A Smashwords Warning

[I. J. Parker]

I've been trying to take down a title on Smashwords now for about three weeks, with no results.  Sure, I got assurances that they would take it down, but nothing happened. The problem is that Smashwords titles appear on many web pages as offers from many different merchants. At the moment, B&N lists the title three times.  I have unpubbed two of them, but the third was put there by Smashwords and B&N cannot take it down.

It looks very much as though you are trapped if you put anything in the hands of Smashwords.  I have no idea how to track down and remove all the different offers,

 

Meanwhile, my Smashwords sales are pathetic, while I could get some Amazon support and increase my sales there if I had control over the title.

 

I'd heard there are difficulties, but at the moment it looks absolutely impossible.  I frankly see no reason to ever use Smashwords again.

[Debbie Bennett]

I'm about to get Apple's legal team involved to delist my books that are still showing with my old distributor. And I have no idea what to do with B&N. Any sales I am making via my old distributor are lining his pockets and not mine right now. I will use smashwords only for non-amazon distribution in future - much easier. Smashwords customer service has always been prompt and efficient with me and I've never had an issue with loading straight word docs for their extended distribution.

[M.E. Purfield]

I havent had much trouble removing a book from smashwords, floowed by the premium catalog. Usually it takes about 2-3 weeks from the thursday it starts. And this is recently for me.

 

[I. J. Parker]

Thanks, M.E.  I finally got the "all-clear" from Amazon, so I assume they finally got around to it.  2-3 weeks is way too long.  Amazon manages this in 24 hours.

[M.E. Purfield]

No doubt that amazon is more equipted with this than smashword. But smashwords does over extend itiself with the premium catalog and them millions of books it takes, I imagine. Where as amazon just has one system and has to just deal with itself.

 

Also, I believe that the financial risk is higher with smashword than what amazon is taking. Kindle is still the king of the market right now.

[I. J. Parker]

My main complaint about Smashwords is that they don't sell enough of my books to tempt me.

[M.E. Purfield]

It's the same for me, but they are useful when you want to do giveaways with coupons and make something free for a long period of time.

[I. J. Parker]

Ah.  Well, the 5-day giveaway on Kindle is really already more than I want to do. It may not be worth the promotion if you lose all the sales on the free downloads.