Paul Biba at TeleRead just uncovered an agreement between Smashwords and Barnes & Noble. He’s got good coverage so I’m just going to focus on what it means to Indie authors.
Let’s Count the ways Indie Authors benefit
- They get access to Barnes & Noble.
- They get access to owners of all the eReaders that are tying up with B&N i.e. Plastic Logic and iRex.
- SmashWords offers 85% of net proceeds. Even if B&N takes 30-40% that would still work out to more than the Kindle Store offers.
- Speaking of Kindle Store, competition might get them to offer better terms.
Its one more channel – Indie authors have gotten great sales, and even book contracts based on Kindle Store success. More channels means more opportunities.
Hopefully at some point of time it means indie authors can afford to stay indie and still make big money.
Paul Biba is glad for Smashwords, and we should be too
Smashwords were #2 on my list after Authonomy for cool sites you must check out. Mostly due to their founder/CEO’s interview.
There are three more reasons SmashWords is an exciting company -
Its Based on Solving a Personal Problem
Start-ups that are solutions to personally experienced problems are usually very good. The story (read the interview for the full story) –
Smashwords was inspired by my own unsuccessful multi-year attempt to get my novel published …
We were fortunate to have multiple top tier literary agents compete for our representation …
Confident we had a winner on our hands, our agent again pitched the book to publishers. All of them rejected it.
I found it frustrating that the whims of a publisher could stand between our book and those who would want to read it. I ultimately came to the conclusion that the publishing industry is ill equipped to serve all authors.
It helps eBook Review Sites
- They have an affiliate program so book reviewers have some incentive.
- Authors and Publishers can pump up the commission percentage. If nothing else, it’ll create some rather interesting marketing strategies.
It only does Indie
SmashWords is focused on indie authors and indie publishers.
That means you won’t be competing with Big Name publishers for SmashWords’ attention. It also means that direct visitors to SmashWords and repeat customers will already be inclined to buy indie.
Filed under: publishing Tagged: | independent authors, smashwords
[...] see, also, the Amazon Kindle Review for some more thoughts about this from a Kindle perspective. We trust this is good news for Barnes [...]
you sure bn only takes 30-40%?
I am unhappy with smashwords. I purchased a book today and I can not figure how to download it to my Amazon Kindle. The instructions are not very clear. Gloria Sheftel gloshef@aol.com
Gloria you have to download the Kindle format file and move it to the Documents folder on your Kindle. Then it should show up. If that doesn’t work let me know and I’ll test and send you detailed instructions.