The news comes in time for these authors to participate in the 6th annual Smashwords End of Year sale, which promises to be our biggest ever. The sale kicks off December 15 and runs through January 1.
This important milestone marks the successful completion of the first phase of a three-phase roadmap following Draft2Digital's acquisition of Smashwords which completed in March of this year.
It's the first step in a dramatic transformation to come.
In phase 2, during the first half of 2023, we'll port Smashwords' industry-leading book marketing tools over to Draft2Digital, and in phase 3, scheduled for the second half of the year, we'll migrate all Smashwords authors and publishers over to Draft2Digital.
The completion of phase 3 will transform Smashwords from a primarily author-facing site into an a reader-facing store front. It will allow us to create a cleaner, simpler, and more enjoyable bookstore experience for readers.
This is also the first time that Smashwords has allowed the books from other distributors into our store. It won't be the last. Later in 2023 we hope to open the store to other other ONIX-capable distributors and publishers of DRM-free ebooks.
As new books and authors flow into the store, they bring with them more readers who can then discover our already-amazing selection of 600,000 and growing independently published ebooks.
The Smashwords store is on track to close out 2022 with our sixth consecutive year of sales growth. It's an impressive testament to the quality, diversity, and desirability of independently published ebooks.
You can read the full announcement over at the Draft2Digital blog.
This is indeed very good news for authors and, like many authors. I have been impressed by the joint interviews given by Mark Coker and Kris Austin.
ReplyDeleteBut communication has been poor from certain staff members who have given out misleading or indeed inaccurate information when authors have had problems setting up subscribing to the Smashwords store and the End of Year sale.
I have had to wait days to get replies, only to find the response does not address the issue. Maybe that's because some don't understand how this works. Maybe they are stressed by the pressure they are under to get this working. I understand that, as do all authors, but there is no excuse for rude responses.
On the other hand, and I think he must from the Smashwords side, I receive accurate help and information from one staff member, usually within a few minutes. I won't give his name here but I have given feedback to the new merged business. I hope management looks at this issue and gets Customer Service to work the way he does.
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ReplyDeleteExcellent news!
ReplyDeleteHow will Authors price their print books for Draft2Digital?
ReplyDeleteSheri, this announcement deals with ebooks only. If you're using or considering using D2D Print for print on demand, their customer service team probably provide guidance.
ReplyDelete