Well, in the case of that particular author, according to her website she's got a lot of paranormal romance and fantasy novels by a fairly large publisher (St. Martin's Press) on offer.
So perhaps giving away her old out-of-print stuff via Smashwords is probably pretty good publicity for her because it frees up potential readers' money to spend on boosting her currently in-print sales and keep her on the publisher's list.
I have to admit, that undead Shakespeare thing she's got listed on her website looks kind of tempting.
As for me, the backlist author I'm definitely planning to pick up is
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (Nebula Award sf/fantasy winner, co-authors several NYTimes bestselling books with Anne McCaffrey). All her stuff is 25% off and I recognize all but 3 of them as being from previously printed in hardcover and paperback series. The Seashell Archives books are particularly good, at least for the ones I've tried.
I also lucked into finding a couple of introductory freebies by some of those ex-Dorchester authors who left because of that royalty non-payment issue. Too bad they've haven't put any discount coupons on the others in the series with the free book, because I think they could really clean up that way.
Jana DeLeon,
Trouble in Mudbug. I read this as a Kobo freebie and it was a fairly funny zany romantic comedy/mystery. I liked it enough to read the sequels from the library and if they'd been even 25% off, I admit I'd be tempted to splurge. But they're not quite a $4 purchase for me in terms of enjoyability.
Leslie Langtry,
I Shot You Babe. One of the books in this series was a Kindle freebie, the other the author offered herself upon her move to Smashwords after reclaiming her rights.
Gemma Halliday,
Scandal Sheet. Formerly one of B&N's Free Fridays feature freebies.
Also found a freebie by Marsha Canham, whose author bio says she's been print-published since 1984 and a Romantic Times award winner. I'm not really into romance, but for free I'll give it a try if there's some element I like and I rather like historicals and
Swept Away is a Regency.
On the mystery front, there's three books from
Connie Shelton who was once small-press published and now continues via self-pub. You can get books #1 & #11 of her Charlie Parker series for free, and the 1st book of her new Samantha Sweet series. All the rest are 50% off. I admit, I still haven't read the first 3 Charlie Parkers she gave away with the coupon last year.
A couple of the MR member authors have made some of their backlist free with coupon. Check the listings for Paul Levine and Jeffrey Carver if you like thrillers and sf, respectively.
Unfortunately, a lot of the sf/fantasy authors I was kind of hoping would participate with discount coupons haven't. I'd have loved to pick up some Brian Stableford, Diane Duane, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch at 25%+ off.
Although Lillian Stewart Carl (friend of Lois McMaster Bujold, co-wrote the
Vorkosigan Companion) did make one from her rather long and tedious to check one-by-one list of republished mysteries free with coupon:
The Secret Portrait. Nothing else on sale, unfortunately.
Anyway, I have to say that the real prize I'm gleeful about is Gary K. Wolf's
Who P-p-p-lugged Roger Rabbit? and
Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, basis of that Disney movie. Both fully free, along with some other novel of his.
Hope this helps out anyone who's been trying to sort out the good stuff from the proof positive of Sturgeon's Law over at Smashwords.