# Walmart-Kobo announcement from StreetLib/Walmart launches ebooks today (MERGED)



## Starry_Knights (Sep 15, 2016)

Got this in our StreetLib newsletter today:

"With our StreetLib Connect forum really coming to life, one of the earliest birds to join the conversation brought up the news that Walmart will start selling eBooks as part of their alliance with Kobo Rakuten.

As you probably know, we have an ongoing partnership with Kobo. So, yes, this also means our entire catalog will be made available on Walmart's stores in the US, and we'll provide more details as soon as possible. For now, we can give you one piece of technical info: book descriptions longer than 4,000 characters (spaces, punctuation and HTML tags included) won't be accepted in the Walmart store. Notwithstanding, it's always a good idea to keep descriptions short and to the point: be sure to double-check yours!

Widening your book distribution will allow you to reach even more readers. With Walmart, you will now be visible to online shoppers who weren't necessarily looking for books, but who might start browsing the eBook section while completing their monthly shopping or redeeming a coupon."


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Lilly_Frost said:


> Got this in our StreetLib newsletter today:
> 
> "With our StreetLib Connect forum really coming to life, one of the earliest birds to join the conversation brought up the news that Walmart will start selling eBooks as part of their alliance with Kobo Rakuten.
> 
> ...


It sounds as if the distribution will be coming soon. In another thread, I think September was mentioned.


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## Simply_Me (Mar 31, 2016)

These are great news  
Thanks for sharing.
I'm direct with Kobo, and I've always been wide. And spite of all the KU issues, I was considering starting a new pen name and series there. Now, I might wait a little bit more to see how this turn out.


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## Starry_Knights (Sep 15, 2016)

I'm sincerely hoping the Walmart-Kobo partnership turns out to be a good thing for indies, and not a disaster. We're direct with Kobo (we use StreetLib for GooglePlay) and finally, finally, are starting to get a few sales there. Up until last month, we couldn't so much as give a book away there for free, even with Kobo in-house promotions.


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## Starry_Knights (Sep 15, 2016)

I wouldn't be surprised if shoppers are able to get some sort of reward points for shopping in Walmart, and then are able to apply them towards digital books. Kobo already has some sort of point system, don't they?


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## RPatton (May 28, 2017)

Lilly_Frost said:


> I'm sincerely hoping the Walmart-Kobo partnership turns out to be a good thing for indies, and not a disaster. We're direct with Kobo (we use StreetLib for GooglePlay) and finally, finally, are starting to get a few sales there. Up until last month, we couldn't so much as give a book away there for free, even with Kobo in-house promotions.


It's not so much a partnership as it is a symbiotic relationship. Walmart piggybacks on Kobo's infrastructure and Kobo gets into the US market, something they have struggled to do with any kind of significance.



JRTomlin said:


> I have done well with Kobo only when I had a promotion, and most sales were in Canada. Hopefully that will be changing.
> 
> I found this interesting:
> 
> I do think that for online Walmart sales to go well, it needs to be backed up by the huge Walmart B&M customer base. I am wondering what 'not limited to eBook cards' means though. &#129300;


I think one of the first press releases mentioned selling Kobo readers in stores (or maybe this was theorizing - can't be certain). But I do know there will be a Walmart branded app. I don't think Walmart has any intention of blowing this and is making sure they do everything to make it a success for both Rakuten and Kobo and themselves.


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## notjohn (Sep 9, 2016)

I'm surprised that some find Kobo unrewarding. Often in my monthly ebook income, Kobo comes third, after Amazon and Apple and before B&N. Other months it's B&N third, Kobo fourth. I distribute through Draft2Digital apart from Amazon and Google.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

notjohn said:


> I'm surprised that some find Kobo unrewarding. Often in my monthly ebook income, Kobo comes third, after Amazon and Apple and before B&N. Other months it's B&N third, Kobo fourth. I distribute through Draft2Digital apart from Amazon and Google.


It varies a lot from person to person. For me in the last couple months, it's been Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Apple and Google (tied). I've seen reports in which Google Play is the main source of sales outside Amazon. I used to know someone who sold more books in the Smashwords store than on Amazon, so you never know.


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## Gaylord Fancypants (Jun 15, 2018)

notjohn said:


> I'm surprised that some find Kobo unrewarding. Often in my monthly ebook income, Kobo comes third, after Amazon and Apple and before B&N. Other months it's B&N third, Kobo fourth. I distribute through Draft2Digital apart from Amazon and Google.


I only have erotica at Kobo, and I do pretty good on my first wave of books I published there. They changed something about a year ago, and I've never made a single sale of anything published after that date, but the original wave of stuff still does alright (even though those are all from pen names I've abandoned, and I don't publish anything new there).


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## Starry_Knights (Sep 15, 2016)

Bill Hiatt said:


> It varies a lot from person to person. For me in the last couple months, it's been Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Apple and Google (tied). I've seen reports in which Google Play is the main source of sales outside Amazon. I used to know someone who sold more books in the Smashwords store than on Amazon, so you never know.


