Business....

Its been a while since I've written a "business" blog, but for those that like that aspect of it, I figured I'd throw it out there.

About three months ago I hunkered down with the huge book on how to format your work for Smashwords, took a day, and uploaded a book.  Then a few days later I uploaded another, and another until today I have just about 20 books up at Smashwords, and all of them are in the premium category save one which is still pending review.

In those three months I have brought in a good chunk of income.  In fact that income is close to what I make on B&N with 50+ books out.  I have found that I have many returning readers in Canada, a few in Australia, and that my books on Kobo are selling beautifully, and picking up on Sony.

There are a few things about SW that I am not in love with one is the reports on book sales.  That's a bear all the way through, and I really don't know if my current payment is 3 months, 2 months, or 3 months, but SW only haha.  I still will need time to figure out the timing and how things flow.  The other thing that's difficult is there is no "set payout per book."  For example:

Deep: A Rape Fantasy - Kobo Sale - 1.69

Deep: A Rape Fantasy - SW Sale - 2.43

Deep: A Rape Fantasy - SW Sale - 2.46

Deep: A Rape Fantasy - B&N Sale = 1.80

It makes for a bear putting it into my spreadsheets and attempting to check and balance my paychecks.  But would I give up this massive increase to sales because of it?  HELL NO!!!!

The other thing - oddly enough, is that SW doesn't scream professional to me.  The website is. . . too simple?  I sent my mother there to buy a book (she likes buying them to support me even if she doesn't read them), and her first question to me was "can I trust this site?"  Its a shame, because the database and searching seems to be one of the best out there, but the simplicity of the design looks almost like a quickly thrown together blog.  Again - totally not worth abandoning them for.  

With the fact that the formatting has become so easy to me, broken down in simple easy to remember steps, the big boost in sales, the distribution to other major retailers, the knowledge that Mark Coker fought for Indie Authors against censorship with Paypal .  . . I won't be going away anytime soon,