Saturday, September 10, 2011

How to Self-Publish an Ebook with Smashwords: 32 Authors Share Their Tips and Tricks

The other week, I invited Smashwords authors and publishers to help their fellow authors by writing a "How to Publish an Ebook on Smashwords" blog post.

32 authors and publishers below shared their smarts in an engaging and diverse collection of first-person tips, tricks and experiences.

For their effort, each will receive a collector's edition Smashwords coffee mug.

If you know an author who's not yet publishing ebooks, please share this collection with them. Used in concert with our Smashwords Style Guide (the ebook formatting bible for Smashwords), these posts will make their publishing adventure faster, simpler and more enjoyable.

Smashwords Authors and Publishers Share their Smarts

  1. Julia Group - Publishing Wizard & Spy on Smashwords : Easy, peasey, lemon squeezee

  2. Kristy K. James - Helpful Tips For Getting Published On Smashwords

  3. AG Claymore - Publishing an eBook with Smashwords

  4. John H. Carroll - How to Publish and Distribute Ebooks with Smashwords

  5. Aaron Majewski - How to Publish and Distribute Ebooks with Smashwords

  6. Jeff Hendricks - Self-Pubishing eBooks with Smashwords

  7. Linda Pendleton (and Don Pendleton) - Ebook Publishing With Smashwords

  8. Red Haircrow - Sharing the Smashwords Love: My Story On Why & How I Came to Self-Publish

  9. Ian Thomas Healy - The Care and Feeding of THE MILKMAN: Super Secret Extra Cheesy Edition on Smashwords

  10. Susanna Mahoney - Smashwords.com is the first step to publish your book for the world to enjoy

  11. Anna Patterson - My Road to Publishing a Book

  12. Dennis R. Blanchard - How I published THREE HUNDRED ZEROES with Smashwords

  13. Kevin Domenic - How to Publish and Distribute Ebooks with Smashwords

  14. Carol Anita Ryan - How you can publish on Smashwords

  15. Wendy Maddocks - My publishing experiences with smashwords.com

  16. Carolyn Brown - Tips for Publishing eBooks with Smashwords!

  17. J.L. Murphey - Publishing Smashwords Style

  18. Tommie Lyn - ...about formatting for Smashwords

  19. John O'Brien - How I published A New World: Chaos with Smashwords

  20. Jaye Seay - How to Publish and Distribute Ebooks with Smashwords

  21. Karen Woodward - Publishing With Smashwords

  22. Maranda Russell - Tips for Publishing on Smashwords

  23. Jody Kihara - Smashwords, Formatting, and Special Characters (Em-dashes and En-dashes)

  24. Lillie Ammann - Publishing Ebooks on Smashwords

  25. D.C. Sargent - How To Tackle Smashwords

  26. Dr. Tae Yun Kim - How the “Seven Steps to Inner Power” ebook was Published with Smashwords!

  27. Cameron D. Garriepy - How to self-publish via Smashwords

  28. B.C. Young - How to Publish and Distribute eBooks with Smashwords

  29. SiewJin Christina Jee - Smashwords, a blue mug and I

  30. David Derrico - How To Self-Publish With Smashwords

  31. Ruby Barnes - Ignore Smashwords at your Peril

  32. Sue A. Lehman - How I Published at Smashwords!


The Customer Perspective
We received this submission from a Smashwords customer in France who blogs and writes book reviews under the name, TheSFReader. Although it's not a how-to for authors, it provides interesting perspective on why one avid ebook buyer shops first at Smashwords (and also provides copius suggestions for future Smashwords features, so thanks!).
TheSFReader - I Love Smashwords, Don't You?

My thanks to everyone above for taking the time to share their tips and tricks for the benefit of fellow authors, publishers and readers.
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25 comments:

  1. TheSFReaderSeptember 10, 2011 at 1:53 PM

    Thanks for the mention ! In fact my post was not a "submission" as I didn't in any way "compete" for the mug.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oswald BastableSeptember 10, 2011 at 4:03 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oswald BastableSeptember 10, 2011 at 4:04 PM

    I see you have just passed the 'three billion words published' mark.

    Another billion by Christmas?

    Wayne Watson
    Meddlers in Time
    https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/6204

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousSeptember 10, 2011 at 4:29 PM

    Thanks for listing me on this page. I appreciate it and I hope my post helps out many current and future authors. Thanks Smashwords! Looking forward to receiving my mug! B.C. Young

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Ruby_BarnesSeptember 10, 2011 at 5:24 PM

    Thanks for inluding me in! I hope it fits.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Ruby_BarnesSeptember 10, 2011 at 5:38 PM

    Also the mug is optional, as I'm in Ireland.

    ReplyDelete
  7. UnknownSeptember 11, 2011 at 5:28 AM

    Thanks for including me in this list. I look forward to my mug arriving in the post.

    I hope my words help many future authors in their eBook publishing endeavours!

