When Mark Coker’s not traveling, hiking with his wife, gardening, or caring for his pet chickens and pure-bred homing pigeons, he enjoys writing short stories that shine light on modern day dystopias. Mark Coker is also a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and inventor best known as the founder of Smashwords, the pioneering publishing company that helped catalyze the self-publishing revolution. Smashwords merged with Draft2Digital in 2022 where Mark now serves as Chief Strategy Officer and board member. Mark is co-author, along with his wife, Lesleyann, of the novel, Boob Tube, which explores the dark underbelly of daytime soap operas and Hollywood celebrity. It was that book that inspired Mark to create Smashwords in 2008. Mark has also written a few books on ebook publishing best practices, and launched the Smart Author Podcast series to make publishing best practices more accessible to more writers.