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Post by jaydax on Mar 3, 2019 12:06:37 GMT -8
My answer to www.quora.com/Do-you-buy-ebooks-at-Smashwords-comYes. I like being able to buy DRM free ebooks in multiple formats. It saves me the bother of having to remove the DRM and convert them myself. I like being able to find free ebooks so easily. I like the prices -often less expensive than Amazon. I like being able to pay with Paypal. If I enjoy a book from there I like being able to recommend it to others and earn an affiliate commission. I often use discount coupons from Smashwords authors. I like knowing that Smashwords pays their authors a higher royalty than Amazon and the other e-retailers do. I like their sales - there’s one going on this week Sunday March 3rd to Saturday March 9th |
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Post by Ted on Mar 3, 2019 13:56:02 GMT -8
... I like their sales - there’s one going on this week Sunday March 3rd to Saturday March 9th
Post your ebooks in that forum section to help promote your work or works.
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chelsfield
SWF Writers
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Post by chelsfield on Mar 4, 2019 0:29:58 GMT -8
Jaydax, all very good points. But, I will hold my hand up and say I've not bought from SW. Not for any particular reason, and it's not to say I never will .sad to say, I've sold my soul to the convenience of Kindle.
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Post by djmills on Mar 4, 2019 10:59:38 GMT -8
I buy all my ebooks from Smashwords. :-)
I buy print from The Book Depository. :-)
I do not buy books, ebook or print, from Amazon. Amazon.com will not sell to Australians and the amazon.au store does not have 1/5th of the books that the amazon.us store carries.
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Post by jaydax on Mar 11, 2019 14:31:13 GMT -8
I've sold my soul to the convenience of Kindle. Does that mean you've put your books in Kindle Select? If it works - fine but it's a case of putting all your eggs in one basket and Amazon has a nasty habit of dropping it. Try reading some of the posts on David Gaughran's blog such as this one davidgaughran.com/2018/10/09/kindle-unlimited-scamming-cheater-magnet/ other posts there detail book stuffing, clickfarms and sudden loss of book rank. As for me - last month was the first time when I made more from selling books on Google Play Books than from Amazon.com. Having said that publishing at Google Play is much like teaching elephants to hurdle - their site is dire. The good news is that PublishDrive have mostly solved the problems there. |
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chelsfield
SWF Writers
Posts: 700
Joined: Mar 28, 2012 3:07:24 GMT -8
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Post by chelsfield on Mar 12, 2019 0:15:48 GMT -8
I've sold my soul to the convenience of Kindle. Does that mean you've put your books in Kindle Select? If it works - fine but it's a case of putting all your eggs in one basket and Amazon has a nasty habit of dropping it. Try reading some of the posts on David Gaughran's blog such as this one davidgaughran.com/2018/10/09/kindle-unlimited-scamming-cheater-magnet/ other posts there detail book stuffing, clickfarms and sudden loss of book rank. As for me - last month was the first time when I made more from selling books on Google Play Books than from Amazon.com. Having said that publishing at Google Play is much like teaching elephants to hurdle - their site is dire. The good news is that PublishDrive have mostly solved the problems there. No, only 'sell' books, which I say reservedly, through SW. Only read ebooks via kindle/amazon. I am interested in your experience with Google Play .And, do you only sell through one distributor at a time or multiple? |
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Ria Stone
SWF Writers
Posts: 1,055 
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Post by Ria Stone on Mar 12, 2019 12:44:27 GMT -8
Does that mean you've put your books in Kindle Select? If it works - fine but it's a case of putting all your eggs in one basket and Amazon has a nasty habit of dropping it. Try reading some of the posts on David Gaughran's blog such as this one davidgaughran.com/2018/10/09/kindle-unlimited-scamming-cheater-magnet/ other posts there detail book stuffing, clickfarms and sudden loss of book rank. As for me - last month was the first time when I made more from selling books on Google Play Books than from Amazon.com. Having said that publishing at Google Play is much like teaching elephants to hurdle - their site is dire. The good news is that PublishDrive have mostly solved the problems there. No, only 'sell' books, which I say reservedly, through SW. Only read ebooks via kindle/amazon. I am interested in your experience with Google Play .And, do you only sell through one distributor at a time or multiple? Hola Chelsfield and JayDax,
I just went to GooglePlay but could only see the site in Spanish. Did not see any option to change language. Tried Google translate but they wanted me to either log in or unblock cookies all of which I did not want to do. I find it odd that many LARGE corps think nobody in Mexico speaks English or that people travel.
BTW, surprisingly, I have had several sales on Kobo but not GooglePlay, last I checked. I still get sales on Smashwords and Amazon :-)
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chelsfield
SWF Writers
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Post by chelsfield on Mar 13, 2019 1:24:30 GMT -8
I just went to GooglePlay but could only see the site in Spanish. Did not see any option to change language. Tried Google translate but they wanted me to either log in or unblock cookies all of which I did not want to do. I find it odd that many LARGE corps think nobody in Mexico speaks English or that people travel.
