The Mechanic, my latest erotic romance, is now available on SmashWords with the paperback version in the process of publishing. Offering a paperback on SmashWords is something new for me, and I’ll be interested in seeing what the results are.
Initially, I published the ePub version of The Mechanic and decided to give a paperback version a try. What I discovered was that if I started with the Amazon paperback, converting it to the SmashWords or Draft2Digital format was a breeze.
I use QuarkXPress for creating print books and simply copied the files to a new SmashWords folder, made minor changes, and published the book in about an hour. The Mechanic is a little over 200 pages, and the only real tweak was to adjust the cover size slightly to conform with Draft2Digital’s requirements. The spine was slightly smaller by a few hundredths of an inch, requiring a slight adjustment to accommodate the change.
When you publish a print book, the cover is a single wide file that includes the front, back, and spine. When the number of pages varies, it changes the thickness of the book which widens or narrows the width of the cover image. In my case, The Mechanic is 6 x 9 inches with a spine width of 0.432 inches.
The cover dimensions are critical, and the printer will reject your masters if the original sizes are not exactly correct. This is where many people struggle to create masters the proper size. I’ve used CoreDRAW for years, which is a commercial software for ad layouts and creating artwork to exact sizes. Previously in my altruistic days, I created ads and artwork for local magazine back home. CorelDRAW is the kind of product you never hear about, but is a common staple in commercial houses.
It will be interesting to see how popular paperbacks are at SmashWords but the added benefit is that when you publish with D2D, SmashWord’s parent company, they automatically push out your stories to other houses.
What I’ve found with Amazon is that 15 – 30% of my sales are typically paperbacks, which came as a complete surprise to me. I had never realized that printed erotica would sell so well. The only downside is that the pages tend to get stuck together.
The buy link is: https://books2read.com/u/3kRnXR for the eBook.
I’m still waiting for the link to the paperback as that is normally a little slower than the eBooks, but will update when I get the link.
Of course, I always recommend that you buy your smut from Kinky Literature as they offer the best erotica for the same price as the publishing houses and you can help support a great company that enjoys porn almost of much as you do.
The Mechanic from Kinky Literature: https://www.kinkyliterature.com/book/2020-the-mechanic/
Hopefully, my paperback from SmashWords will be available soon, as I want to buy a copy so that I can compare it to the copy I got from Amazon.
I’m Larry Archer, a simple writer of smut stories in both print and electronic format. Foxy and I are swingers in real life, and I write about what we do and see. While the Lifestyle is not for everyone, it’s been fun for us. My smut is explicit and hardcore, but with a somewhat plot. My porn stories are generally positive and fun, as this reflects how enjoyable swinging has been to us. If you’re interested in checking out my stories, I publish in electronic, paperback, or audiobook format at all the typical outlets.
If you don’t have a preference on where to buy your smut, I recommend Kinky Literature for all your adult reading material. They will treat you right and carry only the best erotic stories from your favorite authors. The price is exactly the same, and you have the satisfaction of supporting people whose minds are as dirty as yours.
Larry Archer's World (LarryArcher.blog) 