- Are you looking for another way
to distribute your publications outside
of Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing platform?
Would you like to know the self-publishing platform
with the widest reach outside of the Amazon marketplace?
Then you'll want to check out Smashwords, one of the few
notable aggregate self-publishing platforms today.
But is publishing on Smashwords worth it,
and can you actually make money
publishing books on Smashwords?
Today, I'm gonna cover the pros and cons
of this self-publishing distribution platform
in my Smashwords review.
Stay tuned.
Welcome to Self-Publishing with Dale,
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Have you published any content on sites
outside of the online retail giant Amazon?
If so, I'd love to hear about your experience,
so drop your thoughts in the comments.
Smashwords is one of the most well-known
aggregate publishing distribution platforms today.
Smashwords distributes to
Apple iBook in 51 countries, Barnes & Noble U.S. and U.K.,
Scribd, Kobo, Blio, Inktera.
Library distribution channels that reach
hundreds of thousands of locations,
including Overdrive, Baker & Taylor Axis 360,
Tolino, Gardner, Bibliotheca Cloudlibrary, and Odilo.
Pound for pound, Smashwords has the farthest reach
of all Kindle publishing alternatives today.
But with all that flash, does it pull in some cash?
We'll get to that in a minute.
What about cost, royalty structure,
and payouts on Smashwords?
Much like most all-self-publishing platforms,
you can open an account and upload books for free.
In fact, they have two different account types,
one for a single author and one for a publisher.
The latter option is for anyone who produces
many different authors or books with pen names.
It's a bit confusing at first, but once
you read through their very deep FAQ section,
you'll get at least an understanding of what to do.
The royalty structure is fairly competitive
and fluctuates according to where your book is sold.
For instance, you'll get a higher percentage from sales
in the Smashwords store at 85%, whereas premium
distribution channels like Apple iBooks pays about 60%,
and library distribution pays between 45 and 70%.
If I haven't mentioned it already,
Smashwords has a lot of information on their site.
And it can make it difficult
and overwhelming to handle at first.
The payouts more recently changed from a quarterly
paycheck to a more reasonable monthly payout.
You'll receive your earnings within 30 to 40 days
after the close of the month.
Keep in mind, sales outside of the Smashwords site
can take from 30 to 60 days to update in your dashboard.
So be prepared to play the long game here.
To get your payday, you must clear $75 in earnings
in a month for a paycheck or one cent
for electronic payment through PayPal.
Anyone outside the U.S. must use PayPal or accrue $500
in earnings for them to wire it through Payoneer.
Here are the pros of Smashwords.
The amount of distribution.
It's ridiculous how many avenues they have.
In fact, if you don't believe me, go to their FAQ section
and try to make sense of all they have.
It's impossible.
Special deals, features, and new-release spotlight.
In a recent Week in Review, I discussed
their new special deals feature
that highlights any on-sale publications.
(spring springing)
But what I haven't discussed before
is they list new publications
right on their home page in order of listing.
Unlike Amazon, Smashwords doesn't care
whether you price your book free or $20.
Your royalty's going to be the same
regardless of your pricing.
This makes me feel more in control of my books.
The cons of Smashwords include
their strict interior guidelines.
The toughest part of Smashwords
is gaining premium distribution.
You must meet their exact interior guidelines,
yet they aren't entirely up front in how you do it.
When searching for information on how to format
the interior, you're treated to wall after wall of text.
This is frustrating and way too time consuming.
They need a simple five-minute tutorial
on how to format your interior to make premium distribution.
Of course, stick around on this channel.
I'll be giving you just that here in the coming days.
(spring springing)
An unmanageable dashboard.
Hopefully you're starting to see a pattern here.
Too much of a good thing is definitely bad.
Where they offer you as much as you may need,
Smashwords needs to pull back on the overload of features.
I find it incredibly hard to track down sales
to figure out where I can shut off
certain distribution channels or even make
a simple tweak to an existing publication.
Too much information.
Someone at Smashwords needs to break up
content into bite-size chunks
and then organize them into separate pages.
The FAQ section is a mess.
You are treated to a never-ending wall of text
on every page, where you just want one simple answer.
Despite the latter issues, once you get past
the steep learning curve of Smashwords,
then you can really start pulling in the money.
What do you think about Smashwords?
Do they live up to their motto
of "your ebook your way"?
And hey, if you enjoyed today's content,
then share it with at least one other person
who's into DIY publishing too.
Till later, this has been Self-Publishing with Dale,
and I'll see you guys soon.