Un-publishing with Smashwords

A handful of readers have found my work via Barnes and Noble, apple, and other venues. Those numbers are very small. I distributed through Smashwords to put both My Boyfriend’s Back and Heart of Gold into those markets.

I’m unpublishing on Smashwords because I have not been satisfied with the process. While MBB went through their “grinder” seamlessly, HOG failed twice in spite of the fact that the alleged error was the copyright page, which is IDENTICAL to MBB (I used the same template.) I even unpubbed and repubbed the other title; it failed, then went through in less than 24 hours with absolutely no changes before resubmission. (Note: that means they rejected, then accepted, the same manuscript.)

Barnes and Noble has been showing discrepancies they refuse to explain.  I have contacted them numerous times over a 6 month period without ever hearing back with so much as a form letter. I am further very troubled that BN has refused to carry certain books in what I view as a hissy fit over consequences of their own bad business practices.

Almost all of my sales are via Amazon. Every email I have sent to Amazon got me a response within 24 hours. Amazon allows me to select “NO DRM.” As such, for the moment, I am going Amazon-only.  This is not a “select” related decision, as I have not opted for KDP Select and am not yet sure if I ever will.

For anyone interested, Calibre is a free program that will convert any book downloaded from Amazon to a format you can use on other devices, including Nook.  Get it HERE: http://calibre-ebook.com/