In this episode, we'll talk about how authors position their books for success in Smashwords' 16th Annual Summer/Winter Sale, July's month-long celebration of indie authors and the readers who love them.
Smashwords store sales keep getting bigger and better. More authors, more books, more first-time customers and more book sales! In this episode, we'll talk about how authors position their books for success in Smashwords' 16th Annual Summer/Winter Sale. It's a month-long celebration of indie authors and the readers who love them.
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Kevin Tumlinson [00:00:01]:
You just tuned into the hippest way to start and grow your indie author career. Learn the ins, the outs, and all the all arounds of self publishing with the team from d two d and their industry influencing guests. You're listening to Self Publishing Insiders with Draft2Digital.
Jim Azevedo [00:00:27]:
Hey. We are live, Mark.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:00:29]:
We are live. Look at that. Imagine that. A second ago, we were alive but not live, and now we're alive and live.
Jim Azevedo [00:00:36]:
At the same time. Welcome, everybody. Thank you for joining us here on Self Publishing Insiders. I am Jim Azevedo, And once again, I am thrilled to welcome my friend and colleague, Mark Leslie Lefebvre. We have a lot to talk about today. Don't we, Mark?
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:00:54]:
Hey. Hey, Jim. How are you doing?
Jim Azevedo [00:00:56]:
I'm doing well. We have a lot to talk about today. We've got a lot to talk about today. I heard echo. Echoes are fun.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:01:03]:
I I know. You know what? I think I've got the video open on another screen. I'm just gonna mute and go find that. I'll fix that tech issue, and that's probably what's happened.
Jim Azevedo [00:01:12]:
No worries. So today, we're here to talk about the Smashwords, July summer winter sale. Now this is just a massive, massive sale, and it's massive. I mean, there are other sales out there who claim to be massive, but this sale is the massive est because, number 1, we have more authors and more books involved. There's gonna be, like there's well over a 100,000 books that were involved in the last sale. Probably more around the neighborhood of a 120,000 ebooks that will be on sale. There are thousands of authors involved, but here's the thing. The sale lasts not for 1 week, not for 2 weeks, but for the entire month of July.
Jim Azevedo [00:01:59]:
So that's what? 31 days of books and book shopping and binging for some of today's hottest, best selling, most buzzworthy authors there in the industry. So today, we wanna talk to you about the sale and then how to best, position yourself and your books to become more visible, to attract more readers, to your books out there. And you're back.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:02:28]:
I'm back. I'm sorry. I it took because I have 5,000,000,000 windows open. How many other writers have a lot of windows open? Let us know. But I had 5,000,000,000 windows open, and and I had the YouTube one open. So I I had to find it and and and and go put it out of its misery. So sorry about that, Jim.
Jim Azevedo [00:02:43]:
No. Not at all. I've I've done that before, and I just automatically assumed it was me, to be honest with you.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:02:51]:
But yeah. The the the sale is coming on, and and what I would I would want to encourage anyone watching live, if you have any we have tips. Some authors have sent us some amazing tips on what they've done to promote their books in in the Smashwords sale. But if you have any tips, please drop them in the comments. We'd love to, share your thoughts, and, I mean, let's help each other out. Right?
Jim Azevedo [00:03:13]:
Yeah. And that's I mean, that's one of the tips right there, helping each other out. I think that's one of the one of the biggest, what's what's one of the biggest tips, one of the biggest best practices I've seen going back, like, literally 16 years from when Smash first started and we first started doing sales like this one, the most successful authors out there were the ones who collaborated with their fellow authors and got their street teams involved. It just became this big celebration, this big, like, party of, like, hey. There was this big sale happening. Help me promote this, and I'm gonna gonna promote your books. You can promote my books. Let's all talk about it.
Jim Azevedo [00:03:51]:
And it's just been wonderful over the years.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:03:55]:
No. Definitely. I'm I'm there's a few tips, I think, that make sense, to to share with authors about the Smashwords store. And and I missed maybe you'd already mentioned this, Jim, but did you mention, that it was kinda like one of the one of the largest growing retail, places that we end up, considering we did drive to digital distribute to even though there's still authors publishing direct to Smashwords, from that platform as we as we walk through migration.
Jim Azevedo [00:04:25]:
I did not mention that specifically, that Smashwords is one of drop the digital fastest growing retailers out there. It keeps ticking up.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:04:36]:
And, Graham, what I like about that?
Jim Azevedo [00:04:38]:
What's that?
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:04:39]:
I like the margin that I earn in the Smashwords store. I don't know if anyone's ever noticed that when you look at your dashboard.
Jim Azevedo [00:04:45]:
More specific? Like,
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:04:47]:
really? I I get more margin. So, for example, I'm just I'm just right now, I'm just toggling over to one of my books, and I'm looking, I'm looking at the, you know, the the published page for a book that I have priced at 4.99. And so that usually means, for most of the major retailers, I'm getting, $2.97, every time that book sells. But if you notice, I look at the Smashwords one, it says $3.86.
Jim Azevedo [00:05:15]:
So like a buck more.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:05:16]:
Yeah. Yeah. And that's because, 2 things, and I think this is really important for, for authors to be aware of, is with the Smashwords store, because it is owned by us, we what we have to first do is pay for the compensation of the credit card fees, etcetera. But then we have the ability to give more of that back, to the author. And and I'm I'm just toggling over to another screen where I had I thought I had a nice little, and I did post this in, in the wide for the win, Facebook group. But so at the the lowest rate so and it's based on your shopping cart, not, cart, not your price. Now on that publishing screen, we have no choice but to show you the the based on the retail cost of your book, if you just sell one unit in your own shopping cart, that's what you're gonna get. But it could be more, and here's why.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:06:07]:
Yeah. So if the shopping cart is 99¢, which usually means it's 1 book in there Yep. That's the lowest margin you'll get at Smashwords, which would be, let me see, 56.78%. So 57% at 99¢ as opposed to 35%. So that's pretty good. Not too bad. If if the shabby part oh, sorry. Go ahead.
