When I started publishing in December of 2010, I decided to use
Smashwords as my distributor to get into these other stores.
Since I'm using
Smashwords as a distributor for these as well as other outlets, I'm still waiting for that to happen.
It's taken longer than I thought it would, but the advantage of using
Smashwords as distributor is that they pay by Paypal, whereas Amazon will only pay overseas authors by cheque.
I haven't worked with Draft2Digital (I mostly use
Smashwords as a distributor — see below — and have used and recommend all of the other providers on this list), but I have had friends and clients who have loved them and the service they provide.
TR: In the end of the year blog post for 2012, you wrote that 80 percent of the authors use
Smashwords as a distributor.
TR: With
Smashwords as a distributor of e-books, how do you think that has changed the publishing industry?
Not exact matches
Smashwords is a
distributor as well
as a bookstore.
Or they may work with a
distributor, such
as Smashwords, who will deal with some or all of the retailers.
Smashwords also has some perks that make me wish the outfit had made more inroads into the ebook market on its own merits (
as a seller and not just a
distributor), such
as the ability to issue coupons, to offer affiliates a greater percentage of the sales price, and the fact that authors receive a higher royalty rate there than at any of the other stores.
On this page you identify yourself
as the author and claim copyright ownership of your book (if you're not the original author, or you're not the exclusive publisher or
distributor of this book, your book does not belong on
Smashwords.
If you create an ePub or Kindle file, you can put it into the catalogues of lots of different retailers (Kobo Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Amazon Kindle), or you can go through a
distributor such
as Smashwords who will manage that process for you.
Do you feel you have more control over your books / descriptions / categories / etc. than if you went through a
distributor such
as Smashwords?
As the world's largest
distributor of indie ebooks,
Smashwords lets you bypass having to deal with multiple author platforms by letting you upload your book and immediately start selling at more than 20 ebook retailers.
And I have no doubt that if self publishing were the only choice then the people we use
as distributors (amazon,
smashwords, etc) would then have all the power, and would be insentivised to start lowering royalties, and taking more rights too.
You can sell the ePub directly on Barnes & Noble's website, on Apple's iBookstore, or through a
distributor, such
as IngramSpark, eBook Partnership,
Smashwords, or BookBaby.
You might find a captive audience through Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, Kobo, or any other retailer, and most established
distributors such
as Smashwords or Draft2Digital will make your book available worldwide.
Smashwords is a
distributor with a small store
as well, so count
Smashwords store
as # 13.
Last week, we talked about publishing your ebook by uploading your file to a
distributor such
as Smashwords or Draft 2 Digital.
It's relatively easy to make a book available online these days through POD
distributors such
as Createspace and ebook
distributors such
as Smashwords.
Through Amazon, Kobo, iBookstore
as well
as the
distributors like
Smashwords, you can reach multiple territories.
Publishing through ePubli is the same
as any other
distributor — like
Smashwords, BookBaby or Draft2Digital, in that it takes more time for changes to go through and ultimately, you have a lot less control than going direct.
Usually, authors prefer
distributors that take the lowest percentage of net profit
as possible, such
as Draft2Digital or
Smashwords, neither of which distributes to Amazon (conveniently).
You can reach OverDrive by using a
distributor such
as Smashwords.
If iTunes is a critical channel for you, you may wish to consider a
distributor, such
as Smashwords or IngramSpark, which will also do print - on - demand distribution for you.
Definitely the most egalitarian
distributor out there,
Smashwords now has distribution deals with Apple for the iPad
as well
as Amazon for the Kindle, Sony for the eReader and Barnes & Noble.com.
For $ 10, you will receive an ISBN that identifies you
as the publisher (which means you can list your DBA if you have one) and
Smashwords is listed
as the
distributor.
Instead of publishing your book directly to all of the individual platforms, you can choose to go through an eBook
distributor such
as Smashwords.
Well
as for how big the market is — I don't have any hard and fast numbers for you but Amazon sold more ebooks than paper books this year, and
Smashwords (an ebook
distributor) publishes over 70,000 ebooks and counting.
It is up to the eBook
distributor (like
Smashwords), or the store selling your book or eBook,
as to whether or not you need an ISBN.
While other e-book
distributors such
as Smashwords have had multi-lingual translation available to foreign authors interested in e-publishing, none with quite the market size of Amazon.com have ventured outside the boundaries of English editions.
Keep in mind that BN.com is a retailer, while
Smashwords also acts
as a
distributor.
Upload your print book files to CreateSpace (which distributes to Amazon) and IngramSpark (which reaches everyone else); for e-books, directly upload to Amazon KDP and then choose an e-book
distributor such
as Smashwords or Draft2Digital to reach other major retailers.
As part of its Choosing a Self - Publishing Service 2014 guide, Alli examined the opportunities authors have for assistance in publishing their works, and has awarded ebook
distributor and self - publishing platform
Smashwords its first ever Self - Publishing Service Award.
As he says himself,
Smashwords has become one of the largest
distributors of ebooks from SELF - PUBLISHED authors and small independent presses.
As an up and coming ebook and audiobook distributor, it's quite a challenge getting people to come to my site as opposed to Amazon, or even Smashword
As an up and coming ebook and audiobook
distributor, it's quite a challenge getting people to come to my site
as opposed to Amazon, or even Smashword
as opposed to Amazon, or even
Smashwords.
If the answer to your publishing goal is discoverability, please refer to the steps below
as your quick guidance to publish on
Smashwords and its extensive list of
distributors.
When you upload your book to online retailers and
distributors like Amazon,
Smashwords, and IngramSpark, you'll need to decide what categories your book belongs in and insert information (metadata) such
as your book description, author bio, BISAC codes, and keywords.
Smashwords, the granddaddy of eBook
distributors, sends its books to Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Kobo,
as well
as sellers in India (Flipkart) and Germany (txtr).
By Barnes and Noble, multi-channel
distributors like
Smashwords act
as middlemen that push an author's work out to the single channel.
Since then, the company has reinvented itself
as Pronoun, a no - charge
distributor / aggregator (similar to
Smashwords or Draft2Digital).
If you self - publish, consider selling your book via Internet retailers and
distributors, such
as Smashwords and Lebrary.
According to the
Smashwords blog,
as of December 31, 2012,
Smashwords became «the world's largest
distributor of ebooks from self - published authors and small...
Companies like Amazon and
Smashwords merely act
as distributors.
I suspect that if
Smashwords didn't have their web - store, but instead acted purely
as a
distributor, they could pay all non-US authors in full.
Mark Coker of
Smashwords at BAIPA: Indie Revolution in Full Swing
as the e-book
distributor continues its fantastic growth fueled by indie authors
As one of the leading ebook
distributors,
Smashwords can distribute your books to most of the major ebook retailers.
Most
distributors (
Smashwords included) take a small cut of your earnings
as their fee.
I'm one of those who will be looking forward to when you accept PDF files through
Smashwords Direct, and I'd still love to have HTML be a submission format (because that's the format in which my e-books start, and my other
distributors are able to handle HTML
as a submission format, saving me the trouble of having to create ePub files for them).
According to the
Smashwords blog,
as of December 31, 2012,
Smashwords became «the world's largest
distributor of ebooks from self - published authors and small independent presses.»
As such, I would always recommend having Kindle and epub versions of your books available and published through Amazon and other distributors, such as Draft2Digital or Smashword
As such, I would always recommend having Kindle and epub versions of your books available and published through Amazon and other
distributors, such
as Draft2Digital or Smashword
as Draft2Digital or
Smashwords.