That's true. I hear a lot of people complain about Google, but it's second to Amazon for us. Of course the blurbs use a lot of fantasy-trope keywords, and the blurbs are searchable on Google, so I think that helps. I have no idea how people find things on Kobo, B&N, or iBooks--if I don't know the title and author when I search those sites, I have no hope of finding what I'm looking for.


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## Ros_Jackson (Jan 11, 2014)

Lilly_Frost said:


> I have no idea how people find things on Kobo, B&N, or iBooks--if I don't know the title and author when I search those sites, I have no hope of finding what I'm looking for.


A few weeks ago Kobo told me they had something in the works in terms of improving the categories and book discoverability. I'm still waiting to see what that will be. As a user my main way of finding things through the Kobo ecosystem is their recommendation tool, which obviously favours bigger sellers.


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## Starry_Knights (Sep 15, 2016)

Ros_Jackson said:


> A few weeks ago Kobo told me they had something in the works in terms of improving the categories and book discoverability. I'm still waiting to see what that will be. As a user my main way of finding things through the Kobo ecosystem is their recommendation tool, which obviously favours bigger sellers.


That would be great; Kobo has a nice, clean-looking storefront, but their categories leave a lot to be desired, and I can't tell that the keywords I entered into the metadata actually help with discoverability. I think that's why sales there are at the very bottom. Even Smashwords sells more for us.


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## jb1111 (Apr 6, 2018)

notjohn said:


> I'm surprised that some find Kobo unrewarding. Often in my monthly ebook income, Kobo comes third, after Amazon and Apple and before B&N. Other months it's B&N third, Kobo fourth. I distribute through Draft2Digital apart from Amazon and Google.


So far, I've found it unrewarding. When I loaded my best seller up onto Kobo, it told me everything was loaded correctly.

Then it told me it was up for sale once I finished. I checked a few days later, it was for sale, and the cover was there.

Then, nearly a month later (just today), I find out that the cover didn't actually load after all -- or was lost, because it disappeared.

So I had a book for sale for several weeks, and during some of them it had no cover. Thanks Kobo. That's awesome.


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## Trina Lee (May 4, 2011)

notjohn said:


> I'm surprised that some find Kobo unrewarding. Often in my monthly ebook income, Kobo comes third, after Amazon and Apple and before B&N. Other months it's B&N third, Kobo fourth. I distribute through Draft2Digital apart from Amazon and Google.


For me Apple is my number two after Amazon followed by B&N, Google Play and then Kobo. Kobo has always been in that slot though the others have shifted around over the years.


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## KelliWolfe (Oct 14, 2014)

For anyone interested in an update, got this in an email from Streetlib today:


> The Kobo -Walmart partnership will commence August 21, 2018. To kick off the partnership with a BANG! Kobo US will be running a $2.99 or less eBook sale for the first month of the partnership launch: August 21 - September 17 (inclusive). All titles must be promotionally priced at $2.99 & under (excluding free) for the duration of the promotion."


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## Starry_Knights (Sep 15, 2016)

Sounds like a good date to set a promo


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## Starry_Knights (Sep 15, 2016)

Jeff Tanyard said:


>


LOL


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## notjohn (Sep 9, 2016)

Google Play? My goodness, I seldom bother checking their rather unfriendly sales reports, though I'm happy to take the money when it's deposited in my account.

Usually Google Play (play! omg) ranks down there with Tolino, whatever that is. 

Thanks for clearing up about the Walmart/Kobo launch date. I rushed out and did a search on the Walmart website for my books, and all I could turn up was the paperbacks, and not all of those, sigh.


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## TheLass (Mar 13, 2016)

notjohn said:


> I rushed out and did a search on the Walmart website for my books, and all I could turn up was the paperbacks, and not all of those, sigh.


Are they getting those from Ingram? I don't think any of mine are there


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## jb1111 (Apr 6, 2018)

On an unrelated but partially related note, Microsoft's online store sells books. They had a big sale around the same time Amazon's Prime thing was going on.

I wonder if some day they are planning on joining the fray.


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## Starry_Knights (Sep 15, 2016)

jb1111 said:


> On an unrelated but partially related note, Microsoft's online store sells books. They had a big sale around the same time Amazon's Prime thing was going on.
> 
> I wonder if some day they are planning on joining the fray.


There are almost too many blue screens of death in my past for me to hope yes?


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

notjohn said:


> Google Play? My goodness, I seldom bother checking their rather unfriendly sales reports, though I'm happy to take the money when it's deposited in my account.


If you can be bothered, the program in my signature will import google play reports and display them in a much friendlier fashion. (You need the second report in their list, and I usually select All Data instead of messing around with date ranges.)


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## KelliWolfe (Oct 14, 2014)

jb1111 said:


> On an unrelated but partially related note, Microsoft's online store sells books. They had a big sale around the same time Amazon's Prime thing was going on.
> 
> I wonder if some day they are planning on joining the fray.


