Problems in the Indie Publishing World
Although #Draft2Digital and #Smashwords have “merged”, it is anything but a union made in heaven.
#D2D has acquired Smashwords for one reason and one reason only. To add the 930,000 titles that D2D authors already has in D2D to the 500,000 titles that Smashwords currently has. D2D are doing this because it currently only distributes to online retailers such as Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and 10 others. Unlike Smashwords it has no storefront of its own.
Smashwords’ former owner sits on the D2D board but reports to the CEO of D2D who makes all the decisions in the combined business. D2D are initially calling the store the Smashwords Storefront in deference to the former owner. Eventually, D2D has said everything will be under the D2D banner and brand.
There is considerable rivalry and office politics being played out. D2D wanted to seize an advantage over the Smashwords “camp” by introducing the facility for D2D writers to have their books on the Smashwords Store before the planned date. The result was that the procedures which were set up for readers to purchase books were totally confusing.
Their first attempt sent readers to a page full of many authors. It was only by using a search bar to find the author whose book you wanted that you were directed to the correct page. You could proceed to checkout only after you entered a coupon code. D2D had previously said, and are still saying on other parts of their webpage, that coupon codes will not be introduced until late 2023!
Although not communicated by D2D, a work- around was introduced by Smashwords by advising readers to go to the author’s profile page and then scrolling down to the bottom. Readers still had to enter a coupon code to proceed to checkout.
Understandably, none of my readers bothered to go through such a complicated and unnecessary procedure. As I was offering my books for free between 15 December 2022 and 1 January 2023, I decided to offer them a pdf file if they sent me an email to brigydon1@outlook.com and advised me of their email address. They would get their chosen book by return.
It is not unusual in mergers and takeovers for the dominant company to use their new-found power to give precedence to employees of the dominant company to the detriment of the weaker organisation. There may be smiles in public but there is bitter rivalry in reality.
The indie writing industry always accepted that D2D had the more sophisticated computer systems. It was this that enabled them to race forward and eventually overtake in popularity the old and cumbersome formatting systems that Smashwords had designed.
On 15 December the Smashwords Storefront crashed causing extreme embarrassment to D2D. It was up and running the next day.
