What is it with smashwords?

[Frida Fantastic]

Originally Posted by Assassin

Mark Coker at Smashwords recently posted on his Site Updates that the search engine is going to get an upgrade. He is aware of the dissatisfaction of users. I had sent him a "wishlist" that ELFWRECK had posted here on another thread and he is responding.
So if you have other complaints or suggestions, let him know because he is responsive.

Thanks! It's cool that Mark Coker is very responsive. Power to Elfwreck \m/

[Frida Fantastic]

Originally Posted by DrDln

I have a general comment on ebooks and reviews. Let me ask. Why there is no interest in nonfiction?

The entire reading market isn't on the indie ebooks bandwagon yet, it leans heavily on the genre fiction side. The ebook market is expanding, but for now, it's the genre fiction stuff that's getting attention. People who read a lot of genre fiction are getting into indie books. Literary fiction and non-fiction, not yet either. I'm sure non-fiction will get attention in time.

Most people on the Simon Royle list review fiction only, but there's a few who'll review non-fiction. http://www.simon-royle.com/indie-reviewers/ There's new book blogs everyday and the culture around indie is only growing, so just keep on looking.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by DrDln

I have a general comment on ebooks and reviews. Let me ask. Why there is no interest in nonfiction? People don't like the real world...LOL. I do understand escape in fiction. Just wonder.

I'm not really a non-fiction kinda guy. But that doesn't mean I can't be interested if the subject is right, the price is right and my mood is right.

[Tome Keeper]

Originally Posted by DrDln

I have a general comment on ebooks and reviews. Let me ask. Why there is no interest in nonfiction? People don't like the real world...LOL. I do understand escape in fiction. Just wonder.

I like non-fiction and do review it. I think the problem is that it's a smaller and more specialised readership than fiction.

[Xanthe]

At a time when six-year-old Abbie needs love and security, her mother goes to the hospital and never returns. Still distraught, Abbie is passed to whoever will have her. Her new step mother subjects her to unimaginable physical, sexual and psychological torture and delivers her to local paedophiles in the entertainment business. During her single minded pursuit of fame Abbie’s step mother stops at nothing, beating and prostituting her own children.

Just going by that blurb on Smashwords, it seems to me that the market for that book is going to be smaller there than it would on Amazon. You're targeting a specific audience that is interested in reading about child abuse (and sorry, no matter how well-written or important your book might be, it's not a topic that I would choose to buy a book about).

Out of curiosity, I looked at my Smashwords account. I've bought six books from them, haven't read a single one of them and off the top of my head, don't know which ereader they are on - or if they've even made it to the ereader and aren't just sitting in a file on an external drive. By the time I get around to reading them, I won't remember where I got them from and will probably just go to Amazon to put up a review if I feel strongly one way or the other about the books. Some of that might be happening with your reviews.

[mcrow24]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

Just going by that blurb on Smashwords, it seems to me that the market for that book is going to be smaller there than it would on Amazon. You're targeting a specific audience that is interested in reading about child abuse (and sorry, no matter how well-written or important your book might be, it's not a topic that I would choose to buy a book about).

Out of curiosity, I looked at my Smashwords account. I've bought six books from them, haven't read a single one of them and off the top of my head, don't know which ereader they are on - or if they've even made it to the ereader and aren't just sitting in a file on an external drive. By the time I get around to reading them, I won't remember where I got them from and will probably just go to Amazon to put up a review if I feel strongly one way or the other about the books. Some of that might be happening with your reviews.

I agee with the Child Abuse thing, it's just something people tend to avoid. You see enough of it on TV these days, most people don't want to read fiction about it as well. However, Amazon does have a wide ranging and huge reader base so you'll get you best sales there. Smashwords tends to be more male oriented, so topics that may interest women more will probably be less popular there. That's not to say that you can't be successfull there, there are many successful female authors there, but keep in mind that it's a more male dominated site than most. Or so it seems to me anyway.

[ApK]

I think Amazon's web site is an amazing marketing tool. Between it's search and recommendation features, folks are likely to stumble on a book there without much additional promotion needed.
Also, Amazon has a HUGE audience compared to Smashwords, or even most of the places in their premium distribution chain.
You will probably have to do a bit more promotion and marketing work to get your book noticed elsewhere, even someplace as mainstream as B&N.

