I just came across this wonderful page called Smashwords which has been available for some months now.

On the About page it says:

“Smashwords is an ebook publishing and distribution platform for ebook authors, publishers and readers. We offer multi-format, DRM-free ebooks, ready for immediate sampling and purchase, and readable on any e-reading device.
At Smashwords, our authors and publishers have complete control over the sampling, pricing and marketing of their written works.

Smashwords is ideal for publishing novels, short fiction, poetry, personal memoirs, monographs, non-fiction, research reports, essays, or other written forms that haven’t even been invented yet.

It’s free to publish and distribute with Smashwords.”

Authors

If you own an ebook-reader or if you have written a book yourself, you should definitely check out this site. There is a style guide available where you can learn how to prepare your documents. The source format is RTF. They encourage you to prepare your document in MS Word but you may also use OpenOffice and save as RTF.

After uploading your book there is a so-called Meatgrinder technology which converts your document into various ebook formats and make the numerous files available for download.

Resellers

If you have a blog you might want to check out their Affiliate Program. Your will receive a minimum of 11% to 80.5% of  the net sales price. What is even better is that you receive commissions on all purchases with a 48 hour period.

There are some affiliate links on the right of this article you might want to click.

Check out this YouTube video where Smashwords explained in detail:

[...] technologies can sometimes be useful to literary translators as well, says Bowker. “They can compile a list of an author’s favourite expressions, as well as sentences or words that were translated in earlier works. By cataloguing neologisms or lexical creations so that they can be compared with a larger sample, technology can help the translator decide whether a more creative approach is warranted.” Bowker concludes that these technologies should be regarded as tools, not as potential competitors: “Human translators will never run out of work.”
The magazine of the University of Ottawa

First of all: What is a CAT tool? Yes, WikiPedia has it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_translation It’s a software tool that helps translators doing their work. A lot of people call it “Translation Memory System” while I would rather call it “Translation Environment” (TE). Anyway, it’s all the same.
The first book I translated using a TE was the children’s book Mozart in the Future written by my wife in Brazilian Portuguese which I translated into German. Now I am translating my second book written by another Brazilian author. My wife will have to wait. She is already waiting in line with her second children’s book The Legend of the Black Lake. When I find the time I will translate that one, too, using a TE, of course!

Why do I use a CAT tool at all?

The COO of a company that produces and sells a TE asked me this question. Well, here is the answer: You don’t have to, actually. If you have always walked to the bakery which is less than half a mile away, why should you use a car instead? If you always talked to your neighbor personally, why should you call him using a cell phone?
Okay, this is not a philosophical question. I would say that “older” literary translators probably would feel more comfortable without a TE. Computer-savvy and rather “young” translators would and should use a TE. (What about the old and computer-savvy translators?) Here is why.
First of all so

Most people make book buying decisions based on reviews. That’s why we asked both professional and occasional reviewers to read our book “Mozart in the Future” and write an honest review about it.
According to the first 10 reviews my wife, the author, wrote an extraordinary children’s fantasy chapter book which also adults love to read. They say that the book is inspiring and motivating.

Just a few days ago I read a very negative review about the book. I respect everybody’s likes and dislikes. You cannot write a book that pleases everybody.
The reviewer, however, is a professional reviewer and has an astonishing background in writing.
The review starts out with the words: “I don’t like Mozart”. I am still wondering why a professional reviewer accepts to review a book called “Mozart in the Future” if she doesn’t like Mozart…

Anyway, I would like you to read the following two reviews. Both are professional reviews. One of them is very positive, the other one is very negative.
Who is right, who is wrong? Are both of them really professional?

Positive review by Amy Lignor from Bookpleasures.com
Negative review* by Jean Little from Cybils
Here is a 30-page-preview of Mozart in the Future
If you are interested in writing a review about the book, please let me know. I would send you a free copy of course.

Please, give me your opinion.

* Just some remarks concerning some issues the reviewer mentioned: The original language of the book is Brazilian Portuguese. The author is Brazilian and lives in Austria now. Her husband (me) is German and translated the book into standard German. Concerning children’s books there is no difference between the German spoken in Austria and Germany.
Paula Vaz-Carreiro translated the book from Brazilian Portuguese into English. We chose British English because the plot is set in Europe, however, we tried to avoid too many British terms so the book can easily be understood by any English speaking child around the globe.

Most people make book buying decisions based on reviews. That’s why we asked both professional and occasional reviewers to read our book “Mozart in the Future” and write an honest review about it.
According to the first 10 reviews my wife, the author, wrote an extraordinary children’s fantasy chapter book which also adults love to read. They say that the book is inspiring and motivating.

