The Next Step - Smashwords

The next step in my personal evolution as a writer is to focus on my mystery writing. I have already made the decision to publish through e-book venues, and that Smashwords is the publishing venue that I will use. My second "brick and mortar" book (in the field of Tarot) will be in to my publisher by the end of May. I have no plans at this time to write anything else in this field, other than articles and reviews.

This morning I pulled up the Smashwords site, to see that the process for submission there is. Scanning it quickly, I can see that it is self explanatory, which is a relief. They begin by posting the caution that no one should update their work without first checking the Smashwords style guide (which they provide a link to). So far, so good. They also note that the publishing page is NOT where you submit an updated version of your work. Kudos Smashwords! I hope people read this stuff! The last thing they ask is that the person uploading the work is the original author or exclusive publisher. Another interesting note is that they do not publish public domain work, or Private Label Rights books.

Then comes the usual - book title, short description, long description, language, whether or not the book has adult content, pricing (you can give it out for free, charge a specific amount, give a certain percentage of the book to be read for free (sampling). Then comes the good stuff - which formats you want to publish in! Kindle, Nook and Palm for me. I may decide at a later date to add others. I will have to think about PDF format. adn am not sure where plain text would come in. Choose your cover image, the title of the book, sign their three item publishing agreement, and you are good to go!

Well, good to go except for the tiny fact that you have to promote your book! ;-) That is for another day!

(c) May 2012 Bonnie Cehovet