Draft2Digital to Acquire Smashwords

[JRTomlin]

He did not say 'it was not about money'. He said no money changed hands, which is quite a different statement. If you are an attorney, you should know that words matter.

Since they want to make a profit, of course, it is about money.

[Lynn]

After listening to their youtube video, my guess is that it was a case of stagnant/slowed growth and a desire to leverage a larger userbase/more income to expand. They both seem to want to do things they probably couldn't have ever done if they stayed as competitors because they're pulling users from each other. Merging should theoretically increase income and reduce expenses as redundancies are eliminated giving them more profit to work with.

This also puts them in a stronger position if they want to make Smashwords' store into something more than it is. As they discussed in the video, if they no longer need to have author dashboards, they can focus on the store and make it better. One can hope. :D

I would *love* to see a better ebook store out there than the trash pile that every book page on Amazon has become. Amazon has its strengths, but their book pages are a disaster these days IMO.

I'd love to see a dedicated indie author book store that was big enough to break out of being a niche offering for readers. Get a reading app for the 2 major phone/tablet operating systems, and maybe a branded ereader or three for the die hards who still prefer eink. If they could convince trade publishers to list books there too, the store would be much more appealing to readers (all books in one place, like Amazon used to be before it became a giant flea market). :D I have no idea if anyone is even interested in doing this these days, but I would like to see it.

And now I'm rambling out my futile wishes so I'll stop. :D

[Jeff Tanyard]

I would *love* to see a better ebook store out there than the trash pile that every book page on Amazon has become. Amazon has its strengths, but their book pages are a disaster these days IMO.

Just out of curiosity, what exactly do you dislike about the book pages?

[JRTomlin]

At this point, I would ask what there is to like about our Amazon pages? Have you ever looked at a store flyer with about two hundred competing products stuck on it, most of them in clashing colours? That is what our Amazon page now looks like.

[LilyBLily]

On one of my book pages Amazon is heavily pushing audiobooks, which makes sense to Amazon since it has depressed author earnings so dramatically that (presumably) audio is very profitable--to Amazon.

However, none of the eight pages of audiobooks advertised on my book page are in the same genre as my book. The customer is looking at my book, and Amazon is trying to sell the customer something different. Very different.

In point of fact I suspect Amazon is trying to sell those audiobooks to me, since the genres are ones I read, not write, and Amazon knows I am looking at the page. It should also know I have never bought an audiobook, but nobody's perfect.

[JRTomlin]

You would get a better idea of what Amazon shows readers if you went to your own page anonymously. Of course, what they see can also be influenced by past clicks but at least it isn't influenced by your viewing or purchases.

[Lynn]

Honestly, they're too busy. It's great that they want to offer every format with every seller available, all in the top little bar where you can click through the different formats but all of the different links can be very confusing and when I want to send myself a sample of something I have done it innumerable times and yet every time I almost click the wrong buttons because the stuff is just all shoved together there in the sidebar.

Then you get to all the aalso boughts and the sponsored products,and all the stuff they shove underneath the description and the fact that the description is shrunk by default when as a book buyer, descriptions to me seem like that would be like one of the main things people are interested in after knowing who wrote the book. I mean, hiding long winded descriptions from suppliers can make sense, because who needs 6 paragraphs about a paper towel holder, but when it comes to books, it makes very little sense to hide a major selling point.

Really it's a lot of little things that add up and I just haven't been happy as a customer of the book store in quite a while. I really used to love Amazon and the book store but since I've always been more of a book buyer than a bargain hunter, as Amazon has gone further in that direction they have become less interesting and relevant to the part of me that's just interested in an awesome bookstore.

[JRTomlin]

I only still buy books from Amazon because I still use a Kindle. I don't like reading on a phone with its relatively small screen that is not particularly optimal for reading. When I buy a new e-reader, I will probably switch to Kobo's and abandon Amazon for buying books, which will end most of the purchases I make from Amazon (not that they'll care). It is too bad that Kobo has never really caught on in the US.

The Kindle pages are just a mess. I consider them proof that Amazon no longer cares about ebooks.

[TimothyEllis]

I only still buy books from Amazon because I still use a Kindle. I don't like reading on a phone with its relatively small screen that is not particularly optimal for reading. When I buy a new e-reader, I will probably switch to Kobo's and abandon Amazon for buying books, which will end most of the purchases I make from Amazon (not that they'll care). It is too bad that Kobo has never really caught on in the US.

You'd be much better going to an Ipad Mini, and downloading all the apps.

That way you still have access to your existing kindle books on the same device, even if you never buy another one.

Question for those seeing ads on Amazon pages. Actually 2.

Are the ads for other books, or other products?
Are you logged into Amazon when you see them, or not?

