Do you have an e book you would like to get out? Smashwords is a great place to start.
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Writing a book is quite the process. It seems to take so long to get everything right. All the t’s crossed and the i”s dotted, but for me the pain staking process has been worth the effort.
My main issue has been how do I start and after its published then what? Well my answer is it is a lot of hard work. The book is not compiled into print with the wink of an eye of the push of a button.
With the publishing of my new book, “Heartfelt Emotions,” I found myself asking whats next? The answer was promotion and getting myself exposed to the world. E books seemed to me to be a great place to start.
By searching the Internet and learning where and how to achieve this goal I found a site for all your needs. I tried uploading to the Amazon Kindle but it was not an easy task. It gave me a hard time with formatting issues and also it does not accept Pay Pal which is a very easy way to receive and send money. Finally I gave up on the Kindle and continued my Internet search.
Well, I found the answer, Smashwords and guess what? It’s free! This site will not only let you publish your ebook online on their site, but they will also format it to pass along to other sites. If you upload a picture and your book passes the review process you will also be accepted into the premium catalog. This catalog is for iphone, Kindle, and the Sony readers. The different formatting is for different readers. With Smashwords all readers can accept your e book.
The process is also fast and easy and if you have your book published elsewhere on the web you can link to it here. You will not only sell copyies of your ebook but quite possibly sell hard copies of your published book.
Smashwords also lets you set the price from free to what ever you want to charge for your ebook. You can also apply a coupon for the download or set a special price for as long as you like. You also control the preview and the amount of your book that can be seen from 0 to 100 %. Pay pal is also excepted which to me is a great thing.
Smashwords gives you 85% of a download. If you are excepted into the premium catalog they also take a cut but you the author still ends up with most of the asking price.
This site gives the reader, new authors and new books to discover. They will promote your work to the search engines so when someone is looking for you your at the top of the chain.
For those of you who have books published already this is a great place to also promote your work. There are many benefits with joining Smashwords whether you are an Author or a reader. Since I joined a few days ago my experience has been a great one, wont you come join me? Add me as a friend then we can help each other.
Happy publishing!
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October 21st, 2009 at 11:10 am
Interesting Article
Best Regards
October 21st, 2009 at 11:14 am
Smashwords is realy easy to use and they are also connected with wordclay which can put your book into print. However when I downloaded my manuscript it took quite some time. What was more disturbing was that after I had done this all and designed a cover (which I did not like but wasn’t a better option), I was asked to fill in my tax number. Oeps OK. Sorry but I don’t live in the USA. So that propject went out of the door. There still is lulu.co.uk for us writers in Ireland and England. Smash words do e-books, there was no problem with the tax, which I don’t understand.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I’d not heard of Smashwords Linda, thanks for sharing, I’ll take a look.
October 21st, 2009 at 1:28 pm
A very helpful article. Good luck with the book.
Christine
October 21st, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I have never heard of this. I will check it out! Thanks!
October 21st, 2009 at 1:34 pm
very useful book, very interesting
October 21st, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Thanks for the post, will look into Smashwords!
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:01 am
Very useful article.
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:16 am
Great article. Good luck with your book.
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:21 am
Great article, Linda.
I know the painstaking task and the pitfalls that pop up along the way. I will check them out and thanks for the great information!
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:32 pm
interesting!!
there seems to be a site for everything
thanks and all the best with your project
November 14th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
I will keep this article handy for next time!!:)
November 15th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Good information. Well put up.