Exclusivity = Professional Suicide

Well, maybe not suicide, but at least a really severe professional mangling.

Hey Folks,

I’ve recently become aware there are still some writers out there who have made a conscious decision not to publish their work through Smashwords. Frankly, I suspect that’s due in part to the Smashwords Style Guide being so stinkin’ convoluted that it’s difficult to read, much less understand.

That’s okay. I agree.

In fact, I agree so much that after I finally figured out the process (back in 2011) I wrote an alternative instruction book titled The Essentials of Digital Publishing.

I’ve sold a few thousand copies of that ebook around the world. I’ve sold several hundred copies through Amazon, a few dozen through Barnes & Noble, several hundred more through Apple, and the rest through Library Direct, Baker & Taylor, Page Foundry, Scribd, TXTR, Oyster, Flipkart, Kobo, OverDrive and the Smashwords store. (Before they went under, I also sold many copies through Diesel and Sony.)

The thing is this: If I had sold exclusively to Amazon, I would have sold several hundred copies (around 800) of that book over the past five years. Because I did NOT slice away a massive chunk of the reading public by bending to Amazon’s exclusivity clause, I’ve sold just over four THOUSAND copies instead.

Now, The Essentials of Digital Publishing sells on Smashwords for $9.99. My royalty is $7.99 for every copy sold through Smashwords. For copies sold through other stores (for those listed above, Smashwords is the distributor), my royalty is $6.63 per copy. For copies sold through Amazon, I receive $6.99 per copy.

You can do the math. (This doesn’t give you exact figures because I’ve changed the price on the book a couple times, etc.)

Now understand, I don’t just have the one book up there for sale. I currently have around 90 short stories up for sale as well as 9 novels and around 14 nonfiction books, including The Essentials of Digital Publishing.

All of those are for sale in all of the venues I mentioned above.

Imagine all the sales I’m missing if I go exclusively with Amazon?

But like I said up front, I suspect a lot of you are toddling off into exclusivity land because you have trouble following the Smashwords Style Guide. And as I also said up front, I don’t blame you.

So here’s the deal. You can go, right now, to my new daily blog over at http://FrostProof808.com. When you get there, click on the new Downloads page I just put up. You can download any or all of the documents listed there absolutely free of charge.

That includes the third item, The Essentials of Digital Publishing. It’s a $9.99 value and it’s FREE. C’mon, you can’t beat that deal with a stick.

And I don’t want anything in return.

While you’re there, if you look over a few of the recent blog posts and find them of interest, sign up. That’s free too, at least for the time being. That site takes a lot of my time and I add a new topic of the day almost every day, so I might make it a paying site before too long. But those who are already signed up will continue without paying.

Also, if you find the site of interest or the information there valuable, please consider dropping something in my tip jar on the way out. There’s a link on the bottom of the page there.

And if not, absolutely no worries.

Now go, download, learn to format your Word document for Smashwords AND Amazon and stop cutting off about 2/3 of the readers in the world.

Happy writing!

Harvey

Note: Eformatting your own work isn’t for everyone, even after following my excellent instructions (grin). If you’d rather hire someone to do that for you, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com and I’ll pass along the names of some folks who do excellent work at fair prices.

Note: If you find something of value in these posts or on this website, consider dropping a tip into Harvey’s Tip Jar on your way out. If you’ve already contributed, Thanks! If you can’t make a monetary donation, please at least consider forwarding this post to a friend or several. Again, thank you.