Nothing unusual. I often takes up to two months for books to appear on B&N.
I think they do this deliberately to stop people flip-flopping into Select and out.
I think they do this deliberately to stop people flip-flopping into Select and out.
Smashwords Distribution Woes
Help! I need the advice of folks with more experience with Smashwords.
My book was accepted to the Smashwords Premium Catalog A MONTH AGO, but it still isnt' showing up on B&N or Sony. (It showed up on Apple within a week, which surprised me.) Anyone know what to do about this? I've written to support, but historically, it takes them a week to respond, and they've never been helpful (or particularly enthusiastic about being helpful, either), so I'm not holding out much hope they'll be helpful this time. For those who've used Smashwords before, is it just a matter of waiting, or is this way outside the norm?
Even though I've been self-pubbing for almost two years, I was always exclusive to Amazon before. Pulled this book out of Select because I wanted to try to make the first in the series free. I tried reporting the Apple freebie link ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/blood-faerie/id594065601?mt=11&uo=4 ) , but so far, Amazon hasn't pricematched. Will they pricematch on Apple alone? I've heard they won't on Smashwords alone.
Thank you!
My book was accepted to the Smashwords Premium Catalog A MONTH AGO, but it still isnt' showing up on B&N or Sony. (It showed up on Apple within a week, which surprised me.) Anyone know what to do about this? I've written to support, but historically, it takes them a week to respond, and they've never been helpful (or particularly enthusiastic about being helpful, either), so I'm not holding out much hope they'll be helpful this time. For those who've used Smashwords before, is it just a matter of waiting, or is this way outside the norm?
Even though I've been self-pubbing for almost two years, I was always exclusive to Amazon before. Pulled this book out of Select because I wanted to try to make the first in the series free. I tried reporting the Apple freebie link ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/blood-faerie/id594065601?mt=11&uo=4 ) , but so far, Amazon hasn't pricematched. Will they pricematch on Apple alone? I've heard they won't on Smashwords alone.
Thank you!
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Interesting (and sorry for your troubles). I haven't followed BN, but now that you mention it, there seems to be a lag.
Yeah, I signed up with Smashwords specifically for B&N and it's goin on a month as well. The site says 2-4 days after shipment so yeah, quite the difference there.
Ugh. Not good news. I was so hopeful about them too. This whole experience has been much less than I'd hoped.
I wonder if the problem is Smashwords or B&N. I was thinking of pulling my book and trying this service: http://www.ebookpartnership.com/ebook-distribution/ebook-distribution-for-authors/ , but if the issue is B&N's fault, using another distributor won't help. Ebook Partnership charge a flat fee instead of a percentage of royalties, but if it's better to use than SW (and their CS people are more inclined to be helpful), then I may at least try it for all future books.
Thanks for the replies. It does help somewhat to know I'm not alone. On the other hand, it makes me realise the SW customer service probably won't/can't help.
I wonder if the problem is Smashwords or B&N. I was thinking of pulling my book and trying this service: http://www.ebookpartnership.com/ebook-distribution/ebook-distribution-for-authors/ , but if the issue is B&N's fault, using another distributor won't help. Ebook Partnership charge a flat fee instead of a percentage of royalties, but if it's better to use than SW (and their CS people are more inclined to be helpful), then I may at least try it for all future books.
Thanks for the replies. It does help somewhat to know I'm not alone. On the other hand, it makes me realise the SW customer service probably won't/can't help.
Good luck! I'm in the opposite boat, trying to get my books OFF of Sony via Smashwords as they seem to not want to update my pricing which is causing Amazon to send me nastygrams. Either way, they're slow about it.
I'm direct with B&N. It normally takes about 2 days for a new book to go live. I submit in ePub format, and make sure that the book passes epubcheck without errors or warnings before submitting, so perhaps that makes all the difference.Patty Jansen said:I think they do this deliberately to stop people flip-flopping into Select and out.
