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Smashwords as a marketplace (not as a distributor)
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Noor wrote: "I chose to go direct with most platforms for my ebooks (Amazon, Kobo, Google) and I use D2D to distribute to Apple and B&N. I always thought of smashwords as mainly a way to get to these different ..."I published my second book on Smashwords after having published my first on Amazon/Createspace. I thought I'd might see better performance being they distribute to many outlets. They also let you determine what percentage of your book readers can preview, and you can offer freebies through the use of codes. I was dissappointed. Most people, that is friends and potential readers had never heard of Smashwords. I'll never know, but when I offered free copies, I think people may have been reluctant to go to a site they were not familiar with. In the end I took that book down from Smashwords and it's now on Amazon.
For information, you can put your books on Smashwords and Amazon at the same time, as long as you don’t enroll in KDP Unlimited.As for my personal experience (though it is quite limited, with only one short story), even though my short story is on Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and many other retailers, all my downloads so far have been through the Smashwords site. Along with coupons and reduced workload to prepare the manuscripts, it allows to make your books available for free without conditions (while Amazon, for example, only allows it if you take part to a promotion and buy your place in that promotion).
Smashwords remains the fifth biggest ebook seller in the USA, so it would be better to not ignore it when we publish.
I use Smashwords for my timed promotion sales. This month I can set my books in their July special sale and they give me more exposure. By their coupon funtions, I can easily set my sale percentage and give our public or private codes through FB or my newsletter. I can't do this with KDP. Also If I want to set my book as FREE, I can and I'm not tied into 90 days. I can turn it off anytime. I highly recommend this form of book promotion.
Thanks for sharing your experiences! The whole coupon thing is really the biggest draw for me right now because I can't do it through KDP, KOBO, or any of the others, but it's nice to know people do get sales & downloads through smashwords as well! I might have to try it out...
I have just published my book and trying to understand the promotional part of the book world. I have been hearing of Smashwords and Ingramsparks. It's all very confusing. This discussion has been very helpful. I will look into Smashwords for sure. I am glad to know that a book can be on both Smashwords and Amazon. Thanks Marc.
Noor wrote: "I chose to go direct with most platforms for my ebooks (Amazon, Kobo, Google) and I use D2D to distribute to Apple and B&N. I always thought of smashwords as mainly a way to get to these different ..."You might consider PublishDrive (ebook distribution only at the moment) for all or only the channels you can't reach by going direct. They reach a lot of places you can't get to directly, like reading subscription channels and digital libraries. Hope this helps.
I'm a big fan of Smashwords. They pay better and more often. I have my books with Amazon too and usually do the first three months in Kindle Unlimited and then add it to Smashwords. The free coupons mean you can give it out to potential reviewers and they can then post a review. Just wish more people knew about Smashwords. Spread the word!!
Elizabeth wrote: "I have just published my book and trying to understand the promotional part of the book world. I have been hearing of Smashwords and Ingramsparks. It's all very confusing. This discussion has been ..."You can definitely go wide and distribute with many channels, just make sure you don't click Amazon's exclusivity box - kindle unlimited.
Thanks for sharing everyone. I'm glad to hear some positives about smashwords. When I first started out all I could find was negative stuff about their upload process which kind of put me off!
I quit trying to use Smashwords. No matter what I did, I couldn't upload my book. For me, it has to be easy to use. Draft2Digital is the easiest for me. For promotions, I don't the AMS ads as they can become very expensive very quickly. I go the the advertisement sites like FussyLibrarian, Book Gorilla, etc. For me, if I plan on using a marketplace, it has to be easy to use and quick. I don't have hours to play around trying to get a manuscript to upload. I also prefer the bigger market places where I can send readers to get my books. I couldn't see any advantage to using Smashwords or other places like it unless it's to get your name out there to those who don't use other sites.
Don't be put off! Smashwords isn't hard to upload to if you read the manual and follow a few simple tips. Once it is approved on Smashwords it's ready to go anywhere.
Sorry, but Smashwords is an absolute nightmare for uploading ebooks. I even had an accepted book which I'd edited and next time around it was rejected. They really need to sort out this whole process. No excuses. They sell distribution. Making the upload hell is not a good thing.
A few years ago when SIA had their book sales Smashwords was one of the sale sites, but they discontinued it and stayed with Amazon-only. I think one of the reasons was that no one used the coupons so there were no SW sales. It could be too that with so much competition Amazon is just easier and that's where everyone shopped. Anyway, the mods have better insight on this. I think it's good to explore different options. From a buyer standpoint however, I go directly to Amazon.
Adding: For perspective, those events were 2-4 days so a different scenario.
Hmmm... interesting about the promos. I noticed that a lot of different promo sites and stuff do stick to Amazon as well. And yeah, haha I've heard a lot about the smashwords submission process.
If you think Smashwords submission is bad, try your hand at Google.For me, the problem with Smashwords is that very few readers of my books go there. One can criticise Amazon, but they really have tied up the ebook market as far as I can see. I don't think the other online distributors like Apple are really trying.
