Smashwords - Yea or Nay?

[R. C.]

I read the old threads but did not find a clear answer...

I read several sites with older commentary about Smashwords and did not find a lot of positives.

My prior experience with the site was less than stellar.

Do you find value in the work required to load up Smashwords?

Cheers,
R.C.

[notthatamanda]

Never sold anything on smashwords. Then again, I don't sell a lot anywhere.

Their Word Styles handbook was a lifesaver for me when I was just starting out.

I freaking hate how they distribute to everyone and you have to wait until it is up to go back and uncheck the places you are going direct with.

I didn't bother to upload my last two books there.

I just went to the dashboard, haven't looked at it in months. I've had more than 50 samples downloaded on the four books I have there. No sales.

Putting keywords on my books gave me lots of anecdotes to amuse/horrify my friends. That's about all I've gotten out of it.

[Maggie Ann]

I never had a problem with their meatgrinder, only with their customer service and lack of sales. I took all of my books off their site several years ago, and have no desire to see if it's gotten any better.

That being said, I first published in 2009, and Smashwords was the only game in town besides Amazon. We couldn't get into Apple or Barnes and Noble without them. They fulfilled a need at that time, but when D2D came along, they fulfilled those needs way better.

[Wonder]

I’ve sold a few books there and I like the IDEA of smashwords because I like a strong ecosystem for indie books. However, I’m kind of pissed at them lately. I publish to most retailers directly and no matter how hard I try to use the correct settings Smashwords insists on auto-distributing my books to places I didn’t ask them to. Then I have to rush back and cancel a bunch of pending distributions I never wanted.

I shouldn’t have to watch my business partners like a hawk to stop them from overreaching. Thus I’m considering pulling out of Smashwords. I haven’t made up my mind.

Wonder

[alhawke]

It's a slow retailer, but I get a sale here and there--mainly with their biannual sale deals. It's cool that they have their own book store.

I publish to most retailers directly and no matter how hard I try to use the correct settings Smashwords insists on auto-distributing my books to places I didn’t ask them to. Then I have to rush back and cancel a bunch of pending distributions I never wanted.

I've seen this, but haven't had trouble quickly checking off the retailers immediately after clicking the publish button. One way to avoid any problem here is to make sure retailers are already set up everywhere and publish Smashwords last.

I use them for Scribd and a few other libraries. I've sold a couple books in Scribd  (never managed to sell Scribd through Draft2Digital, but that's probably just luck).

Smashwords is also easy to gift readers with their coupons.
{edited once for clarity

[Mammasan]

I did okay on Smashwords from 2011 - 2017, but in 2018 the sales just stopped.

[Leegreg]

I do Select on release, one round and then wide. So far I sell more wide, including Smashword, than old books made through reads. That said my sales/read$ ratio was 65/35 steadily before I tried this method, so I am not giving up much.

I did notice that on older books no longer in Select that my returns went up.  I’ve only been trying this for a few months so it could be coincidence.

[Simon Haynes]

I had to use them to publish on B&N and Apple, neither of which allowed australian authors to publish directly.

I had a lot of trouble with their auto-conversion routines. I mean a LOT of trouble, and I'm a computer programmer. However, once I bypassed them and uploaded epubs, that was the end of those problems.

They're also very picky about subtitles and the like.

But they made me a fair bit of money over the years, and the only reason I have one title with them now is because I'm in KU.

[R. C.]

...
I had a lot of trouble with their auto-conversion routines. I mean a LOT of trouble, and I'm a computer programmer.
...

I too am technically savvy and highly adept at MS Word.  I was able to get the "input tool" to accept a .doc with the correct TOC and formatting. It was not easy and definitely not worth the effort.

I'll post the permafree, loss-leaders, but nothing else. 

Many thanks to everyone who responded and confirmed my assessment.

Cheers,
R.C.

[Lynn]

I've been distributing there since 2012. Never had a problem. I upload .doc files formatted with styles. Takes a few minutes to get through the different settings I need to change, and the unchecking of distributors that I go direct with. (I use an EPUB everywhere else.)

It works with my workflow because I use Jutoh for my EPUB files and import essentially the same Word file into Jutoh that I use at Smashwords.

I make money through the Smashwords store, some through Scribd, and most through Apple. I might someday get on Apple direct, but haven't tried in the past because of the Mac requirement and the issue so many people run into of real names showing up on their books as publisher.

I like the coupon codes feature quite a lot.

I have made thousands of dollars in the Smashwords store itself so it's worth it to me. Add in Apple and Scribd and the libraries and it is a pretty chunk of change.

Even if I went somewhere else for the other retailers, I would keep using Smashwords for the Smashwords store.

[Writer]

I've never had any problems with Smashwords, I just like D2D better. I'm mostly KU now, but keep a sprinkling of old stuff up on both Smashwords and D2D.

[Joe Vasicek]

Smashwords is the evolutionary equivalent of a housefly. Very early on, it carved out a comfortable little niche for itself and has continued unchanged ever since. It has survived multiple extinction-level events and will continue to survive such calamities in the future, but will never be anything bigger or more complex.

I'm still on Smashwords, but I don't distribute anywhere through them except their libray direct program. Too many problems. For years, I used them to distribut to the places that Draft2Digital didn't go yet, but I never saw a single sale from it, so I figured it isn't worth the trouble. With that said, I do see a trickle of sales from the Smashwords site itself, and if I don't publish a book on Smashwords I will get emails from readers asking why it isn't there.