Clear your calendar and save the dates! The 15th annual Smashwords Read an Ebook Week sale kicks off Sunday, March 3rd and runs through Saturday, March 9th. Read an Ebook Week is the world's longest-running global celebration of ebooks and the readers who love them.   For one week only, thousands of the world's most popular indie authors will show their appreciation to readers by offering exclusive deep discounts on over 100,000 participating titles.  Discount levels are 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% (free!) Read an Ebook Week was the original super sale at Smashwords.  It inspir ..read more

Mark your calendars!   The annual Smashwords End of Year Sale kicks off December 15 and runs through January 1, 2024. Enrollment is now open for Smashwords authors at https://www.smashwords.com/dashboard/sitewidePromos  For authors who distribute to Smashwords via Draft2Digital, the enrollment period opens on or before December 1, and closes December 13. Now in its seventh year, this Smashwords End of Year Sale promises to be one of our largest sales ever.   If you're new to Smashwords supersales, either as an author or reader, you're in for a treat. Tens of thousands ..read more

Smashwords and Draft2Digital today announced a library distribution agreement with The Palace Project, operators of the Palace Marketplace.  Palace Marketplace is used by librarians to acquire ebooks and audiobooks. The Palace Project is a not-for-profit joint venture between Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and Lyrasis.  Major funding for The Palace Project has been provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Starting on February 14, the first of an anticipated 500,000 ebook titles from Smashwords and Draft2Digital will begin a ..read more

Welcome to my annual Smashwords 2022 year in review and 2023 preview. 2022 was a pivotal year for Smashwords, our authors, our publishers, and our readers. For those who haven’t heard, Smashwords was acquired in March by our former competitor, Draft2Digital. When I founded Smashwords 15 years ago, I set out on a crazy mission to change the way books were published, marketed, and sold.  I wanted to publish authors that traditional publishers refused to publish, in a format (ebooks) that few readers were reading, and I wanted to offer this service at no cost to every writer in the world.&n ..read more

After nine months of intense development effort, over 100,000 authors and publishers at Draft2Digital can now distribute their 300,000 ebooks into the Smashwords store. 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 ..read more

Dear Friends of Smashwords, This letter isn't a goodbye; it's a new hello. Today we announced that Draft2Digital is acquiring Smashwords. We're joining together to do more for authors, publishers, and readers. Fourteen years ago when I created Smashwords, I set out on a crazy mission to change the way books were published, marketed, and sold. I wanted to empower every writer in the world with free tools to self-publish ebooks with pride, professionalism, and success. I wanted to give readers the freedom to enjoy the wonderful diversity of indie-published titles that I knew our publishing pl ..read more

Welcome to my annual publishing predictions where I reflect upon the state of the indie nation and make predictions for the year ahead. Also, don't miss today's companion post, my annual Smashwords Year in Review and Preview for 2022. How has the pandemic changed the publishing landscape?  What does a post pandemic world look like for indie authors and publishers?  How has the pandemic changed readers’ relationship with books?  I’ll explore these and other questions as we look ahead to 2022. As I prepare to press publish on the last day of 2021, Covid infections are hitting ..read more

Welcome to my 2021 Smashwords year in review and 2022 preview.   Wow.  Our 14th year of business operation.  Thank you Smashwords authors, publishers, readers, and channel partners! Don't miss my annual companion post, 2022 Publishing Predictions – Indies Take Center Stage. As I mentioned in my predictions post today, 2021 was another good year to be an indie publisher, due in part to pandemic-inspired changes to reading habits.  The higher sales levels many authors experienced in 2020 continued into 2021, and will likely continue into 2022 for the reasons I outline i ..read more

The fifth annual Smashwords End of Year Sale starts this Friday, December 17, running through January 1.  For these last two weeks of the year, tens of thousands of indie ebooks will be priced at exclusive discounts of 25%, 50%, 75%, and even free. Smashwords authors and publishers can enroll their tiles from the home page or go directly to https://www.smashwords.com/dashboard/sitewidePromos  Entire catalogs can be opted in at once. Starting December 17, readers will find the sale prominently promoted at the top of the Smashwords home page, from which they can enter an entire sectio ..read more

Welcome to my annual publishing predictions post, where I recap the state of the indie nation and share publishing predictions for the year ahead. Also check out my annual Smashwords Year in Review and Preview of 2021. The purpose of these predictions is to focus our attention on the future. Some of my predictions will inspire you, and others might surprise or anger you.  That’s the point.  By imagining potential futures, you can work to shape the future you desire. Although it’s easy for an individual author to feel powerless against the broader forces of this industry, the opposit ..read more