Author: Stephen Hise

Stephen Hise is the Evil Mastermind and founder of Indies Unlimited. Hise is an independent author and an avid supporter of the indie author movement. Learn more about Stephen at his website or his Amazon author page.

Straight Up: Q&A with Mark Coker

Mark Coker

I recently had the opportunity to interview Mark Coker, one of the visionaries of the indie author movement. In 2008, Mark founded Smashwords to accelerate the death spiral of the bloated, inefficient, out-dated publishing industry—or as he put it:  to change the way books are published, marketed and sold.

Mark and his wife co-authored Boob Tube, a novel that explores the wild and wacky world of Hollywood celebrity. He also wrote the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide, The Smashwords Style Guide and The 10-Minute PR Checklist.

Mark says when he’s not writing or working on Smashwords, he enjoys gardening, traveling and hiking tall mountains, the tallest of which has been Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Here, I ask him nine questions, and he gives expansive and fascinating answers.

So buckle up and get ready for the word straight up, from Mark Coker. Continue reading “Straight Up: Q&A with Mark Coker”

A Few Questions for the Author

A lot of authors like to be interviewed. They enjoy talking about writing and they particularly enjoy talking about their own writing. They like to talk about their process, their characters, their inspiration, their approaches and devices and genres and heroes.

I have been the subject of a few author interviews. I don’t do many anymore. Part of the reason for this is that I genuinely find it incredibly boring to talk about myself. Continue reading “A Few Questions for the Author”

How Technology Will Re-define Writing

I'm 90% right 50% of the time.

Notwithstanding my many other predictions as to what the future may hold for authors, I do believe the writing is on the wall for changes that will impact the way we plan and market our books.

As e-reader device capabilities increase, so will the expectations as to what constitutes a book. It may be that the time approaches when a book is more than words. As the devices become more capable  multimedia platforms, it will change the way authors craft and develop books.

In the short term, I believe the principal opportunities here will be in the areas of greatly improved interactivity and video features. Continue reading “How Technology Will Re-define Writing”