In our second year of promoting great ebooks, we have decided to use Smashwords to help our contest.
And so you may ask, “Why Smashwords?”
For the judges and for you is the answer.
Why for the judges?
In 2011, we required that PDFs be sent to us for distribution to the judges. Many authors said to us that they would prefer to not provide a PDF to us and we discovered that judges liked to read on their usual device such iPad, Kindle, etc. or using different software on their device such as reader software on their PC, tablet or phone.
Smashwords gives access to authors to provide reviewers with review copies, so by using the codes to access them, judges can download the edition of their choice.
Why for you?
As anyone who has used Smashwords lately can tell you, a word processor is an incredibly capable ebook creation tool when you marry it with the Smashwords Style Guide and Smashwords’ automated Meatgrinder conversion technology. See http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52.
Meatgrinder quality? Smashwords supports good design with custom paragraph styling, intra-book hyperlinks, NCX navigation, glyphs and images.
Most authors have already taken advantage of Smashwords’ free service by uploading their MS-Word file. Most books are written in MS-Word so the first step is already completed.
We know that having your book at Smashwords will give it more exposure and give you more sales. So we are also demonstrating to you the advantages of sending your book there.
If you have any further questions about Smashwords, please post them here and we’ll get them answered for you the best we can. Your best bet is to go to Smashwords and use the extensive support there to answer your questions.
When will we judges receive our book list and codes? Thanks!
Sharon
As soon as the books are listed on the website they are ready to be read. Just email me the title of the books you are interested in reading and I will email the codes to you.