I would like to encourage all buyers of ebooks to make their first choice Smashwords or any of the booksellers they supply, like Kobo and Barnes & Noble (Nookbooks) .
The problem that I have with Amazon is not to do with their tendency to delete legitimate reviews, or anything to do with their customer service, which I have found actually rather good, but because Smashwords pays me.
I understand that Amazon will use direct credit for British or American authors, and only after $10. Not so for we Australian authors. For us, we have to earn $100 in American dollars before they send an archaic cheque - and then you have an additional fee to get it into correct currency. But also, to get paid for the numbers of books you sell in the UK, you have to make the equivalent of over $100 there, and the same in Europe. They can't even combine the amounts!
Amazon must make so much money from the interest of all these accumulated amounts that never quite reach the $100 threshold.
Smashwords is so much better. You get paid after just $10, and into a Paypal account. I sell a lot more books on Amazon than I do from Smashwords, but if I count my earnings when it arrives in my account, then I have only had from Amazon what my first publisher sent on.
So from now on, I am going to use Smashwords as the first choice to buy from, and and I'd really like as many as possible to do the same. I'm tired of earning money that I never see.
My books on Smashwords:
The threee books of the Shuki Series
and the two (so far) Penwinnard Stories.
