[Shelley K]

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.

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.

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.

I think they do this deliberately to stop people flip-flopping into Select and out.

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.