Ebook Expansion – Welcome to Smashwords!
For the past year or more I’ve been advised via different writer blogs and webinars not to limit my ebooks to Amazon Kindle. Amazon is the leader in the ebook market, but not the only player. As I was learning my way, fumbling though the ropes of indie publishing and struggling with formatting, Amazon Kindle was fine for me.
I enrolled my fiction in Kindle Select thereby promising not to publish on any other site. The reward for this was being able to run Kindle promotions and earn higher royalties. Now that I am more confident and comfortable with the epublishing process, I’ve decided to branch out.
After Amazon, Smashwords is the next biggest player in ebooks. Not only do they publish your ebooks, they distribute them on different networks, taking your word document and formatting it for these publishers. This means my ebooks can be sold through smaller publishers, maybe reaching a new audience.
The process for putting my ebooks on Smashwords was relatively simple. If I can do it, anyone can! While I was not able to use my kindle files, the changes required were fairly easy and now that I’m familiar with their requirements I can format my books for kindle in a way that also meets Smashwords’ requirements – hurray!
I have started with my non-fiction. I now have Who Me? Full of Grace? and Walking with Families through the Dying Process, available for sale through Smashwords and their network, and From I Do to We Do, available for pre-sale.
My novels are still in KDP Select, meaning I can’t distribute them outside of Amazon Kindle until their enrollment period ends and I take them out of the program. Depending on how many sales I get through Smashwords, I may publish my fiction with Smashwords as well.
It has taken me a while to get to this point. I look at other indie authors who published their ebooks on different platforms from the start and wonder at their ability to move so fast. I have learned something about myself through this process – how slow and methodical I am when it comes to trying out anything new, whether the latest computer program, phone or music player. (I still have a flip phone and listen to music on cds not ipods.) I take my time and wait until I’m ready.
Perhaps my next step will be to go from a wordpress.com website to wordpress.org. I’ve only been attending wordpress meetups for over two years!
Wish me luck as this publishing venture continues to unfold. I’ll let you know how it goes.
What about you? Do your readily embrace new technology, jumping in with both feet, or stand on the sidelines watching until you are ready? Are there other epublishers I should be exploring? What about Ingram Sparks for my print on demand books?
I’d love your input!
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