The virtual book tour that I’ve been arranging starts on Monday. I blogged the itinerary here a couple of weeks ago. I’m very pleased to say that the whole thing has started early with an interview with Smashwords founder Mark Coker. In the interview I talk about what a blog book tour is and how to set one up. You’ll also find there the secret codes to buy both RealmShift and MageSign ebooks from Smashwords for just US$1 each, which is a promotion that will only run for the duration of the tour.
Smashwords is by far one of my favourite places on the net. It’s a truly brilliant site. Fundamentally it’s an ebook publishing site that lets indie authors and publishers upload their books for sale. The real beauty is in the functionality they offer. You can upload your book and have it on “sale” for free, like my novella Ghost Of The Black: A ‘Verse Full Of Scum. So you don’t have to set a price so that Smashwords can get their cut. If you do set a price it can be any amount you like and Smashwords will only take 15% of that. You also have full control of the pricing so you can change the price of your books as often as you like by generating coupon codes that people use at the point of sale. That’s what I’ve done to make RealmShift and MageSign available for just US$1 each during the tour. Otherwise the usual price of US$3.50 each still applies. And Smashwords only take 15% of whatever price is paid, whether that’s 15% of $3.50 or 15% of $1.
On top of that, Smashwords offers all kinds of search options for people to find your books and, when they do, they can buy them in a wide variety of formats, all DRM free. That means that Kindle owners can get .mobi editions, Sony Reader owners can get LRF editions and so on. Whatever you like. That kind of versatility and control is invaluable to indie authors and publishers.
So head on over to the Smashwords blog and have a read of the interview. If you have any questions leave a comment there and I’ll be sure to check in and answer any queries raised.
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