Jim Azevedo [00:06:30]:
No. I just said not too shabby.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:06:31]:
Not too shabby at all. If the if the shopping cart goes to a dollar 99, that brings it up to 69 point 7 2%. So it's practically at a dollar 99 at 70%. So that's kinda cool. You know, of 44.99 like you saw is 78.28%. But But then if the shopping cart keeps going up, it, once you hit $10, it hits, 80% exactly. And then it goes up to 81% as you get to 20. But that's kind of a pretty exciting thing because if you are collaborating with a bunch of writers who maybe all write the same genre and you're and you're saying, hey.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:07:06]:
It's my book and Jim's book and, Lexi's book and all these other books that are all in the same genre. Awesomeness, because, you know, when you put us all together.
Jim Azevedo [00:07:14]:
Because awesomeness.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:07:16]:
Yeah. That that could help out, and and and everyone in the shopping cart gets that that higher value percentage, which, again, I'm I'm a big fan of more money in author's pockets.
Jim Azevedo [00:07:28]:
Yeah. And these checkout I mean, that checkout level, it's pretty cool because during these sales, what we found and one thing I haven't mentioned yet, Mark, is that these sales have been growing not only year over year, but every sale keeps getting bigger and better. And, historical, they've been breaking records. There's been more authors involved, more books involved, and that was starting to happen even before the Draft2Digital and Smashwords merger.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:07:56]:
Yeah.
Jim Azevedo [00:07:56]:
And then once Draft2Digital and Smashwords merged and Draft2Digital author started, you know, adding their books to the Smashwords store, Then there began this influx of awesome new authors and their wonderful books. So now we're just seeing we're seeing, along with that, an influx of first time customers to the Smashwords store.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:08:19]:
Yeah.
Jim Azevedo [00:08:19]:
So with the last sale this is really cool because the last sale was the reading ebook week sale in March. That, of course, per its name, only lasted for a week. But that sale had the highest number of first time customers at the Smashwords store ever in its 16 year history. And it also had the single highest sales day ever in the 16 year history of Smashwords.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:08:46]:
That's fantastic. New customers is great because a new customer shopping the platform means more customers potentially to to find other books by other great authors.
Jim Azevedo [00:08:57]:
That's exactly right. And what they're doing here during these sales that we could see it is they're kinda like they're shopping around. Ebook prices are so low anyway, but during the sale, a lot of authors are dropping their prices down even further. There was almost there's almost a 100,000 books priced at free today. Like, here we are almost 2 weeks ahead of the sale. But there's, like, tens of thousands of free series starters. Everybody loves reading series, and that just really sparks reader interest and enthusiasm and that, you know, that whole, spreading, the word and the sale.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:09:34]:
Well, you mentioned free, and I saw that Bria Lexer has left a question. I wonder if we should address that question now since while we're on the topic of free. Perfect.
Jim Azevedo [00:09:45]:
Thanks for the segue, Bria. So for those of us or for those of you who are listening and not watching, Bria asked, is it better to have my book set free during the sale?
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:10:01]:
Well, you mentioned, Jim, first free in series. And so for me, I mean, free is good if you're wanting to get more reviews and just get more readers and hoping that the word-of-mouth is gonna help them buy it on whatever. Because, again, if somebody reads a book on the Smash Bros platform and then they tell someone about it, that person may go and buy it on Amazon or Kobo or Nook or Google or anywhere else or or request it from the library. Right? Because that's that's what readers do is they they read where they read. I would I'm I'm a fan personally as an author of that first free in series because, hey. Here. Try this world out. Try this universe out.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:10:36]:
If you like it, I got more. Come on back. Sure. You know? And and, again, as you mentioned, in the authors, the price is so reasonable anyways. But if it is part of the sale so let's say, I'll give you a perfect example, and and and maybe that this could be a segue into talking about one of the challenges right now, based on the all or none, opt in for draft to digital authors in the Smashwords store and some of the complications this could cause, but I take advantage of the complications. So I made all my books 75% off because that's the only opt the option I have is not none, 25%, 50%, 75%, and I think a 100%, off. But that meant because I'm also running a a different promo in July with a bookbub to drop a book 1 down to 99¢, because 75 anything that becomes less than 99¢ after the discount is taken gets rounded to 0. But that means for the entire month of July, my first book in series is gonna be free.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:11:37]:
And the other ones are gonna be 75% off 4.99 or whatever, price they happen to be at. So I think that would work out well because you can try for free if you like it. If you're a fast reader, maybe you start reading it. And then before the end of the month, if you wanna get them all, you can go grab them for 75 percent off or ask for them at the library. So I think I don't know. That's something that I think can can work well.