I've always been ok with using Smashwords for my distribution for Apple, Kobo, etc. I use Amazon KDP too. However, I do find Smashwords frustrating sometimes. I recently updated a cover for an ebook they've had on the site for the past couple of years with no issues, but once it was updated with the new cover, it flagged up as not formatting correctly so I had to go through the entire manuscript again. I understand other companies like apple, etc change their own requirements from time to time, which Smashwords has to adhere to, but it can make it frustrating to navigate sometimes.I agree with Ian, though, that the problem with Smashwords is the number of visitors compared to Amazon. I've barely had any sales through Smashwords, apart from when I do free or cheaper sales (and these sales were through Kobo and apple, rather than Smashwords itself). They're great for distribution (formatting issues aside!) but in itself it doesn't compare to the exposure of Amazon.
J M, a question - how do you do cheaper sales through Apple and Kobo while using Smashwords?
Ian wrote: "J M, a question - how do you do cheaper sales through Apple and Kobo while using Smashwords?"Sorry, I probably wasn't clear. I just meant that when I've lowered the price via Smashwords during a promotion period, etc, that's filtered out to all online stores, I've experienced sales through Apple and Kobo, rather than directly through Smashwords itself, so I could have cut out the middle man and sold direct through those outlets without using Smashwords.
The benefit to me, at least, is that I can control it all from one place rather than several, but I have looked into going direct as I've not received the same level of sales through Smashwords (via the online stores) as I have through Amazon.
I published my new sci-fi novel just last month on Smashwords and Amazon. First time using SW, but I was curious about its capabilities. I even put the novel into their July sale.So far I've had zero sales. None at all.
The submission process took longer there than it did on Amazon...and I did a paperback/ebook combination on Amazon!
Now, I realize I'm the one driving sales. So far however, I'd have to say Smashwords underwhelms.
J M, The reason I asked was because I have lowered prices on Smashwords during one of their promotions, and the text from Smashwords said that the price lowering only applies to the Smashwords stores, so I was curious to know what you did to get it across Apple and Kobo, etc.
Ian wrote: "J M, The reason I asked was because I have lowered prices on Smashwords during one of their promotions, and the text from Smashwords said that the price lowering only applies to the Smashwords stor..."Ian, I think the Smashwords promotions are only for their site. I'm currently enrolled in their summer sale but the reduced prices are only for the Smashwords site. However, when I do my own promotions (at Halloween, for example!) it lowers the price across the board.
I've noticed, though, that although both my books are currently enrolled in the summer sale, only the first book which is free is actually getting any traction - it's great, but I wonder if it's the same issue where people trust Amazon/Apple more etc when actually making a purchase.
J M, I sympathise. I have four books (one non-fiction) in the summer sale at Smashwords, and essentially no traction at all. I do sell the occasional book there, but by and large I would say over 90% of my sales come from Amazon
I just put one of my books on SW to try it out. I read the manual and had to totally reformat my book for the site. I guess I don't really understand the site yet. They distribute to Kobo, iBooks, and Nook from what I can see. So if I discount my book, it discounts across all platforms? Also, I don't know how this coupon thing works but it sounds like a good benefit.
I definitely need to work on promotions. I wonder if anyone has used Twitter promotions.
Ask David is supposedly the best on twitter. There is a but to that. When you are on twitter, the half life of a tweet it 20 min. That means in they don't read it within 20 min, it's gone. Twitter is a continuous thing, so unless you have a lot of time, you might want to think twice about using it. Pinterest on the other hand it a search engine and what you put there can be seen and followed for years after you put it there. Think about it...where would you want to put your money or ads. 20 min, vs years.
FB isn't great for selling but you can pick up email list subscribers from there.
If you want to get sales...build your email list. You own it, control it and they are already fans of your genre. If you want to promote, get the price dropped on your promo book and use the sites like Free booksey, Fussy Librarian, etc. (There is a fold with them all listed) You will be more likely to get sales from there than twitter.
Tweets do have a brief shelf life. However, if it's someone whose tweets I'm interested in, I'll go back and review what they've said recently.
B.A. wrote: "Ask David is supposedly the best on twitter. There is a but to that. When you are on twitter, the half life of a tweet it 20 min. That means in they don't read it within 20 min, it's gone. Twitter ..."B.A.,
The info you mention here sounds invaluable. I say sounds like because one never knows personally for sure unless the advice is tried out. On another matter, I want to ask you if you are a pilot, and if so, does your picture here on Goodreads include a biplane in the background? Reason I ask is that I'm currently making an acrylic painting with a biplane as one of the focal points.
I am not a pilot. That picture is from the base camp on Denali. That is the plane that took us there. The pilot was this young kid (I have kids older than him...lol) who was very knowledgeable about the area. The pilot was the one who took the picture. I spent three weeks in Alaska seeing as much as I could during that time. If you look at the pants you'll see that they are the pants to a Harley Davidson rain suit since it was raining on my way to the airport. I did the trip on my HD trike.
