Smashwords

Good to see there are other blind people publishin...

2012-05-15T10:45:42.619-07:00

Good to see there are other blind people publishing on Smashwords too. Then again, the process is made so easy that it's no wonder; Smashwords' site is one of the easiest to navigate (which, by the way, is something I'm really greatful for, since trying to navigate some of the websites out there with my screen reader can often be frustrating).

Your book sounds wonderful! I'm heading back t...

2012-05-13T16:00:32.095-07:00

Your book sounds wonderful! I'm heading back to Smaswhwords to buy it as my mother's day present to myself! Thank you.

Hi. For anyone interested in the above tactics and...

2012-05-13T12:46:36.910-07:00

Hi. For anyone interested in the above tactics and how it is going, so far so good. With the price on One Man's dream, the position held well so far, just slipping slightly. Griffin's Witch is catching it up and picked up a 5 star review. I have put $2.99 on it knowing it will take a week or more for B and N to change it at their end. I have a couple of new titles being put on B and N of the same genre, but they go with a modest price tag already on them. Still not a lot at Deisel????

It's difficult, if not impossible to ignore Am...

2012-05-13T06:17:05.608-07:00

It's difficult, if not impossible to ignore Amazon—they're the two-ton elephant sitting in the living room. On the other hand, I don't trust them, and with good reason. For a number of years my partner and I sold used books, both on Amazon and B&N and several sites that specialize in used books. Amazon's treatment of its resellers is shameful in the extreme, then came the day when they allowed resellers to list and sell used books for $0.01, and the bottom dropped out of the used book market for good. Amazon, like eBay under their new CEO, seems to have one rule: "Our way or the highway."

Phyllis, your book sounds delightful. So glad you ...

2012-05-12T09:22:09.143-07:00

Phyllis, your book sounds delightful. So glad you decided to be a writer, the world needs all of them.

I'm publishing too! http://www.smashwords.com...

2012-05-11T21:22:50.537-07:00

I'm publishing too!
http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=tales+from+the+WILD+BLUE+YONDER+

Amazing story. Wish you the best Phyllis. I was wo...

2012-05-11T21:12:57.779-07:00

Amazing story. Wish you the best Phyllis. I was wondering, how do you reach out to blind people? Are there devices that allow for blind people to reading braille, or is it just audio? (how about print?)
Thanks for the interview.
Cheers!

As a blind person who's writing a book (and ho...

2012-05-11T13:18:19.364-07:00

As a blind person who's writing a book (and hoping to publish it on Smashwords), I can agree on everything PC said, and this story just encourages me to go on no matter what.

What a wonderful interview. Phyllis, thank you for...

2012-05-11T13:08:00.886-07:00

What a wonderful interview. Phyllis, thank you for sharing your inspiring story.

Truly inspirational.

2012-05-11T10:44:58.912-07:00

Truly inspirational.

Hi. Brain dead!!! I should have mentioned the rank...

2012-05-10T04:58:28.093-07:00

Hi. Brain dead!!! I should have mentioned the rankings are on Barnes and noble. Sorry.

Hi. I found Mark's stats very interesting and ...

2012-05-10T04:50:01.209-07:00

Hi. I found Mark's stats very interesting and changed my prices accordingly. One book, One Man's Dream, 50K words, one close to my heart, did nothing for two months. then sold a copy, so got a "ranking" of around 1,020,000. So, wanting a few brave souls to at least try it, I took the price off. It shot up as a freebie, one million places in 24 hours. It got as high as 2,350 and stuck. It was however being read and got reviews from five stars to a one star. (?) So I put a price of $2.99 and expected it to fall a million places, but so far only slipped back about 200. Fingers crossed.
So, I decided to do the same to another book. Griffin's Witch. Again, took off like a rocket. I'll leave it awhile longer before slapping a price on it. By the way. Anyone getting sales On Diesel? Completely dead for me and a couple of friends. Good luck Smashers if you try the above tactics. Regards, Gary Weston.

2012-05-10T04:29:55.787-07:00

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It is indeed very informative, especially for auth...

2012-05-08T10:37:46.846-07:00

It is indeed very informative, especially for authors. I will bookmark this post, so that i'll be able to go through it as often as i can. Thanks for this information.

Great data to help authors position their books. I...

2012-05-07T09:05:48.733-07:00

Great data to help authors position their books. I have made sure this page is bookmarked to re-read on a regular basis! Many thanks Mark.

Thanks for sharing this interview. Very motivatin...

2012-05-06T08:58:21.859-07:00

Thanks for sharing this interview. Very motivating to me!

Great book. I read it last night.

2012-05-05T15:03:04.746-07:00

Great book. I read it last night.

Thanks Ruth Ann. This piece really blessed me. Tha...

2012-05-04T09:41:32.181-07:00

Thanks Ruth Ann. This piece really blessed me. Thanks for sharing your heart on your process. The writing journey can be far from easy, and I'm blessed to remember I am walking with the Lord - and with fellow writers. God bless you! Lara Love, http://www.walkbyfaithministry.com

Fascinating data. As a reviewer of e-books I desp...

2012-05-02T11:54:36.093-07:00

Fascinating data. As a reviewer of e-books I despair at some of the free offers. A book, especially a free one, that contains errors will soon become a deleted one.

Self-publishing needs to embrace the whole process and as well as market-place knowledge(and a good story, of course!) proofread it, please.

Great information and thanks for breaking it down ...

2012-05-01T20:45:35.125-07:00

Great information and thanks for breaking it down for us. I'd certainly never be able to wade through all of the data and analyze, much less make sense of it all.

Is there somehow i can find an accessible version ...

2012-05-01T20:22:09.848-07:00

Is there somehow i can find an accessible version of the presentation? Since it is graphical text, I can't read it using text to speech. I am dying to see what you descovered.

nan hathorne

What a wonderful idea! I love it. I just wish I ha...

2012-05-01T13:36:58.400-07:00

What a wonderful idea! I love it. I just wish I had more books to offer.

Thank you, Ruth Ann Nordin, for your insight and d...

2012-05-01T06:47:27.438-07:00

Thank you, Ruth Ann Nordin, for your insight and determination. You inspire me!

I would add that agency pricing was not just a too...

2012-04-29T10:54:33.806-07:00

I would add that agency pricing was not just a tool the publishers used to fight Amazon, but it is also a tool they are using to slow down the adoption of ebooks. This is not good for any author including Smashwords authors as Joe Konrath points out here: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2012/04/agency-model-sucks.html

If publishers really preferred agency pricing, they would also use it for their paper books, but their real agenda is to slow down the adoption of ebooks. hence they use agency pricing to artificially prop up the price of ebooks, and therby slow down the adoption of ebooks by customers.

The real issue is whether I as a small publisher/author can set a price that I receive for my book. What the retailer charges for it is not my concern. Given that Amazon does not give us a set price and reserves the right to pay me less if they discount my book, I can understand why Smashwords resorted to agency pricing. But that is a band-aid approach, and maybe isn't as important now that Amazon does not drop the 70% cut when discounting a book below $2.99.

Hopefully, the market will sort itself out, and maybe the DOJ suit will help.

One of the neat things about Smashwords is the sha...

2012-04-28T18:58:40.809-07:00

One of the neat things about Smashwords is the sharing of data. Anything we can get that is valid to work with is good. I'm also more likely to read the book, which I already have on the desktop. Thank you.