SMASHWORDS - anybody buy their books, there?

[Jorja Tabu]

you know, what really fries my eggs is the fact that while we can buy kindles in Canada, we can't access the Kindle Store through Amazon.ca!!

What is up with that?

I'm sorry you're frustrated, and I don't have a good solution...But that is just the cutest expression I've ever read 

[sandrasstories]

I've also published on smashwords and amazon.com (kindle), even though I'm from Canada. I don't notice anyone buying anything from smashwords. My book has tons of sample downloads, but I think the reason no one wants to buy is because you have to sign up to use smashwords. Unlike amazon's "guest checkout", smashwords requires you to create an account, and not many people like to do that. I don't, anyway.

Also, I wish amazon.ca supported kindle as well. It's also hard to market your book to a limited number of people (those who have kindles).

[jwest]

you know, what really fries my eggs is the fact that while we can buy kindles in Canada, we can't access the Kindle Store through Amazon.ca!!

What is up with that?

That's crazy! I'm in the US, but I can imagine how frustrating that would be.

And on a side note, really fries my eggs is my new favorite quote! That is great

[mitch]

Which is better for authors - Smashwords or Kindle? Both have confusing reporting formats that could do with improvement as they are fit only for those who can manipulate excel and has some accountancy skills. With the opening of Kindle's new markets, I found my sales scattered over the sites and some not hitting the £$etc100 barrier. Smashwords sub out to retailers such as Sony and B&N and the cross-accounting becomes slow and cumbersome and the reports unweildy. The net result is that low volume authors will see small amounts of royalty sitting for hundreds of days in company accounts.

I would have thought any company which didn't want to hold on to cash assets would be able to funnel foreign currency sales into a author-distribution account after currency conversion. Smahwords also has a problem where people post essays and claim that they're books - they're not, they're essays. I average 250k in my novels yet they sist alongside semi-lieterate 7000 word ramblings. I'm not saying my books are readable but any thing of substance is buries in the slush-pile. I tried offering one book for free and had 3000+ downleaded in a week and only 68 when on offer the week before. Go figure.

The formatter in Smashwords - affectionately known as the 'meatgrinder' - can thriw up some formatting kinks as it's trying to produce multiple formats but it does get you books out to a wider audience. If Smashwords get their formatting, programming and royalty systems upgraded, they could easily surpass Kindle in it's current format. The Lending Library schmeme where Amazon want authors to restrict themselves to Kindle is an example of how worried they are. At the moment - they're neck and neck IMHO. Good sales to you all. Mitch 

[MrPLD]

Amazon has one trump card over SW... painless delivery.  You click, it arrives,  no side loading, no format incompatibilities, no lifeless meat-grinded layouts.  All the support calls we fielded when we were selling our eBooks directly were to do with complications of getting the book onto their reader, even with "detailed instructions".

[Neil Ostroff]

I sell far more books on Amazon than Smashwords. Though I have sold a few dozen copies through them.

[Ms T]

I've stopped using, and purchasing from, Smashwords. Their published works do not use DRM (Digital Rights Management). Not providing this allows individuals to copy works and republish them. They've had some problems with copyright infringement because of this. Obviously this is not a problem for the reader. However, during the course of the last year, I've ended up doing everything exclusive with Amazon.

Amazon has had its own share of copyright issues. There is an interesting article/podcast titled "On Amazon, An Uneasy Mix Of Plagiarism And Erotica."

Dishonest people will be dishonest no matter what the outlet.

[TLH]

For me, it's Amazon. It just seems like everytime I'm on Smashwords, it moves at a snails rate. It takes forever for the pages to load. it's really not conducive to browsing.

[Ann in Arlington]

The very few books I've gotten from Smashwords were sub par.  Either there were formatting issues, the title/author metadata were messed up (random weird characters in the title, etc.), or the books just weren't very good.  Or all of the above.   So I don't bother any more.  There are more than enough on Amazon for me, and if I get one that is poorly formatted, I can return it very easily.

[Ms T]

Ann, do you mind if I ask what format the books you purchased were in? I ask because I've heard that some formats seem to be much more finicky than others. I've not purchased a book from Smashwords where the formatting was horribly off so I wonder if it's because of the file format I have chosen.

[Ann in Arlington]

Ann, do you mind if I ask what format the books you purchased were in? I ask because I've heard that some formats seem to be much more finicky than others. I've not purchased a book from Smashwords where the formatting was horribly off so I wonder if it's because of the file format I have chosen.

No idea. It was at least 3 years ago.  It was either .mobi or .prc because those are the ones that work with Kindle.  (O.K., not much of an idea. )

I haven't looked at Smashwords lately to see what format they generally use for kindle compatibility. . . . . .

[Ms T]

No idea. It was at least 3 years ago.  It was either .mobi or .prc because those are the ones that work with Kindle.  (O.K., not much of an idea. )

I haven't looked at Smashwords lately to see what format they generally use for kindle compatibility. . . . . .

Thanks for the speedy reply! I'm sure it's still .mobi although I know that they have improved their "meatgrinder" for file conversions and released a comprehensive guide for authors to use when formatting their books. Have a groovy day!

[Nancy Beck]

I use SW all the time, because I prefer to pay with Paypal.

And the only time I had a problem with uploading was the first time, but since I starting using the Nuclear Option (which clears out any weird formatting), I haven't had any further problems. 

[churlishfellow]

I gotta agree that, as both a buyer and a self-publisher, Smashwords can sometimes be spotty.  There are times when the site is just unavailable.  But, I do find it to be easy to navigate through and I can quickly grab some cheap or free reads to check out other self-published works.