Why my book isn't on Smashwords

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

It does, as long as you're starting with something good. I've found that starting with a well formatted ePub almost every conversion comes out great. Of course crap in = crap out so it has to start with something good.

I 100% agree. Calibre does take well formatted ePub and makes Mobipocket and MS Reader nicely from the ePub. LRF is a hit/miss and it's not all that important these days. eReader output is not all that nice. So I'd stay away from that one.

[Stinger]

The font-resizing is a bug of the 1.0 firmware on the Kobo. The forthcoming firmware update is due out at the end of June, and has been confirmed to include a fix for this problem.

I would toss the book up anyway, no reason to lose sales by not doing so. It's not like you're uploading a broken ebook, the fault is on the Kobo's side. The firmware update will fix this in just a couple weeks, and in the meantime I think most Kobo owners have figured out the workaround for the problem (we even have an automated gui tool available at the Kobo forums here).

[J. Strnad]

Oh, I can wait until it all works. I've been waiting for six years to get the rights back, so another couple of weeks won't kill me. I just happened on a quote from Lao Tzu (courtesy of Patrick McDonnell's Mutts): "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."

[neilmarr]

***Perhaps if enough authors/publishers bug them Smashwords will make the meatgrinder optional and let you upload individual hand formatted books if you want to***

That would certainly be a great option, AnemicOak. I just checked and we're aparently #6 publisher at Smashwords (we were #1 until the naughties arrived). I'll drop a line and sound out Mark Coker on this idea. He's the first to admit that the 'meatgrinder' isn't always perfect, no matter how much hard work goes into the Word.doc source material for conversion.

I prize Smashwords, not so much for the conversion, but for the fact that teaming with them can get small publishers into vital new online ebook stores that disqualify houses that otherwise don't have an 'official' US presence. Mind you, recent IRS 30% tax-at-source impositions mean that we're in the throes with lawyers and accountants of opening a US-based office anyway. Readers who find geographical restrictions on titles at stores an annoyance have no idea of the hoops some publishers must jump through.

Hoots. Neil

[HistoryWes]

It seems to me that Smashwords' meatgrinder is getting better all the time. That being said, it would be great if they had an editor that could be used to tweek the final product.

[A_J_Lath]

^^Are you talking about a piece of software that the author can either download from Smashwords, or use in the browser, to tweak the individual formats? If so, that would be a great idea.

[neilmarr]

***It would be great if they had an editor that could be used to tweek the final product***

This is the problem with ALL DIY 'publishers', HistoryWest. Smashwords, for instance, has not been open long and, already, it is close to putting out it's BILLIONTH word of text. PublishAmerica, using PoD, now churns out six paperback titles an hour. What size of editing team is needed to cope with thist kind of output? It's one of the many reasons why self-publishers should think twice, three times, four times, ten times before imposing their raw words and badly prepared files on the world. Neil

[dlmartin6]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

It's one of the many reasons why self-publishers should think twice, three times, four times, ten times before imposing their raw words and badly prepared files on the world. Neil

Yes, I agree Neil. I've actually checked the different samples of my books over and over and had to tweak my word files a number of times before the epub file came out looking nice. It's definitely a process that authors should be aware of. Just because you upload a book, that's not the end of journey.

Deb

[neilmarr]

Much, much more than that, Debra ...

Folks here talk about 'editing' to get things *looking* nice. This is eye candy. Real editing is about getting things *reading* nice.

At the risk of the hate mail I always get when I say this .... NO author can do without a darned sound and no-nonsense pro editor.

Folks who side-step selection and avoid editorial intervention to self-publish tend to rush into print without even a simple copy- or line-edit and with very little effective proofing.

It devalues their work -- much of which isn't even ready for a serious edit, never mind for a reading customer. Further, it devalues ALL self-published work.

I must confess, I see this stuff in the same light as I see submissions to my own wee house ... 98% at least of which I must reject because ... well, because it's irredeemable rubbish.

Neil

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Much, much more than that, Debra ...

Folks here talk about 'editing' to get things *looking* nice. This is eye candy. Real editing is about getting things *reading* nice.

At the risk of the hate mail I always get when I say this .... NO author can do without a darned sound and no-nonsense pro editor.

Folks who side-step selection and avoid editorial intervention to self-publish tend to rush into print without even a simple copy- or line-edit and with very little effective proofing.