Mod
And to make mention to what Ian said, Amazon does own the ebook market but that is not necessarily a good thing for us indies. Competition benefits us all and when too much control rests in the hands of one platform, we become beholden to their terms.
I have never had any problem with Smashwords. Yes, they only take doc files but it's so easy to convert. What do you mean my Meat Grinder?
Mod
From their website:
"The vast majority of Smashwords authors and publishers choose to upload Word .doc files. They do this to take advantage of Meatgrinder, our automated conversion technology. Meatgrinder generates high-quality multi-format ebooks. With a single Word .doc upload, Smashwords will create multiple file formats including .epub, .mobi for Kindles, PDF, plain text and HTML. The Smashwords Style Guide provides simple step-by-step instructions on how to format and design a beautiful ebook for free using a word processor."
The Meat Grinder in question is the software they use to force a .doc file into an .epub or .mobi. As they will tell you, most of the time this will result in a fine ebook. Other times, it won't. I prefer less uncertainty in my conversions, that's all.
I'm wondering about that 'meatgrinder.' I saw a book on Amazon and the publisher said Smashwords. But the formatting was wonky. Does the author need to reformat from SW to something publishable on Amazon? Maybe it was just a one-off situation. But the weird formatting was not a matter of typos.
Mod
Smashwords is capable of producing .mobi files (which can be uploaded to Amazon) but, as this case demonstrates, not every peg fits every round hole, so to speak. The risk exists that your .doc file will have "ghost formatting" that will throw off the meatgrinder and result in wonky formatting.
Which is why for my money, I prefer to format my ebooks (and print books, for that matter) myself. Less chance of something weird finding it's way into the final product that way :)
I refuse to waste hours to get my manuscript through a meatgrinder to publish with Smashwords. I'll go to D2D and get it done in minutes. Why waste the time. They don't offer anything better than D2D and make it so all their manuscripts look the same. If you put one little things out of place, it's rejected. I'd prefer some individuality in some of my works and you can't do it there. Even Ingram Spark and KDP are easier to work with when publishing.
Question about a person that seems to have made a claim to have posted on this thread - that would be Janice_The_Review_Girl. Is this person real? I did not see a post from her on this thread and I have received an offer from this person to do reviews on my work if I would send a file to her email address. Anyone, please comment!
Mod
It sounds suspect. Personally, I would not engage.
Eldon wrote: "JAKe wrote: "Question about a person that seems to have made a claim to have posted on this thread - that would be Janice_The_Review_Girl. Is this person real? I did not see a post from her on this..."Thanks for commenting, Eldon.
Just because the person does not post on Goodreads does not mean it is a scam. One approach might be to ask for links to some of her reviews. If she posts reviews on Amazon, why not? The cost of one ebook can't be that bad.
Mod
It's more than the cost of one ebook though, Ian. Consider if Amazon sees this arrangement as a paid review. They could cost an author far more than one ebook. There's also the potential piracy issue at play as well. It's been my experience that reputable sources of promotion/review rarely contact an author - instead it's the other way around.
And lastly, in this case, I saw the post and it looked very suspect.
If she regularly posts reviews on Amazon they are hardly likely to take that attitude. I did say first check what reviews she has posted. If she is a disaster waiting to happen, there will not be an extensive legitimate background.
Mod
Jake asked for opinions on this and I think we've given him some. I say we agree to disagree Ian :)
Mod
I removed her post because it was self-promoting, it was off topic, and because it wasn't the first time I've seen a post by a "reviewer" that was worded exactly the way that post was. When I try to look at her profile, it's set to private. It all seems suspect. Approach with caution.
Mod
Thank you Dwayne :)
I have had very little success with Smashwords either as a distributor or as a marketplace. Just the occasional sale, even when participating in their regular promotions. I've tried it several times, but keep reverting to Amazon's exclusive distribution so that I can take advantage of Kindle Unlimited.
Mod
My experience has been similar Phyllis. While there can be advantages to being wide and using a service like Smashwords, I found it stretched the marketing budget too thin as I then needed to maintain visibility on numerous sites as opposed to just one with Amazon.
Eldon, the comment by Dwayne strongly suggests you were correct so now we don't disagree - but remember I did suggest a background check. Dwayne did one for JAKe.My experience with Smashwords matches that of Phyllis too. In my opinion, the problem is that you can't promote across the sites they distribute to, and they are too small. Which raises the question, do the other sites run promotions? I haven't seen any, but I guess I don't look that much.
Thank you all for all the info. I have learned a lot here. I'm a soon-to-be-published author of a non-fiction book titled: THE EVIL TREE IN MAN. The info here has been very helpful.Thanks once again.
- Do you get a lot of sales through smashwords itself/from readers who read the book ON smashwords
- Are there other benefits to smashwords that may make me want to try it out?
I know they do coupons, which is something I wish all the platforms did, but I guess that wasn't really enough of a reason on its own to make me want to list my books on there, but maybe I should?
I'd appreciate any thoughts or experiences anyone's willing to share!