Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Each year I write an annual Smashwords year in review and then preview what's coming for the new year. Welcome to the 2015/2016 edition!

The short version of this post is that amid a general slowdown in the ebook market, characterized by a glut of high-quality low-cost ebooks and flat or declining sales industry-wide, Smashwords is focused on the long term.

Although we've been in business for almost eight years, we still feel like we've only begun to scratch the surface of what's possible. We're looking ten years ahead and laying the groundwork today to enable a better long term future for the constituencies we serve - authors, publishers, retailers, libraries, readers, and book culture. A quick introduction for thet thousands of authors and publishers who are new to Smashwords this year: I founded the company in 2008 to make it fast, free and easy for any writer, anywhere in the world, to self-publish an ebook. In 2009 we began distributing our books to major retailers starting with Barnes & Noble.

Today we've grown to become the world's largest distributor of self-published ebooks. Over the years we've opened up exciting new sales channels for indie authors and small indie publishers that were previously inaccessible or didn't exist....