Smashwords Labs

Welcome to Smashwords Labs

Smashwords publishing experiments and open source development initiatives.

Smashwords Widgets: We're looking for volunteer web developers and artists to help develop a library of Smashwords widgets (buttons, banners and badges) that authors, publishers, readers and affiliate marketers would use to spread the word about Smashwords ebooks. Widget creators will receive recognition for their contributions in the form of permanent hyperlinks to their Smashwords member profile page. Once you build a widget, email it to Mark at first initial second initial at you know where dot com.

Smashwords Satellites: An experiment in book discovery. A series of about 33 ebook micro-directories showcasing slices of Smashwords content in different categories. Each offers experimental interfaces for accessing and sorting book content, ranging from "lite" (minimalistic), "medium" (a bit more info) and "max" (more detailed information). The Satellites will serve as incubators for new book discovery features we'll migrate over to the main Smashwords site. Already, while still in development, the Satellites spawned our new Smashwords 100 and the Smashwords Cover Browser. Smashwords Satellites will also become showcases and proof-of-concepts for how publishers and affiliate marketers can use the Smashwords API and the upcoming Smashwords Foundry to help readers discover books of interest.

Smashwords Local Languages: Our mission at Smashwords is to serve as a global ebook publishing and distribution platform for all the world's authors and publishers. Therefore, Smashwords is preparing an initiative to translate the Smashwords web site and publishing platform into multiple languages. Currently seeking volunteer translaters for Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. This will be a community effort. If you want to participate, or if you want to volunteer to help us translate to another language, please contact Mark Coker at first initial second initial at you know where dot com. Translation teams will be composed of one to four volunteers each who will collaborate with Smashwords to translate all textual information.


Smashwords Socialbuzz: An experimental mashup between Smashwords and Twitter. Allows Smashwords authors, publishers and readers to connect and build relationships via Twitter. Three components: Twitterbuzz Testiminials (Smashwords fans tweet testimonials about Smashwords), Twitterbuzz Feed (what folks are saying on Twitter about Smashwords, and Smashwords authors and books), and Twitterbuzz Directory (a directory of Smashwords authors on Twitter (follow them all!).


Satellite Sites

These are quick peeks into Smashwords: slices of our listing of books published, with easy-to-find names and domain names:

Smashwords 100

Browse Smashwords' top books, authors and publishers based on their popularity at Smashwords 100.