Smashwords Now Reporting Free Books via Apple - but what's this?

 For the longest time, selling through Apple via Smashwords gave an author no idea how many free units were being moved.  This lack of information led to a sort of feedback vaccum.  However, this has all changed today.

When I went to my Smashwords account, I noticed a massive jump in my Apple Sales.  With giddy excitement, I went to examine the sales report.  It turns out that these sales were actually my free books - mostly Murder at Zero Hour and as part of my recent summer sale giveaway.

And a closer look revealed a little secret - I'm being charged for these free book downloads.  Often only a penny per title, or a few pence or Euros, but with a few hundred titles, this does add up to a few dollars.  Is Smashwords really going to charge me for user downloading my free novels?  That is the million dollar question.

In the meanwhile, I've pulled the free books listed on my Summer Sale.  Everything is going back to the normal price, with the exception of Murder at Zero Hour which has been a freebie for so long that it has multiplied across multiple sites - some legal and some not.