Smashwords, the self-publishing company founded by Mark Coker last year in Los Gatos, California, recently announced an agreement with Lexcycle, the company that makes the popular Stanza e-book reader for iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Under the terms of the partnership, authors can now register for a free account with Smashwords and upload their unpublished manuscript as a Microsoft Word file. Smashwords then converts the book into multiple e-book formats, including the one used by Stanza. The self-published title is then ready for sale online via Stanza and the Smashwords Web site at www.smashwords.com. "Our partnership with Smashwords provides an immediate pathway for independent authors to sample and sell their books," says Lexcycle CEO Neelan Choksi.
According to a press release from Smashwords, authors set the price of their books (although the average price of the company's titles is typically three dollars) and receive up to 85 percent of the net sales. "This relationship with Lexcycle will put our authors' books in the hands of over one million Stanza users for immediate sampling and purchase," says Coker.
Stanza, which is available as a free download for iPhone and iPod Touch users, offers a selection of more than a hundred thousand books and periodicals, some of which are free.
