Draft2Digital to buy Smashwords

[Lostinspace]

I received an email from Smashwords yesterday telling me that Draft2digital was buying Smashwords DRAFT2DIGITAL TO ACQUIRE SMASHWORDS - Draft2Digital | Blog.

This is probably a good thing for indie authors as it seems generally believed that Draft2digital has easier to use software for authors whilst Smashwords has a useable store (it may be possible to buy books directly from Draft2digital but I have never worked out how).

It might be a very good thing for readers if the merger allowed investment in the Smashwords store software to enable readers to find books more easily, for example if you know a word from the title and that the author’s name started with an S or even two words from the title (at present if you search for blue moon, you get all title containing either blue or moon). It will also be very nice to find books published by Draft2digital.

However, I do have one fear. At present I can buy a book from Smashwords and be confident that it does not have DRM. I believe that Draft2digital allows authors to encumber their books with DRM and it will be very bad if such horrors invade the Smashwords store.

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

Curious, what exactly is the issue people have with DRM? I thought it was intended to help against piracy? (Not that it appears to be doing a very good job of it .)

 

[Montero]

It can make it hard to use an eReader other than Kindle and especially for people who buy from other platforms like Kobo, can mean looking for several readers.
What I especially like about Smashwords is you are buying a copy of the eBook in the same way you'd buy a physical copy, rather than the licence to read it as per Amazon.
I like things that stop piracy - or try to - but I also like actually owning a copy of the book, and always check on Smashwords to see if something is available before going to Amazon.