Smashwords is giving more information to self-published authors. The publishing and distribution company announced daily sales reporting for iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, OverDrive and the Smashwords store. It also includes daily and total order accumulation numbers for iBooks preorders.
“The reports provide authors and publishers unprecedented insight into recent sales performance across the largest Smashwords retailers,” Smashwords CEO Mark Coker wrote on his blog. “Authors can use the reports to gain rapid feedback on the effectiveness of marketing and promotion campaigns.”
This type of information will help authors and publishers learn what marketing campaigns work best. Blog tours, discounts and or other marketing techniques could be monitored giving information quickly. Coker wrote on the blog that reports are updated same-day daily every three hours for Barnes & Noble; next-day for iBooks and Kobo; and same-day every 30 minutes for the Smashwords store.
In addition to the added benefits of having this data, this also seems to be another hit toward legacy publishers that don’t afford their authors this type of information. Self-publishers and small presses that use Smashwords being able to get this information quickly, it may make some authors question loudly why they can’t get more information from their publishers.
Word of advice: Don’t keep hitting the refresh button.