Do You Buy Ebooks from Smashwords?

[ATDrake]

I'll pick up any freebies I spot MR member authors posting, but given the issues with self-pub pointed out by others upthread, I currently only actually pay for:

a) rights-reverted backlist works by established authors who are familiar to me from previous reading, who've just happened to put their work up on Smashwords (Diane Duane, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, the BookViewCafé stable, etc.), or

b) new works from established-and-tried print authors whose small-press publishing house is experimenting with ebook releases (Brian Stableford, Storm Constantine, Sharyn McCrumb, Mercedes Lackey etc.)

If and when I finally get around to reading any of the self-pub freebies I've picked up, if it's an entertaining work of reasonable quality which is free of the sorts of errors mentioned above and I'm interested, I'll willingly pay for further work provided it seems like it's at the right sort of price for what I expect to get.

But otherwise, I just don't buy unknown self-pub stuff, which makes up the vast majority of Smashwords, so I guess my answer to the topic question is: Very occasionally, under certain circumstances, with particular riders attached.

Oh, and my fiction genres are sf/fantasy/speculative, with regular dips into historical, mysteries (sleuth preferred over thriller), and literary; combinations welcome. Though I'll try anything if it looks reasonably interesting and I can get an initial read free.

[Kevin2960]

Smashwords is my number one place for eBooks,

I understand HarryT completely, but I just read the words, whether badly edited or not,

Truth is I'm too stupid to know much about Punctuation, Grammar, or poor editing, but I enjoy a story, regardless of any of the above,

Of course well edited texts will read easier, but it's the content of the story that matters to me, not the clothing it wears!

So yes I buy from Smashwords, and I've never been disappointed,

That said, can I make it clear that I believe the people who prepare books for our ever expanding MR library do a magnificent job, especially HarryT

[CWatkinsNash]

I haven't purchased anything there yet, but I have gotten some freebies. But then, I've only just gotten my Kindle and I'm new to all of this, so I'm still in that "amass all the freebies I can" mode. Once the "new Kindle smell" wears off and I start looking for quality ebooks to purchase, I'll be buying from there, I'm certain, but it will be with the help of reviews and samples. The quality there is too inconsistent to take a chance on too many impulse buys.

As for genres, eh, I read a little of everything.

CW

[HealyHQ]

I like SmashWords, and have read a few books from there. The best thing about SmashWords is that pretty much anybody who wants to can publish their books there. Unfortunately, the worst thing about SmashWords is that anybody who wants to can publish their books there.

I tend to look for authors who offer both free and priced books. This way, I can sample their work before making a commitment to purchase something else from them. It has definitely helped in weeding out a lot of the "bad eggs" out of a bunch and allowing the golden ones to shine more brightly.

The way I see it, SmashWords is a lot like the iTunes "App Store," in that any indie can create something and sell it there. This sadly means that there will undoubtedly be far more "rotten apples" than "golden delicious" types of content.

On the bright side, since by their very definition, "indies" are not held back by publishers who have their own agenda and shareholders to pay, which allows indies to experiment in ways most other developers don't have the luxury of doing. This creates some very unique and interesting content. It is, however, buried deep under the slush of 'crapps', making it hard to discern if one is making a good purchase or not.

The same can be said of SmashWords. It's an indie's paradise. But because of its open nature, one must work harder to stand out from the rest of the crowd.

[JLeighs]

I only buy from Smashwords now if there are really good reviews, or if I've read and enjoyed other works by the same author. This is because some of the books I've purchased (or downloaded for free) from them were unspeakably bad. So, I'm not as willing to take a chance anymore on something just because the excerpt sounds interesting. I did, however, find a gem of a series there. The Sentence of Marriage series was surprisingly good, I thought. The first book was free, and I enjoyed it so much that I was more than willing to purchase the other books.

[wvcherrybomb]

I've only downloaded a couple of freebies that I found out about here on MR. I haven't read any of them yet so I'm not sure if I'll ever buy anything there or not. I never heard of Smashwords before I joined MR.

[GoblinWriter]

Thanks for the responses everyone! Interesting to hear the why and why nots. Naturally, as an affiliate, I'd only pick the well-edited, entertaining ebooks to promote.

Actually, I had asked them about this. Underneath the title and info on the book page it says "add to library." Then if you go to "library" it'll be there. It functions as a wish list.

Thanks for sharing that tidbit. I didn't know about the "wish list" ability!

[GraceKrispy]

If I want to buy a book, I always look to smashwords first. I like the ease of downloading to multiple devices and the lack of drm. I don't usually surf on smashwords to find books- I've come up with some junk that way. I look for reviews from people I trust (sometimes I check out the amazon reviews and wade through the fake reviews to find ones I think are truthful) or self promotions here.

[Shayne Parkinson]

I think Smashwords is slowly becoming better known; I seem to be coming across references to them more often.

My own sales have been increasing there month-by-month. And I notice that about 20% of those sales are via the affiliate programme - I'm more than happy to share a little with those people who do me the favour of listing my books!

From remarks Mark Coker has made, I believe that he feels other retailers like Barnes & Noble (and Amazon when it happens...) will have an increasingly large share of the Smashwords sales, though they do intend to go on providing their own shopfront.

Originally Posted by JLeighs

... I did, however, find a gem of a series there. The Sentence of Marriage series was surprisingly good, I thought. The first book was free, and I enjoyed it so much that I was more than willing to purchase the other books.

Thank you! That's wonderful to hear.

[yakuzaboss]

i purchase books from Smashwords quite regularily.

[asjogren]

I have bought *more* eBooks from SmashWords than any other source.

[John Carroll]

I will say that Smashwords is only 2 years old. I think it's going to improve and become more well known as time goes by.

As far as the quality of books goes, that's a serious problem. In time, I think people will start to develop websites that tell readers "Good books/bad books from Smashwords and other indie authors". MR members do quite a bit of it now I think.

[egtalbot]

I buy books there for sure. But I end up buying most books from kindle store because I buy mostly indie authors and it's better for their rankings to have sales at kindle or B&N.

As for quality of titles, no question, Smashwords has attracted some garbage. I suspect Amazon has almost as many bad books, but you don't see them because Amazon's lists wind up filtering most of it. Smashwords I don't think has enough direct sales yet for that to be effective. At this point, I imagine Mark's biggest focus is on forming the distribution agreements and getting his setup process tuned towards that end. certainly there are many ways the reader experience on Smashwords itself could be improved.

[MrPLD]

We've picked up a couple from Smashwords but the quality was ... erratic. Amazon-Kindle purchases have proved to be a lot more consistent thankfully.

[Marcy]

I have not been impressed with 90% of what I've bought on Smashwords. Besides usually being poorly formatted, the editing is at best crap and more commonly non-existent.

The only exception are midlist authors who self-publish their backlist when title reverts back to them. But these books were all previously published in pbook form so were also previously edited. I am grateful to Smashwords for making these available, because they otherwise would only be available at Amazon in mobi format.

-Marcy