About Smashwords
Welcome to the Smashwords Store!
Founded in 2008, Smashwords is a global online retailer of independently published ebooks.
We became a Draft2Digital company following our merger with Draft2Digital in March 2022. As of January 2026, Smashwords completed its transformation from a combination publishing platform/distributor/bookstore to its current form, a dedicated ebook store only. Former Smashwords authors and publishers now manage their publishing operations at Draft2Digital.
Registration at Smashwords is optional, but it gets you these great benefits:
- Browse over one million original DRM-free ebooks, including nearly 100,000 priced every day at free
- Multi-dimensional search tools make it easy to find your next great read by subcategory, price, and word count
- Shop our world famous annual Smashwords supersale events, such as Smashwords Read an Ebook Week, the Smashwords July Summer/Winter Sale, and our Smashwords End of Year sale.
- Use our free Smashwords Alerts service to receive new release notifications for the authors you follow.
- Participate in exclusive presales where you can purchase highly anticipated new books early, before anyone else
- Purchased books are forever accessible in your Smashwords Library
- Multiple ebook delivery options: To your Smashwords Library, to your DropBox, or emailed straight to your e-reading device
- DRM-free ebooks means you can enjoy your book your way on any e-reading device or app, now or in the future.
Q&A With Mark Coker, Founder and Former CEO of Smashwords
(Updated January 2026)
What is Smashwords?
Smashwords is a global ebook retailer serving readers around the globe.
What's the story behind Smashwords?
I wrote the business plan for Smashwords in 2005 and launched in 2008.
Originally, Smashwords was an ebook publishing platform and store. We made it possible for writers around the world to self-publish ebooks at Smashwords and then sell those ebooks in our Smashwords Store.
I launched Smashwords based on my personal experience as an author. My wife and I wrote a novel together in the early 2000s. Despite representation from a great agent at a top tier literary agency in New York known for representing New York Times bestsellers, we were unable to sell our novel to publishers. Publishers said they were reluctant to take a chance because novels targeting similar readers (fans of daytime television soap operas) had sold poorly.
After licking our wounds of disppointment, I realized I'd stumbled across a very big problem with global cultural implications.
Back then, YouTube and blogging were coming on strong, prime examples of user-generated content going mainstream.
Yet writers were not allowed to become published authors without first running a gatekeeping gaunlet of literary agents and publishers. Most writers failed to get publishing deals, which meant that most writers were going to their graves with unpublished manuscripts. Surely, some of those books would have gone on to become cultural treasurers if they'd only been given a chance to be judged by readers. And these traditional publishers, due to their inability or desire to take a risk on every writer, were inadventerly playing the role of censors - they were deciding what readers could and could not read!
My vision for creating Smashwords was to democratize publishing and turn the traditional publishing world upside down. I thought authors deserved the freedom to publish what they wanted, and readers deserve the freedom to decide for themselves which books were worth reading. Mind you, like most first time authors new to the publishing industy, I knew little about the publishing industry and had no relationships. But as a lifelong book lover, I believed the world needed this. And any good entrepreneur worth their salt will tell you that ignorance is curable with research and hard work.
I set out to create free tools and opportunities that would make professional ebook publishing and distribution accessible to every writer in the world at no cost to the author. We let authors keep all their rights, and we gave them the power to control every aspect of their publishing business. Authors in control? This was revolutionary.
I flipped traditional publishing's royalty rate structure upside down. Most publishers pay authors 15% or less of the the purchase price as royalties, so I decided we'd pay 80% or more. I realized that we could pay more, and we gave authors the power to control pricing, it would allow our authors to price their books for less than traditional publishers do, and this would make their books more accessible and appealing to more readers.
That's exactly what happened.
In 2009, our second year in business, Smashwords began distributing our books to major retailers. We were the first distributor to open up Barnes & Noble and Sony to self-published ebooks. In the years that followed, Smashwords built a global distribution network, opening several major retailers, subscription services, and library platforms to self-published ebooks.
Today, self-published ebooks are seen as essential inventory for every reputatable online retailer around the globe.
In March 2022, Smashwords was acquired by our former competitor, Draft2Digital, in an all-stock deal. As part of the combination, I happily relinquished my CEO title and joined Draft2Digital as Chief Strategy Officer and board member. In addition to helping to guide Draft2Digital's long term business planning, I also act as the manager of the Smashwords Store though that's not my title. Where's my cat?
