Author Support Group discussion

Link to my blog post re: problems with Scribd:

Caveat Emptor!. :-(

Sharon,
It says the blog doesn't exist... and I'm curious now. What happened with Scribd?

Holly wrote: "Sharon,
It says the blog doesn't exist... and I'm curious now. What happened with Scribd? "

Here is the text of the post:

I am sorry to have to issue a warning about Scribd to my fellow authors, but that is the position in which I find myself.

When I first published In The Eye of The Beholder as an eBook, I went with Scribd as my imprint. I did not yet know about Smashwords and its multi-format set-up (which is, frankly, superior to Scribd's PDF-only arrangement). I left my document at Scribd as well as placing it with Smashwords.

Well, after a few months of less-than-stellar sales, I decided to delete my document from Scribd and stick with Smashwords. However, when I clicked the "delete" option, I was told that the document was now marked "private" because people had purchased it. That's true; I have $50.43 sitting in my Scribd account from purchases -- funds that, frankly, I would like to see.

I wrote to tech support, and their response was to refer me to the FAQ section on quarterly payments -- which was not my question at all. I want to remove my document and obtain my payment. I wrote back and reiterated the situation, and was then referred to a section of the FAQ that stated no payments of less than $100 would be made.

So, it appears that Scribd is willing to essentially rob me of $50.43 for the privilege of posting my content on their website. Fellow authors, please beware of this hosting services; this is an unscrupulous practice to say the least. I am highly disappointed.

Would they pay if you deleted your account altogether?

Jaimey wrote: "Would they pay if you deleted your account altogether?"

I don't know. I need to look into that. My only concern is that my other (free) eBook is on Scribd, and there's no way to set it up for Smashwords (yet) because of the photographs. :-/ As soon as I can do it, though ... most definitelly.

Yikes! That's no good, Sharon. I hope you get it sorted out. I'm curious though - do you have to delete it from Scribd before you can place it on Smashwords? (I know nothing about these e-content sites.)

Bernadette wrote: "Yikes! That's no good, Sharon. I hope you get it sorted out. I'm curious though - do you have to delete it from Scribd before you can place it on Smashwords? (I know nothing about these e-content s..."

Oh, no. I had it at both places because not all e-readers take native PDFs (that's all that's available on Scribd) and I wanted folks with Stanza, Sony, and so on to be able to access the book. As Smashwords also offers PDF, I decided to stop splitting my options.