Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Apple iBookstore Expands Smashwords Ebook Distribution to 26 New Countries

Apple this week dramatically expanded the international reach of Smashwords ebooks by distributing our catalog to 26 new iBookstores across Europe and Scandinavia.

Prior to this week, over 50,000 Smashwords ebook titles were available in Apple iBookstores in the US, Canada, U.K., Germany, France and Australia.

All Smashwords authors, publishers and agents enjoy immediate access to this expanded distribution.

Below is the list of new iBookstore countries now reachable through Smashwords.
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland

Go Global With Smashwords

Within the next few years, the global market for ebooks will likely eclipse the US market. Already at Smashwords, I can report that prior to this news, almost half of our iBookstore sales were coming from outside the U.S.

Although the US represents the world’s single largest ebook market today and is still growing rapidly, the US market is also the most mature. Growth rates in the US, where the ebook market has more than doubled each year for the last several years, are likely to slow thanks to the law of large numbers (you can't keep doubling forever!). I expect the US will end 2011 with ebooks accounting for 15-25% of trade book sales.

Contrast this with markets outside the US, where ebooks will account for probably between 1% and 5% of the market this year. These markets are only now beginning to enter, or will soon enter, exponential growth phases that will take them to 15-25% the next few years assuming their growth trajectories follow similar patterns seen in the US and other English speaking countries.

Indie authors will reap a two-fold benefit. They now have access to more markets, and these markets will grow faster than the U.S. in the years ahead.

The necessary ingredients for this growth include availability of affordable ebook content in concert with low-cost e-reading devices (dedicated e-readers, multi-function tablets like the iPad, smart phones, personal computers) powered by local-language ebook stores.

This is exciting news for indie ebook authors, not only for authors here in the US but also for indie authors in these new territories. Because Smashwords is an Apple-authorized global aggregator for the iBookstore, authors, publishers and literary agents around the world can use Smashwords to quickly and easily distribute local-language ebooks into their country's iBookstore, as well as to Apple iBookstores outside their country.

My thanks to our friends at Apple for introducing Smashwords books to these new markets.

If you’re not yet distributing with Smashwords, visit our How to Publish and Distribute Ebooks with Smashwords page. In addition to distributing to the 31 Apple iBookstores, we also distribute your book to the online ebook stores operated by Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, the Diesel eBookstore and to major mobile app platforms such as Stanza and Aldiko.

33 comments:

John H. Carroll said...

Wonderful news! Congratulations and thank you to Smashwords and Apple. :)

Anne R. Allen said...

This is so exciting. I'm spreading the word...

Joseph Veramu said...

Congratulations. This is great news.

Russell Phillips said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Russell Phillips said...

That's good news :)

I've updated my iBookstore tool so that it creates links to the new countries: http://www.russellphillipsbooks.co.uk/pages/tools.php

Annemarie Nikolaus said...

Now you should really hurry up to publish translated Style Guides. I continually are asked about the German edition.
There could be way more German authors at Smashwords, if they were able to understand what to do!

LK Watts said...

This is brilliant news! Thank you so much Mark for all your hard work. Long may the success of Smashwords continue.
http://lkwattsconfessions.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Cool! :)

Scath said...

Yay for expansion! =)

Adonis Marrero said...

Great News!

TheSFReader said...

Great news ! and may your reach keep on increase, either through one channel's expansion, orthrough new channels...

BTW, is there any plan to address channels "dedicated" to other languages than English ?

My own dear French publishers DO need a self-published kick in the pants...

Unknown said...

Wow, I am very excited about this news. My author heart is thrilled to be global :)
Thank you very much, you/Smashwords is really special.
Jewel Adams
www.hippiechicks68.com

Christopher John Chater said...

Awesome! Now I just need to learn twenty different languages:)

adan said...

are english language books eligible, or able to take advantage of this?

or is this more for those who can do/get translations?

thanks, my apologies if this has been addressed elsewhere; i'm "very" new to this site

Annie Oldham said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Annie said...

Hooray for Apple! And we'll miss you, Steve Jobs.

Russell Phillips said...

@adan: English language books are included. All of my books are in English. They're in the French and German sites, and are now starting to appear in the others (I've found them in the Polish site, for example).

I've even had a few sales from foreign-language sites. Presumably they sold to people who can read English or are ex-pats from English-speaking countries.

Norah Wilson said...

Congratulations, Mark! This is wonderful news!

I <3 Apple users everywhere. They've been huge supporters for me over the last year.

Unknown said...

Great news. Encouraging and hopeful on a sad day as this one.
I live in Spain, but have yet to see either of my books appear in the bookstore here. Is there a roll out factor going on? I got the impression from the blog post that it was an "immediate" access?

bedroom window perspective said...

This is wonderful news for Europe and Scandinavia...not to mention your authors going global!

William and Anna Patterson said...

We want to thank you most kindly for the great efforts you have made Smashwords to get to this point. Thank you Mark for taking us there with you on this exciting adventure. I wouldn't miss it for the world!

Joleene Naylor said...

Fantastic! :)

Calculator said...

Still waiting for my book to appear in the Swiss iBook store... :-(

Anonymous said...

An awesome service for Indie authors. Thank you, Mark Coker!!

Unknown said...

Congratulations Smashwords!

This is great news for all of your authors. I encourage any new authors thinking of using Smashwords to publish their work to do so. You will find a very professional service which is easy to use and operate, surrounded by a supportive community.

Anonymous said...

These books are free for deployed coalition soldiers...

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/96606

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/97782

email me at ronnie.m@nl.rogers.com for info

Kristie Leigh Maguire - Indie Author said...

Fabulous! I have Tweeted this and shared on FB.

Kristie Leigh Maguire
romance author

Rajasir said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rajasir said...

This is wonderful Mr. Mark Coker. The immediate results are visible in rising sales. Thanks to you and the dedicated team of Smashwords.

God bless you

Rajasir

Addison Gast said...

And the hits just keep coming.......Great news! Smashwords is continually working for its authors and we appreciate your team and their work Mark.

Marcelo said...

Please add Brazil!

Walter Knight said...

When do we see India and China?

Unknown said...

Finally, I was able to pass the autovetter on two of my books. Wow! Now I can take advantage of the premium distribution. Thank God and Thanks Smashwords for finally!