What’s YOUR opinion? 😀
Unlike myself, my old friend Derek Haines (and a few other writers I know) constantly hop in and out of bed with whichever publisher they decide is the flavour of the month at the time, only to cast them aside later like an ex lover, when they decide they hate them for some reason or other. God only knows why they do it. It’s not that difficult to work out – stop acting like prima donnas. Chose one and stick with them!
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
The article reads outdated. You don’t need to have multiple file versions for the various distributor. One is enough.
What you really want is to upload yourself to KDP so you have the dashboard, and to Smashword for the Premium catalogue and wide distribution. I sell daily and in the hundreds per month on both Amazon and Barnes&Noble + iTunes.
This part of life is not at all complicated.
Besides, with Smashwords is a breeze to do giveaways and promotions for all your titles, and it is the only way to have Amazon have one of your book (let’s say #1 of a series) as a perma-free to capture more readers.
Smashwords and the grinder does not require the special “Smashword edition” not as an additional copyright page, so you can have One File to Bind Them All.
You can also upload ePub on Smashwords, and Kindle on Amazon which is actually the best method of any because you have exactly the control of what you will present your readers and not using a bloated word document (whatever format).
You can use Vellum to produce your eBook and upload those, rather than Word documents. (or the free product Calibre).
PS
Once you get a manuscript ready for Smashwords, you have a template valid for all subsequent books. Really, it’s not particle physics.
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No.
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Thanks, Jack and Chris, for this advice. 🙂
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Couldn’t have said it better myself Elgon. Far too many think their writing will make them rich. Fortunately for we serious writers they soon fall by the wayside. Unfortunately though, their missives remain in Amazon’s lists to the detriment of us all. 😉
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I have been exclusively on Kindle and CreateSpace for a year now with my most recent book, Fried Windows. My publisher and I have been promoting the book with free days. We also did one countdown. At the outset I was a relatively obscure author. The focus of my marketing plan was to increase author’s brand and attract new readers converting them into fans. It is a longer term goal. The simple truth is that hardly anyone gets rich from writing books and certainly no one makes a fortune from just one book. So if your goal is to “sell books” you need to go where the market is. And that is Amazon. I’ve sold some books but gave away many more. This strategy has increased awareness of the book, my author’s brand and the publisher’s brand in my genre. I have eleven more books under contract to be published over the next year or two and expect that over time I have supplemental income from my writing. I guess my point is that if you are serious about writing – or more aptly put, you are a true writer – you are not in it for the money. There are much easier ways to make money than writing.
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There are DEFINITELY easier ways to make a living Elgon – Good luck with your writings 😀
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