Just a few days ago I read a very negative review about the book. I respect everybody’s likes and dislikes. You cannot write a book that pleases everybody.
The reviewer, however, is a professional reviewer and has an astonishing background in writing.
The review starts out with the words: “I don’t like Mozart”. I am still wondering why a professional reviewer accepts to review a book called “Mozart in the Future” if she doesn’t like Mozart…

Anyway, I would like you to read the following two reviews. Both are professional reviews. One of them is very positive, the other one is very negative.
Who is right, who is wrong? Are both of them really professional?

Positive review by Amy Lignor from Bookpleasures.com
Negative review* by Jean Little from Cybils
Here is a 30-page-preview of Mozart in the Future
If you are interested in writing a review about the book, please let me know. I would send you a free copy of course.

Please, give me your opinion.

* Just some remarks concerning some issues the reviewer mentioned: The original language of the book is Brazilian Portuguese. The author is Brazilian and lives in Austria now. Her husband (me) is German and translated the book into standard German. Concerning children’s books there is no difference between the German spoken in Austria and Germany.
Paula Vaz-Carreiro translated the book from Brazilian Portuguese into English. We chose British English because the plot is set in Europe, however, we tried to avoid too many British terms so the book can easily be understood by any English speaking child around the globe.

Mozart in the future is already translated into Swedish.

We are now looking for a publisher to take care of putting the book into Swedish book stores and doing some marketing. The book is translated, however, not revised yet. So there might be some typos. If you spot an error, please tell me. Click on the About me page or leave a comment.

Here is the synopsis in English:
————
Max is really a boy like any other, but he has a talent for music and a strict mother who wants him to be a great musician.
When the doctor says that Max must not to go to school for a few days, Max has no idea that he is about to meet one of his heroes: Mozart, the genius who was one of the greatest composers of all times.

Can you imagine Mozart as a child, going down a snowy slope on a sledge, watching cartoons on TV or eating hamburgers?
Well, in ‘Mozart in the Future’ all that and more is possible when you follow their adventures as they try to return Mozart to his own time, helped along by a mysterious fairy-like being called the Spirit of Music.
————

I had the honor to translate the book into German.
The English and the Spanish version are translated by other professional translators and will be published soon.

Previews:
Swedish: http://issuu.com/calutateo/docs/mozart-i-framtiden
German: http://issuu.com/calutateo/docs/mozart-in-der-zukunft
Portuguese: http://issuu.com/calutateo/docs/mozart_no_futuro

Already published printed versions:
- Amazon.de: http://amazon.rodrigues-peters.com
(There are wonderful reviews!)
- Livraria Cultura (Brazil): http://livrariacultura.rodrigues-peters.com/

Mozart in the future is already translated into Swedish.

We are now looking for a publisher to take care of putting the book into Swedish book stores and doing some marketing. The book is translated, however, not revised yet. So there might be some typos. If you spot an error, please tell me. Click on the About me page or leave a comment.

Here is the synopsis in English:
————
Max is really a boy like any other, but he has a talent for music and a strict mother who wants him to be a great musician.
When the doctor says that Max must not to go to school for a few days, Max has no idea that he is about to meet one of his heroes: Mozart, the genius who was one of the greatest composers of all times.

Can you imagine Mozart as a child, going down a snowy slope on a sledge, watching cartoons on TV or eating hamburgers?
Well, in ‘Mozart in the Future’ all that and more is possible when you follow their adventures as they try to return Mozart to his own time, helped along by a mysterious fairy-like being called the Spirit of Music.
————

I had the honor to translate the book into German.
The English and the Spanish version are translated by other professional translators and will be published soon.

Previews:
Swedish: http://issuu.com/calutateo/docs/mozart-i-framtiden
German: http://issuu.com/calutateo/docs/mozart-in-der-zukunft
Portuguese: http://issuu.com/calutateo/docs/mozart_no_futuro

Already published printed versions:
- Amazon.de: http://amazon.rodrigues-peters.com
(There are wonderful reviews!)
- Livraria Cultura (Brazil): http://livrariacultura.rodrigues-peters.com/

Her face looks like “Oh my God, I’m inspired now. You take care of the children and leave me alone for I have to take advantage of this very moment to write down what just came to my mind”.

Oh yes, it’s been twelve years now that we are married, and I am able to read from her face whatever she has in mind. That’s fine. It’s not that hard to be a writer’s husband. Well, in this regard…

Let’s talk about my job for a while. I am a company employee. Everything I do, I have to take care of. Yes, so what? If I wouldn’t do it, my boss would fire me. It’s as easy as that.

