As an Indie Author, Smashwords has been a great place to start. The set up is very friendly for newbies and you have explicit instructions on how to get your work published. I recommend it to anyone thinking of jumping into eBooks.

Based on the instructions there, I was able to figure out Amazon and publish on there are well. Awesome!It also affords me the ability to price my books and change the pricing whenever I want. I can even put books up for free permanently. It gets people to check out my work and those that like it buy my other books. Nice!Another thing I like about Smashwords is that they distribute my books to B&N and Apple as well as other eBook sites. They even collect the money and give detailed payment information (even though they only pay out quarterly). Still, it's great! Smashwords stands up for and believes in the little guy. I feel supported there as an author, especially as an author of erotica. Bravo! Best of all - it's FREE! Well, at least the publishing is. Naturally, they take a small cut of everything you sell. Yay!
But....

I don't know if they struggle due to a large influx of authors flocking to the site or they have bad software or they are simply understaffed because Smashwords definitely has issues:

Books do not show up on certain sites or take months to show up. While my books were having success on Amazon, I didn't make money on Apple and B&N because the books just simply weren't there. (And I am still waiting on some...) Growl!Changes you make in price, book cover, or edits are not necessary going to show up on the other sites. Really???Your books must wait to be "okayed" for distribution and sometimes this can take up three weeks to happen. And then you wait another 2, 4, 8 weeks to show up on the other sites. Crickets...The support team will answer your email, but it usually takes between one to two weeks for them to respond. Sometimes when they respond, you are told to send another email with specific information and then you may have to wait an additional week or two to get a follow up response. Worse, I get a different person each time. So, even though it is the same issue I've been dealing time and time again, I have to go through the whole situation from scratch. It sucks.The payments can be really delayed when the big companies like B&N and Apple are behind in paying Smashwords. The money you made in March may not be paid out until the end of August. Despite all that, I continue to use Smashwords because it is the best option open to me at this point. I apologize to all my readers on Apple, B&N, Sony, and Kobo. You are either getting old versions or you are still waiting for books to show up. I am sorry. I wish I had some control over it.

In the end, I figure if I was using a traditional publisher, I would experience even more delays, have less of a say concerning my books and be expected to pay a ton of money for the favor.

So I still love you, Smashwords, but there are times I just want to slap you.