Smashwords | Self-Publishing Review

The Smashwords Submissions Process AKA What Fresh Hell Is This?

I have very much admired Smashwords‘ indie spirit from afar, but until now, I never ventured into the Smashwords arena because I had no need.

Now I have, as we have chosen Smashwords to extend distribution for our authors’ books after KDP Select winds down for each book at our imprint Kwill Books.

After many hours of hell, I think Smashwords has let authors down by not joining us in 2016 technology – the Premium Catalog submissions process can only be described as old-fashioned, stubborn, and archaic – even with the ushering in of the direct submissions service […]

Cate Baum2016-07-08T12:46:46+02:00July 8th, 2016|Categories: Features|Tags: Smashwords|

Smashwords Announces Distribution Agreement with Gardners Books

Smashwords is expanding its global marketing reach in a partnership with the UK’s Gardners Books. From the Smashwords blog:

On October 22 Smashwords will begin delivering 230,000 ebooks sourced from the over 100,000 indie authors and small independent presses to 400 ebook stores powered by Gardners operating in 32 countries and serving customers in 138 countries; 2,000 public libraries in the U.K.; and 400 academic libraries in the UK, Europe and Middle East. The agreement excludes Smashwords erotica titles…

Notable retailers with ebook stores powered by Gardners include www.hive.co.uk, www.books.telegraph.co.uk , www.indieebook.co.uk in the UK, www.bokus.com in

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Henry Baum2015-11-19T07:16:31+02:00October 15th, 2015|Categories: News|Tags: Smashwords|

Smashwords Releases 2014 Indie Author Survey

Via the Smashwords blog comes the 2014 Indie Author Survey. Some key findings:

Readers prefer longer ebooks – We observed this in the prior surveys. Longer books sell better, and when you view the data through the prism of the power curve, it becomes clear why longer books give authors such a huge sales advantage.

Pricing – The highest earning indie authors are utilizing lower average prices than the authors who earn less, but this doesn’t mean that ultra-low prices such as $.99 are the path to riches. $2.99 and $3.99 are the sweet spots for most of the

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Henry Baum2014-07-13T09:45:46+02:00July 13th, 2014|Categories: News|Tags: Smashwords|

Smashwords Adds Daily Reporting for Book Sales

One of the more cumbersome interfaces on Smashwords is its reporting of book sales. Unlike KDP, which has a very obvious interface, it’s possible to miss Smashwords reporting page entirely. Given that it has been updated intermittently, it wasn’t always necessary to access the page even if you know it was there. Smashwords has now solved that. Via the Smashwords blog:

Smashwords today added daily sales reporting and interactive charting for sales at iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, OverDrive and the Smashwords store.

The reports include daily and total order accumulation numbers for iBooks preorders.

The reports provide authors

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Henry Baum2014-06-12T09:46:14+02:00June 11th, 2014|Categories: News|Tags: Smashwords|

Apple’s iOS 8 Will Come Pre-Loaded with eBooks

Via Smashwords, which calls this a “Game Changer for eBook Retailing,” Apple’s new mobile operating system is going to come pre-loaded with the iBooks store app. What this means is that people who maybe weren’t so ebook friendly are going to have ebooks as part of the billion iPhones and iPads currently floating around.

Buried in a slide during the live demo event referenced as “iOS 8 features we didn’t have time to talk about” was an ebook retailing bombshell: iBooks will come pre-installed on iOS 8.

The iBooks app is Apple’s ebook store. Inside that app is

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Henry Baum2014-06-03T16:00:39+02:00June 3rd, 2014|Categories: News|Tags: Smashwords|

The Indie Author Manifesto

Courtesy of Mark Coker and Smashwords comes these by-laws:

I hold these truths to be self-evident:

I am an indie author

I have experienced the pleasure and satisfaction that comes from self-publishing

I have a right to publish

My creative control is important to me. I decide when, where and how my writing graduates to become a published book.

Indie does not mean “alone.” I choose my partners.

I shall not bow beholden or subservient to any publisher. In my business relationships, I seek partnership, fairness, equity and mutually aligned interests.

We indie authors comprise diverse writers unified by a

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Henry Baum2014-04-29T10:55:46+02:00April 29th, 2014|Categories: Features|Tags: Smashwords|

Smashwords Courts Libraries

Mark Coker, founder and CEO of Smashwords, is courting libraries. In a March 23 post on the Smashwords blog, Coker describes his campaign to convince libraries to offer self-publishing programs to their patrons, with, of course, the help of Smashwords. According to the blog post:

Libraries are uniquely qualified to orchestrate community resources and talent to help local writers become professional self-publishers. By holding seminars and classes, and by bringing local authors together face to face with readers and aspiring authors, libraries can help unleash the talent locked inside the minds and fingertips of their local community’s writers. They

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Avery Hurt2013-03-31T15:29:27+02:00March 31st, 2013|Categories: News|Tags: Smashwords|

Self-Publishing News: Ebook Sales and Resales, Losing the Plot, Fighting for Libraries

In this round-up: the Smashwords July sale for either hemisphere, GalleyCat’s weekly lists of eBook sales ranks, new legal ruling in Europe on eBook resale, a lengthy opinion piece deconstructing why The Authors Guild among other things attempts to invoke sympathy for PublishAmerica, and a save-the-libraries campaign from The Bookseller.

Enroll Your Books in the 2012 Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale (July 1 – 31):

Here in the Northern hemisphere, it’s mid-summer. Readers everywhere are loading up their e-reading devices for summer beach reading and vacations. But what about the good people South of the equator, who are now in the middle

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