Does anyone here know anything about E-reads?

[I. J. Parker]

Suggested by my agent!  What do you think?  Their site looks ok, but I don't know anything about them.

 

Input much appreciated.

[B.R.Stateham]

'hope you have a hell of a lot more luck in this than I have, I.J. Trying to communicate with Amazon is like spit in the teeth of a hurricane.

[I. J. Parker]

Ok. That was the other question, posted below. :) Yes, it's nasty.

I hear meanwhile that E-reads pays 50 %. I believe Smashwords pays 70 %. Is there something I'm missing, or is E-Reads doing something extra?

[Garry L. McLaughlin]

I.J. I was just reading on Smashwords there will soon be an affiliation with Amazon. So my understanding would be if you bought a book directing from Smashword you 85% commiss and if someone else bought your book listed on Smashword from through Amazon you will get 70.5% commiss.

In my opinion (which isn't worth much) I think it would behove a person to go with Smashword, if for no other reason than to be able to get first hand suppor if needed.

Garry-

[I. J. Parker]

Well, that seems to be right if I do this myself. But in this case, the agent's office is handling it. I should add that E-Reads also offers POD print publication. I don't think Smashwords does.

[Pepper Smith]

http://ereads.com

This is what they say about themselves on their homepage:

E-Reads™ is
...a trail-blazing reprinter of out-of-print genre and general fiction and nonfiction by leading authors. Our books are available in all e-book formats and paperback. Read the latest publishing news and provocative blogs by top commentators in the traditional and digital publishing fields.

[I. J. Parker]

Yes, thanks, Pepper, I got that far. I still see this, but only if I also want POD. If I can get Encore, I think I'd rather do that. Encore does POD. Many of my books are in print already.

[Pepper Smith]

LOL! Sorry, I don't know anything more about them than that. They don't take new stuff, so I haven't spent any real time looking them over. It looks like their ebook store is run by Fictionwise.

[I. J. Parker]

Isn't Fictionwise a vanity press? I thought I saw some familiar names among their authors.

[Pepper Smith]

Fictionwise is an ebook retailer. They built themselves up over a number of years before being bought by Barnes and Noble. You'll find books from the big NY presses as well as from small independents, and yes, there are some self-published books there. They will republish books, but they're not a vanity press.

[I. J. Parker]

OK. My mistake. That's good then.

[Camille LaGuire]

IMHO, if you want to go with an ebook retailer that also does print, do Amazon and their Create Space. (You should probably raise this question over that the Kindleboards.com "Writer's Cafe" area. There are a lot of people there who have tried a lot of different such sites.)

Smashwords distributes to the Apple iBookstore, B&N, Sony, Kobo and Amazon if you opt in to their premium catalog. Most writers opt out of the Amazon distribution and go direct - especially now that Amazon pays 70 percent if you price in their recommended range. (2.99 to 9.99). The distribution to B&N, Sony and Kobo are still in the early stages and have a lot of bugs, but Apple really has its act together and updates seem to go up fast and accurately.

Neither Amazon nor Smashwords ask for exclusivity, though Amazon does insist that you agree not to set the list price lower at other other places than you do at Amazon (They don't hold you responsible for discounting, although they reserve the right to match the discount.)

[I. J. Parker]

Yes, thanks. You've been very kind before about explaining. I've been to the Smashwords site and like their explanations, plus the fact that they do have an e-mail address (unlike Amazon). I have no problems with the Kindle deal, except that I wanted to try a give-away for one month. They might not go for that. I'd really like the 70 %.
Smashwords is in the process of hooking up to Kindle.
Will check out CreateSpace. The E-Reads thing is rcommended by my agent. No idea why.
Many thanks for the ref. to Kindleboards.