Have you used Smashwords?

Smashwords is basically a online bookstore that does file conversion for you (sometimes not very well). It distributes to some of the major channels other than Kindle.

Basically is does what it says it does, if you want to do that... go for it.

Smashwords is not a publisher in that it does nothing to the manuscript other than vend it.

I'm going to move this to the Self Publishing room, where it's a better fit. Hold on to your hats.

I will say the good thing about Smashwords is that it's fairly simple to use. If you follow the format guide, it's a great place to start for formatting e-books. It's pretty self-explanatory if you needing a starting point.

But other than that... no real ups or downs I can think of in specific.

Syntium said:

Another question: Is there someone not living in the US that have published with smashwords?

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Many non-American authors use Smashwords to distribute their e-books. I'm in the US, but I believe one of the pros of using Smashwords for foreign authors is the Paypal payment vs needing to deal with checks or EFT.

In general, Smashwords does what they claim, but they don't distribute to the largest single e-book retailer, Amazon, so you typically need to set up an Amazon KDP account in addition to using Smashwords.

I have enjoyed e-book publishing through Smashwords. Their free Style Guide gave me the basics for putting together an e-book and I appreciate how many formats they provide to their readers. They are also one of very few places where you can set a title's price as free indefinitely. And, you can create discount codes. They pay quarterly, tracking which channels the title was purchased at. Also, as J. Tanner noted, they pay through PayPal, which is really helpful for authors not in the U.S.A.

Syntium said:

Upsides? Downsides? Would you recommend it, or do you have any other e-publisher you would recommend?

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Whether Smash is a good choice for you or not depends on your goals.

When you upload your masterpiece there, you can choose in which formats you want it to be available. Might as well leave all of them checked--you never known what someone will want.

You can also choose where you want it distributed. This is turned on everywhere by default. You go into the Channel manager to opt-out of the places you don't want distribution.

Smashwords used to be the big cheese as far as distribution and a simple way for people not in the US to get their books to Barnes and Noble, where you must be a US citizen to upload directly.

You also have the option with Smashwords to make your ebook free on the Smash website, where people can buy it directly, as well as free at B&N, Kobo and Apple (and perhaps other places like Sony and Diesel, but I'm not sure about that). A freebie at B&N, Kobo and Apple can not only raise your sales at those places (provided you have more titles available for people to buy, and they're appealing to the people downloading the freebie), but can also prompt Amazon to price-match the title to free in their store, which can really drive Amazon sales if, again, you have other appealing titles.

Some serious drawbacks to using Smashwords, however, are that it often takes weeks for a title you distribute through them to show up elsewhere, if it ever does. And if you want to change the price, you know, good luck on that happening speedily, if at all. If you want to remove a book, you can have the same problem. You get reporting once a month if you're lucky--lately, B&N numbers have been held up a couple months at a time or more, frustrating those who must rely on a distributor to get into B&N. And in a recent not-fun moment for many people, Apple's numbers updated the day after the payment cutoff, leaving hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars to sit for another quarter, when by all rights it should have been paid out. I don't sell enough on Apple for that make me want to commit a felony, but I know some who had an extra bourbon before bed that day.

There's also the matter of Smashwords' customer service, and by matter I mean lack. Sometimes you'll hit it on the right day with the right question, and all is well. Other times it can take a few weeks for a rude response that doesn't nothing to help. Sometimes, questions go unanswered altogether.

Another distributor now does the things Smashwords does, and I'd urge you to consider them. (I am not an owner or anyone with a financial stake in them, FYI, just an impressed user.) Draft2digital.com distributes to B&N, Apple, Amazon and a place or two I can't remember, because I don't care about them. Oh, Kobo, maybe one other place.

While the wait for you book to show up at B&N through Smash is typically about 3 weeks, often it's hours to a day or two through D2D. They also pay monthly, not quarterly, and you get actual reporting so you know how you're selling, rather than waiting for one report every month or two. This can be helpful for promotions and such.

The delay getting to Apple can be weeks, but that's Apple. You can go free on Apple (and I think Kobo) through D2D, but not Barnes and Noble, unfortunately. This is a drawback if you use them to distribute there and are hoping for Amazon to price match. They either won't if you're charging at B&N, or it'll bounce back to paid when their bots detect it. Not that price-matching to free is ever guaranteed, but it's unwise to have it not-free anywhere while trying this.

People got paid on-time during the first payment round with D2D. Their customer service is fast and helpful so far. And if someone like Apple rejects your book, they tell you, unlike Smashwords. It's improving all the time, and definitely something to consider. Weigh your options--Smashwords isn't the only game in town anymore.

I would, however, heartily recommend that you go direct wherever you can. Yes, you can distribute to Amazon (and CreateSpace print publishing even) with D2D. But why pay them to do what you can do on your own? I never sold a single copy of anything at Kobo through Smashwords. I started selling there when I went direct (probably because I categorized the titles correctly and didn't mangle the blurbs the way Smash sometimes can), and now I've made several hundred dollars through a retailer that I couldn't break into before. If you're in the US, go through PubIt for B&N, Writing Life for Kobo and KDP for Amazon. Apple is more complicated, and may not be worth the money or aggravation to go direct.

Even if you choose D2D for your distribution (and that's all they do--no D2D store), you can still publish at Smashwords and just opt out of the other stores. I do this and make a nice quarterly check just from sales at Smash proper.

