I think I always knew, when Smashwords merged with Draft2Digital, that maintenance fees would be in the site’s future. Their argument is fairly reasonable – they make the money required for maintenance via their share of royalties so poor earners will need to contribute a small fee to continue using the site. My books don’t earn the required minimum so…

I’m sad, in a way. I started with Smashwords, partly because they gave such clear instructions on how to format for e-book publishing. I also wanted to give non-Amazon users a chance to see my books on a different platform. It was, in addition, an easy way to make books free, via the coupon system, for give-aways. However, all good things come to an end!

I understand Kindle has some kind of promotion system for give-aways and I must look into that. I will probably put everything into KU, something I had avoided up to now. I must also update the page in my blog that lists the availability of my books.

I rarely, nowadays, involve myself in give-away events, partly because my books are not quite the norm for any genre other than fantasy, and then they are mostly mm so not the norm for fantasy either… I seem to have backed myself into some kind of genre niche!! If I want to give free copies the easiest way is to put a pdf on my ‘free stuff’ page and maybe consider time limiting that.

So, my books are all delisted with Smashwords as of today, and I will get to the rest of the tasks in due course!