Indie Authors who self-publish through Smashwords are in for a treat. The company has just signed a new distribution agreement with Txtr. This move will benefit authors to give them the ability internationally distribute all over Europe and the UK.
Txtr started their digital bookstore back in 2009 and quickly became one of the largest companies outside North America packing their bookstore from publishers all over the world.
Currently Txtr is based in Berlin and due to the European Union has a very strong presence in 18 different countries. The current corporate strategy is to develop online ecosystems to not only sell products, but also manage the hosting and localization environments. Many European countries have a wide array of languages and being able to deliver content in a localized manner is very important. Not only does the company develop commerce solutions, but they also develop applications for Android and iOS. The company’s portfolio includes clients such as Vol Retail and Weltbilde, who is the largest EU book retailer.
Thomas Leliveld CEO of Txtr told Good e-Reader exclusively “We are absolutely delighted to add Smashwords’ ebooks to our international catalog of 1.5 million titles. Self-published authors of genre fiction are a driving force in the ebook market and so we are looking forward to offering Smashwords’ 250,000 titles to all the users of the txtr platform in 20 countries, alongside bestsellers from well-known publishers.”
Txtr will retail Smashwords books at the price set by Smashwords authors and publishers, or at the local currency equivalent. Smashwords will pay authors 60% list after the deduction of VAT taxes, similar to how they pay for iBooks sales. In the months ahead, Smashwords will also supply preorders to txtr because their platform supports preorders. This Friday authors will start to see their books listed on Txtr.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
