SMASHWORDS

https://www.smashwords.com

Smashwords FAQ for Authors and Publishers

Mark Coker came up with the idea for Smashwords in 2015 after co-writing the novel, Boob Tube, with his wife Lesleyann.  Major publishing houses weren’t interested. They felt there too many other books like it, and those books had sold poorly. In 2018, Smashwords launched with the first ebook publishing platform that allows any writer, anywhere in the world, to self-publish an ebook at no cost. Since authors needed the ability to sell their ebooks, Mark created the ability to sell in what became the Smashwords Store.

In March 2022, the store’s sixth consecutive year of sales growth,  Draft2Digital, Smashwords’ former competitor, acquired Smashwords.  That same day, Smashwords announced  they were moving all the publishing platform tools over to Draft2Digital so that Smashwords could become a store-only. In March 2023, Smashwords stopped accepting new publishing accounts.   Current Smashwords authors and publishers will retain access to their Smashwords Dashboard and tools, but once the migration is done, those aspects will move to D2D.

Mark happily gave up his CEO title and duties to assume the new role as chief strategy officer and board member of the combined companies.  He has two primary responsibilities here:  1.  Long term business planning; preparing Draft2Digital and its authors for long term success.  2.  Overseeing the Smashwords Store; working to make this the most reader-friendly and author-friendly online ebookstore. 

Smashwords has become an ebook store and Draft2Digital has become an ebook publisher and distributor

DRAFT2DIGITAL

https://draft2digital.com/

D2D is Self-Publishing with Support

Your book is your priority. D2D’s priority is you. They build tools and services that let you focus on writing while they take care of layout, publishing, distribution, print-on-demand paperbacks, and more.

All accounts must complete tax verification before publication is allowed. They ask for tax information at  the time of account creation. You must submit a tax form, even if you intend to list your book(s) for free. Completing the tax interview is quick and easy. You can find the tax interview directly through their secure platform by clicking this link: Take the Tax Interview.

Draft2Digital has no up-front charges for any of their services (formatting, conversion, distribution, and sales tracking). They make a percentage of each of your books’ sales, so they don’t get paid unless you get paid.

That fee is approximately 10% of the price you set for your book (list price). That means most stores take about 30%, Draft2Digital takes about 10%, and you keep about 60% of the list price of your ebook.

For print books, you will make about 45% of the list price of your print book, minus the base printing cost. Each store has their own specific policies and taxes are specific to your location.You are informed fully on the page where you set your price. Draft2Digital shows estimated royalties on a store-by-store basis based on your list price. If you change your list price, these estimated royalties will live update to show you a best estimate of your take-home cut for each sale you might make at each specific store.

It is free to make an account with Draft2Digital. All you need to sign up is a name and an email address that you can check regularly. We will keep the name on your account separate from any Pen Names. There is no upfront cost to using Draft2Digital.

Draft2Digital offers ebook and print book publishing services. If you have a complete story or manuscript, D2D can convert your work into an electronic book (ebook) or print on demand (POD) paperback book.

As a self-published author, you are the publisher of your own books and you retain the intellectual property rights of your story. You control when and where Draft2Digital sends your book.

Even if you choose not to publish withD2D,  Draft2Digital gives you the option of downloading the files they converted for you at no charge. You can create, convert, and download a pixel-perfect paperback PDF or ebook EPUB file without having to publish through D2D.

The most popular file format that authors upload is a Word document. Upload your book in .doc or .docx file format, and we’ll convert your manuscript into an ebook or print book. Anything Word can read, they can read. (RTF, OTF, TXT, too!)

If you already have an epub of your own, Draft2Digital accepts epub files for ebook, but not print. We won’t make any changes to your epub formatting, but we’ll gladly distribute it to all our digital stores for you.

Draft2Digital does not accept thumb drives or other physical media.

For security and logistical reasons, D2D is unable to accept documents or files submitted via thumb drives, CDs, or any other physical storage media. Submit your digital manuscripts and related materials through their designated digital upload system as a word doc, docx, odt, rtf, or epub file format. They cannot process or resell physical, printed copies of books or other materials. They cannot scan or transcribe physical printed books into word document form for you. Draft2Digital does not accept Handwritten Manuscripts.

Their goal is to support your writing without you having to worry about formatting. As such, they accept a variety of document formatting styles and don’t have any single style guide.

If you’d like some direction on creating a simple style that will convert beautifully every time, do these two things:

• Skip the title page, copyright page, dedication, also by, about the author, teaser, and any biographical pages. You only have to upload your story. Let us help you add the technical stuff later.
  

• Mark each new chapter or scene break with something distinctive, and be consistent. Make new chapter titles centered and bold, or larger font, or use a heading style. The most important part is to do the same thing to each chapter title or scene break so that our system can learn your style.

• Draft2Digital helps you publish books to:
• Amazon
  

• Apple Books
  

• Barnes & Noble
  

• Kobo (including Kobo Plus)
  

• Smashwords Store
  

• Tolino
  

• OverDrive
  

• cloudLibrary
  

• Everand
  

• Baker & Taylor
  

• Hoopla
  

• Vivlio
  

• BorrowBox
  

• Odilo
  

• Palace Marketplace
  

• Gardners

When you publish an ebook through D2D, you control which stores you want to distribute to—choosing who to sell with is as easy as clicking a checkbox. Print books published through D2D Print are made available to Amazon and to all distribution channels served by Ingram, including Barnes and Noble and most independent bookstores in the US. It will also be available for physical (“brick-and-mortar”) stores to order. If you currently sell a print book with Amazon KDP Print Expanded Distribution or Ingram Spark, we do not recommend you list with D2D Print. If you currently list your books with KDP Print without Expanded Distribution (Expanded Distribution disabled), D2D Print will be a good fit to help expand your reach.

NOTE: Your books will not be automatically ordered and placed on shelves in physical locations. You may want to contact individual bookstores or libraries to ask that your book be included in their inventory, at the discretion of store management. For more information, check the Draft2Digital website. The June special sale is going on. Take a look. Maybe you’ll find a book you’d like to read.

The above information has been taken from the Smashwords website and the Draft2Digital website.