Jim Azevedo [00:12:02]:
Yeah. And I think it kinda depends too, Bria. Like, if there are if you're a a really well known author, then maybe free isn't, right for you. You could still do it to attract additional awareness. But if you're somebody who is just selling gobs and gobs and gobs of books, you know, you can set your books to 50% off or 25% off even and get away with it, or don't put your books on sale at all. But if you're one of those newer authors who's just you know, you're really trying to create some more awareness or maybe you write series, then I would absolutely encourage you to experiment with free. You don't have to keep it, your book set at free, forever or even for the duration of the sale, but free still works as a marketing tool to help create awareness to your other books, especially for those of you who write free. Now the data still suggests that series that have a free series starter sell better than series without a free series starter.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:13:00]:
Okay. Cool. Awesome. Can I pop up the comment from, Alyssa, asking the question? Alright. So Alyssa says, regarding free, I've always heard that it depends on your goals. Rank versus bank, Can you explain that? Okay. So, rank versus bank is a is a term commonly, I think. I'm I'd like to credit Erin Wright from the group for for coining that term.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:13:26]:
That's where I heard it the first time. And so the idea is instead of focusing on, oh, I don't know, some river retailer where everyone's looking at how they're ranking on that platform, the world's largest bookstore, instead of worrying about being in the number one spot with a free download or or whatever, looking at how much money, you're making. So rank versus bank is a depends on your goals, and that's a really important thing is, are your goals to be ranked high? Maybe because then other people will see it and read you, and then that can boost your, that boost your sales, boost your reviews, boost boost your visibility so they can move into the rest of the series, or you're just, you know, more interested in actually earning money on those books as opposed to looking good or making money? It's why I jokingly sometimes call, my traditionally published books, vanity publishing, cheekily and jokingly because, yeah, I can walk into, you know, all kinds of bookstores throughout North America and see those books on the shelves. I make very little on them, So it feels good. Yay. Look. That was great. But I you know, like, I'll get, like, a dollar or $2 a year later if that book on the shelf sells.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:14:33]:
So it's the same sort of thing. That's sort of the rank is, hey. Look at me. I'm in a bookstore. So, that that's that's kind of bank, versus rank.
Jim Azevedo [00:14:42]:
That's cool. That's one of the reasons why on the Draft2Digital, that sellers list that you publish every Tuesday, that you've separated these lists out. Yeah. Via units, unit sales, and revenue.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:14:55]:
Revenue. Yeah. Yeah. And it's really funny because so you can see authors who that, like, I think it was, my god. Ashley oh, man. Now I'm drawing a blank, but she was, the number 1, best seller with a new release last week. And it was at full price, and it was a lot of units. So when you combine the lot of units in full price and and, I mean, full price is 499 for most indie authors.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:15:19]:
Yeah. You compared her sales. So she was number 1 in revenue, but I think it was maybe number 3 in terms of units or something like that. So it's still pretty high in terms of units. But it was kind of great to see her ranking in in on both, which which is the best of both worlds. Yeah. And and this is ranking on the Smashwords store, which we automatically do based on sales from across all retailers that we distribute to. And that's a really kinda cool thing.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:15:46]:
So even if because some authors will say, but I haven't sold a single book on Smashwords. Why is my book ranking? Well, that's because you distribute to Apple and Nook and Kobo, for example, and you had a lot of sales on those platforms. Therefore Right.
Jim Azevedo [00:15:57]:
And we have that visibility.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:15:58]:
We're gonna spotlight it on Smashwords automatically, and, also, it gets included in in those, top seller lists.
Jim Azevedo [00:16:06]:
Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Let's see. I'm looking at some of the questions here.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:16:13]:
Lots of great questions. Yeah.
Jim Azevedo [00:16:14]:
Yeah. Thank keep them coming, everybody. And, again, as Mark mentioned earlier, if you have any suggestions for your fellow authors about maybe some of the tick tips and techniques for things that you've done for your books that have worked either at prior Smashboard sales or at any other bookstore sales that you wanna share with the community here, please please let us know.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:16:40]:
Okay. Well, actually, do we wanna do we want to, pop up one of the one of the tips that, that some authors from the community very kindly shared?
Jim Azevedo [00:16:49]:
Oh, yeah. Let's do that.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:16:51]:
Let's yeah. Let me let me find, the first one. So we had a couple let me where where did I put it? There it is. Okay. Cool. So this this first one, and then, Jim, we're gonna have to we're gonna have to peek over it when I pop it up on the screen. But this first one from Melissa Wright says, I like to include my full catalog at various discounts with at least one new, not perma free title for free. Now Melissa must be a Smashwords direct author because, the she mentions various discounts.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:17:21]:
So right now, as of June 2024, draft to digital authors kinda have to pick one for everything. So that's and and we can get to that in a second. So Melissa goes on to say, I always link to the sale and note that it includes deals on thousands of books slash authors. Some promo sites allow Smashwords links. So anytime I'm doing free sites, starter promotions, I always link to Smashwords and list it as a primary retailer on my website newsletter and Linktree. Cool. These are these are great suggestions. Yeah.
Jim Azevedo [00:17:52]:
Yeah.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:17:53]:
Melissa says, I have a nice following at Instagram this year, so I plan to boost a post to the sale, like an ad graphic listing directly to the site. And thank you so much, Melissa, for that. Also, share Yeah. So Melissa has so many amazing books, on our website. I went and liberated a few so you guys could could kinda see the the different styles and genres Yeah. That covers publishes as well. And that'll all be in the sale this this, this July as well.
Jim Azevedo [00:18:20]:
And you know what I love about that too, Mark? Is that Melissa, she's not just talking about me, me, me, me, me. She's also saying, go check it out. Look at all the thousands of other authors who are participating as well.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:18:30]:
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And, oh, and that that's a perfect segue into some of the videos because, we're gonna talk I'm just all over the map here, but you're making these segues so beautiful for me, Jim.
Jim Azevedo [00:18:41]:
Well, I'm a professional, Mark. You know?
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:18:42]:
Mark, you're just a pro. So this is this is a fantastic video. So, Megan, who does author promotions and I did a couple samples that we we kinda we're we're gonna share here and shared, with the Wide for the Win Circle group, as well asking authors to create videos that we, our social media team, could share and then they could share and etcetera. So this this came in from Brynn Winters, and this is an example, like you said, Jim, of an author who's like, hey. Look. I've got this really cool book. It's gonna be on sale, but there's also some other stuff. So let's check this out from Brynn.
Brynn Winters [00:19:15]:
Hey there. I'm Brynn Winters, author of principal hopes book 1 of the Sprucedale teacher series available at Smashwords. I am thrilled to be part of smash words 16th annual July summer winter sale where principal hopes will be 75% off. It's the perfect time to get yourself a copy before book 2 comes out at the end of July. Get it now and treat yourself to some other reads at fantastic prices while you're there.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:19:40]:
Wow. Perfect. Blew my mind when I saw that video, and I got the permission to share it here. So, wow. Just just amazing. But, again, she talks about the wholesale, and then and then the cool thing is she's got book 2 coming out. So this is an opportunity for people to get the the first book at a really good price, and then they can check out book 2.
