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Post by idiotprogrammer on Nov 12, 2018 11:00:03 GMT -8
If you are an author who has published an ebook on Smashwords, here's a promotional opportunity for you. Starting this month, my literary blog will have a regular column about free and low cost ebook titles on Smashwords. (It will also contain reviews). Here's a complete description of how my literary blog will be helping Smashwords authors. The first article runs on Saturday November 24, and the deadline for submitting your promotions is Thursday November 22 at 11:59 PM. Deadline for the December article is Saturday December 15, 2018 11:59 PM (to be published the day after). Authors, if you want to forwards me info about your promotions, send them to smash @ fastmailbox.net by the deadline above. Content-wise, I have two main requirements about ebooks you can submit. The ebook must be a minimum of 50,000 words (25,000 for poetry books). Mainstream adult titles are ok (sort of, read my rules). Second, the ebook title must have coupon codes so that the title is either FREE or discounted to a price of $1.50 or less. (Here are my submission guidelines). Finally, and totally unrelated, Smashwords founder Mark Coker recently announced major improvements to the Smashwords ebook store. Hopefully this will lead to more direct sales from the SW bookstore. Finally, in case you are wondering, I don't work for Smashwords. I'm just a fan -- and also an indie publisher/author. PS, now that I think about it, when the monthly post runs, I'll not only make an announcement, but link to this forum in the piece.....Although I still encourage people to contact me directly about promotions, I will check this forum a few days before the deadline to see what promotions are mentioned here. Six months ago I did a roundup of Smashwords authors during Read-A-Ebook week in March. Those sales are gone, but the titles are still good. DECEMBER 2018 UPDATE: Here's a Robert's Roundup of Ebook deals on Smashwords (December edition). |
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Post by unclegarf on Nov 14, 2018 4:23:18 GMT -8
An interesting proposal, IP. I jumped ship to D2D some time ago, leaving a few token titles, mostly shorts freebies for old times sake on smash. I have been totally underwhelmed with the vast army of affiliates smash has, never obtaining a single sale or free download through 90% of them, even though several of my titles have been well received on sites like amazon. However, I have a regular readership of my stuff on smash which is nice. Before the smash improvements for smash sales came to my attention, (thanks I P) I intended to put my new book with them before the end of the year as a freebie for a short time as a thank you to that readership, also with the hope of feedback before it goes large. It will be interesting to see if I get a spike from this exercise.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Nov 14, 2018 7:46:23 GMT -8
An interesting proposal, IP. I jumped ship to D2D some time ago, leaving a few token titles, mostly shorts freebies for old times sake on smash. I have been totally underwhelmed with the vast army of affiliates smash has, never obtaining a single sale or free download through 90% of them, even though several of my titles have been well received on sites like amazon. However, I have a regular readership of my stuff on smash which is nice. Before the smash improvements for smash sales came to my attention, (thanks I P) I intended to put my new book with them before the end of the year as a freebie for a short time as a thank you to that readership, also with the hope of feedback before it goes large. It will be interesting to see if I get a spike from this exercise. Gary, does it cause any problems starting out at D2D where they are affiliated with many of the same distributors as Smashwords? For instance, on D2Ds FAQ, they state:
Where can Draft2Digital distribute my books?Our current partner stores include: - Amazon
- Apple Books
- Barnes & Noble
- Kobo (including Kobo Plus)
- Tolino
- OverDrive
- Bibliotheca
- Scribd
- 24Symbols
- Playster
- Baker & Taylor
So I already have ebooks on Amazon, and via Smash they've been distributed to Apple, B&N, Kobo, Overdrive, Scribd. Would I have to opt out of distributing to these sites, or could it result in some kind of troublesome mess to deal with? I guess what I'd hate to see happen is to lose all the history of feedback and ratings I have (actually, there are a couple I wouldn't mind see disappear down a hole).  |
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Post by unclegarf on Nov 14, 2018 9:20:19 GMT -8
Hi, Chris. when i jumped ship to D2D I unpublished all the titles at smash I didn't want there. I kept smash affiliates / d2d affiliates separate. Not sure either are with amazon after both fell from grace (as I recall) with the mighty zon. I tend to do Zon separately to d2d. So I get a bit of $$ from Zon, smash and d2d. I have always preferred the d2d process of publishing than the smash option. That said, smash may well have simplified their processes since then. This all sounds more complicated than it actually is. I'm always amazed the number of downloads I get on smash for what I left behind. For me, it goes smash 90% smash readers, 6 to 7 % B and N and a couple for apple and kobo. The other smash affiliates may as well not be there for me. D2D don't sell books themselves. As I write less and paint more these days, next book will be on smash only @ smash, not their affiliates, and all others via d2d with zon on its own.
