You read that right! Draft2digital closes accounts of Smashwords authors. I and my team got a ridiculous email from Draft2digital that our Smashwords account has been closed!
Smashwords Draft2digital merger update
Well, in case you want to know what this is all about. Read this post to learn about the merger between Smashwords and Draft2digital that happened some months ago.
In that post, we gave you an update about the merger between these two publishing giants. We thought this business merger would help more authors to gain visibility and find their publishing voices. We never thought it would work against some authors in some regions of our world.
Related: Find all our best-selling book publishing and marketing ebook guides and online courses.
Email communication Smashwords and Draft2digital staff
The following email communication happened between our team and the staff of Draft2digital and Smashwords after we received that ridiculous email from them closing our Smashwords account without giving us any notice whatsoever!
First email reply from us
We sent the first email reply to a Draft2digital support email. Please read it below:
Hello,
Thank you for your email. But I want to believe I received this in error.
In my Smashwords account, I submitted tax information as when due.
I have also received payments by PayPal for many years now.
If there are any other requirements, I am ready to provide them.
I want you to look at this and let me know what you think.
Thank you
Sesan OGUNTADE
Second email reply from us
We sent the second email reply to a Smashwords support email. Read it below:
Hello,
I received an email from D2D that my account has been closed because of US laws.
I was shocked to read this. I joined Smashwords in 2013 and I am surprised to know now that I can’t do business with a US company.
I want to believe Mark Coker does not know about this.
I am also surprised that I was not given any notice whatsoever before the closure of the account. That is purely unjust to an author who has created income for Smashwords for nine good years. It’s so bad to treat an author this way.
More annoying is the fact that I can’t login to my account to pick up my book files. This is unprofessional and very bad.
How do I monitor the sales that will come from my book sales in the next few days, weeks, and months? D2D will not cut out my share for me? That’s ridiculous.
I want to pick up my files in my account. I hope D2D will allow me to do that so that I can publish them in other places.
I hope to read from you so that I can understand the way to pick up my book files.
Email response we got
Hi Sesan,
Thanks for writing in. Effective March 1st, 2022, Smashwords, Inc. merged with Draft2Digital, LLC, and we will be moving our payment platform to the Draft2Digital, LLC payment system and following their Terms of Service. Unfortunately, per the new Terms of Service, we will no longer be able to provide services to residents of Nigeria at this time, and your account will be closed effective immediately. Going forward, we will continue to explore options to pay authors in Nigeria that meet United States tax and bank regulatory rules and guidelines.
If you have a balance on your account, you will be contacted directly by way of the email address on this account to choose a payment option to receive your final royalties. Please allow 3 – 6 months for us to move to the new payment platform.
Draft2digital closes accounts of Smashwords Authors: What we think
Draft2digital demonstrated very clearly that they are not ready to toe the line of the vision Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, followed for many years to help all authors irrespective of where they hail from to gain visibility.
It was a passion for Mark Coker. But it’s so sad to read from Draft2digital that they have terms of service that do not make Nigerians or Africans do business with a US company – that’s completely ridiculous in this present world!
Amazon and Google and Facebook do business with Nigerians. Payoneer is a very popular platform today and it is available to Nigerians and almost everyone on the globe.
Disruption of our distribution services
As Draft2digital closes accounts of Smashwords Authors, they have disrupted our distribution services without giving us any notice whatsoever. That’s so bad for authors who have created income for Smashwords for many years.
As Draft2digital closes accounts of Smashwords Authors: Advice to authors in this region
If your account has been closed by Draft2digital, don’t despair. We will surely find you a better option here. Stay tuned to this blog.
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Related: Find all our best-selling book publishing and marketing ebook guides and online courses.
