Category Smashwords

Using Smashwords for promotion

January 8, 2011 Smashwords

Since I put Arrival up, I've had a few questions about Smashwords, most asking about how easy it is to use. As I only have one story up, there are better people to ask, but this is just my opinion.It's pretty easy to use, taking a standard .doc Word file. No real technical knowledge is required. As long as you make sure that you follow the style guide, paying attention to things like paragraph formatting and breaks the results are pretty good. It took a couple of hours to get Arrival into shape, but if you aren't aiming for the Premium catalog, you can be less precise. However there are a few snags that came up which it didn't cover.Some characters don't go through the conversion process e.g. I lost my en-dash character. Also, smart quotes and apostrophes appear OK on most formats but

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Kindle and Smashwords

December 28, 2010 Arrival, Smashwords

I did not intend to blog over Christmas. After all, with all the shops closed, the snow falling and everyone at home what could possibly happen?Well, Arrival could hit 800 downloads and a brief appearance on the Smashwords most downloaded anthologies list. It was at #8 when I checked so you'd need to scroll down to see it, but that is a nice Christmas present. This is completely unexpected, and a very pleasant surprise. It is getting to the point where I am tempted to do a trailer for my free ebook.ArrivalOn the other hand this does give me some grounds to approach my publisher about moving the release of the Kindle edition of Fire Season up. I have no idea whether or not a commercial product will be as successful, but the ebook does seem to have moved rather fast. I hope you had a Merry

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A quick update on Arrival.

December 24, 2010 Arrival, Smashwords

Going by what other bloggers had said, I was expecting maybe ten downloads a day. Short stories from unknown authors with little promotion apparently go unnoticed. Instead Arrival (uploaded on 14th December, went into directories on 19th) reached 500 downloads last night and is still going. That's not including anyone who read it on Goodreads or viewed it online. My round-up for the year will go live later today, but that news makes a very nice early Christmas present.Arrival by VH Folland

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Arrival – a Free short story

December 14, 2010 Arrival, Smashwords

Back between August and November I released a short story, linked to Fire Season, through tweets and regular blog updates. It proved rather popular, drawing over 6,000 followers on its various channels. So, since it's coming up for Christmas, with the help of the publisher it is now available as a free download on Smashwords in most ebook formats.Arrival is set a few years before Fire Season, covering the arrival of one of Brooke's Vale's more unique residents.

ArrivalEbook Price: Free! 1560 words. Type: FictionAuthor: V.H. FollandReleased: December 14, 2010A short story about the arrival of one of Brooke's Vale's more unusual residents.A prequel, set several years before Fire Season, this was originally released through Twitter.*Click here to Download Free*

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