What are your goals with the Smashwords Store?
We aim to make Smashwords the favorite place for indie readers to discover indie ebooks, and we want to make Smashwords the best place for indie publishers to reach their readers.
The Smashwords Store has always had a reputation for being one of the most reader-friendly and author-friendly online bookstores anywhere. With the publishing operations now migrated to Draft2Digital, the customer experience for book discovery is now cleaner and more intuitive.
In the years ahead, we look forward to carrying the books of more authors, publishers, and distributors.
What is Smashwords’ position on digital rights management (DRM), and do you support it?
DRM stands for "digital rights management." DRM is a form of copy protection intended to prevent ebook piracy. We believe DRM is ineffective at preventing piracy and is harmful to authors and readers; therefore we don't support it. DRM makes it difficult for law-abiding customers to enjoy their purchased books on the different devices they own, now and in the future. We believe when given the choice between DRM-free books and DRM-infected books, informed readers prefer DRM-free.
Most readers are honest, ethical, and well-intentioned. Most readers want authors and publishers to be fairly compensated for their books.
At Smashwords, we trust our customers. We believe most actual piracy is accidental, such as an enthusiastic reader sharing their new favorite book with a friend. This is why we remind our customers that the books they purchase at Smashwords are licensed for their personal personal enjoyment only, and may not be copied, shared, or resold. I think our customers already appreciate that we and our authors (who price their own books) have always worked so hard to keep our books affordably priced.
Will Smashwords ever allow DRM'd books to be sold in the Smashwords Store?
We have no current plans; it's about the last thing on our radar right now. Most indie publishers prefer DRM-free.
What is Smashwords’ privacy policy?
Privacy is incredibly important to of us at Smashwords. Whether you're a reader or an author, we have you covered. We will never sell, rent or share our customers' contact information with any third party. We respect the privacy of authors who choose to publish under pen names. We respect your inbox. We protect the privacy of book buyers by not revealing their purchases or identity to anyone. Read our complete privacy statement here.
I'm organizing a writer's conference. Can Smashwords supply a speaker?
Please contact Jim Azevedo, corporate communications director at Draft2Digital, to arrange for either virtual or in-person appearances. Click the "support" link below and ask it to be forwarded to Jim. We are honored by your invitation. Please note it's easier for us to accept offers for virtual presentations. For in-person keynotes and workshops, offers to cover T&E make it easier for us to accept your invitation, especially if we don't have a speaker who lives in your area.
I'm an author or publisher. How do I sell my books at the Smashwords Store?
Please sign up for a free account at Draft2Digital, the world's leading distributor for self-published authors and small independent presses! At present, Draft2Digital is the exclusive distributor supplying the Smashwords store.
I'm a book distributor or large ONIX-capable publisher. How do I add Smashwords to my distribution network?
Although the Smashwords Store is currently only able to receive ebooks from our distributor Draft2Digital, support for additional top distributors is planned. Interested distributors or large ONIX-capable publishers can contact the "support" link below and ask to be forwarded to me.
What’s next for Smashwords?
The top development priority for 2026 is to begin accepting customer preorders at Smashwords. Beyond that, we are bursting with ideas for how we will make the Smashwords Store the best ebook store in the universe for readers and authors.
If you have specific suggestions for how we can make the Smashwords Store your favorite store in the universe, won't you please take a moment to write me? Tell me how we can do a better job for readers like you. My personal email is first initial second initial at smashwords dot com.
What's the story behind your Smart Author podcast?
The Smart Author podcast guides writers step-by-step from the very basics of ebook publishing to more advanced topics. It focused on evergreen best practices. I launched Smart Author in October, 2017 and by 2019 it was pretty much complete as a master class in ebook publishing.
The idea for it came to me after having presented hundreds of workshops and keynotes at writers conferences around the world. I always found it frustrating that most writers couldn't afford to attend these important conferences. And as much as I enjoyed attending these conferences, I couldn't attend them all. So I decided to launch a podcast series to share my knowledge with everyone at no cost.
I'm temped to add new episodes, so I'm not ready to say it's over! If you're curious to learn about ebook self-publishing, click below to listen to the four-minute series introduction now, or visit the Smart Author podcast home page to listen to all the episodes. And then when you're done listening, please do publish and distribute your books at Draft2Digital!