Jim Azevedo [00:19:59]:
Now did she happen to mention what Twilfie used to create that video for folks who aren't, you know, used
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:20:04]:
to doing that stuff. But I I I believe Canva has some ability to do that. I know Book Brush has the ability to create videos with templates and stuff like that. So those are 2 of the ways, that authors can can create those videos. I mean, there's also yeah. I mean, and it doesn't have so this is a good example. While While we're doing this, I'm I'm gonna pop up. Megan's, I think, is awesome.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:20:26]:
So here's I love Megan's. Here here's Megan. So so, Brynn, the example is, an author who didn't want to do a video of of herself. So Brynn did visual stuff. But Megan's cool in front of the camera because she does lots of great social media, and so she just comes and addresses the reader directly.
Megan Spann [00:20:45]:
Hi. I'm author Megan Spann. I write all things romance. So if you're looking for small town, coffee shop, curvy girl romance, then check out my series coffee cup kisses on Smashwords.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:21:00]:
There you go. Nice and short and sweet and into the Yeah.
Jim Azevedo [00:21:03]:
Like, 15, 20 seconds if even that.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:21:05]:
Yeah. Absolutely fantastic. So, yeah, so there's there's no one way of doing those videos too. And and that's what I love is is is seeing the different ways different authors, you know, can create stuff like that.
Jim Azevedo [00:21:19]:
For authors who wanna do this, all they have to do is just create that video, then post it on their websites, post it on socials Yeah. Yeah. Blogs.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:21:29]:
Tag us. Let us know. I did create a form, for authors, and I'll try and find the the link to it to maybe drop in the show notes the show notes in in the comments where if you've created a video, let us know, load the video, and then that way we can also reshare it, in July as well. And and I'm even, I've put aside an entire day. I've put aside 12 hours one day to do nothing, but if authors don't have the means to record it themselves, I'll use technology like this, but it'll just be private where I'll block, block authors into, like, 15 minute segments where they can come up and and practice, and then I'll everyone else disappears, and I just record them. And I get a video of them, and then we can add some music to it and add some logos and stuff like that. So I'll be doing that for authors who want our help, in that video, but, again, you can do your own, as well. And, yeah, I'll try and find the, I'll try and find the link.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:22:21]:
I forgot to prepare that for this week.
Jim Azevedo [00:22:23]:
Cool, Mark. Do you still have availability on that schedule? I thought all those time slots could be taken.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:22:27]:
No. No. They're not. And that that's next, what is today, 20th?
Jim Azevedo [00:22:31]:
Think you said?
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:22:32]:
Tuesday, 25th. I think I have so, again, I am in the eastern time zone. I think I I booked from 8 AM till 8 PM that day saying, you know, hope hopefully, I'll have chance to go to the restroom and get coffee and food in between that, but just just to be available for authors. And I recognize there's gonna be authors in certain time zones that that's not that's gonna be prohibitive, but I tried to make it as wide as possible, just just to help to help you guys out. Because, again, we can make a video for you that doesn't have to be necessarily about, this July sale. It could just be, hey. My book's available on Smashwords. Go get it on Smashwords.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:23:08]:
And and can I show you an example of one, that we did with William Brinkman, as as a sort of an early, an early example of this where William had provided some content, and this is just a generic one, and and it has the universal book link? So the link showed you the link everywhere, which I think is great because we want authors to sell their books everywhere. So here it is.
Jim Azevedo [00:23:28]:
Yeah. Let's check it out.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:23:42]:
There you go. So you've got the book covers. You've got the universal book link, as as well. So, I I love the flexibility because that's one William may be able to use beyond the sale because it doesn't specify, what discount the book's gonna be on. But it is these books are available on, the Smashwords store, and and so that could be that's more of a a generic universal one, which I kinda like.
Jim Azevedo [00:24:05]:
I like how it's just a different style too. Like, there's no he doesn't appear on camera. There's not even a voice over, but it still gets the message across. Like, my my books
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:24:15]:
here. Yeah. And and I think because the series, the series is is like, the the babbler is like a reporter of of fantastical, UFOs and monster the paranormal stuff. And and so when you think about, like, a journalist typing, it it kinda works. I think it works relatively well for for the the specific series that he's writing.
Jim Azevedo [00:24:34]:
I love it. I'm gonna if you don't mind, I'm gonna bring up this question here from, Laurel.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:24:43]:
Oops.
Jim Azevedo [00:24:43]:
Too quick on a trigger finger here. From Laurel Detcher or Decker. Laurel asks, you know, wondering how to collaborate with other authors and send readers or buyers to books that are similar to each other. Don't wanna send parents to a page with very mixed genre titles.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:25:01]:
And that is one thing we are at Smashwords. We're a very mixed genre, so we're open to all kinds of different fiction. There are there are flags. There are, flags that readers can use to not show adult content, you know, the more erotic titles that automatically and I think by default, it's turned off.
Jim Azevedo [00:25:20]:
It's turned off.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:25:20]:
Right. So if somebody wants to be able to see that, they have to enable that. So, Laurel and and this comes up in another tip that was shared, but, I'm gonna sneak peek into it. But I know that there were some authors who were doing, you know how BookFunnel had BookFunnel, amazing, platform for authors. BookFunnel has the additional collaboration, boards where you can you can collaborate. And I saw that one of the authors, who suggested a tip went in and posted, hey. I wanna collaborate with other authors who write this genre. Let's do something together.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:25:53]:
So, Laurel, that's one way, of doing that. Any other thoughts, Jim, on other ways that authors could collaborate?
