Publish e-books on Everything from Kindle to iPhone with Smashwords.

I love writing. Over the years, I’ve churned out everything from ad copy to web content to magazine articles to song lyrics to actual books. (Okay, bodice-rippers!)

I always thought that when I had time, I’d whip up another book, call my agent and go through the usual agonizing drill.

No more. Not only has the traditional publishing world gone poof but I am no longer patient enough to put up with both the potholes of publishing plus the years it takes to get the book out there. Profits are a whole ‘nother story.

Thankfully, a savvy new company –Smashwords.com –understands the ADD in authors and readers alike. Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Mark Coker, has launched an innovative company that’s a free platform for publishing electronic e-books. Smashwords’ breakthrough technology and structure allows anyone to become an e-book author.

While there are already a variety of publishing platforms for e-books (the most commonly used is Adobe’s pdf), what I like about Smashwords is that an author simply uploads a Microsoft Word file into the system –and then it gets converted into about 10 different e-book formats so these books can be read on the iPhone, on the (hot-hot, sold-out till February) Amazon Kindle and on virtually any other e-book reading device.

More author-friendly features: Smashwords lets the author keep the copyright, own all the rights to the work and sets their own price for the book and the sampling privileges. The author receives 85% of the sales — leaving Smashwords with 15%.

Smashwords is different from self-publishing print-producing services like Lulu, Blurb,Wordclay or Createspace because it focuses entirely on the fastest growing section of the publishing industry: e-books.

Stay tuned for two upcoming e-books from the uber-impatient Guru. How cool to read quirky Guru-isms on your iPhone!

“Getting” The Mom Market: Three Winners

It’s my daughter’s birthday today.  Which means that my Momhood is front and center this morning, as I scroll back, way back to the day before being a Mom was rockstar cool and wearing your kids on your hips is hipper than Prada’s latest.

I remember the day a senior executive (and Mom) took me aside at my new job and whispered: “Never talk about your daughter. Don’t post her pictures. Don’t bring her to the office. No one should even know you have a kid.”

Nowdays, Momism is not only a badge of honor but also a booming business, thanks to some 83 million U.S. Moms who are spending 2 trillion + dollars a year on everything from baby spas www.skinspababy.com to NASCAR umbrella strollers.  Although the whisper in the VC world in Silicon Valley may be that the ‘Mom market is saturated’, the Guru thinks that conversely, the marketplace is going to continue to grow right along with every toddling step these kids take.  

Here are a couple of winners:

www.cubesandcrayons.com Cubes and Crayons, ‘office space and kid space’ is a concept well worth watching.  Launched in January 2008 by frustrated Mom and Founder MF Chapman, this savvy combination of full-time, flexible childcare and office space is already a hit and sure to spawn more mini-Mom communities where both Mom and kidlet benefit.

http://maternalinstinct.net/   Just up the road from Menlo Park’s Cubes and Crayons is Mom-marketing powerhouse Maternal Instinct. The brainchild of award-winning creative marketer, Kat Gordon, this talented team of Creative Problem Solvers knows exactly how to tap into the growing band of Mom Influencers.  Check out ‘What’s My Blanket’ for tips.

And finally, we Moms know that each and every one of our offspring is a creative genius.  Check out this latest winner, where self-publishing meets kids, Tikatok: beta.tikatok.net.