So this is what my wife does in the meantime: She is producing loads of words (with meaning, of course). She is writing books over books and stores them all on the uncomplaining hard disk. That’s it. I mean she stores her writings on the hard disk! What you are probably thinking now is: All writer do that, what’s so strange about that? However, there is one question I would like to ask: Who takes the hard disk to the publisher? Yes. That’s me!

Just imagine, you are a company employee. You work from 8 to 5. At 5 o’clock you go home and your boss asks you “where is the data I asked you to prepare”. No problem, you just tell him that everything is on your hard disk and you go home happily.

So the main difference between the writer and her husband is that she writes without a deadline and full of joy, whereas he (me, the husband) reviews and publishes her writings, translates and publishes her translated writings, writes articles for website, twitters whatever is interesting to his followers, organizes readings, gathers marketing tools, does social networking… and all that in a narrow time frame.

No, I don’t bother. Keep writing, baby. Every time I review or translate one of your stories my heart is filled with joy. Just leave everything on the hard disk, I’ll take care of the rest.

Her face looks like “Oh my God, I’m inspired now. You take care of the children and leave me alone for I have to take advantage of this very moment to write down what just came to my mind”.

Oh yes, it’s been twelve years now that we are married, and I am able to read from her face whatever she has in mind. That’s fine. It’s not that hard to be a writer’s husband. Well, in this regard…

Let’s talk about my job for a while. I am a company employee. Everything I do, I have to take care of. Yes, so what? If I wouldn’t do it, my boss would fire me. It’s as easy as that.

So this is what my wife does in the meantime: She is producing loads of words (with meaning, of course). She is writing books over books and stores them all on the uncomplaining hard disk. That’s it. I mean she stores her writings on the hard disk! What you are probably thinking now is: All writer do that, what’s so strange about that? However, there is one question I would like to ask: Who takes the hard disk to the publisher? Yes. That’s me!

Just imagine, you are a company employee. You work from 8 to 5. At 5 o’clock you go home and your boss asks you “where is the data I asked you to prepare”. No problem, you just tell him that everything is on your hard disk and you go home happily.

So the main difference between the writer and her husband is that she writes without a deadline and full of joy, whereas he (me, the husband) reviews and publishes her writings, translates and publishes her translated writings, writes articles for website, twitters whatever is interesting to his followers, organizes readings, gathers marketing tools, does social networking… and all that in a narrow time frame.

No, I don’t bother. Keep writing, baby. Every time I review or translate one of your stories my heart is filled with joy. Just leave everything on the hard disk, I’ll take care of the rest.

I just read the article Can eBooks for Children Really Help them Learn to Read? from The Children’s Book Review.

ebook readers are just too expensive. I heard that a lot of ebook consumers are older than 50 years. Of course, they buy an ebook reader just for fun.

A computer on the other hand is something even parents would buy for their children. It’s an investment. Just imagine all the things you can do with a computer. What can you do with an ebook reader? Well, just read…

While reading the article my attention was instantly drawn to one sentence: “Statistics show that to be on grade level, a 5 year old should have had 1000 hours of reading exposure before they reach school – that is half an hour every day each year for every year they have been alive!”

I think “Can eBooks for Children Really Help them Learn to Read?” is not a relevant question. “How can parents help children learn to read” is what we have to think about. When your child was/will be 5 years old, had it/will it have 1000 hours of reading exposure before it reaches school? Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10,000 hours rule in his book Ouliers.  So how will you manage to add another 9,000 hours?

I just read the article Can eBooks for Children Really Help them Learn to Read? from The Children’s Book Review.

ebook readers are just too expensive. I heard that a lot of ebook consumers are older than 50 years. Of course, they buy an ebook reader just for fun.

A computer on the other hand is something even parents would buy for their children. It’s an investment. Just imagine all the things you can do with a computer. What can you do with an ebook reader? Well, just read…

While reading the article my attention was instantly drawn to one sentence: “Statistics show that to be on grade level, a 5 year old should have had 1000 hours of reading exposure before they reach school – that is half an hour every day each year for every year they have been alive!”

I think “Can eBooks for Children Really Help them Learn to Read?” is not a relevant question. “How can parents help children learn to read” is what we have to think about. When your child was/will be 5 years old, had it/will it have 1000 hours of reading exposure before it reaches school? Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10,000 hours rule in his book Ouliers.  So how will you manage to add another 9,000 hours?