Jim Azevedo [00:26:01]:
Yeah. I've seen some authors kind of do an exchange with newsletters. So now since this is a multi I was gonna say a multi month. Since since it's a month long sale, one thing I've seen authors do in the past is, like, one week, one author will will send an email out to her subscriber list, but include the titles of books and other authors, in addition to her own titles to, and send that out one week. And then the next week, one of the other authors will send out their newsletter list to their subscribers with a list of books. And once again, since this is a month long sale here, if you wanna switch out those genres from 1 week to the next week, you can you can do that to keep everything completely separate.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:26:49]:
I love that. Can I can I pop up a follow-up question Laurel, asked, based on what we've been talking about?
Jim Azevedo [00:26:54]:
Of course.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:26:55]:
Cool. So Laurel says thanks. You're welcome. I was wondering if Smashwords has a way to make a book list for recommended titles. So great question, Laurel. There isn't any sort of DIY tool for that. However, one of the things you can do, and this is another way I've seen authors collaborate, is you can go and create a reading list on books to read, and you can just include I mean, you can include all links, universal book links, in all formats. But if you wanted to just create a reading list on books to read, only include the Smashwords links to it, put all the books there, and then you send people to that books to read reading list page.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:27:30]:
And then that way, you control where you're sending them. You know what I mean? And then you'll, you'll be able to control so they can click on each specific book for you and and and and the other authors, and you don't even need their other author's permission. Let's say, Laurel, that you write a particular style. Like, let's say you write cozy mysteries, and and you know that there's some other great cozy mysteries on Smashwords and are in the sale that you you go and create your list and say, well, here are a whole bunch of crazy mysteries. Obviously, you're gonna have yours in there as well. And and, bam, you can share that. Or like Jim says, 4 different authors, doing it the entire month of July. Everyone picks a week, and they each send that off to their groups and also in social media.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:28:10]:
So
Jim Azevedo [00:28:10]:
Yeah. Yeah. Great question.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:28:12]:
Yeah. Oh, and I have to I have to confirm, William did say yes. The Babler series, see, I I did get that right, is centered around a tabloid. See, I picked I picked that up based on the series name and the cover. That's really good example of author branding, right, and series branding that covers paranormal activities. So there you go. That's and that's why the the Interesting. Typewriter works well.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:28:32]:
Again, it it fun series. Yeah. I know. It does, doesn't it?
Jim Azevedo [00:28:36]:
From the hardest things about working at DDD and Smashwords, it's like you you find out you hear about so many books.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:28:43]:
Yeah. If only I could read faster.
Jim Azevedo [00:28:48]:
I know. I know. Let's see. I wanna make sure I don't miss any I
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:28:52]:
think you go right to the very beginning. I think we had a question about erotica.
Jim Azevedo [00:28:58]:
Where'd you go? Where'd you go? There it is.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:29:00]:
Up, like, 5 pages to get to that one.
Jim Azevedo [00:29:03]:
Hey, Guillaume. Okay. For those of our listeners who can't see us, Guillaume asks, I uploaded my erotic comedies on DVD Smashwords this year in 2024. Previously, it was only non erotica. How well does erotica do in the sale? That's a great question.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:29:23]:
Do you have stats on that?
Jim Azevedo [00:29:26]:
Not in front of me, but I can tell you that erotica does very well in the sale. Like, very well. It might even be number 1 or number 2. Like I thought it
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:29:39]:
was I thought it was, like, no. Radhika and romance are are way up Right. Out of fear, typically. Right?
Jim Azevedo [00:29:45]:
Right. Right. Right. Yeah. So, yes, Guillaume. It does it does very well. Get your books enrolled if you haven't done so already.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:29:54]:
Yeah. Yeah. And I think, yeah, erotica does do, quite well, in the sale. So that's exciting. Yeah.
Jim Azevedo [00:30:00]:
And make sure you tell your readers too, Dion. Like, once you have your books enrolled, let them know, of course. But then let them know that when they're browsing the Smashwords store to enable that erotica filter that Mark alluded to earlier. It's usually well, it's always it's always in the upper right hand corner of any Smashwords page. You'll see a button that says filtering. Click on that so you can enable, Uraraka
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:30:23]:
for fan Uraraka. You see them. You see the erotic titles as well. So Yes. Should we just keep motoring through the questions?
Jim Azevedo [00:30:31]:
Just keep motoring through.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:30:32]:
Alright. I'm gonna pop this one up. Dima says, can I reduce prices of my books on other platforms during the sale? So this is an important distinction, Dima. It can. You can reduce your prices everywhere. There is a legality with all of the major retailers, that says you can't have a cheaper price on any other retail site. So the big six, right, you've got Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google, Kobo, Smashwords, maybe the Big 5, I should say. Apple Apple, the big there you go.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:31:03]:
So you can't have a lower price on any other retailer. They they all reserve the right to price match to the lowest price that is found on any of those sites. But this sale is a coupon sale. Your prices aren't changing. Your prices are remaining the same. That means that the the discount is only applicable with the coupon code, and that in the history of Smashwords has never been a problem with any of the price matching because it's a coupon code. And I know and and and Apple and Kobo and Barnes and Noble regularly use coupon codes. Google has DIY coupon codes as well, so that's never, an issue on coupon codes.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:31:39]:
However, I did do I am doing a price promo on a book 1 in series that I've I've made 99¢ on all retailers, and I think it's because it's promo for Canada Day, which we celebrate just a few days before you guys celebrate Independence Day in the US. And I thought, well, I may as well make it 99¢ for the whole month and and see what I can do. I ended up getting an international bookbub deal, but for the Smashwords sale, it's gonna end up being free, but it's 99 I mean, it's 99¢ on Smashwords. I mean, you could if you choose to buy it without a coupon code, you can get it for 99¢. Does that so, hopefully, that answers, that question.