    Thanks Smashwords

    Carolyn Brown
    http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/82996?ref=CMBrown

    ReplyDelete
  8. MarandaSeptember 11, 2011 at 11:42 AM

    I'm proud to be a part of this list and Smashwords! Thanks for featuring my post, it has really driven up my blog traffic some!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Tommie LynSeptember 11, 2011 at 2:55 PM

    Thanks so much for including my blog post in this listing! I'm honored...and I'm thankful for the wonderful opportunity Smashwords provides to indie authors like me.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Joleene NaylorSeptember 12, 2011 at 1:11 PM

    Awesome! I was going to do this, too and got behind... yeesh!

    ReplyDelete
  11. SeacowSeptember 12, 2011 at 4:40 PM

    Couldn't have gotten to the point of submitting and publishing my eBook without the Style Book and Marketing Guide and they are FREE!Quite a learning curve but I made it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Book ReviewsSeptember 12, 2011 at 5:37 PM

    Thank you for accepting my submission to self publish an Ebook. It has been a fun journey and I appreciated this wonderful opportunity to achieve a dream, some things are too good to be true. Smashwords is the path to self and creativity discovery all for free and when you sell your Ebook you get a commission, that would make anyone's day. Go for it, what is to lose, nothing and you open a door to fantasy escapism and see your works on the global internet,Christmas comes early for a published author.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Book ReviewsSeptember 12, 2011 at 5:39 PM

    Thank you for accepting my submission to self publish an Ebook. It has been a fun journey and I appreciated this wonderful opportunity to achieve a dream, some things are too good to be true. Smashwords is the path to self and creativity discovery all for free and when you sell your Ebook you get a commission, that would make anyone's day. Go for it, what is to lose, nothing and you open a door to fantasy escapism and see your works on the global internet,Christmas comes early for a published author.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Kristy K. JamesSeptember 12, 2011 at 5:40 PM

    Yay! I really wanted that mug. :)

    But honestly, anything I can do to help other authors realize their dreams on Smashwords. Good luck to each and every one of you! It's such a lot of fun. :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Book ReviewsSeptember 12, 2011 at 5:43 PM

    Thank you for accepting my submission I am getting the hot chocolate ready for the beautiful mug coming to my home. Congratulations on hitting the
    three billion mark.

    ReplyDelete
  16. HeiChristieSeptember 12, 2011 at 6:28 PM

    Yipee! I got my mug. It'll be nice, Mark Cokers, if you autograph it for me. I'm not so sure I contribute much in dishing out tips and smarts in getting books published and sold. I just want to encourage those writers with cold feet to jump into the sea of e-publishing and be exhilarated by the experience.

    ReplyDelete
  17. CarolSeptember 12, 2011 at 7:14 PM

    Thanks for including my blog! I can't wait for my mug! 'Right Now Is Perfect'

    ReplyDelete
  18. John H. CarrollSeptember 13, 2011 at 5:44 PM

    These are all excellent blog posts. It's so cool to see all these Indies working together to help each other publish and fulfill their dreams. :)

    I recently helped another author with the nuclear option and walked him through how to set up his next book. Then I updated my post with that walkthrough.
    http://ryallon.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-to-publish-and-distribute-ebooks.html

    ReplyDelete
  19. A.G. ClaymoreSeptember 13, 2011 at 11:02 PM

    Hey, good idea.
    Mark, you gotta autograph the mugs!
    Or at least mine.

    ReplyDelete
  20. A.G. ClaymoreDecember 14, 2011 at 10:25 AM

    By the way, if you have one of those mugs, don't let your coffee get cold. There's real metal in the glaze so it won't be microwave compatible.

    Or so I hear... not that I would have tried to nuke cold coffee or anything silly like that...

    I mean, that would be pretty dumb, right?

    Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  21. AnonymousJanuary 26, 2012 at 8:09 AM

    Thanks for the reading list - perhaps you can lead me in the right direction. I want to publish image heavy instruction manuals. Which author if any provides the best guidance and what books are the best examples? I understand the basics, pixel minimum & maximum & dpi but if there are any other specific image top tips I'd be grateful.

    ReplyDelete
  22. MoonworksJanuary 29, 2012 at 4:31 PM

    That's it, this has made me get my book finished. Not so much for the millions of fans - I then get to write a post advising others and get myself a mug :0)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Jeff HendricksJuly 30, 2012 at 6:34 PM

    This is Jeff Hendricks, I must apologize for my article no longer being up. My host provider pulled the plug on my site, and I lost all my content! So I will work on getting another article written, simply because it's a fantastic topic. Thanks for clicking anyway!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Abraham GumbaOctober 8, 2012 at 7:45 AM

    Hi,
    One of the links (Susan Mahoney's) seems broken.
    Thanks for the info

    ReplyDelete
  25. Jeff HendricksSeptember 20, 2013 at 6:26 AM

    Okay, I felt bad about my original article getting deleted, so I re-wrote it. It's now here:
    http://jeffhendricks.net/?p=623

    ReplyDelete