Quote:
Originally Posted by DBDigital
Actually it is not a requirement, it is suggested. While if you don't have it in, they may say "please add" but you don't have to. If they continue to push it, send a email and it will be approved (providing there wasn't any other issues). They are not the publisher of record and can't force you to have that in your book. Well I suppose they can be, if you use one of their free ISBN's. But if you have your own, then they have no claim on being your publisher of record.  |
My experience is they refuse to approve it. I've asked. I have two books that were never approved and the only thing showing incorrect is the copyright statement--which is in there, but does not mention Smashwords. When I've sent emails asking if it is required to be approved I either get no answer or I get a "It must pass the validation."
I suppose I could waste time pushing, but I could also go to D2D or one of the other services.
I like working directly with the retailers. I see most of my sales that way and I get good customer service. Smashwords could have been a convenient way to upload to a lot of places at once, but there are too many gotchas. Don't get me wrong; I don't think they are terrible, but I have had no luck uploading my own epub versions (copyright gets in the way again) and I don't want to keep a special file that is just for Smaswords. If I use their conversion tool, I have to have a special file for them only. It became too cumbersome so none of my newer books will be on Smashwords.