Jim Azevedo [00:32:13]:
Yeah. I think I think it did. Thank you for that. Since you mentioned, you know, the book 6 and price matching and all that stuff, I think now would be a good time to bring up this question here, from Randy who asks, I have a book on Amazon, but
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:32:28]:
Can't put
Jim Azevedo [00:32:29]:
it on your but can't put it on your platform. Any suggestions?
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:32:34]:
Can't put it on our platform. I guess I'm I'm, I'm I'm curious as to why you can't put it on the platform. Is it because you're locked into Kindle Yeah. Like, DDP Select and you're exclusive to Amazon until that tour of duty is over?
Jim Azevedo [00:32:49]:
That's what I'm assuming, Randy, that you have your book locked into Amazon KDP Select. But So my You know what, Mark? Some some authors assume they're locked in. Like, they assume they're exclusive, but when they're not
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:33:03]:
Yeah.
Jim Azevedo [00:33:03]:
I've I've seen.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:33:05]:
Yeah. I mean, you have to be locked into the KDP Select program specifically. But the other question, and and and, Randy, again, answering this in your best interest, not in our best interest. If this book is doing is exclusive to Amazon and you're doing really well and making good money on it and getting new readers and all of that stuff, bank or rank, whatever it is that you're preferring, I would recommend not changing it because if it's doing well, why why why change it? So, that's that's a thing to consider because, again, we like to offer advice to authors that's, you know, again, it's it's different for different people. They have different preferences, and stuff like that, but that's what I would suggest to you. Now if there's a reason you're not able to load it to our platform for some other technical reason, our our support team, you know, support at draftdigital.com, please ask us. We'll do what we can to to help you with that. And if it is, you know, the tour of duty on KDP Select is up at the end of August, let's say, then maybe, maybe if you're considering publishing it wide to all of the other retailers, that that could be a chance to get it on our platform, and then maybe you'll participate in the next big sale.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:34:14]:
Or you can DIY coupons at any time. We have the the functionality for that.
Jim Azevedo [00:34:19]:
Great answer. Thanks for taking that, Mark. Alright. So it seems like people sorta like these videos that you showed.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:34:31]:
Yeah.
Jim Azevedo [00:34:32]:
And, which brings me, if you don't mind, a question here from Mike.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:34:35]:
Yeah. Where do I upload my video to?
Jim Azevedo [00:34:39]:
Yeah. You can watch Fasten.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:34:40]:
Yeah. Let me see if I can get that that link for you. Maybe, we can come back to that question in a second. I should have prepared this.
Jim Azevedo [00:34:46]:
Oh, no worries. Thanks. Poor Mark. I caught him off guard. Yeah. Hold that question, Mike. We'll get go get back to you. You know, in the meantime, you know, even if Mark can't find that video or can't find that link, you can always upload your videos.
Jim Azevedo [00:35:02]:
Anybody, just post them to your socials, tag us, then we'll help kind of spread the word out there when you do that as well.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:35:10]:
Okay. I found it, Jim, and I'm gonna drop it in. I'm gonna see if I can drop it in. And where's, where is he watching it from?
Jim Azevedo [00:35:19]:
Oh, Nick.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:35:21]:
Was it was it YouTube or was it, Facebook?
Jim Azevedo [00:35:24]:
YouTube.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:35:25]:
YouTube. Okay. So, and it's posted to both. Sometimes it doesn't post to Facebook, but I just dropped the link to the form, the Wufoo form, where you can go and fill it out. And and it gives you a choice. If you want to upload a video, you just say, hey, here's who I am. Here's the video I wanna load, and here's any information you wanna share about it, as well. So that's a great, perfect.
Jim Azevedo [00:35:45]:
Thanks, Mark. Keep those questions coming, everybody. And, again, for those of you who have had success in in one of the one of the Smashword sales before or success in a sale anywhere else, let us know. Share some of those successes with your fellow authors here.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:36:01]:
Yeah. Cool. Cool. And, what I'll do is, I think I I even made a video. So you got to see Megan's really awesome one where it's nice and brief and short, and there's no long old person pauses. I think I edited mine
Jim Azevedo [00:36:13]:
forgot to ask you for yours.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:36:14]:
No. I I think I edited mine, and mine's not bad. I think it's better because I think I went back and looked at what Megan did, and I chopped a bunch of stuff out. But this is, one of the ones that I did, as well. Hi. This is Mark Leslie, the author of numerous horror and urban fantasy titles, and I am so thrilled that you can get all of my books, including the entire Canadian Werewolf series for 75% off in the 2024 Smashwords July winter summer sale. And, again, the one thing you'll notice is in that video, I put I put a books to read slash Mark Leslie, which is kind of my my author page for all retailers, because that's very generic, even though I do talk specifically about the the sale, and I didn't have the the the fancy pop up 75% off like, Brent did. But
Jim Azevedo [00:37:07]:
Yeah. One thing I wanna bring up that we haven't discussed yet, at least I don't think we have, is that there is an enrollment deadline for drafted digital authors, and that enrollment deadline is June 27th. So if you're considering doing this, make sure you get your books enrolled to the sale before June 27th so that you can be in the sale, get rolled early, tell all your readers that the sale is coming, and just kind of, you know, use that extra runway to promote yourself and your involvement in the
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:37:39]:
sale. Awesome. Hey, Jim. I saw a follow-up from Randy that kinda helps. So Randy had said had asked the question. Randy says it's because, my publisher has all the uploaded, PDF and EPUB. So so, Randy, you've signed a a contract with a publisher. The publisher is publishing it.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:37:54]:
What I would look what I would do is look into, in the contract, did you sign world rights to the publisher? English language world rights? Did you sign just North American rights, US rights, Canadian rights, whatever the rights are? Because you do have the ability when you publish through Draft2Digital to say and and I have friends who've done this where they sold the rights to a Canadian publisher who's publishing in just Canada or Canada and the US, and they can come in and say, hey. Draft2Digital published this everywhere except these certain countries. Now I have to let you know because Smashwords is an international store, right now, there is no ability to publish to Smashwords if you're if you have anything but world rights, for for that. And that that is something that will probably in in the next year or so as we continue to improve and expand upon it, we we may add concessions for it. Meaning, hey. If you're in the US, you can buy it, but you can't buy it in Canada or whatever the case might be. So that's the one thing to look, into with your publisher,
Jim Azevedo [00:38:53]:
Randy. Great comment. Great comment. You know, another best practice I wanted to talk about, Mark, and I see this happen all the time, and that's, you know, authors are really, really good about drumming up excitement and buzz, you know, leading up to a a new book release or their involvement in a sale. But here's the thing. This is a month long sale, and I know, you know, I'm I I sound like a broken record. The younger kids aren't even gonna know what that means, but I I keep repeating myself. But the reason for that is, like, don't go dark.
