Now Available… on Smashwords…

This is an experiment, so we are starting off with our oldest title in T·N·D·S: Tales from the world of the Noble Dead Saga.

HW1: The Game Piece (by Barb) is now available at Smashwords.com in EPUB (only) format. So go get it if you do not have it yet.

We tried Smash­words­.com once in the past and quickly abandoned it for a list of reasons. In our effort to expand “tales” distribution into other markets, we will try it again.

Our primary purpose for testing it this time is two-fold: to make our ebook-only works available for the Sony eReaderStore and as an alternative distribution system for future “tales” into iTunes / iBookStore (without Apple’s proprietary nonsense in direct distribution)…

As an ebook aggregator, Smashwords delivers titles downstream in bulk on a schedule and not individually. How long it takes for a particular title to reach our selected vendors has yet to be determined; this will be a factor in whether we move forward on other past titles. All “tales” (re)releases through Smashwords will be available only…

1. in EPUB format and
2. at vendors with which we cannot establish a direct agreement or at which we have terminated direct distribution.

This affects only iTunes / iBookStore and Sony’s eReaderStore.

About Older “Tales” and Apple’s iBookstore

HW1: The Game Piece has yet to appear in the eReaderStore; we are monitoring this daily to see how long it takes.

HW1 is already (and always will be) available at the iBookStore, as we placed it there while still using our direct portal account. Likewise we will not use Smashwords to deliver “tales” already listed there.

We will only use Smashwords to deliver newer titles that are not already sold through the iBookStore… should this new distribution method prove itself.

About “Tales” and Older Sony eReaders

Because works for Smashwords will only be distributed in EPUB format (by our choice), some older Sony ereaders may not be able to use them. This is not a problem for Sony users.

We chose not to deliver in other formats through Smashwords in order to maintain quality control over the product and to avoid any exceptional cross-format layout problems. This has been a problem in the past when a work was auto-transcoded into other ebook formats vs. J.C. doing such himself.

About “Side-Loading” from Smashwords

Not all ereaders / tablets directly load EPUB files from Smashwords, though most do. If Smashwords appeals to you as an additional market when book shopping online, first try buying an ebook there through your ereader’s web browsing capability. Or you can look for many free ones as well. As with all ebook vendors, your customer’s account will have attached online storage for syncing ebooks to any / all of your devices capable of displaying such.

For devices which cannot load directly from Smashwords, it is one of the few places that allows you to download your purchased or free ebooks to your computer and manually load them to your device(s). See their instructions for what is more commonly called side-loading.

It is not the best set of instructions but will get you started on this as well as backing-up purchased ebooks to wherever you want. [Oh yes, you can, and J.C. will tell you more at a later time.] Even if you have never done so and think you never will, it is worth knowing how to do this, just in case.

For the Future…

And so, we will keep you up-to-date on how this experiment goes. If anyone with a Sony device spots The Game Piece on the eReaderStore before we mention it, please drop us a note via the site’s “Contact” section.

Once HW1 makes a successful appearance downstream, we will look at moving forward with “tales” published so far… and others to come.