If you or anyone are happy with smash, stay put. Over many years I have settled for what suits me. Hope this helps
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Nov 14, 2018 10:22:59 GMT -8
Hi, Chris. when i jumped ship to D2D I unpublished all the titles at smash I didn't want there. I kept smash affiliates / d2d affiliates separate. Not sure either are with amazon after both fell from grace (as I recall) with the mighty zon. I tend to do Zon separately to d2d. So I get a bit of $$ from Zon, smash and d2d. I have always preferred the d2d process of publishing than the smash option. That said, smash may well have simplified their processes since then. This all sounds more complicated than it actually is. I'm always amazed the number of downloads I get on smash for what I left behind. For me, it goes smash 90% smash readers, 6 to 7 % B and N and a couple for apple and kobo. The other smash affiliates may as well not be there for me. D2D don't sell books themselves. As I write less and paint more these days, next book will be on smash only @ smash, not their affiliates, and all others via d2d with zon on its own. If you or anyone are happy with smash, stay put. Over many years I have settled for what suits me. Hope this helps It does. I went ahead and signed up, got the tax stuff and profile out of the way, and am beginning to upload my library. I see they have features like About the Author, List of Works, that they will add automatically for you where I actually built those myself for Smash and Amazon. Pretty nifty. When I got to the page where you select which publishers and services to distribute to, I just left the ones unchecked where I already have the books published (Scribd, Amz, etc). We'll see how it goes. This will extend the list of distributors for my meager library, so might be worth it. |
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Post by unclegarf on Nov 14, 2018 13:40:53 GMT -8
Hope it goes well for you, Chris. I appreciate where I P is going with it, (I'll shorten it to I P rather than idiot) and really wish him? well with it, though not for me personally. That says more about my own lethargy than anything else. It doesn't mean others wouldn't find it very useful. I hope those embracing it find much success with it. I know we are supposed to push our barrow through any likely opening to advance but... I think I have a bloggy thing somewhere. Must have a look at it one day. Hey. I'll not knock anything folk jab with a sharp stick to see what happens. Might just get stung or find that pot of honey. With my luck I'll probably be posthumously rich and famous.  |
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Nov 15, 2018 4:57:35 GMT -8
Hope it goes well for you, Chris. I appreciate where I P is going with it, (I'll shorten it to I P rather than idiot) and really wish him? well with it, though not for me personally. That says more about my own lethargy than anything else. It doesn't mean others wouldn't find it very useful. I hope those embracing it find much success with it. I know we are supposed to push our barrow through any likely opening to advance but... I think I have a bloggy thing somewhere. Must have a look at it one day. Hey. I'll not knock anything folk jab with a sharp stick to see what happens. Might just get stung or find that pot of honey. With my luck I'll probably be posthumously rich and famous. Well, this email from D2D surprised me.
Hello, A recent audit of a number of books published through our site has indicated some possible inconsistencies regarding the Copyrights of the books you have submitted through us. Based upon our research, there is no record that the rights to these books belong to you. As a result, we have put your account on hold pending further investigation. If you have documentation demonstrating your right to publish these books through us, please reply to this email within 7 days and include any applicable documentation. If the appropriate documentation is not provided within 7 days, your account will be closed and all your books will be delisted. If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me. Best Regards, Sean Draft2Digital
My reply: Hi, Got your email relative to my stories. It's unclear to me exactly what you require for this evidence. I can send you folders full of files - old MSs, various covers, idea documents. However, it might just be easier to close my account. For what it's worth, all these titles are visible under the same name, Chris L Adams, on Amazon, Smashwords, Itunes, Kobo, etc, none of whom put my ownership on trial before. So I find this interesting. Whom, if I might inquire, do you guess owns these publications, if not myself, who am the one who wrote them? Sincerely, Chris L Adams |
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Post by Ted on Nov 15, 2018 9:48:23 GMT -8
"...possible inconsistencies regarding the Copyrights of the books you have submitted through us. Based upon our research, there is no record that the rights to these books belong to you."
Sounds fishy. What research? What possible inconsistencies?
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Post by unclegarf on Nov 15, 2018 11:58:11 GMT -8
What the ****? Is it simply the addition of the copywrong thingy at the start or something as daft as that? Dunno. A new one on me. One thing I have found with D2D over the years is an easy "face to face" communication access. That said, smash are pretty good with that also. All I can suggest is persisting with it awhile longer and see how it goes and keep the rest of us posted. It has to be a computer glitch D2D need to jump on A S A P because they can't afford for this to go viral. Tell Sean the smash forum are on the edge of our seats awaiting the outcome of this. Good luck.
