Smashwords Help

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by David.Niall.Wils

It's actually not even the copyright that seems to be at issue here...it's the usage notice. I've published about 350 e-Books by a lot of authors...distributors have requirements like any other business...you don't like their requirements, you do business elsewhere.

David, is there a reason why you're taking such a hostile tone in this thread?

I asked for HELP in this thread for ways to be accepted into the Smashwords catalog in a means that will make both I and they happy. People have been helpful; the current status seems to be that even Smashwords doesn't know why my book wasn't accepted, because the thing they want me to have, I have. And the thing they say I don't need to have, I get an automated message on anyway, despite it apparently being optional. They're looking into it, I guess.

I absolutely know I don't have to go through Smashwords if it comes to that. You're not telling me anything I don't know, and additionally you're making me feel aggressed against by forcefully and repeatedly dismissing the problem I'm trying to seek help for. If you don't want to provide help with the OP issue, you're not being forced to post in this thread, I don't think.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by David.Niall.Wils

It's actually not even the copyright that seems to be at issue here...it's the usage notice. I've published about 350 e-Books by a lot of authors...distributors have requirements like any other business...you don't like their requirements, you do business elsewhere.

The issue is that Smashwords claims it allows Creative Commons ebooks (and presumably, Kopyleft ebooks and GPL ebooks), but it requires a license notice that contradict the rights those licenses grant to users.

Or that it says it allows license statements that allow those things, but Anamardoll is getting an error message that says she's required to put the more restrictive license on her book.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

The issue is that Smashwords claims it allows Creative Commons ebooks (and presumably, Kopyleft ebooks and GPL ebooks), but it requires a license notice that contradict the rights those licenses grant to users.

Or that it says it allows license statements that allow those things, but Anamardoll is getting an error message that says she's required to put the more restrictive license on her book.

Exactly. And it's very confusing.

I've been working with the 52 Novels people (JA Konrath's crew, and they're really awesome, by the way), and it's been frustrating to try to relay Smashwords "errors" to them that are 5 pages long (literally -- I printed them out to PDF) and are just general form statements.

I was thrilled to receive a response back from the Smashwords team saying that the usage statement isn't required, but when I said "Great! So...why *is* it failing out for the Premium Catalog", I haven't received an answer yet. I hope that I will -- it's difficult not having a means to contact the distributer, and it's especially hard when you're getting zero genuine feedback as to how to fix the apparent problem.

[David.Niall.Wils]

Sorry, I didn't mean to sound negative, or even unhelpful...

I actually know the answer, I'm pretty sure. When your book goes to premium channels through Smashwords they show up as the publisher. It may well be a requirement due their own responsibility either to you (to protect your work) or some part of their agreement with the premium channels. A lot of things are allowed onto Smashwords that don't meet the requirements for their premium distribution...I have two books currently they want me to change and we are going back and forth over - though in those cases it's formatting.

I'm guessing when they said it was not required they meant to be on Smashwords, but not for Premium distribution. They are pretty overwhelmed, but they usually do answer questions.

[John Carroll]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Exactly. And it's very confusing.

I've been working with the 52 Novels people (JA Konrath's crew, and they're really awesome, by the way), and it's been frustrating to try to relay Smashwords "errors" to them that are 5 pages long (literally -- I printed them out to PDF) and are just general form statements.

I was thrilled to receive a response back from the Smashwords team saying that the usage statement isn't required, but when I said "Great! So...why *is* it failing out for the Premium Catalog", I haven't received an answer yet. I hope that I will -- it's difficult not having a means to contact the distributer, and it's especially hard when you're getting zero genuine feedback as to how to fix the apparent problem.

They've been pretty slow at responses the last few months. Usually a few days to a week or so.

[anamardoll]

*sigh* Days... weeks?... later and it's still "awaiting review" for an automated error that is NOT an error. (Their system doesn't understand why I might put a "Trigger Warning" spoiler page at the back of the book and yet include it out of sequence.) No response from the Smashwords team. I'm thinking I'm going to have to utterly gut my book just to get it to the Kobo/Sony/Diesel store. This is so frustrating and saddening.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

*sigh* Days... weeks?... later and it's still "awaiting review" for an automated error that is NOT an error. (Their system doesn't understand why I might put a "Trigger Warning" spoiler page at the back of the book and yet include it out of sequence.) No response from the Smashwords team. I'm thinking I'm going to have to utterly gut my book just to get it to the Kobo/Sony/Diesel store. This is so frustrating and saddening.

Kobo's soon going to allow direct uploads; Sony has one other feed, but it's a paid publishing service. I haven't looked into Diesel's details to see if there's a workaround from Smashwords.

I understand why Smashwords was set up for Word docs instead of requiring HTML or ePub to start with, but I really wish they'd change that, now that ebook editing programs are widely available.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Kobo's soon going to allow direct uploads; Sony has one other feed, but it's a paid publishing service. I haven't looked into Diesel's details to see if there's a workaround from Smashwords.

I understand why Smashwords was set up for Word docs instead of requiring HTML or ePub to start with, but I really wish they'd change that, now that ebook editing programs are widely available.

Oh, that would be wonderful! That makes me so happy. I'm going to have to watch for that.

Sony, bless their heart... I'm pretty sure they don't have much market share on the book-selling side, but not being in Kobo makes me cry.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Oh, that would be wonderful! That makes me so happy. I'm going to have to watch for that.

Sony, bless their heart... I'm pretty sure they don't have much market share on the book-selling side, but not being in Kobo makes me cry.

Kobo's info for publishers & authors has a link to their vendor guide (PDF) which explains in excruciating technical detail how they require epubs to be set up. I suspect most people use the other feeds because Kobo's *picky* about their epubs; apparently, being standards-compliant and error-free isn't enough.

(They're not picky like Smashwords' failure to allow certain types of simple formatting; they're picky on the tech side: they want number-based hex codes instead of words, like using © instead of © for ©. And other details. I haven't sorted out if I need to do code-things for smartquotes.)

[anamardoll]

I wonder. I might be able to squeak in -- I use very minimal special characters and consider em dashes and smart quotes to be black holes o' danger.

Thank you muchly for the "subscribe to hear when we open" link!!

[pigeonweather]

From my experience, they simply require any license notice at all. I've put in stuff like:
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
Take and enjoy!

and they've gone through.