Nasdaq Stock Exchange up until 2010.

In 1993, Mark founded Dovetail Public Relations, an award-winning Silicon Valley PR firm that specialized in representing technology startups.

"The Smashwords Team

Smashwords Founder, Mark Coker

Mark Coker founded Smashwords in 2008 to change the way books are published, marketed and sold.

Mark is co-author along with his wife, Lesleyann, of Boob Tube, a novel that explores the behind-the-scenes world of daytime television soap operas.

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