[JRTomlin]

Apple products are ridiculously overpriced. I would never pay that much for something that I would use solely as an e-reader. They also weigh more which matters if you are holding it for several hours reading.

I can always convert the old files with Calibre if I want to and at no cost.

You mainly see ads for books although sometimes there are a few other ads at the very bottom. What ads you see depends largely on whether you are logged in anonymously or not. I log in anonymously largely because Amazon shows me ads 'based on my browsing history' which is meaningless considering that I browse competitor and comparable authors all the time.

[TimothyEllis]

I rarely ever seen anything except book ads.

I guess there's a slider down the bottom of product ads, but I never really go down there.

Most sites bombard you with ads when you're not logged in, and I never log out of anything.

[Jeff Tanyard]

Question for those seeing ads on Amazon pages. Actually 2.

Are the ads for other books, or other products?
Are you logged into Amazon when you see them, or not?

I use multiple ad blockers, but I still see a banner ad at the top for Audible on your Mage King page.  I could smash it with uBlock if I wanted to, but Amazon is good at varying the code up so that those banner ads always reappear the next time, so I don't usually bother much anymore.





Here's the page with the banner blocked:





Not logged in, as you can see. 

No sponsored ads elsewhere within the body of your product page.  There's the "next 1 for you in this series," the "books in this series," and then the "from the publisher."





There are three sliders at the bottom below your reviews.  First of those sliders is the also-boughts.









I don't know how useful any of that is to you since I use ad blockers, but there you go.

[TimothyEllis]

That's pretty much what I see. I don't consider the audible one 'other' advertising.

[JRTomlin]

Oddly enough, if I browse logged in which I do sometimes if I don't want to bother opening an anonymous tab that I don't see the also bought carrel at all.

[LilyBLily]

Same here. Amazon plays tricks on us.

I have a couple of strong ad blockers in place on my browsers. When I want to see what a fresh visitor to Amazon might see, I open an incognito window in Chrome, but when it's just me checking in a hurry, I'm fine with using Firefox and letting Amazon know it's me. Still don't understand why Amazon imagined I would be interested in audiobooks.

[LilyBLily]

I'm getting a $1.25 royalty from Hoopla this month. Maybe Smashwords can improve my D2D sales.

[sliderule]

Kris Austin referred to Romance Novels as "erotica" and "dangerous content".

The next challenge was with erotica.  Kris quickly learned that more than half of the revenues in the publishing industry come from “romance” novels and other forms of erotica.  The company had to develop a system to automatically detect and categorize different genres of content to be able to appropriate handle each kind.  Software freed them from having to read this and other dangerous content themselves.

That's not a quote from Kris Austin. That's a quote of the article writer who has a clear agenda. I wouldn't be so quick to assume Kris Austin is precisely aligned with this view.

Jeez, thanks. I'm so damn tired of seeing that old blog article being used to scare monger.

[spin52]

I'm getting a $1.25 royalty from Hoopla this month. Maybe Smashwords can improve my D2D sales.

Mine's about the same. What I hate is that I do get tiny royalties from Hoopla, but at least half my books have never been listed there, despite having requested that when I published them on D2D. I did ask D2D when they might be listed and was told Hoopla was working their way through all the requests. That was months ago, so I've pretty much given up.
I totally agree about all the rubbish that appears on Amazon product pages. Every time I see the 'books you may like' list, I yell at the laptop, 'What on earth makes you think I'd like THAT?' Very few of them are anything like any book I've ever bought.

[Maggie Ann]

I'm getting a $1.25 royalty from Hoopla this month. Maybe Smashwords can improve my D2D sales.

Mine's about the same. What I hate is that I do get tiny royalties from Hoopla, but at least half my books have never been listed there, despite having requested that when I published them on D2D. I did ask D2D when they might be listed and was told Hoopla was working their way through all the requests. That was months ago, so I've pretty much given up.
I totally agree about all the rubbish that appears on Amazon product pages. Every time I see the 'books you may like' list, I yell at the laptop, 'What on earth makes you think I'd like THAT?' Very few of them are anything like any book I've ever bought.

I have a 12 novella series on Hoopla but one of them is missing. When I asked D2D about it they said Hoopla refused to discuss or review the matter and wouldn't give a reason why.

[She-la-te-da]

I think this would be great if they improve the Smashwords store, and maybe bad if they change anything about the erotica that can be published.

Also, I liked being paid into Paypal. I prefer it. There's some things I like to keep from anyone I have to give bank statements to (which won't be a problem in a year, when I finally get Medicare and won't have to use the free clinic).

[Marti Talbott]

I'm getting a $1.25 royalty from Hoopla this month. Maybe Smashwords can improve my D2D sales.

I'm hoping the same thing.