Welcome to the Creative Pen podcast. I'm Joanna Penn, thriller author and creative entrepreneur,

bringing you interviews, inspiration and information on writing, publishing options and marketing ideas for your book.

You can find the episode show notes, your free author blueprint and lots more information at

TheCreativepen.com. And that's Pen with a double N. And here's the show.

Hello creatives. I'm Joanna Penn. And this is episode number 64 of the podcast., and it is Wednesday the 16th of February

2022 as I record this. In today's Inbetweenisode, I have a discussion with Kevin Tomlinson

and Mark Koker about the acquisition of smashwords by drafter digital and what that means

for authors who publish on either service,

as well as the opportunities that might lie ahead in terms of publishing white.

Plus we get a little sentimental about the past and wonder how our own legacies might look in the

years to come. I include a little clip from Mark that I recorded in a discussion with him way back

in October 2010 when we met in person in Brisbane, Australia, back when the only choice for

international authors was Smashwords. You can watch the whole video at Thecreativepen.com

forward slash smashwords 2010. Smashwords

2010 links in the show notes if you want to see how excited we were back then. And it's good

to see that our excitement hasn't dimmed. So I hope you enjoy the discussion.

Mark Coker is the founder and CEO of Smash Words, the original e-book publishing platform for

Indies, established in 2008. Kevin Tomlinson is Director of Marketing and Public Relations

at Draft of Digital established in 2012. Both Mark and Kevin are also authors, and they understand the author perspective when it comes

to publishing, and we've got some exciting things to talk about today.

So welcome Mark and Kevin.

Hi, Joanna.

...