Update: Flipkart has sent us a statement regarding ebooks, saying: “Currently, we are evaluating our eBooks strategy and are working towards redefining our digital offerings to our customers.” Earlier: Ecommerce player Flipkart is exiting the ebooks market. The development was first noted last month by Alliance of Independent Authors (Alli), a global non-profit for writers who self publish. Flipkart ended its distribution deal with self-publishing website Smashwords in the same month. Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, added that Flipkart was asked to repair certain problems related to the listing, and removal of Smashwords titles, to provide Smashwords an acceptable plan to prevent such issues from recurring in the future. From Smashword's blog: I informed Flipkart that if these requirements were not met that Smashwords would request the immediate removal of all Smashwords titles. The deadline was missed and an acceptable plan was not presented. This morning Smashwords received word from Flipkart that after careful consideration, Flipkart determined their systems are not yet capable of supporting the dynamic nature of the Smashwords catalog. As a result they will begin winding down the relationship with Smashwords and remove our titles. Flipkart had inked an e-book distribution agreement with Smashwords in 2013 and were supposed to provide its entire catalog of free and paid e-books to Flipkart consumers. At the time, Smashwords had said that all its authors and publishers were automatically opted in to Flipkart distribution. Repeated emails to the company did not elicit a response. We will update the story once we hear from Flipkart. Flipkart had launched its…
