This is great news for the self-publishing company! According to the Smashwords blog, sales the day after Christmas were 76% higher from the same day a week earlier and sales for December 27 increased 65% over the same period a year ago. These figures were aggregated over the 125,000 Smashwords titles available in the iBookstore.

Even more encouraging is the chart above, which shows iBookstore stales for the last 24 months. (Note the steady rise.) The blog says: “If previous seasonal trends stay true, we’ll see a record December, followed by a strong January, and then sales will moderate but probably settle in at a stepped-up level compared to October or November.”

Congrats to Mark Coker of Smashwords, who single-handedly created a whole new category of publishing.