Jim Azevedo [00:39:27]:
Since the sale is lasting 31 days, if you drum up all this excitement, for the sale, that's fantastic. But then, typically, buzz and excitement kind of last for a couple days, and then they start to wane, and then people start to forget. Right. So, you know, at least once a week, send some kind of a reminder out there to your reader base to remind them that your books are on sale for this month long indie book love fest.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:39:59]:
Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. And and, the another question, Dima asked is, to catch this chance at the sale, what's the best free and paid promotion would an author do to market their books, during the sale. So a couple things. I mean, you could purchase, again, just ideas I'm throwing out there. You know, purchasing a BookBub ad, specifically only linking to Smashwords, you know, by genre, and that's that's one way. Facebook ads as well, apart from, you know, your newsletter and stuff like that.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:40:31]:
But I have I have another tip another tip from, a author who shared it, and I'm just gonna pop that up on the screen. It'll it'll hide us, Jim, so we can scratch our noses and stuff like that. So this is this is from We need those
Jim Azevedo [00:40:44]:
cracks up, Waver.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:40:45]:
Yeah. There we go. So Elizabeth says, things I've done in the past, shared information about the sale in my email newsletter, In addition to the usual summer winter sale discounts available to everyone, I've created one additional discount that is just just for newsletter subscribers. And you can do that whether you're publishing through Smashwords to Smashwords or Draft Digital Smashwords. You can still go in and create a custom coupon. You can make it private and only give it to your newsletter peeps so they get something extra special. So let's say, you know, if the if the book's 75% off, but hey. Or 50 percent off newsletter, people get it for 75% off for free or whatever.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:41:23]:
So that's a really cool thing that you can do. And and and and yeah. And Elizabeth says that works particularly well. And, Elizabeth also says I've collaborated with other authors of sapphic, and sapphic is a term, if you're not familiar, it's a lesbian, a queer fiction. And we've promoted each other, so this is another case of author collaborations, each other in newsletter swaps and social media. So it's kinda like Elizabeth may work with 6 other authors. I know some of the books that, Elizabeth has published, there's been, like, you know, collections from different authors, that are all, like, different stories on a theme. And and the you know, so let's say you have 6 different authors, with collected stories together.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:42:02]:
They may all share that, from their various sites. And so, also, this year, this is, I think, the case. So Elizabeth has created a joint book funnel sales promo. So if you're if you're a book funnel member if you're a book funnel I'm just gonna hide this. If you're a book funnel member oh, I wanna pop up Elizabeth's book so we can take a take a look at Elizabeth's books as well. I wanted to pop this up. But, if you are in Buckfunnel, I don't know when it closed, or whatever, but, again, a great tool to allow authors to collaborate.
Jim Azevedo [00:42:32]:
I I and
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:42:32]:
I know even the wide for the wind circle group has a tab specifically for authors looking to collaborate with other wide authors who have books on all the platforms. So that could be another place where, you know, I mean, you know, how what's the deadline again, Jim, for draft to digital authors?
Jim Azevedo [00:42:50]:
June 27th.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:42:51]:
June 27th. So, I mean, you have you have more than a week to, you know, say, hey. I write this kind of stuff. Does anyone else have anything? Do you wanna do you wanna collaborate together? That's another way that you can potentially, get some more promotions.
Jim Azevedo [00:43:06]:
Yeah. And then, again, I would, again, encourage you that once the sale starts and you start promoting your books out there on the socials, that's free. You know, use hashtags out there, like hashtag smash word sale. One of them is, oh, here. I'll post it in the comments.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:43:21]:
Because we do that. It comes when you when you enter the sale. Right? Those graphics are there.
Jim Azevedo [00:43:26]:
Right. Right. Exactly. We have some graphics for you. So use the hashtag there that I just popped up in the comments. Tag us so that we can help you spread the word and spread it around to everybody out there on socials.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:43:40]:
Yeah. I do. Because, I I know our social media team, takes a look at that stuff and can respond and forward and retweet or or whatever the case may be. And and I think Bren used, again, Bren used one of the graphics. So when you enter in the sale, you come to a little page that says, hey. Here's a bunch of graphics for different platforms, and obviously grabbed some of those and incorporated them into the awesome video, that you made.
Jim Azevedo [00:44:04]:
Yeah. On the DDD blog, there you'll find those graphics as well as swipe copies. So you don't even have to write stuff. We've got some of that stuff kinda written out for you if you need some help getting some ideas on how to communicate with your readers.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:44:18]:
Cool. Cool. I love the term swipe copy. It reminds me of, Swiper from the old, cartoons my son watched. You know, the explorer, Dora. That's what it was. Dora the explorer.
Jim Azevedo [00:44:31]:
Dora the explorer.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:44:32]:
But swiper, no swiping was their catchphrase. But here, you're allowed to swipe that
Jim Azevedo [00:44:36]:
copy. You're allowed. Absolutely. 100%. Take all you need. We're kinda coming down to the wire here already, Mark.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:44:44]:
Oh my god.
