Smashwords - Wikipedia
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American self-publishing platform
Smashwords
Founded
2008
Founder
Mark Coker
Country of origin
United States
Headquarters location
Los Gatos, California
Distribution
Worldwide
Official website
www
.smashwords
.com
Smashwords, Inc.
, based in
Los Gatos, California
, is a platform for
self-publishing
e-books
. The company, founded by Mark Coker, began public operation in 2008
and was acquired by Draft2Digital, LLC in 2022.
Authors
and independent
publishers
upload their manuscripts as electronic files to the service, which converts them into multiple e-book formats for various devices. Once published, the books are made available for sale online at a price set by the author or independent publisher.
History
edit
Coker began work on Smashwords in 2005 and officially launched the website in May 2008. Within the first seven months of launching, the website published 140 books.
Due to initially low profits, the firm switched to a distribution model that offered retailers a "30% commission in exchange for digital shelf space".
Smashwords achieved a profit in 2010 and has distributed some of its books via
Apple
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Sony
and
KDP
Amazon.com
's e-book publishing website.
In 2012, Smashwords announced that it would partner with
3M
Cloud Library, which would allow for the option for their authors' books to be available in libraries,
and that it had reached about 127,000 titles by 44,000 authors.
Coker, a former Silicon Valley publicist, started Smashwords in 2008 with the claimed goal of using technology to democratize publishing—allowing writers to appeal directly to readers without having to deal with gatekeepers such as agents and editors. In keeping with this mission, Smashwords applies no editorial screening. The only e-books the firm rejects are ones that contain plagiarism, illegal content or incitement to racism, homophobia or violence.
Smashwords does not use
digital rights management
In February of 2022 it was announced that Smashwords would be acquired by Draft2Digital with a deal that was completed in March 2022. This united two of the largest independent distributors for self-published books.
References
edit
DeBare, Ilana (2011-05-12).
"Smashwords gets e-books to market"
San Francisco Chronicle
. Retrieved
2011-12-29
Anderson, Porter (2022-02-09).
"A Merger in Self-Publishing: Draft2Digital's Acquisition of Smashwords"
Publishing Perspectives
. Retrieved
2023-10-16
"Draft2Digital to Acquire Smashwords, Creating Self-Publishing Juggernaut"
Yahoo Finance
. 2022-02-08
. Retrieved
2023-10-16
"Book Value"
Forbes
"3M's Tom Mercer Discusses Smashwords Partnership at BEA"
Good E-reader
"Smashwords Counts 127K Titles & Projects $12M in Revenue This Year"
GalleyCat
"We Thought About Calling it D2D2Smashwords Store..."
Draft2Digital. 2022-12-06
. Retrieved
2025-09-06
Books uploaded to Smashwords do not contain DRM technology.
"Draft2Digital to Acquire Smashwords"
Publishers Weekly
External links
edit
Official website
Ebooks
Formats
ePub
FictionBook
CBR/CBZ
Kindle File Format
Mobipocket
PDF
Plain text
IBA
Reading
Devices
Amazon Kindle
Barnes & Noble Nook
Bookeen
Elonex ebook
enTourage eDGe
Hanlin eReader
iPad
iRiver Story
Kobo eReader
Onyx Boox
Plastic Logic Reader
PocketBook eReader
Rocket eBook
SoftBook
Smartphones
Tablets
Software
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Digital Editions
Aldiko
Apple Books
(iBooks)
Aquafadas
Blio
Bluefire Reader
Calibre
FBReader
Foliate
Google Play Books
Kindle app
Kitabu
Kobo
Lector
Lektz
Lucifox
Microsoft Reader
MuPDF
Okular
OverDrive Media Console
Snapplify
STDU Viewer
Sumatra PDF
Editing
ABBYY FineReader
AbiWord
Adobe InDesign
Adobe RoboHelp
Aquafadas
Atlantis Word Processor
Booktype
Calibre
Calligra Author
Collabora Online
eXeLearning
HelpNDoc
iBooks Author
iStudio Publisher
LaTeX
LibreOffice
MadCap Flare
Oxygen XML Editor
PagePlus
Pages
QuarkXPress
Scrivener
Sigil
Writer2epub
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Commercial
Apple Books Store
Amazon Kindle Store
Baen Free Library
Barnes & Noble
Booktrack
BookWalker
Feedbooks
Google
Google Play
Google Books
Jarir.com
Kobo Bookstore
Rokomari
Sony Reader Store
Smashwords
Noncommercial
Aozora Bunko
Faded Page
HathiTrust
Internet Archive
Project Gutenberg
Australia
Canada
Standard Ebooks
Wikisource
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DLsite
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Jinjiang Literature City
Kindle Direct Publishing
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OverDrive, Inc.
Perlego
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Qidian
Rokomari.com
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Smashwords
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Smashwords
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Kindle Direct Publishing
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Barnes & Noble
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Active
Amazon Kindle
Apple Book Store
Archive of Our Own
Barnes & Noble Nook
FanFiction.Net
(aka Fiction Press)
Google Play Books
Hoopla Digital
Kindle Direct Publishing
Kindle Store
Kobo
Lulu
NoiseTrade
OverDrive
PocketBook Reader
Scribd
Smashwords
Wattpad
Wikibooks
Discontinued
Sony Reader
Oyster
Pronoun
Vanity publishers
(authors pay to
have their
books published)
Amazon
CreateSpace
America Star Books
American Biographical Institute
AuthorHouse
Author Solutions
Dorrance Publishing
Famous Poets Society
iUniverse
Poetry.com
International Library of Poetry
Tate Publishing & Enterprises
Vantage Press
Xlibris
Xulon Press
Print on
demand
books
America Star Books
AuthorHouse
DiggyPOD
Espresso Book Machine
Lightning Source
Llumina Press
Lulu
Trafford Publishing
Xlibris
Self-printing
products and
custom
merchandise
CafePress
Custom Ink
Etsy
Redbubble
RushOrderTees
Shopify
Shutterfly
Spreadshirt
TeePublic
Spring
Vistaprint
Zazzle
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Category:Self-published books
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Categories
Ebook suppliers
Self-publishing companies
Companies based in Silicon Valley
Companies based in Santa Clara County, California
Los Gatos, California
2008 establishments in California
American companies established in 2008
Internet properties established in 2008
2022 mergers and acquisitions
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