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Smashwords Signs New Distribution Agreement With Indian Bookseller Flipkart

smashwords_logoIt looks like Flipkart’s interest in indie ebooks extends beyond launching their own self-pub platform.

Smashwords, the world’s largest indie ebook distributor, has just announced that they have signed a deal to get their ebooks into yet another ebookstore.

Flipkart.com is India’s largest online marketplace.  They serve 10 million registered users, one million daily visitors, and offer products in over 17 different categories.  Our friends at Flipkart tell me that according to Nielsen BookScan Retail Panel data, Flipkart holds 80% market share for online book sales in India, and holds 40-45% market share for all trade book sales across brick and mortar AND online.

Flipkart’s ebook store is accessible via the Web at www.flipkart.com as well as via Flipkart e-reading apps for Android, Apple iOS and Microsoft Windows 8 devices.  The Apple iOS app supports reading only, whereas the other interfaces support both purchasing and reading.

Of course, Smashwords  were already available in India via the Kindle Store, Google Play Books, iBooks, and of course the Smashwords website.

Authors and publishers will earn a 60% royalty on ebooks sold via Klipkart. The ebooks should start appearing in the Flipkart ebookstore in a few weeks.

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Comments


Destination Infinity August 30, 2013 um 2:02 am

Some progress in the Indian eBook market, but why is Flipkart not selling any eReaders at all? When I bought the Kindle, that was the only option available to me! I am not sure how many people might use tablets to read eBooks, I would prefer the eReader or will stick to print books.


mark williams international August 30, 2013 um 5:07 am

This is a smart move by Smashwords. The Indian ebook market is growing fast, with Flipkart, Pothi and Infibeam well-established ahead of Amazon’s arrival on the scene.

We’ve had great success selling our English-language ebooks through Infibeam. compared to almost no take up in the Kindle India store, reflecting a pattern we’re seeing everywhere Amazon sets up. Too little too late and bringing with it a lot of baggage as a big American company. The new Mexico Kindle store is typical. Two million ebooks available and just 3.5% are in the local language.

The Smashwords press-releases are misleading as always. Apple iTunes India doesn’t have an iBook store.

But great to see Smashwords actually taking the world beyond the US borders seriously at last. Maybe next they could address getting their Sony feed into the Sony UK, Germany, Austria, Australia and Japan Reader Stores. We sell well across all the Sony stores, but most indies are only in the US/Canada stores through Smashwords

Mark Coker August 30, 2013 um 11:01 am

Mark Williams, if anything in my blog post is factually inaccurate or misleading, please clarify and I’ll take a look.

Nate Hoffelder August 30, 2013 um 11:07 am

The iTunes detail is my fault, not Smashwords.

Mark Coker August 30, 2013 um 11:10 am

No worries, Nate. Pls note that we also don’t distribute to Google. thx.

Nate Hoffelder August 30, 2013 um 11:12 am

.stuN


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