The Kindle app on my smartphone isn't used to buy books. It comes in very handy when I want to borrow a book from the library but I can't find the time to go to the building where the books are housed and browse the shelves before selecting one and bringing it to the librarian who checks it out to me and lets me know when it's due back, enjoy!
The app that gets a workout is the Overdrive app.
My local library is tied in with Overdrive, which provides a platform for ebook rentals. Whatever ebooks the library owns are accessible to the library-card-carrying public, with all the convenience of an Amazon download but without the payment at the end. The books are downloaded to my phone via the Kindle app, and if I finish a book before the two week rental period is over, all I have to do is log into my Amazon account and manage my Kindle. Even though it's not a Kindle.
Convenient, easy to use, and Jeff Bezos doesn't get my hard-earned money. What's not to like?
So it's a big deal for authors published by Newcastlewest Books to learn that Overdrive has signed an agreement with Smashwords to carry Smashwords titles.
More and more people rely on public libraries for their reading material because there isn't enough money to go around. If you're scraping by and wonder how you'll pay the electric bill, you aren't buying books. But if you are a library patron, you can read all you like.
The growing library niche is now open to small publishers or independents who use Smashwords to reach the digital marketplace.
A crowd of potential new readers has just been made available to authors who had little chance of getting a book into the library if they were not published by a powerhouse publisher with big marketing budgets. To build a fan base requires buzz and buzz needs readers to be generated. With the Smashwords catalog in Overdrive, independent authors and publishers have a chance to get noticed by those who like books but aren't out there buying them.
The library can expand its holdings without paying for a lot of expensive hardbound books. There is no need for space to house copies. Library patrons with a love of romance, to name a popular genre, will find plenty of new reads for their amusement, and authors looking to get the attention of the reading public will find the Smashwords-Overdrive link of great use.
Now to suggest to my library that they add THE LIBERTY FLOWER to their Overdrive options...speaking of romance of the historical variety.
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