I live in the UK, so going direct isn't an option. I submitted via Smashwords in epub format, and it passed all the checks. So, my guess is that they treat Smashwords books differently than pubit submissions. Either that or Smashwords isn't actually sending the books through in the first place (or there's some other problem in how the books are sent/distributed.)scribblr said:I'm direct with B&N. It normally takes about 2 days for a new book to go live. I submit in ePub format, and make sure that the book passes epubcheck without errors or warnings before submitting, so perhaps that makes all the difference.
Anyone else want to chime in here, or shall I share the secret? Anyone? Okay, here goes:
It is Smashwords, not B&N, though B&N has been slow to update changes lately. Have a look into D2D (there's a very helpful thread on KB about user experiences with this distributor). Providing there are no issues with your epub file your book should appear on B&N within 48 hours. Mine usually take less than a day. Don't waste anymore time waiting for Smashwords to upload your book, because wasted time = lost sales.
It is Smashwords, not B&N, though B&N has been slow to update changes lately. Have a look into D2D (there's a very helpful thread on KB about user experiences with this distributor). Providing there are no issues with your epub file your book should appear on B&N within 48 hours. Mine usually take less than a day. Don't waste anymore time waiting for Smashwords to upload your book, because wasted time = lost sales.
D2D does get stuff up on B&N quickly, but it's not a great solution here since she's trying to get it to go free. You can't set a B&N title to free through D2D, though I hope that's something that will happen later.Lady Vine said:Anyone else want to chime in here, or shall I share the secret? Anyone? Okay, here goes:
It is Smashwords, not B&N, though B&N has been slow to update changes lately. Have a look into D2D (there's a very helpful thread on KB about user experiences with this distributor). Providing there are no issues with your epub file your book should appear on B&N within 48 hours. Mine usually take less than a day. Don't waste anymore time waiting for Smashwords to upload your book, because wasted time = lost sales.
I have a free title that has been shipped but hasn't shown up on B&N yet. If D2D let you upload freebies to B&N, I'd yank that puppy yesterday.
Patty, that's an interesting theory. I've just looked back at my first publications at the end of 2011. I published my first 3 titles between Oct 22nd and Nov 6th. I had sales on all 3 of those at B&N as early as Nov 19-21, according to the spreadsheet. And all sold at Apple in December. Select started in December, and the waiting time increased dramatically in the first quarter of 2012. I went direct with B&N in the first quarter because I could, and I'm working on getting everything up at Apple through D2D. I'm not pulling out of Smash completely, since I do sell a little bit there. But the wait times are wild. I'm at the point of deciding if D2D doesn't work out for Apple distribution either, I'll either invest in a Mac Mini and go direct, or stop worrying about iTunes at all.I think they do this deliberately to stop people flip-flopping into Select and out.
After hearing the stories of others here and on a similar post I made on Facebook today, I think I'm going to yank my book from Smashwords and go with http://www.ebookpartnership.com/. I talked to someone there today (they have LIVE CHAT!) and she was very helpful. Because I'm British, it's a good option for me (Simplifies taxes, for one), plus they can get my book into Apple, Waterstones, and WH Smith, which D2D can't (yet). The Cust Serv rep at EBP did tell me it would take 1-2 weeks for my book to show up in Barnes and Noble, but at this point, I don't mind the extra waiting time just to get away from the Smashwords experience. (Besides, there's no guarantee if I wait the extra two weeks with SW, the book would be up anyway--The wait times seem to be very long and unpredictable for some people.)
One of my books--the freebie start to my series--never ended up on Sony even after the sequel did. I sent two e-mails attempting to fix the strange problem, but it was never resolved. So I removed the sequel from Sony and gave up on it as a lost cause.
The problem might have Sony rather than Smashwords, though. Hard to say. All my other books are distributed properly.
The problem might have Sony rather than Smashwords, though. Hard to say. All my other books are distributed properly.
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