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Nov 15, 2018 20:38:04 GMT -8
"...possible inconsistencies regarding the Copyrights of the books you have submitted through us. Based upon our research, there is no record that the rights to these books belong to you." Sounds fishy. What research? What possible inconsistencies? Ted, Exactly! This has me stumped. No reply to my email yet. You think I came on too strong? 😆 |
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Nov 15, 2018 20:40:51 GMT -8
What the ****? Is it simply the addition of the copywrong thingy at the start or something as daft as that? Dunno. A new one on me. One thing I have found with D2D over the years is an easy "face to face" communication access. That said, smash are pretty good with that also. All I can suggest is persisting with it awhile longer and see how it goes and keep the rest of us posted. It has to be a computer glitch D2D need to jump on A S A P because they can't afford for this to go viral. Tell Sean the smash forum are on the edge of our seats awaiting the outcome of this. Good luck. Thanks, Gary. I'm kind of having fun with it. I have to admit, this is...a bit odd! |
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Post by ChrisLAdams on Nov 16, 2018 6:49:42 GMT -8
So it's now Day Two of Seven of this bizarre D2D episode. I wrote them again, as I've yet to receive a response from the first email.
If they're going to give me such a short time frame to work with, I'd think a timely response under conditions of this nature would be the default.
Here's what I sent them this time.
Hi,
My 7 days are counting down, and you haven't yet responded to my previous email.
I still have questions about what I'm supposed to do here.
"... A recent audit of a number of books..."
I actually DO appreciate that you're taking steps to prevent piracy of my works.
"...possible inconsistencies..."
What exactly are those, and how/where do I address them?
"... there is no record that the rights to these books belong to you..."
Where/how exactly do you check/verify this?
They most certainly do belong to me, so I'd like to know why the doubt, and what I could have done during submission to have prevented this?
".... documentation demonstrating your right to publish these books..."
What sort of documentation? I own my belt and pants, but I might have trouble proving it.
What do you require here? Your request should have been more detailed in specifics.
"... is not provided within 7 days ..."
Since this is the case, can we please get these questions answered in a timely fashion?
Clock's a ticking.
"... your account will be closed and all your books will be delisted..."
Should I just save everyone the trouble, and do this myself?
These stories are already published under my name elsewhere.
I only went to your site at the encouragement of my friend, Gary Weston, who is actually quite surprised and upset about this turn of events.
Which brings me to my final question:
"... Refer a Friend..."
Well, that depends on how we proceed from here.
I've been given a time frame to produce Lord-knows-what, for reasons that I don't yet understand, and I'm not getting any of my questions answered so I can provide what you demand.
Sounds Orwellian to me.
In closing, you might address this issue at the beginning, when an author is uploading his works, with a section dedicated to provenance.
"We require this..." and then, state clearly what it is you require.
Thanks and regards,
Chris L Adams
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Post by unclegarf on Nov 16, 2018 8:08:04 GMT -8
Heck! This is getting as complicated as Brexit.
In the years I have published with D2D I have never seen the like before. I am totally perplexed. I can only suggest requesting going higher up the food chain. I would also tell them we on the smash forum are holding our breath on the edge of our seats for the next chapter in this mystery saga.
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Post by Ted on Nov 16, 2018 8:49:33 GMT -8
"...possible inconsistencies regarding the Copyrights of the books you have submitted through us. Based upon our research, there is no record that the rights to these books belong to you." Sounds fishy. What research? What possible inconsistencies? Ted, Exactly! This has me stumped. No reply to my email yet. You think I came on too strong? 😆 Not in the least. D2D's initial contact was too vague and should have contained evidence and logic. |
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Post by unclegarf on Nov 16, 2018 11:38:56 GMT -8
I'll have a word.
Here are those words. I only do things like this when I've had a drink.
As an Indie on D2D for several years, I'm a little perplexed at the issues my writer friend Chris L Adams has with publishing on D2D. I have no idea what possible copyright problems he can possibly have. He asked me about publishing on D2D, effectively jumping ship as I did from smashwords and I gave you a generally glowing reference. He has tried to get to the bottom of this and having seen on the smashwords forum , the vague responses he received thus far, I am at a loss to advise him. Chris has published his books on smash and amazon and I have even advised a little in his early writing so I can vouch for him. Many writers are following this with much interest on the smashwords forum so to ensure others do not have the same issues, I respectfully ask for clarity on this.
Chris.Hope you don't mind the advised bit as it was a minuscule amount of input at best. It was just included to add validity to my message to D2D.
Apologies to I P. No intention of highjacking your post but these things can morph into strange directions. Hopefully it will draw folk into your original intentions.
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