Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Mark Coker receives the Honorary Achievement BookFest Award for revolutionizing indie publishing and empowering authors worldwide. As the founder of Smashwords, he built one of the first free, open publishing platforms that enabled self-published authors to distribute their ebooks globally. Today, as the Chief Strategy Officer at Draft2Digital, Coker continues to innovate and advocate for author-friendly tools and practices that put the power back in writers’ hands. With over 500,000 titles distributed from 150,000 authors and presses, his legacy is one of access, advocacy, and inspiration. Through his writing and SMART AUTHOR podcast, he remains a guiding voice in the ever-evolving publishing world.
Mark Coker: thebookfest.com/speaker/mark-coker-2
Presenter: Jim Milliot, editor-at-large at “Publishers Weekly” and recipient of the BISG Sally Dedecker Lifetime Achievement Award
Jim Millio: thebookfest.com/speaker/jim-milliot
Join us on Books That Make You, for exclusive giveaways book reviews and more:
Web: booksthatmakeyou.com
Facebook: facebook.com/BooksThatMakeYou
Instagram: instagram.com/books_that_make_you
TikTok: tiktok.com/@books_that_make_you
We are also the home of The BookFest. For more information, please visit our website: TheBookFest.com
Mark Coker receives the Honorary Achievement BookFest Award for revolutionizing indie publishing and empowering authors worldwide. As the founder of Smashwords, he built one of the first free, open publishing platforms that enabled self-published authors to distribute their ebooks globally. Today, as the Chief Strategy Officer at Draft2Digital, Coker continues to innovate and advocate for author-friendly tools and practices that put the power back in writers’ hands. With over 500,000 titles distributed from 150,000 authors and presses, his legacy is one of access, advocacy, and inspiration. Through his writing and SMART AUTHOR podcast, he remains a guiding voice in the ever-evolving publishing world.
Mark Coker: thebookfest.com/speaker/mark-coker-2
Presenter: Jim Milliot, editor-at-large at “Publishers Weekly” and recipient of the BISG Sally Dedecker Lifetime Achievement Award
Jim Millio: thebookfest.com/speaker/jim-milliot
Join us on Books That Make You, for exclusive giveaways book reviews and more:
Web: booksthatmakeyou.com
Facebook: facebook.com/BooksThatMakeYou
Instagram: instagram.com/books_that_make_you
TikTok: tiktok.com/@books_that_make_you
We are also the home of The BookFest. For more information, please visit our website: TheBookFest.com