Jim Azevedo [00:44:44]:
Any happens every week.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:44:47]:
Wow.
Jim Azevedo [00:44:47]:
Every week without failure. What do you have any other tidbits of advice, things that you've done, even things that you've done that completely failed that you that you would recommend people
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:45:00]:
Oh, that's most things. Yeah. Most things I've done failed. I mean but that but the that's the key. I've tried 10 things, and the first 8 or 9 didn't work. Yes. So I kept trying something different. So I kept just trying, different things.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:45:14]:
And and then sometimes something that works on a Tuesday doesn't work on a Wednesday or vice versa because you're too early or you're too late or whatever. So, I mean, don't don't give up, I think, is is an important, aspect. And, again, maybe you've never had any action on Smashwords and just getting involved in this. And I think I saw a comment earlier on that said, you know, I didn't have any and, yeah, it was I think it was early on. I'll see if I can find it and pop it up to, credit whoever shared that. Where is that? Oh, come on. It was it I I thought it was kinda cool.
Jim Azevedo [00:45:51]:
Oh, so why are you looking for it?
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:45:53]:
I'll call. Go ahead. Ingrid, I set it free, and I got free sales. Otherwise, Ingrid's sales were dead. So so Ingrid is suggesting and, again, thank you so much for this, Ingrid. Putting your book on free really helped in boosting your sales. So, again, you then you may have a customer who's never aware of you before, now is aware of you. They've grabbed your book.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:46:15]:
Maybe they're gonna read it. Maybe they're gonna go on to review it. Maybe they're gonna tell friends. Maybe they're gonna purchase other books that you have. So, again, I'm a big fan of of of not giving up, and and, I mean, come on. You worked so hard on this book. Yeah. You know? And and and there is an opportunity because there are a lot of active, customers and continuing to grow on the Smashwords store internationally.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:46:34]:
I mean, Smashwords store is available in more countries than Amazon.
Jim Azevedo [00:46:38]:
So Yeah. We can visit for a 180 180 countries.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:46:41]:
Yeah. So that's that's kinda cool. So, you know, not giving up is is critical.
Jim Azevedo [00:46:47]:
And one thing I wanna leave the folks here with some encouragement, and and one of the things I wanted to point out too, Mark, is that Smashboard Star has been growing consecutively, year over year for the past 8 years, year over year. So that started well before the acquisition of Draft2Digital from Draft2Digital even occurred. Now we have, like, all these new authors and all other awesome books coming in. The sales every sale breaks the last sales record. So these sales are growing and growing and growing, and there's more first time customers every sale as well. So Smashwords is kinda going like this in terms of ebook sales and awareness out there, and the store is it's really bucking an overall larger industry trend where, for ebook sales across the industry, they're kind of flat, really. Yeah. But at Smashwords, they've just been growing and growing and growing, and we can thank all of you for that.
Jim Azevedo [00:47:45]:
It's this whole I mentioned it before, Mark. This whole indie culture lovefest that we've got going. It's the authors. It's the readers who love indie ebooks out there, and it's the indie booksellers as well.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:48:01]:
Yeah. Can I can I answer a question that Laurel just popped up? Because I think it's an important one. Is it so if we use the D2D coupon tool to create Smashwords discount that aren't private, does that give us the ability to include some books and leave others out? Laurel, yes. For sure. You can do that at any time. The one thing is, though, is the pages for the sale are gonna be automatically driven based on people who opt into the sale from the Smashwords side, from Draft2Digital side. So you can still benefit from it and send people to those books, but they're not gonna be able to find them in the sale. So I hope that answers that.
Jim Azevedo [00:48:38]:
Cool. I wanna leave everybody with this final comment here from Leila Rose. He says excited for another big sale. Thanks for that comment, Leila. Oh, gosh. Well, here we are, Mark, at the end of another funny.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:49:00]:
I love I love when people are chatting with each other in the comments. That is such a great community that we have.
Jim Azevedo [00:49:05]:
It's the best. It's the best. So we're at the end here already. I just wanted to remind everybody that, if you could please like, share, comment, and subscribe to our new people channel here. It really helps us to spread the word and attract key industry, insiders, experts out there to provide their advice and expertise to you week in week out. Every week, to see what's coming up next, be sure to bookmark D2D Live so you can get a heads up on the next topic and the next guest. And finally, for those of you who are kinda dipping your toes into the self publishing waters out there, why not sign up for your free publishing account at draft2digital.com? Mark, thanks for joining me here today. You always make these go so much more smoothly.
Jim Azevedo [00:49:59]:
You have such a a vast take knowledge. Your experience in the book industry is just it just so far surpasses my own.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:50:11]:
We're all we're all in this together
Jim Azevedo [00:50:13]:
and posting and everything else.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre [00:50:14]:
But I do wanna say thank you to the authors who shared, some tips with us and allowed us to share their tips, allowed us to share their videos to to show the awesomeness of this author community. So thank you, guys.
Jim Azevedo [00:50:25]:
Yeah. Absolutely. For everybody else, we will see you here next week. Thanks again for joining us today. We really appreciate your time, your attention, and your questions in the comments. We will catch you all next week. Until then, we're gonna leave you with this quick 30 second commercial spot for a D2D Print. See you next week, everybody.
Kevin Tumlinson [00:50:46]:
Ebooks are great, but there's just something about having your words in print, something you can hold in your hands, put on a shelf, sign for a reader. That's why we created D2D Print, a print on demand service that was built for you. We have free beautiful templates to give your book a pro look, We can even convert your ebook cover into a full wraparound cover for print. So many options for you and your books. And you can get started right now at draft2digital.com. That's it for this week's self publishing insiders with Draft2Digital. Be sure to subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts and share the show with your will be author friends, and start, build, and grow your own self publishing career right now at draft2digital.com.