I wanted to pass along a heads-up for anyone here who previously published through Smashwords and, like me, may not have been paying particularly close attention to what happened to their account after Draft2Digital acquired the company.
This morning I received an email from Draft2Digital informing me that my account had a negative $12 balance due to a new annual maintenance fee. That was a surprise, since I never independently opened a Draft2Digital account. My old Smashwords account and title had been migrated to D2D following the acquisition.
Draft2Digital now charges a $12 annual maintenance fee for publishing accounts that earn less than $100 in net proceeds during the preceding 12 months. In my case, I had an old title still listed for free through the former Smashwords system, so there were no royalties available to cover the fee and my account went $12 negative.
Their Account Status page allowed me to delist the title, convert the account to "non-publishing," and immediately reverse the $12 charge. I've subsequently asked them to close my account entirely.
What caught me by surprise was realizing that my old Smashwords account had become an active Draft2Digital publishing account subject to an annual fee. I had not been following the migration closely and didn't realize the old account and title were still active.
So if you ever published through Smashwords—even years ago—and haven't been following the migration closely, it may be worth logging into Draft2Digital and checking your Account Status. You may have titles still in distribution and an annual maintenance fee that you weren't expecting.
Hopefully this saves another writer the surprise I had this morning.
