Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have a question about how to read the ebooks we sell, or about buying
ebooks? Then this page is for you. Otherwise, you may want to see our General FAQ for answers to other questions. If
you are an author interested in publishing your ebook, see our guide on
how to publish your ebook on Smashwords.
Books at Smashwords are primarily available in the ePub format and are
sold without DRM. To read these ebooks on your mobile device or tablet,
you'll need to download an ePub reader app.
There are many available applications you can read ePubs in:
- Aldiko Next,
available on Android and Apple mobile devices
- FBReader, available on
Android and Apple mobile devices, as well as most desktop platforms
- ReadEra, Lithium, or Moon+ Reader on Android devices
- Most commercial ebook store apps for both Android and Apple
mobile devices now allow reading your own ePubs, such as Barnes
& Noble's nook app, Google Play
Books, Amazon's Kindle app, and
the Apple Books app, if you want to incorporate
your Smashwords purchases into another library
To get ePubs onto your mobile device or tablet, you can use our
edelivery options, with email delivery or
Dropbox syncing to have your ebooks delivered automatically after
purchase, or you can download the file directly from your mobile
device's browser.
Books at Smashwords are primarily available in the ePub format and are
sold without DRM. To read these ebooks on your desktop or laptop computer,
you'll need to download an ePub reader application or plugin for your
browser.
Some available applications are:
- Thorium Reader, from the Readium Foundation, which is available
for Windows, macOS, and Linux computers
- FBReader, for Windows,
macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, as well as tablets and mobile devices using
Android and iOS (Apple mobile devices)
- Adobe
Digital Editions
After you install one of the above apps, you can use our
edelivery options, with email delivery or
Dropbox syncing to have your ebooks delivered automatically after
purchase, or you can download the file directly from your browser.
Please note there are many third party e-reading software applications,
and Smashwords cannot provide customer support on how to install or
use them. Most have online help files.
Books at Smashwords are primarily available in the ePub format and are
sold without DRM. To read these ebooks on your ebook reader, you'll need
to transfer the file onto your reader. How you get your ePub onto your
device will vary by device.
For most devices, you will typically need to use a cable
to connect your reader to your computer and add files to the external
drive that appears when connected.
No, samples are free.
No. All sales are final. This is why most authors allow you to sample much
of their ebook for free so you can try before you buy.
No. Smashwords ebooks are licensed for your personal reading enjoyment only,
so you are not legally allowed to copy, share, or email the ebook to others,
and you are not allowed to resell or distribute the ebook to others.
Smashwords authors are trusting you to honor their copyright and hard work,
so please do not breach their trust in you. However, most authors offer
generous samples of their ebooks, so if you want to share a legal sample of
the ebook, simply email your friends the hyperlink to the ebook page of the
ebook, or use one of the social networking links to share a link of the ebook
with friends on Facebook, Twitter and other sites.
Anyone who has purchased a Smashwords ebook is able to review it by clicking
back to the ebook page. Below the different file format options is a link
where you can review the ebook. Remember to select a star rating as well.
Once you review an ebook, a link to your profile page appears in your review,
and your review also appears on your personal profile page. If an ebook is
free, anyone can review it. If you do not see the review link, it means you
haven't purchased the ebook yet. Authors are not able to review their own
ebooks.
Bloggers can excerpt a small portion of an author's ebook for review
purposes. For further information on excerpts and re-distribution, see the
Smashwords Terms of Service.
To buy books on Smashwords, click the Buy button on any book's page,
and we will walk you the process of creating an account and verifying your
email. After verifying your email, you can continue through the cart
process and pay via PayPal or credit card. When your purchase is
complete, your ebook will be emailed to your account email address, and
is also available in your
Library for download at
any time.
When you purchase through Smashwords, we create a secure communications
connection between your web browser and our payment processing provider,
PayPal. For your security, Smashwords does not store your credit card
information after your purchase.