Mark Coker is the founder of Smashwords, the world's largest distributor of indie ebooks. In this interview, Leanpub co-founder Len Epp talks with Mark about his background, how he got his start in PR, working with companies during periods of huge growth, what it takes to run a successful startup, his experience co-authoring a novel, the history of self-publishing, his motivation for setting up Smashwords and his passion for book publishing, and building Smashwords into the biggest distributor of independent ebooks in the world.

This interview was recorded on January 22, 2020.

The full audio for the interview is here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/leanpub_podcasts/FM142-Mark-Coker-2020-01-22.mp3. You can subscribe to the Frontmatter podcast in iTunes here https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/leanpub-podcast/id517117137 or add the podcast URL directly here: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/leanpub-podcast/id517117137.

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.