News

David Gaughran has a comprehensive post about Kobo’s recent buyout by a Japanese firm. In the U.S., Kobo doesn’t get a lot of love – sales are slim on Kobo compared to other outlets, and the Kobo reader doesn’t really stack up to the Nook or the Kindle.  Plus, there was the recent discount fiasco, where Kobo discounted Smashwords prices below the 99 cent threshold on the Kindle, causing Amazon to remove titles from the site (this happened to me, right at a time that I hit the top 100 via a Kindle Nation promotion).  That’s since been cleared up.  […]

This is pretty huge news. The biggest mark against Smashwords is their meatgrinder – it’s necessary to submit a bare bones files or else the meatgrinder will convert it with myriad formatting problems, and the file won’t be eligible for distribution. That has been the main way that Smashwords can distribute the same file to many different outlets, as each retailer has different requirements. Now that ePub is becoming standard (except at Amazon) it only makes sense to allow direct ePub upload. In 2012 you’ll be able to submit your already-formatted ebook to Smashwords, which can then be submitted to […]

A cautionary tale this week about a writer whose book was set to free for the Kindle by mistake. Amazon saw a free preview on Barnes and Noble as being a complete book – and so given Amazon’s policy to never have a higher priced book than any other outlet, they matched the price of the free preview.

For some, this is good news – it means you can get your book set to free on Amazon if you want to do a free promotional blitz.  Just set to free on Smashwords – it’ll distribute as free to other […]

The Kindle Lending Library went live today and there’s some consternation about what all this means. First off, this is only for Amazon Prime customers, who pay $79 a year, or around $6.50 a month. These titles cannot be accessed on Kindle for iPad, Kindle for desktop – only on Kindle hardware. At first, Amazon is only releasing 5000 titles, which includes titles like Moneyball, The Big Short and Liars’ Poker by Michael Lewis, The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, and Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

There are also reports that the big six publishers are not […]

From the Wall Street Journal article: Secret of Self-Publishing: Success

Self-publishing these days is increasingly a tale of two cities.

There are established authors, like Nyree Belleville, who says she’s earned half a million dollars in the past 18 months selling direct rather than through a publisher..

Then there are new authors, like Eve Yohalem. More than a month after self-publishing, she has grossed about $100 in sales— after incurring costs of $3,400. She said she’s in no rush, though.

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Mark Coker writes at Smashwords:

Last month I provided a brief update about the ScrollMotion relationship (September 19 Site Updates update below) where I linked to an interview I did at The Savvy Book Marketer. In that interview, I commented about the delays ScrollMotion faced in distributing Smashwords ebooks as apps. Despite the fact they completed thousands of apps, last week we ended the project. The app world has changed dramatically in the last few months and it no longer makes sense for either of us to continue pursuing it. They originally planned to distribute the apps to the

This story is pretty amazing.  A “publishing consultant” in Atlanta, GA ripped people off by taking their money and offering nothing in return.  At the risk of blaming the victim, I am not 100% sympathetic.  When you’re shelling out $10,000 to someone with 30 prior fraud complaints, perhaps you didn’t do your homework.  Many of the complaints leveled against self-publishing companies often fall into this category.  Of course, screw the scammers, and this guy should be arrested.

The Washington Post reports on the story in these terms: A Lesson in Self-Publishing

Self-publishing is fraught with terrors — first, you have