Each Friday the Smashwords store reports the bestselling indie fiction titles based on the previous week’s sales. If an author has more than one title eligible for the list, only the highest performing title will be included. This ensures high-performing titles receive the accolades they deserve, while providing up-and-coming authors the visibility they have earned. Don’t miss Monday’s Top 10 Hot Preorders List, where Smashwords will provide a list of the most highly anticipated ebook preorders.

Once upon a time I was the queen of anxiety. Terrified of riding in cars or going anywhere new. Flying in a plane? Excruciating panic overload. But I never imagined anything other than my own issues might be behind it until, back in autumn 2021, I was at my eye doctor’s office. I was in for a quick laser procedure to clear away scar tissue that had developed in my left eye after cataract surgery. This was truly no big deal. It took five minutes tops when it occurred. But while I waited my turn, I developed full blown panic so bad that part of me sat back and said, Whoa! This is way out of proportion. I was reacting like I was in a plane going down. Afterward I suspected something else was going on. I asked my spirit guides, my inner community, and Mother-Father God to help me get to the bottom of it. About that inner community. As a Sunan storyhealer, I do a daily meditation that enables me to talk to all parts of my energy-consciousness. I converse with the spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional aspects of my whole self. Those aspects are my inner community….

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Nora Carmody! WRITES:Romantic fantasy set in a war-torn land with elemental magic, enemies-to-lovers tension, and deep emotional bonds between riders and their animals. DAUGHTER OF THE WIND is a horse girl romantasy at heart, featuring a heroine psychically bonded to her horse and trapped in a political marriage to the enemy. But as a slow-burn, forbidden romance ignites with his commander, an ancient evil begins to rise that could destroy them all. ABOUT:South Carolina-based romantasy author who writes sweeping fantasies featuring soul-bonded horses and eagles, elemental magic, and a slow-burn enemies-to-lover romance. I’m a lifelong horse girl who grew up riding and competing on my Arabian mare. I may not be in the saddle anymore, but that part of me never went away. When I’m not writing, I’m usually wrangling kids or tending to an ever-growing collection of animals, including two dogs, four cats, eleven chickens, and a bearded dragon. If you’ve ever believed the bond between a girl and her horse is something…

Book Title: STAY FOR A SPELLCharacter Name: Bash How would you describe your family or your childhood?Oh, let’s see. My life started off in a fairly unassuming fashion; my parents were fishmongers, and I was going to be one too. But then my folks died and I realised I was really not cut out for a fishmonger’s life, so I pretended to be a girl and ran off to join the Merchant Marines. That was fun, until I got found out and thrown off the boat, at which point I threw my lot in with the other side of the law and became a pirate. What is your greatest talent?I’m an excellent pirate. Significant other?Wouldn’t that be nice. Biggest challenge in relationships?I’ve got no problem whatsoever with friends and colleagues. As for romantic relationships? Well, before I was cursed to be afraid of large bodies of water, (N.B., don’t piss off sea witches) the issue was the whole, you know, piracy thing. An active pirate captain spends a lot of time on the move, after all, which rather scuppers relationships with land based types. Especially if they’re law-abiding, or even just law-abiding-adjacent. Now that I’m stuck in this tiny town…

Spring temperatures may be giving you whiplash, (and here’s hoping that temps Down Under have been more predictable!) and world news may be making you anxious, but an antidote is at hand: The Busty Bodice Club is live! Eliana Piers starts the series off with her fun CURVES FOR THE GRUMPY DUKE, and as you read these words, Cathy Maxwell’s CURVES FOR THE RAKISH DUKE is also available, with six more exciting stories bursting forth in the next several weeks. As Eliana Piers explained in an interview, all eight (!) of the well-endowed Harrington sisters will have their own exciting tales. In CURVES FOR THE GRUMPY DUKE, we learn how the girls’ recently deceased father set them each a challenge. First born daughter Honoria’s task is to have one of her portraits featured in a London museum, and to meet that goal, she prevails upon her friendship with her friend’s brother (a duke, of course), Dermont Wexford. Shenanigans prevail (kudos to the intrepid ferret!), and once the duke (grumpily, at first!) spends quality time with Honoria, he might just be interested in furthering more than only her artistic renown. In CURVES FOR THE RAKISH DUKE, the inimitable Cathy Maxwell introduces…