BTW, surprisingly, I have had several sales on Kobo but not GooglePlay, last I checked. I still get sales on Smashwords and Amazon :-)
I have somewhat the same problem help here in the uk. I am immediately deposited into the uk version of google, amazon, youtube etc. It's annoying when I am trying to get US-only info, or buy products on amazon.com instead of uk. I find if I manually type google.com or amazon.com into the search bar, I can force it to give me the US versions. Sometimes I have to do it a couple of times because it can't quite believe that's what I want, but I get there eventually . I am sure there must be an easier way... |
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Post by Ted on Mar 13, 2019 8:45:00 GMT -8
I've used Tor as a browser to view sites unavailable to me in Canada. Maybe Tor would work for the UK and Mexico issues.
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Ria Stone
SWF Writers
Posts: 1,055
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Post by Ria Stone on Mar 13, 2019 9:36:19 GMT -8
I just went to GooglePlay but could only see the site in Spanish. Did not see any option to change language. Tried Google translate but they wanted me to either log in or unblock cookies all of which I did not want to do. I find it odd that many LARGE corps think nobody in Mexico speaks English or that people travel.
BTW, surprisingly, I have had several sales on Kobo but not GooglePlay, last I checked. I still get sales on Smashwords and Amazon :-)
I have somewhat the same problem help here in the uk. I am immediately deposited into the uk version of google, amazon, youtube etc. It's annoying when I am trying to get US-only info, or buy products on amazon.com instead of uk. I find if I manually type google.com or amazon.com into the search bar, I can force it to give me the US versions. Sometimes I have to do it a couple of times because it can't quite believe that's what I want, but I get there eventually . I am sure there must be an easier way... Hmmm, interesting. Just curious, why would you want to go to Amazon U.S., is the item selection that different? Then, there's the pound/dollar issue.
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Ria Stone
SWF Writers
Posts: 1,055
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Post by Ria Stone on Mar 13, 2019 9:41:19 GMT -8
I've used Tor as a browser to view sites unavailable to me in Canada. Maybe Tor would work for the UK and Mexico issues. Interesting.....
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chelsfield
SWF Writers
Posts: 700
Joined: Mar 28, 2012 3:07:24 GMT -8
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Post by chelsfield on Mar 14, 2019 1:00:41 GMT -8
I have somewhat the same problem help here in the uk. I am immediately deposited into the uk version of google, amazon, youtube etc. It's annoying when I am trying to get US-only info, or buy products on amazon.com instead of uk. I find if I manually type google.com or amazon.com into the search bar, I can force it to give me the US versions. Sometimes I have to do it a couple of times because it can't quite believe that's what I want, but I get there eventually . I am sure there must be an easier way... Hmmm, interesting. Just curious, why would you want to go to Amazon U.S., is the item selection that different? Then, there's the pound/dollar issue.
There is a different selection, sometimes more of a selection. Also if I want to buy things for people in the states, especially gift cards, it's just easier. |
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Ria Stone
SWF Writers
Posts: 1,055
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Post by Ria Stone on Mar 14, 2019 10:01:02 GMT -8
Hmmm, interesting. Just curious, why would you want to go to Amazon U.S., is the item selection that different? Then, there's the pound/dollar issue.
There is a different selection, sometimes more of a selection. Also if I want to buy things for people in the states, especially gift cards, it's just easier. Ah, I keep forgetting about all the various options. |
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Post by Ted on Mar 14, 2019 12:26:35 GMT -8
I've used Tor as a browser to view sites unavailable to me in Canada. Maybe Tor would work for the UK and Mexico issues. Interesting.....
Comcast seems a little overly concerned about users right to privacy. I'm not aware of any law in North America which goes against an individual's right to privacy. You lose some or all of your privacy when you agree to use some websites, as stated in their Terms of Use. |
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Post by idiotprogrammer on Mar 18, 2019 9:07:55 GMT -8
I did a comparison of the pros and cons of Amazon and Smashwords. I think the Kindle reading app is a pretty incredible app and Smashwords doesn't get major publishers and Amazon has a deeper catalog. On the other hand, the royalties breakdown makes it easier for SW titles to be discounted to the 1-2$ range. Also, I've seen some quality publishers on Smashwords (Fomite, Unsolicited Press, Whitepoint Press, Malarky Press, etc). You can always find better freebie titles on SW. I've noticed that it's not unusual for authors from Africa and Australia to put their books on SW but not Amazon. If you've seen my other posts, you will know that I've been running a monthly roundup of deals on Amazon and SW. I discovered very quickly that many of the "deals" posted on Amazon apply only to the US store, but on Smashwords they apply worldwide. Up to now, I've been uploading SW epub files to Google Play Books (GPB). But GPB is getting to be really hard to use -- especially without shelves/collections. I've been experimenting with the Fbreader cloud-based solution (which works very well). Wow, PUBLISH DRIVE looks like a nifty solution -- especially for GPB. Definitely a worthy competitor to Smashwords. |
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