It devalues their work -- much of which isn't even ready for a serious edit, never mind for a reading customer. Further, it devalues ALL self-published work.

I must confess, I see this stuff in the same light as I see submissions to my own wee house ... 98% at least of which I must reject because ... well, because it's irredeemable rubbish.

Neil

Isn't there anywhere writers can get people to look at their manuscripts and get suggestions for what is wrong with it? If not there should be. But I don't really see that 98% of all self published books being rubbish is such a bad thing. The remaining 2% will still rise to the top, and if anyone gets any entertainment value out of the rest of them that is a bonus.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Perhaps if enough authors/publishers bug them Smashwords will make the meatgrinder optional and let you upload individual hand formatted books if you want to.

FYI, the new PubIt! system at Barnes & Noble advertises that authors will be able to upload their preformatted ePub books into their system (when the system goes into effect later this summer, that is).

[neilmarr]

***Isn't there anywhere writers can get people to look at their manuscripts and get suggestions for what is wrong with it?***

Writers' circles -- both the good ones on line and anything 'live' you might have locally -- can be a great help, Mr Ploppy. The problem is that, the more you become a stalwart of a group, the less impartial your fellow scribes become. In serious cases of being loved and admired, the critique of a writers' group is about as non-partisan as the opinion of your mom or favourite old school teacher. On the other hand, rejection by pro publishing houses and agents (even if there's no helpful explanation as to why a piece was declined) should make you seriously reconsider its value. There's absolutely nothing wrong with self-publishing ... but there are too many folks rushing the job because it's so darned easy, and the result is ... well, let's say it's not what it might be. Cheers. Neil

[Smashwords]

Jan, I encourage you to give Smashwords a try. Authors who make the effort to carefully format their books to our Smashwords Style Guide get good results. Authors who ignore the Guide because they think they know better get hamburger out the other end, as J. Wolf discovered.

There are definitely both advantages and disadvantages to an automated system such as Smashwords. The advantage is simplicity, zero cost, rapid publishing, robust metadata control and powerful selling tools, and the disadvantage is some loss of control over formatting, especially for technically savvy authors who can code in HTML and require greater control over layout. Many of the disadvantages can be overcome by following the Style Guide, which we have continually improved over the last two years, as we have continually improved the Meatgrinder.

Authors who format their books to the Style Guide gain inclusion in our Premium Catalog, which is what we distribute to Apple, Sony, B&N, Kobo, Stanza, Aldiko and others to be announced soon.

With all due respect to Mr. Ploppy, folks who believe ebook publishing starts by converting a file with Calibre (a great application, btw) and ends by plopping it on their personal website have no use for Smashwords. Such authors, which I would argue constitute a small minority, are also doing themselves a disservice because they're unlikely to connect with as many readers as those who take full advantage of the myriad distribution opportunities now available to indie authors. Smashwords takes 15% of the net sales as a commission, which works out to about 7.5-10% of the digital list price. It's not much. A retailer takes anywhere from 30-50% of your list price. If such an intermediary can help an author connect with readers they would never have otherwise connected with, then it's a no-brainer to work with distributors and retailers. Of course, I'm biased.

[neilmarr]

Thanks, Mark. And there's an interesting artcle from Mark about common pitfalls here: http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.co...-mistakes.html. All authors should read it before dashing into publication. Best wishes. Neil

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Isn't there anywhere writers can get people to look at their manuscripts and get suggestions for what is wrong with it? If not there should be. But I don't really see that 98% of all self published books being rubbish is such a bad thing. The remaining 2% will still rise to the top, and if anyone gets any entertainment value out of the rest of them that is a bonus.

This is a very bad thing. I don't browse Smashwords because honestly most of it is dreck. I do take a peek at books by MR authors if they sound interesting.

This is why I like the Fictionwise multiformat books even if the rest of the site has gone to pot. They are often interesting indie books that can't be gotten elsewhere, but all appear to have had basic editing and proofreading. Nothing kills a good story faster than a ton of typos, silly grammar errors and poor formatting. And having to put up with all that in a bad story is adding insult to injury.

I believe the poor signal-to-noise ratio of self-published books is really detrimental to that 2%. People aren't willing to wade through 98% crap to find the 2% gems.

-Marcy