Smashwords formally launched an affiliate program today that offers independent web marketers generous 11 percent commissions simply for linking to Smashwords books, publisher pages and author pages.
With big box and independent bookstores in decline, authors and publishers need to replace physical shelf space with digital shelf space. The Smashwords Affiliate Marketing Program makes it possible for ebook stores to appear virtually anywhere on the web - on blogs, author web sites and special-interest communities.
Affiliate programs are nothing new to bookselling. Amazon has had enormous success with its own Amazon Associates program, which, according to some old reports I've seen on the web, has close to one million participating affiliates and drives close to 40 percent of Amazon's sales (if any readers know sources of exact numbers, post them here so I can reference). Despite the success of their affiliate program, Amazon earlier this year removed Kindle ebooks from the program, which means Amazon Affiliates no longer earn commissions on ebook sales.
Read our press release for more information. Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch also has a brief story out today.
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