Is Smashwords the answer?

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by Annie Seixas

It takes for flippin' ever to get on their Premium Catalog though!

Yes!!! Really Smash is positioned in a place where it could really take over and completely dominate the ebook indy market. All they need to do is whip their customer service in to shape, and build a more reasonable storefront.

[altworld]

Originally Posted by Annie Seixas

It takes for flippin' ever to get on their Premium Catalog though!

Two or three weeks, but once you are in in about a week you are out on there hub and any changes from that point to your eBook pushes you to the front. I think they are usually one or two steps behind their growth, which I think has surprised Mark.

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by altworld

Two or three weeks, but once you are in in about a week you are out on there hub and any changes from that point to your eBook pushes you to the front. I think they are usually one or two steps behind their growth, which I think has surprised Mark.

I have seen it take TWO MONTHS. Plus once you are in the catalog, then it can take many weeks (yes, talking first hand experience) before you get form there to all the other stores.

I like them, but they are very slow on EVERYTHING they do there. So long as you willing to wait around on them they are great to work with .

[altworld]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

I have seen it take TWO MONTHS. Plus once you are in the catalog, then it can take many weeks (yes, talking first hand experience) before you get form there to all the other stores.

I like them, but they are very slow on EVERYTHING they do there. So long as you willing to wait around on them they are great to work with .

Never had two months and the longest wait I had was four weeks. Sometimes contacting Mark directly will move things along, once its on the hub its down to the vendor time for listing, which is pretty fast except of Kobo, who seem to be slow on everything.

I think they are stunted not by growth, but by the explosive growth and the need to sensibly react to it in the long term. You can easily add staff fast, but all growth at this level is unsustainable, so long term planning is needed. They are planning to be here for the long term

[Annie Seixas]

But let's not forget: it's free

[WendyUnsworth]

Originally Posted by davidwfleming

Is Smashwords the answer. That's a very philosphically deep question. What answer are we talking about? I suspect the question is: how to achieve self-publishing success.

And I further suspect the answer is to 1.) write good stuff that people want to read. 2.) publish it everywhere you can in a professional manner. 3.) steadily build your "reputation cloud" in as many online venues as you can.

Thanks - that was the question and that is very sound advice! I am working on finding my way around these sites and familiarising myself with the options. Thanks again

[WendyUnsworth]

Originally Posted by teh603

Ain't that scary after the first time. I actually have more issues with BookieJar, because it generates a warning if you don't have any way to set up a table of contents. The Smashwords style guide works pretty well for both sites, although my simplistic formatting might have something to do with it.

Thanks - I will look up 'Bookiejar' too!

[WendyUnsworth]

I just wanted to thank everyone for the info I have gathered from this thread. It seems to have caused some debate amongst you more knowledgeable people and I am grateful for you all taking the time!
Looking forward to helping others when I have a little more to add to the various discussions!

Thanks again, all!

[heySkippy]

Originally Posted by heySkippy

Don't know about their customer service. I've been waiting an answer from them for a week now but have received nothing but silence.

FWIW, got an answer from them yesterday. A little over 2 weeks, but to their credit I did get a reply that answered my question.

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by heySkippy

FWIW, got an answer from them yesterday. A little over 2 weeks, but to their credit I did get a reply that answered my question.

That is exactly my experience.. they do handle all issues, it just takes a LONG time.

[heySkippy]

And to answer the question this thread asks as it regards my own needs, no, Smashwords is not the answer. Not yet, at least.

I had written asking if they support .ibooks submissions and they replied that they do not, but they are looking into it.

[Dave00pi]

I agree with Vydor, I have a love hate relationship with them- No big sales through smashwords for my book, but my FREE short story gets a lot of readers. Only issue, is that several people have told me they were unable to leave a review due to site glitches after it was down for two days in the middle of my promotion.. (that stopped me dead in my tracks) Any changes to your book's price or description in the premium catalog takes weeks upon weeks to funnel to the affiliates. In my opinion, the site has a cheap look that needs to be upgraded with better navigation and should just have an adult section as it seems that free erotica takes over every category. I am rooting for them to succeed and will continue to use them and see what happens next.

[JSWolf]

The ePub eBooks that come from Smashwords have very poor coding under the hood.

[Marj]

You do know there is a big row going on now because they're delisting some erotica books on orders from Paypal, don't you? For some, if it was the answer before, it may not be now.
I don't write erotica, so that does not affect me. And except for not knowing why my books (those books under a pen-name) didn't go to Amazon, I've been happy with them. I now know, thanks to a previous post.

[VydorScope]

Marj... you know that was forced on them right?