The e-book publisher and distributor Smashwords continues to add new channels, reaching an agreement with Shortcovers for that service to sell Smashwords’ e-books beginning November 18. When the agreement begins, Smashwords will offer about 2,000 e-books for sale through Shortcovers and will quickly add to the number, founder Mark Coker said. The deal with Shortcovers gives the authors and publishers who use Smashwords access to readers in 189 countries. “We built the service to be international,” said Michael Tamblyn, recently named v-p of content, sales and merchandising at Shortcovers, which is a unit of Indigo Books & Music. While the major English-speaking countries dominate Shortcover sales, Tamblyn said about 15% of downloads come from countries that could be characterized as “rest of world.”
Since its launch in February, Shortcovers has had nearly one million downloads. “We’ve had an exciting period of growth for both downloads and in apps,” Tamblyn said. Among the devices Shortcovers supports are the iPhone, Blackberry, Palm Pre, and Google Android smartphones, while also supporting downloads to e-readers using ePub.
Tamblyn said Shortcovers has approximately 100,000 e-books available, a number he expects to increase quickly. In the Smashwords deal, Smashwords’ authors and publishers will receive royalties of 46.75% of the digital list price. As more e-book publishers and authors join Smashwords, Coker is focusing on expanding distribution. In addition to the Shortcovers and Smashwords sites, its e-books are available from Barnes & Noble.com and Sony as well as from a range of e-reading apps.
