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Old 05-29-2012, 07:38 AM   #1
ethicalwriter
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Unhappy Smashwords: Anyone else have such a long wait?
Hello.

I am curious if anyone else is experiencing long delays to have their book added to their "Premium Status" list. I added my first romance book there, everything appears correct, but it has been 2 weeks without it receiving status. Furthermore I sent them an email a couple of days ago without a response. Here is the book:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/161980

When I publish with Amazon I wait at most 4 days and they are always responsive to concerns. There was a time Mark Coker had a well ship there but it has been downhill for some time based on what I have been reading on other forums.

I have 12 sample downloads which isn't bad for a book I have not marketed at all yet (wanted to wait until I obtained Premium Status before I did so). I had another book which is premium status and it took some time to have it added, but not this long.

Anyways, any feedback or advice would be appreciated.

Regards,

Ethical writer.
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Old 05-29-2012, 08:21 AM   #2
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I've heard of Premium status taking a month or more.

Part of premium is that they have a real human look at the book. That's a step that Amazon neglects to take.
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Old 05-29-2012, 10:35 AM   #3
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Well now the strangest thing...
Extremely odd. My other book, which had enjoyed Premium status since May of last year, is now "pending".

What in Gods name are they doing over there?
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Old 05-29-2012, 11:09 AM   #4
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It can take anywhere from a week to four weeks or more to get premium approval. I put four books on Smashwords all within a week and one of them just got approved after three weeks and it was the one I added most recently. I usually figure it will take at least a month.
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Old 05-29-2012, 08:40 PM   #5
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Between their review for premium status and shipping to the other vendors, it can take 2 months to get approved and find your book at Barnes & Nobel or iTunes. If you want it on Amazon, go directly through Amazon. I've decided that if I want to arrange a book release that I need to wait to decide based on when it gets approved for Premium status at Smashwords. Then I upload it to Amazon accordingly. It took over two moths for my second book to appear at Barnes & Nobel (there was a delay with ISBN's at first which added nearly 2 weeks).
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Old 05-29-2012, 09:03 PM   #6
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It can take a little while. Interestingly enough, I had one that took a while to be approved, then said there was an autovetter problem. I hadn't gotten around to fixing it, when a couple weeks later it went to premium anyway. So I'm not sure if it got fixed, or if it just turned out to not be a problem.
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Old 05-29-2012, 09:05 PM   #7
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I think they have a lot of people going the self-pubbing ebook route, more than even six months ago. I know they hired or are hiring more people to read through the submissions for the premium Smashwords, so maybe it'll soon take less time.
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Old 05-30-2012, 01:54 AM   #8
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When I uploaded my books recently and then went to the page where the most recently uploaded books show up, the book I just uploaded was on page four. A lot of books are being uploaded in a short period of time.
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Old 05-30-2012, 05:18 PM   #9
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May 11:
Quote:
On the vetting backlog (currently running about 15 days), we'll soon have new staffers on board to start attacking that. In the meantime, thank you for your patience.
https://www.smashwords.com/about/beta

More news on distribution has been updated since. Please, those new to sites, read the Site Updates/News/whatever a company calls it page. You'll answer a lot of your own questions.
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Old 05-30-2012, 05:37 PM   #10
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K.Taylor--that's where I read about the backlog and hiring more people.
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Old 05-30-2012, 06:52 PM   #11
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I put one new ebook a week ranging from short stories to small nonfiction titles. I always have at least three books pending and sometimes four. It just takes a while. I always wait with my Kindle publication until after it has cleared Smashwords. Then I know all formatting errors are resolved. I always preview the finished ebook on Smashwords and fix any errors I find but sometimes something small will escape me.
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Old 06-01-2012, 09:16 PM   #12
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I uploaded mine in March and it didn't get into the Premium catalog until the end of April, then B&N/Kobo had shipping issues which were resolved a few weeks ago. While you are waiting, it wouldn't hurt to do a solid read-through in case you missed anything. That's why I did and I caught a bunch which I corrected right before it went into the catalog.
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Old 06-05-2012, 06:41 AM   #13
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Smashwords are getting busier by the week. This is both good and bad.
Good because more readers visit. Bad because there are so many ebooks to choose from now. Regarding Smashwords' distributors; What amazes me is how as an author I can have 100's of books going out on Sony and B&N with Zero on the others over a 12 month period?
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