"Smashwords Edition" not required at Smashwords anymore

[VydorScope]

Updated news from Mark Coker:

Some of you asked and we listened.

As of a few weeks ago, the phrases:

Smashwords Edition
or
Published by {Author or Publisher Name} at Smashwords
or
Distributed by Smashwords

... are completely optional at Smashwords. They're no longer necessary to prevent the AutoVetter "Copyright Error" at Smashwords.

Yesterday we updated the Smashwords Style Guide and other on-site resources to clarify that the phrases above are recommended but NOT REQUIRED for Smashwords Premium Catalog distribution.

Why did we make the change?

We realize that for a small subset of the indie community, such phrases were objectionable. Some authors didn't want any distributor's name in their book. Some didn't want their book to appear as "self published." Some wanted to upload the same files to Smashwords that they uploaded to other platforms, and didn't want to go to the extra work, time and expense of creating custom Smashwords files. If these reasons are valid reasons for any author or publisher we aim to serve, they're valid to us.

Internally at Smashwords, we've always considered these phrases as strongly recommended but not required. However, our AutoVetter system which checks for formatting errors has always flagged for the absence of one of the phrases above. For authors who contacted us and for whatever reason objected to including such a phrase, we distributed them. But we realize we were inconveniencing these authors by requiring them to ask for a pass. We were causing unnecessary friction for them, and this friction was delaying the distribution of their book. I founded Smashwords to enable authors, not to gatekeep authors. So we modified our processes.

A few weeks ago, we disabled AutoVetter's system that checked for the phrases above. This allows more books to pass through our Premium Catalog approval process faster and with less friction.

We still recommend authors include at least one of these phrases because we've always believed it's in the author's best interest to do so (more at Smashwords Site Updates on why - https://www.smashwords.com/about/beta). But in the end, we consider you the publisher, and we want to give you the freedom and control to decide what you want. Therefore, to clarify, the inclusion of one of the phrases above is recommended but not required. Your choice.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for distributing with Smashwords!

mark

[gmw]

That is good news, and highly relevant to what I was saying to Saoir just recently.

As I told Smashwords with each of my epub uploads: if I was uploading a Word document and letting their meatgrinder produce the epub then I would be happy to have it called the "Smashwords Edition" - since it is an epub that they produce. But when I'm uploading my own epub it seems silly to call it their edition - they've had nothing to do with it. (It works both ways: why would they want their name associated with something they didn't control beyond automatic vetting, and why would I want to flag my epub being the same that produced by the meatgrinder?)

Just two more things on my list of what I want from Smashwords:

1) A preview generated from the epub. Should be easy, I can't see why they haven't done it already.

2) A Kindle version generated from the epub. Okay, so this one may be harder because they can't use existing tools, although I can't see it as being any more difficult than converting Word to Kindle.

[VydorScope]

I never cared about the "Smashwords edition" line, other than I had to make a special EPUB just for them. It was a very minor inconvenience to me that is now gone. I use the EXACT SAME EPUB everywhere now. Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, and so on. The only holdout was "smashwords edition."

So while I did not care nearly as much as the most vocal people, it is nice not to have that one last hold out anymore.

[ApK]

1. I thought AutoVetter was the guy from Pearl Jam.

2. It makes sense to have a Smashwords indicator on a file produced by their meatgrinder, for the reasons they give, but I think I'd prefer if they just gave the option to submit an epub NOT produced by their meatgrinder (just vetted) and then if you do choose to use the meatgrinder, why not have the option for it to insert the Smashwords Edition line automatically, in some minimally configurable way. No extra work that way, unless you choose to do it yourself.