Web site | @markcoker | Attendee Directory Profile

Mark Coker is founder and CEO of Smashwords, a Silicon Valley digital publishing startup that aims to change the way books are published, sampled, marketed and sold. Smashwords launched January 2008 at Tools of Change in New York, where Coker unveiled the company in a Lightning Round Presentation.

Coker’s previous startup, BestCalls.com, was acquired and is now owned and operated by the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. His work with BestCalls, as a champion for fair disclosure, was a catalyst for the SEC’s ground breaking Regulation FD. See this link to Wikipedia for more info on BestCalls.

Coker is also co-author, with his wife, of Boob Tube, a novel that explores the wild and wacky world of daytime television soap operas. It was his frustration trying to get Boob Tube published that led him to conclude the traditional book publishing industry is broken, not just from the perspective of authors and publishers, but for readers as well. He believes Smashwords holds the promise to make publishing more profitable for authors and publishers.