Smashwords teams up with Barnes & Noble to give indie authors a boost
This news has been floating around the internet for a couple days now, so it’s probably old news. But I thought it’s worth it for me to comment on because it involves ebooks, indie authors and the large corporation Barnes and Noble. Strange bedfellows? Possibly. Though not in a bad way.
Smashwords is teaming up with B&N so that books written by authors on Smashwords will see their work distributed via B&N’s ebook distribution network. Basically, this allows for indie authors to get their work in front of more potential readers and will probably provide some stiff competition to Amazon. Here’s the press release from Smashwords:
Late on Friday, the digital self-publishing company Smashwords announced a new distribution agreement with Barnes & Noble, as the bookselling giant agreed to sell e-book titles produced by the online digital book publisher.
Smashwords helps publishers and authors create, market, and sell e-books online, giving back all authors 85 percent the net proceeds from book sales. The company’s current collection contains 2,600 titles, and Smashword titles should be listed on the Barnes & Noble site in the next thirty days.
Smashword’s distribution model also includes this new “premium feed” feature, aimed at widening distribution channels for their authors: “This new catalog is distributed to major online retailers and other distribution outlets that have higher mechanical standards such as requiring quality book cover images, books with copyright pages, and other requirements outlined below.”
My only fear is that B&N will eat up and acquire Smashwords, like they did with online ebook retailer Fictionwise. It would be nice to have at least a few independent ebook companies around that aren’t part of a larger corporation. However, my fears are baseless right now.
The one thing I really like about Smashwords is that their services are basically free. Once you’ve written and edited a quality ebook, you upload it into their system, set your price and sample percentage, and you’re in business. Here’s a quick excerpt from their About page:
At Smashwords, our authors and publishers have complete control over the sampling, pricing and marketing of their written works. Smashwords is ideal for personal memoirs, novels, short fiction, non-fiction, essays, screenplays, newsletters, poetry, or other written forms that haven’t even been invented yet. It’s free to publish on Smashwords.
Without giving away too much in advance, I’ll say that Smashwords is part of my plans for my own self-publishing endeavors. News like this only sweetens the pot!
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- Why is Barnes & Noble dictating what authors should have on their websites?
- Update: Barnes & Noble requiring authors to link to the B&N website
- What will Barnes & Noble do with Fictionwise?
- Part 2: Why indie authors will break traditional publishers
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