Spring in dangerous times is by no means a twenty-first century dilemma. In this month’s selections, we will look at stories set in two different continents in a seventeenth and eighteenth-century time frame and protagonists who must make a life and future for themselves in worlds wracked by or threatened by war. We begin with THE MOON IN THE WATER: THE HERON QUARTET Book 1 by Pamela Belle. Ten-year-old Thomazine Heron’s life is upended when she is orphaned and guardianship of her considerable inheritance is sold to her cousin Simon Heron, who will care for she until she is old enough to finalize her precontracted marriage with Dominic Drakelon. Summoned to live at her cousin’s estate, Goldhayes, she forms a special bond with Simon’s third son, Francis. As this bond deepens, after the elder Simon dies and her guardianship is inherited by his eldest son Simon, she must try to mend the estrangement between the brothers so she can convince her guardian to break the engagement. When the battles between King and Parliament intensify, the residents of Goldhayes are sent to Ashcroft, Thomazine’s childhood home, while the brothers fight for the King. But Ashcroft proves to be no safe haven…

What is the title of your latest release?FAST AND FASTIDIOUS What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?PRIDE AND PREJUDICE meets FAST AND FASTIDIOUS How did you decide where your book was going to take place?It needed to be Regency era England and anted it to overlap with the Napoleonic Wars. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?I think so, even though I certainly don’t have the engineering mind that Lucy does. What are three words that describe your hero?Clever. Cautious. Neurodivergent. What’s something you learned while writing this book?Some niche English geography. For example: Due to erosion, the scenes at Walton-on-the-Naze would now be a quarter mile out to sea. Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?I try to get it done. If I have something I want to double check I’ll often make a note to my future self, such as “Check later!” What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?Savory – Spaghetti Bolognaise. Sweet – Cheesecake. Describe your writing space/office!Busy. I often have different projects on the go. FAST AND FASTIDIOUS I actually wrote at the kitchen table on paper to avoid digital distractions. Who is an author you admire?Terry Pratchett….

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Miranda Shulman! Writes:Twisty literary fiction! HARMLESS follows three old friends who reunite after years of estrangement and chaotically decide to pursue their childhood dream of opening a dog kennel together after the death of someone they loved very much (though none of them particularly care about dogs as adults). About:A native of Park Slope, Brooklyn (where HARMLESS is set), Miranda enjoys long walks through Prospect Park followed by an eggplant parmesan dinner at Pizza Plus. She loves exploring unhinged, self-destructive female characters and stories with bite, heat, and edge. A few of her favorites are REBECCA by Daphne Du Maurier, BUNNY by Monda Awad, and MY SISTER THE SERIAL KILLER by Oyinkan Braithwaite, as well as the short story THE YELLOW WALLPAPER by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which astounded her the first time she read it in school. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match:We’ll be great together if you like a pacy, character driven novel; if you pout and place a hand…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Lucy Ashe! Writes:Psychological novels in atmospheric settings about the dark and hidden passions of the human mind. THE MODEL PATIENT is an unsettling and suspenseful novel about a fashion model turned housewife in 1960s London who develops a dangerous obsession with her psychotherapist. It’s about control, the roles we play that define us, and seductive but troubling power dynamics in therapy. My novels have a vintage feel, with THE MODEL PATIENT set in 1963, a transitional time between the conservatism of the 1950s and the sexual revolution of the Swinging Sixties. THE MODEL PATIENT examines challenges for women that resonate today, such as access to birth control, women’s autonomy over their bodies, and attitudes to mental health. My first two novels, THE DANCE OF THE DOLLS and THE SLEEPING BEAUTIES are gothic historical novels about ballet dancers in 1930s and 40s England, rich with historical detail and driven by obsessive, destructive relationships as well as powerful female friendships. About:From the UK but currently living…

What is the title of your latest release?TOO CLOSE TO HOME What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?When Regan Hoffman’s car explodes at the annual Labor Day party, the wrong person is killed. It was meant for her. As the carefully crafted walls of her community begin to crumble, Regan tries to keep it together – something made infinitely harder when she sees her dead husband…alive. When a Cloverhill Lakes resident suddenly goes missing, dark secrets begin to surface from underneath the idyllic veneer of their beautiful community – and the truth threatens to destroy them all as Regan finds herself in a fight for her life. How did you decide where your book was going to take place?I like to choose locations I can explore and research and don’t know well. I always fictionalize the town but keep it in or about a real city or town. It’s really just a mood that strikes and a place that makes sense for the story. Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?Sure. They are all badass in their own way, so all three protagonists in this story would be a hoot to have a drink with. What…