E-book? Why an E-book?

Who knew?

I first encountered Smashwords.com about a year ago. At the time, I thought it was an interesting concept. Anyone could submit something they had written to them and the site would publish it electronically, whether it be your effort at the Great American Novel or your non-fiction book about how squirrels are trying to take over the world. No paper was involved. You could charge whatever you wanted or nothing at all and the site would take fifteen percent of your sales if you had any. I looked at it as a big garage sale for literary works, but nothing I was going to attempt seriously. I wouldn't have a problem getting an agent or a publisher. And really, who reads on their computers?

I'll give you a minute to look up the answer. On your Kindle. Or your Nook. Or your netbook. Or your iPhone.

I knew, I just didn't know it

Smashwords hasn't changed their philosophy very much since then. What they have done is expanded the reach of their material. About a dozen formats are available for download and they are affiliated with many e-book publishers such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon. But what really sold me into working with them was a very simple concept that I totally ignored from the beginning.

I don't like most of the stuff on the best seller lists. And I don't read it. Why would anyone at one of those companies whose job it is to populate those lists think that what I was writing was worth their time? They wouldn't, because it's not what sells well for them.

And now that I do....

It occurred to me that selling directly to the people who like what I like was the answer. And Smashwords appears to be an excellent way to do that. With all their different formats and their acceptance of popular payment methods such as Paypal, and print-on-demand possibilities from their affiliate WordClay, this looks like a winner. Of course, I'll have to do all my own marketing and advertising, but I'd have to do a lot of that with a publisher anyway. I'm kind of stoked about it, to tell the truth. Who knew?

Have you bought anything from Smashwords.com? Are you going to? What was your impression of the quality of the work there?