My own short non-fiction work sells about 1 copy per day at Amazon, after having been there for just about a year. I've had no sales through the Smashwords system, save for coupons I've sent out, but it's only been there for a few weeks, and I've done nothing to promote it other than mention it in the self-promotion thread here on MR.

[GraceKrispy]

Originally Posted by bashfulbanshee

Thanks! It's cool that Mark Coker is very responsive. Power to Elfwreck \m/

I've emailed him twice (Mark, not Elfwreck) about two different questions, and never received a response either time. Everywhere else I hear how responsive he is. He must just not like me, eh? Too bad, since I actually promote Smashwords even more than I do the other sites.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Assassin

Mark Coker at Smashwords recently posted on his Site Updates that the search engine is going to get an upgrade. He is aware of the dissatisfaction of users. I had sent him a "wishlist" that ELFWRECK had posted here on another thread and he is responding.
So if you have other complaints or suggestions, let him know because he is responsive.

Is he aware of how bad his meatgrinder is and how it effects the way ePub looks sometimes and how it just really doesn't work? That's why I don't shop at Smashwords. I don't like the meatgrinder. In fact, when I have to make edits to an ePub from Smashwords, it takes a lot longer then it sude because the code is very poor.

Tell mark Coker to make ePub the format to be uploaded and convert from there. That would give a better reading satisfaction and I for one would shop there more often.

I think we should all send Mark a message telling his this so the eBooks via Smashwords will be that much nicer.

[Frida Fantastic]

It would be neat to send an email to Mark Coker, sent via a group of people from mobileread. It could list some of our top suggestions and questions, and it might get more attention if it has 20+ people who signed the email or something. We are heavy Smashwords users, and mobileread is a big message board in the indie book scene. Just throwing the idea out there. Maybe Grace Krispy's questions would finally get answered =)

[JSWolf]

That would be a great idea to draft one email and have it signed by a good many of us. I only want Smashwords to get better and by using ePub as the source instead of Word, it would work that much better. Heck, they use Calibre to convert and Calibre works better using an ePub source then a Word source.

[chrisanthropic]

While I appreciate the idea of the meatgrinder, it would be nice to include an option where you can choose to use it to produce any of the provided formats or "opt-out" and upload a format directly.

I have epub, mobi, pdf, and plaintext copies of my wife's books that I put a lot of time into formatting and for the life of me I'm never able to get good quality results for more than 1 or 2 formats when I use the meatgrinder so I'd love the option to upload the ones I already have an then let the meatgrinder produce the others.

[G J Lau]

Originally Posted by DrDln

I have a general comment on ebooks and reviews. Let me ask. Why there is no interest in nonfiction? People don't like the real world...LOL. I do understand escape in fiction. Just wonder.

I have published both fiction and non-fiction on Smashwords and on Amazon, which does have a very slick marketing structure. The non-fiction e-book--SitRep Negative--has generated many more sales on Amazon than the novel.

SitRep is about my year in Vietnam. The Magpie's Secret is listed under mystery/thriller. One is easily found by anyone interested in the topic of the Vietnam War; the other is a tear drop in the ocean.

Smashwords is a useful place to begin, and Mark Coker's guidelines on preparing a document for e-book publications are valuable for newbies. I haven't sold a lot of books there unless I list them for free.

Part of the reason for that is the outdated classification system. Once you fall off the first few page views, a book can be mighty hard to find. Mr. Coker has vowed to work on this.

Personally, I have found Mr. Coker to be very responsive, and he is constantly working to make Smashwords better. Can't ask for much more than that from a free service.

[JSWolf]

You can ask for the ability to upload formats you've created yourself so you know how the quality is. I don't really purchase from Smashwords because I so dislike the meatgrinder.

[alehel]

Abigail Lawrence: As someone doing a bachelor in child protection in Norway I would be very interested in reading your book. I've got exams in just over a week so I'm already buried in books, but I'll purchase a copy once the holiday starts and write a review on smashwords for you.

Incidentally, is it possible to review a book on smashword even if I haven't purchased it? I use a kindle, so I'll be buying from the kindle store, but if I can put in a review on smashwords I'll do so.