Thank you to Smashwords for removing my books from unauthorized sale sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning. I appreciate that the correction was made within 48 hours of my original request.
However, I’m not fully pleased with the situation. I received no email response from either of the two people at Smashwords to whom I sent my complaint. I also checked their “Site Updates” page and their blog to see if they issued a general statement to others who might have experienced this problem: nothing. So far, I have heard no explanation for how my unpublished books were put on sale, and I also did not receive any acknowledgment of my request to close my Smashwords account after my final payment is sent.
I’m not expecting to receive flowers or anything, but this problem has happened to me twice, and I believe some explanation is due to all Smashwords’ customers. After all, how can any of their customers trust that their books are being distributed properly? If my experience tells me anything, it’s that files from as far back as six months could be being sent to retailers, and that means that the old book files may be going out to readers even though a more recent edition has been uploaded by the author. Or worse, books that authors have taken off the market may still be sold.
So thank you, Smashwords, for your prompt response, and I hope to hear from you soon.