Smashwords Self-Published Bestselling E-Books of 2014

Romance titles ruled at Smashwords in 2014, grabbing 16 of 25 spots on the annual list of bestselling titles published on the company's platform, with Natasha Preston's Broken Silence coming in at #1.

Despite the big romance presence this year, three of the top five titles were works of historical fiction by Shayne Parkinson: Mud and Gold in at #2, Settling the Account at #3, and A Second Chance at #5 -- all three books are part of the author's Promises to Keep series.

Also dominating the annual list were series. According to Smashwords Founder Mark Coker, 21 of 25 books on the list are by series writers, and all the authors have at least one series starter priced at "perma-free."

"We've been advocating this strategy for six years," Coker says. "It works. We introduced enhanced series metadata capabilities in late 2013, and this set the stage for some strong series performance in 2014."

Finally, just a single nonfiction title made Smashword's annual bestseller list in 2014: Pride Over Pity, a memoir by Kailyn Lowry of Teen Mom 2 fame, which came in at #14.