I hope some of this helps you make a decision.

I'm someone who used Draft2Digitial was well because I heard they were much better than Smashwords. I'm not US-based so can't go to Barnes and Noble. Apple also seems complicated. So I use D2D for those two (I believe D2D will supply to other smaller vendors as time goes by) and I go direct to Amazon and Kobo.

I haven't used D2D for formatting but it's supposed to take all the hassle out of that as well. Just upload your Word doc and let them do all the work.

J. Tanner said:

Many non-American authors use Smashwords to distribute their e-books. I'm in the US, but I believe one of the pros of using Smashwords for foreign authors is the Paypal payment vs needing to deal with checks or EFT.

In general, Smashwords does what they claim, but they don't distribute to the largest single e-book retailer, Amazon, so you typically need to set up an Amazon KDP account in addition to using Smashwords.

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I think they do distribute to Amazon, but they have only just started with it so things are slow. I go direct with KDP and Kobo because it's easier. I can't for B&N, Apple and Sony so I use Smashwords for them.

I'm non US and use Smashwords. They can be a bit slow with things, such as changing the price on all of your distribution channels, or updating your sells from the various channels. But everything else I've been happy with. The recent ebook promotion week they did was really good. Basically, you could enter your book into the promotion and offer a discount and promotional code just for the week. It resulted in a few more sales for me.

I like the coupon codes they generate as well.

When I published there wasn't Draft 2 Digital so I'm not sure which is best. Might be worth doing a bit more research on the both of them, see which you feel would work best for you.

sarahdalton said:

I think they do distribute to Amazon, but they have only just started with it so things are slow.

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Nope. Still no distribution. You're probably confused by their compromise. For VERY high-selling books they'll manually upload your book to their KDP account and track it for you. The typical author won't have a choice, and the big-sellers typically will want to go direct because that 10% adds up to significant money for them. I believe they mentioned having about 200 books total on Amazon out of the 100K+ on the site.

Draft2digital vs Smashwords

http://www.jadekerrion.com/2013/02/...rds-in-the-battle-of-the-e-book-distribution/

I couldn't tell if D2D accepts ePub files. Has anyone tried that? Smashwords is supposed to but from what I've heard it's not their preferred option.

I have three books on Smashwords, all distributed everywhere except Amazon. There seems to be a hold up there.

JBClemmens said:

I have three books on Smashwords, all distributed everywhere except Amazon. There seems to be a hold up there.

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See J. Tanner's post above.

Interesting. If I already have a kindle version, can I just use that, or should I use the smashword's recommended formatting style?

WriterBN said:

I couldn't tell if D2D accepts ePub files. Has anyone tried that? Smashwords is supposed to but from what I've heard it's not their preferred option.

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I uploaded epubs to D2D. If you use epubs, they don't touch them, just send them straight to the distributors for Kobo, B+N and Itunes.

I use Amazon KDP directly for Kindle titles, and Smashwords for everything else.

The only major difference between the two is that Smashwords asks you to put a notice on the copyright page of the book to say that it was published through them. I can live with that. I've been fairly successful with it (was voted a 2012 Breakout Books by Apple this month), so nothing bad to report.

That having been said, I'm sure I'm not the only person to have noticed that their Amazon sales outweigh everything else more than ten times combined..! Still, it's good to give readers the option of where to buy from.

SDBmania said:

Interesting. If I already have a kindle version, can I just use that, or should I use the smashword's recommended formatting style?

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When uploading your work to Smashwords, follow the Smashwords style guide to the letter.

For that matter, when uploading to Kindle, it's probably a good idea to follow the Smashwords style guide to the letter (other than the "Smashwords Edition" slugline).

StephenJSweeney said:

I use Amazon KDP directly for Kindle titles, and Smashwords for everything else.

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That having been said, I'm sure I'm not the only person to have noticed that their Amazon sales outweigh everything else more than ten times combined..! Still, it's good to give readers the option of where to buy from.

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I use the same combination of Smashwords and KDP. If you're not in the US, then this is a sensible way to go. (I hadn't heard of D2D until this thread - that sounds worth checking out, too).

I think I may be unique in that my B&N sales are around 100 times higher than my Amazon sales. But definitely don't just stick with Amazon - you never know where your books will take off.

girlyswot said:

I use the same combination of Smashwords and KDP. If you're not in the US, then this is a sensible way to go. (I hadn't heard of D2D until this thread - that sounds worth checking out, too).

I think I may be unique in that my B&N sales are around 100 times higher than my Amazon sales. But definitely don't just stick with Amazon - you never know where your books will take off.

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What was it that caused your B&N/Smashwords sales to take off, girly?

I published through Smashwords and was happy with how easy the formatting and conversion was. I also like getting all the file formats, the automatic distribution, and having so much control.

I'm in the stage of trying to break out of my immediate friends and family social network though. I have a blog and Facebook page, but am having trouble finding new channels to promote my book. I'd appreciate hearing from somebody that's managed to do it, if you don't mind.

James D. Macdonald said:

When uploading your work to Smashwords, follow the Smashwords style guide to the letter.

For that matter, when uploading to Kindle, it's probably a good idea to follow the Smashwords style guide to the letter (other than the "Smashwords Edition" slugline).

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Seconding Uncle Jim's advice.