The Smashwords Store Now Accepts Ebook Preorders

Can a reader reserve an ebook on the Smashwords store before publication day? Yes. On September 29, 2026, Draft2Digital announced from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that its Smashwords subsidiary now accepts customer ebook preorders for the first time. The post is by Jim Azevedo. It says preorder sales at Smashwords give independent authors another storefront where they can build anticipation, capture early orders, and create stronger momentum for an upcoming launch.

Smashwords, in the company's description, is one of the world's largest independent ebook retailers, and it is a Draft2Digital subsidiary. Until this announcement, a Draft2Digital ebook preorder could go to other retailers. It could not be reserved by a customer shopping on Smashwords itself.

What a Smashwords preorder does

When a customer buys a book on preorder, the credit card is not charged until the book is released. That release can be days, weeks, or months later. Authors can list a preorder at Smashwords for up to 12 months ahead of the release date. Every order that accumulates during that window is credited to the book's sales rank on release day. Draft2Digital says that pile of orders, all transacting on the same day, boosts the Smashwords store's algorithms and increases the new book's visibility among people already shopping there.

The announcement does not publish a royalty rate for these preorders, a change to the Smashwords cut, or a screenshot of the upload form. What it does specify is the timing of the charge, the 12-month horizon, and the release-day rank credit.

Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and files that are not final yet

Smashwords joins a list Draft2Digital already serves. The company also distributes ebook preorders to Apple Books, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. All of those retailers, together with Smashwords, accept what Draft2Digital calls assetless preorders. An author can list an upcoming book as a preorder even without the final manuscript or the final cover, as long as those assets are uploaded at least 10 business days before the release date. The company says that window lets authors put a preorder up sooner and collect more orders before the book exists as a finished file.

The 10-business-day rule is a deadline, not a suggestion in the announcement. If the listing went up without final files, those files still have to land before that line. The post does not describe what the stores do if the files are late.

Fewer than 20% of Draft2Digital authors use preorders

Draft2Digital calls ebook preorders an essential best practice for a stronger launch, and then reports how unusual they still are on its own platform. Fewer than 20% of Draft2Digital's 300,000+ authors use them. Preorders remain a minority of new releases. The company also says it has observed, for years, that preorders earn significantly more sales than books that are simply uploaded on release day. The new Smashwords listing does not, by itself, change how many authors set a preorder up. It adds a store for the authors who already do, and a concrete place for authors who have been skipping the step.

A preorder listing is required for Smashwords Presales

A preorder and a presale are different, and the announcement draws the line. A reader who buys on preorder waits until release day to open the book. Smashwords Presales, a tool Draft2Digital already offers, lets the author give readers early access so they can purchase, read, and review the book before it is released to the public.

Listing the upcoming book as a Smashwords preorder is required before an author can use Smashwords Presales. While the book is on preorder, the author can run one or more presales. A presale can be public, offered to every Smashwords store customer, or private. A private presale is limited to people the author chooses, such as current newsletter subscribers or a street team. Those readers can reach it only through a special link the author sends them.

The same tool can collect email addresses. An author may offer a discount on the presale in exchange for a customer's email address. Email capture is available only during the presale period, not across the whole preorder window. Presales are transacted only at the Smashwords store, and only before the preorder is released to the public. They are not described as a Draft2Digital feature on Apple Books, Barnes & Noble or Kobo.

Final manuscript and cover files are required for a presale, because the reader can open the book as soon as the sale goes through. An assetless listing is enough to start the preorder. It is not enough to run the presale.

Kris Austin, CEO and Co-founder of Draft2Digital, said: "Preorders and presales give indie authors powerful, complementary ways to build buzz around book launches. When Draft2Digital and Smashwords merged, we promised indie authors we'd continue to innovate publishing tools at D2D while bringing significant improvements to the Smashwords store. We're delighted to keep that promise."

The post presents the Smashwords preorder as part of that post-merger promise: new tools on the Draft2Digital side, and changes inside the Smashwords store.

Why it matters for authors

Authors who already send ebook preorders to Apple Books, Barnes & Noble and Kobo now have another retailer taking orders against the same release date. Those Smashwords orders wait, uncharged, until release day, and then count together toward that store's sales rank. The practical pair is the one Austin described. The preorder is the public reservation. Smashwords Presales, which cannot be turned on without that listing, is the early-access copy for a street team or a newsletter, either in public or behind a private link, with an optional discount tied to an email address.

Two limits sit next to the new storefront. Final assets for an assetless preorder are due at least 10 business days before release, and a presale cannot use that grace period at all, because the file has to be readable on purchase. And the adoption number is still the company's own: fewer than 20% of more than 300,000 Draft2Digital authors use preorders, even though Draft2Digital says preorders earn significantly more sales than a file uploaded on the day of release. The store is new. For most of the catalog, the habit is not.

Sources

• Jim Azevedo, Draft2Digital: Press Release: Draft2Digital Announces Ebook Preorder Sales Now Available at the Smashwords Store (Oklahoma City, OK, September 29, 2026)