Caveat Emptor!
I am sorry to have to issue a warning about Scribd to my fellow authors, but that is the position in which I find myself.
When I first published In The Eye of The Beholder as an eBook, I went with Scribd as my imprint. I did not yet know about Smashwords and its multi-format set-up (which is, frankly, superior to Scribd's PDF-only arrangement). I left my document at Scribd as well as placing it with Smashwords.
Well, after a few months of less-than-stellar sales, I decided to delete my document from Scribd and stick with Smashwords. However, when I clicked the "delete" option, I was told that the document was now marked "private" because people had purchased it. That's true; I have $50.43 sitting in my Scribd account from purchases -- funds that, frankly, I would like to see.
I wrote to tech support, and their response was to refer me to the FAQ section on quarterly payments -- which was not my question at all. I want to remove my document and obtain my payment. I wrote back and reiterated the situation, and was then referred to a section of the FAQ that stated no payments of less than $100 would be made.
So, it appears that Scribd is willing to essentially rob me of $50.43 for the privilege of posting my content on their website. Fellow authors, please beware of this hosting services; this is an unscrupulous practice to say the least. I am highly disappointed.
When I first published In The Eye of The Beholder as an eBook, I went with Scribd as my imprint. I did not yet know about Smashwords and its multi-format set-up (which is, frankly, superior to Scribd's PDF-only arrangement). I left my document at Scribd as well as placing it with Smashwords.
Well, after a few months of less-than-stellar sales, I decided to delete my document from Scribd and stick with Smashwords. However, when I clicked the "delete" option, I was told that the document was now marked "private" because people had purchased it. That's true; I have $50.43 sitting in my Scribd account from purchases -- funds that, frankly, I would like to see.
I wrote to tech support, and their response was to refer me to the FAQ section on quarterly payments -- which was not my question at all. I want to remove my document and obtain my payment. I wrote back and reiterated the situation, and was then referred to a section of the FAQ that stated no payments of less than $100 would be made.
So, it appears that Scribd is willing to essentially rob me of $50.43 for the privilege of posting my content on their website. Fellow authors, please beware of this hosting services; this is an unscrupulous practice to say the least. I am highly disappointed.
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Jaimey wrote: "I never mentioned this before but, wow. I won't put my content on scribd now simply because I don't want to wait until my sales reached $100 to get paid. Smashwords, as you know, pays at $20 and Am..."Hi, Jaimey. It made perfect sense. The one document still on Scribd is one I scanned from hard copy because it was out of print ... and it has lots of photographs. It's actually the photographs that mess me up, because I could just re-type the content but without the photographs it wouldn't be as interesting to people (IMO).
I am definitely considering just dumping the account in its entirety anyway. I'm really ticked off about the whole thing ... and Scribd considers my *two* complaints (one because the first one never really responded to my questions) to be closed. Dandy customer service, that ...
Hmmm. How do you think it would "translate" if you were to copy the pictures from the PDF scans (are they PDF scans?), paste them into a DOC file and then upload? There would be no typing that way, just a lot of virtual cutting and pasting. I've never attempted anything like that but, in theory, it should work...Again, this may have made very little sense. I really, really should be sleeping. 1 am here right now. :o)
Scribd is acting very Amazon-y about this.
Jaimey wrote: "Hmmm. How do you think it would "translate" if you were to copy the pictures from the PDF scans (are they PDF scans?), paste them into a DOC file and then upload? There would be no typing that way,..."IIRC, Smashwords doesn't take photographs because the meatgrinder doesn't know what to do with them. However, if I can do a PDF>DOC (there are some programs that do that) and not lose the images, it could work. They are historical photographs that really make the text come to life.
I'll have to put my thinking cap on.
My complaint, after posting dozens of WW2 newsletters on SCRIBD, is that for the past few months there IS NO delete button available. Also no modify button. There is absolutely no way that I know of, to change or delete one of my PDFs. I see Scribd making changes without notification or recourse. As soon as I figure out how to delete them, I will never use it again.
Jimwest wrote: "My complaint, after posting dozens of WW2 newsletters on SCRIBD, is that for the past few months there IS NO delete button available. Also no modify button. There is absolutely no way that I know..."Nope, you can't delete. You can "unpublish," which essentially hides it from any new viewers, but still leaves it in the library of those who have purchased or bookmarked it. I really didn't like their attitude at all.
Brainstorm: I remember you mentioning that your free book on scribd isn't on smashwords because of formatting issues with smashwords' "meatgrinder" (is that what it's called?). Have you considered doing your fancy formatting as a DOC file which retains formatting rather nicely, and then only selecting PDF on smashwords when you upload? Since it's only available as a PDF on scribd you wouldn't be losing customers. If that was successful, you could delete your account with scribd and, hopefully, get paid.
(Did any of that make sense? I am super tired so it may have come across as rambly...)