Smashwords, Inc., based in Los Gatos, California, is a platform for self-publishing e-books. The company, founded by Mark Coker, began public operation in 2008 and was acquired by Draft2Digital, LLC in 2022. Authors and independent publishers upload their manuscripts as electronic files to the service, which converts them into multiple e-book formats for various devices. Once published, the books are made available for sale online at a price set by the author or independent publisher. Coker began work on Smashwords in 2005 and officially launched the website in May 2008. Within the first seven months of launching, the website published 140 books. Due to initially low profits, the firm switched to a distribution model that offered retailers a "30% commission in exchange for digital shelf space". Smashwords achieved a profit in 2010 and has distributed some of its books via Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Sony, and KDP, Amazon.com's e-book publishing website. More information...
According to PR-model, smashwords.com is ranked 50,914th in multilingual Wikipedia, in particular this website is ranked 32,495th in English Wikipedia.
The website is placed before nyan.ax and after wdel.com in the BestRef global ranking of the most important sources of Wikipedia.
