I’ve posted on Amazon’s publishing before, but recently, I uploaded a new shorts ebook, Space Scrapers by versatile and talented author Camilla Stein and had my first ebook-loading experience on behalf of Sawa-Lad Services’ publishing arm. (Camilla, BTW, is my first literary client and a friend, and will remain one of my very favorites throughout our careers and beyond, God willing.)
Now, apparently, there has been a problem with the formatting of SS (though acceptable to both companies to which I published), and at the time of this writing, I am due to review the results and possibly republish (which is feasible with both companies), but the question has come to me, “What about Smashwords?” So here are some informal notes that I hope answered the question:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It is possible to publish on both Amazon and SW. SW is a good service for publishing, but don’t expect your customers to buy on SW– SW is primarily a distributor– customets will buy on Apple, B&N, Kobo, Sony and (I think) Deisel, insha Allah…. SW is supposed to be adding new places to distriibute in the future, insha Allah. SW requires certain standards for e-pub publishing, in order to be acceptable to its distributees. (Which is really, the only reason why republishing unnecessarily might be problematic– might mean unnecessary delays in getting re-accepted to vendors, which takes a few weeks after uploading to SW. Revising and republishing is not difficult– both companies allow it.)
The major downside to SW is that IT DOES NOT offer DRM, which is security and helps prevent cybertheft. The upside, it distributes for you, for 10% (not bad) to several sales outlets. Apple does not permit authors to upload their own work. There is a certification process to go through before a person or company is permitted to upload to Apple. So basically, for Apple products, one must use a service (SW is one), but theoretically, it would be possible to upload one’s own books to B&N, Kobo, etc. By using SW, however, any revenues would be collected by SW and then distributed at the time for distribution.
SW did not distribute to Amazon at the time I uploaded– I think there may be some current deal in the works– but SW does convert to mobi, which is the type of file that Amazon accepts for the Kindle. So, the Kindle computer application (and I assume Kindle device as well if it was synched with a ‘puter), could read a mobi ebook bought from SW.
For sales on SW, the commission will be more than the distributed book, of course. That makes sense, right? If someone buys a book for an iphone, then there would be commission for Apple and also SW.
Do you know if SW is beter than Amazon? And can I use both?
Yes, you can use both. But if you join new Amazon’s Prime lending program, you are giving up the ability to sell on SW or those other vendors (B&N, Apple, etc) for 90 days. Now, I think publishing on Amazon by itself would probably give better results than SW (because that’s were people go for independent stuff), but there’s no reason not to publish on Amazon and SW both. I am under the impression that it will be difficult to sell on B&N because of the difficulty in finding a book– its search engine is pretty terrible. But there’s no reason for your book not to be there. B&N boasts that it has more books available for its Nook than Amazon has for the Kindle. However, I think that Kindle is probably the standard. Allahu alim.
Also, the price for any vendor (SW, B&N, Apple, etc.) cannot be LESS than Amazon’s price, and I believe at least some of the other vendors have the same policy…. Apple requires the price of the book to end in 99, so $1.99, $2.99, etc. So that is something to take into consideration.
Hey, you didn’t say anything about Lulu–so you think going with Amazon is best option?
Lulu is what you might want to consider for hard book publishing, and for services related to creating the book and publishing. I do not have experience with their services, but I hear it’s about a good choice for people who need services like book formatting and such. It is a reputable company according to articles and people I have spoken to, and incidentally, just down the street from me in Raleigh, NC. It is probably a better choice than any number of vanity publishers that have popped up over the last 10 years. It’s a good idea, in any independent publishing endeavor, to beware. Check the Better Business Bureau– there are really too many with “F” ratings. Lulu has an A+. ·
If there was only one independent publishing option, I would go with Amazon. Alhamdulillah, there are more than one. Just beware, though, of jumping unnecessarily onto Amazon bandwagons, and keep your options open. Like I said above, joining Amazon’s Prime lending library might seem like a great idea, but not if you want to sell in other places– there’s no guarantee that you’d make any more money by joining the “lending pool” that Amazon is trying to develop, (though it does permit you to give away 5 free copies of your book, which is nice), and you cut off your opportunity for sales from other venues for 3 months.
Amazon is doing its level best to cut its authors off from other vendors, and imo, kind of unfairly– but rage against the machine, and insha Allah, it’ll help to keep Amazon honest.
Keep an eye on ALL vendors’ term and conditions, including Amazon– especially Amazon. And be warned that losing money from pricing SNAFU’s, despite whose fault it is, will be YOUR loss, and not Amazon’s or other vendors’.
Finally, do yourself a favor and DO NOT suggest that your friends browse those sites for your book, particularly B&N’s Pub-it or Smashwords. There are thousands of pornographic book covers (and I assume the insides of the books are more graphic than the outsides, judging from titles) to go through, and your friends will likely never make it through the muck to yours.
Posted by debmcnichol 