They were in the fray early on. They got out because they weren't making money at it. There's no compelling reason for them to get back in since they're no longer manufacturing ereaders and Windows phones are pining for the fjords.


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## RPatton (May 28, 2017)

KelliWolfe said:


> They were in the fray early on. They got out because they weren't making money at it. There's no compelling reason for them to get back in since they're no longer manufacturing ereaders and Windows phones are pining for the fjords.


Actually when the Window Creator updated happened they opened a better designed storefront and they include books. The difference is that they require publisher type accounts. Not saying all publishers selling their books there are spectacular, but I think this absolves Windows from some responsibility by only dealing with business and not individuals.

There had been talk of them opening accounts to individuals, but that's pretty much all it amounted to. Talk.


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## KelliWolfe (Oct 14, 2014)

LOL. Does anyone actually know about it? Microsoft has a terrible track record with digital media. I don't know why anyone would bother with them even if they tried getting back into ebooks in any significant way.


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## Elizabeth Barone (May 6, 2013)

I wonder if that $2.99 promotion will be extended to those of us who are direct with Kobo. There's nothing in the Promotions tab (yet).


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## GeneDoucette (Oct 14, 2014)

Elizabeth Barone said:


> I wonder if that $2.99 promotion will be extended to those of us who are direct with Kobo. There's nothing in the Promotions tab (yet).


I was wondering the same. Checked the promotion tab too...


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

I don't expect big changes in the near future with this, but in the next five years or so, yeah ... I think this could be a thing. Walmart shoppers are budget conscious and indy ebooks are cheaper than paperbacks. Also, ebooks are great with people with disabilities, whether it be vision or muscle conditions. (eReaders are a lot lighter and not such a strain to hold.)

Finally, Kobo, Walmart Canada, and Walmart USA are already part of the networks of affiliate aggregators like Viglink. One reason advertisers focus on Amazon is because a click on a 99-cent book can lead to the sale of a Norditrack. When Kobo / Walmart are properly integrated, the same will happen for 99-cent Kobo books.


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## Rose Andrews (Jun 1, 2017)

This news has brought me great joy. I've been aching to sell on Walmart.com for a while now. Hopefully this will provide good competition to Amazon and open up new possibilities for us. Right on!


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## MissingAlaska (Apr 28, 2014)

T. M. Bilderback said:


> I just received the Kobo Writing Life Newsletter, and this is the first paragraph:


I wonder how big of a launch Walmart will do. Will this be a soft rollout? Or a big event with lots of advertising to pull people into their ebook market? Will they be discounting e-readers and pushing them in stores? Or, simply relying on a Walmart-branded app on cell phones and devices? Will this be a project that they abandon if it's not instantly successful -- like B&N did with the Nook?

Some of my KU books are coming up for renewal about the same time this partnership will be launching. If I knew Walmart was going in big with ebooks, I might be more tempted to go wide (I've never been able to get any real traction wide despite Bookbub ads, etc). The readers of one of my series are definitely the demographic that shops at Walmart.... BUT.... most of them already have Kindles and they tend to be in KU. Are they going to push trade pubs hard? Or, promote availability of many titles? Decisions....


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

I wonder what their demographics are, in my case in terms of sci-fi readers. 
Given the number of sites that post images of people dressed weirdly at Walmart, this could be an odd lot.  

Budget-conscious, certainly. Older demographic, perhaps. 
But when shopping online, you're probably dealing with a more computer-savvy bunch looking for deals, so eBooks could do well. I can see Walmart promoting those to draw people into the site with lower-priced items.
I just hope they don't start mucking about with deep discounts that get Amazon's panties in a bunch.


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## MissingAlaska (Apr 28, 2014)

Quiss said:


> Budget-conscious, certainly. Older demographic, perhaps.
> But when shopping online, you're probably dealing with a more computer-savvy bunch looking for deals, so eBooks could do well. I can see Walmart promoting those to draw people into the site with lower-priced items.
> I just hope they don't start mucking about with deep discounts that get Amazon's panties in a bunch.


I too would be interested to see how Walmart's demographics online break out, especially as compared to Amazon. As a Gen X'er, my loyalty to Amazon started in 1997 or so. It would take a lot to get me to break engrained shopping habits for either books or goods, especially with Prime. That said, there is a small but growing anti-Amazon/Bezos sentiment out there that Walmart might feed into. Walmart has also hired some new talent that understands the online marketplace better than their predecessors. Combine a super-cheap e-reader with some sort of online promotion service and they might be able to chip away at Amazon's market-share.

As far as discounts, I don't see Kobo letting Walmart get too crazy. Kobo has been pushing free and cheap to the side for years in favor or higher-priced books. My guess is that Walmart will sell ebooks as a "discount" only when compared to the print version, price-matching Amazon. If anything, I see Amazon moving away from free and cheap as author's marketing costs rise and their profits per book remain flat. I'd be happy if they banned all free except first in series and short stories below a certain page length.

That said, will Kobo/Walmart copy Amazon and look for exclusivity? If they are smart, they'll launch they'll own version of KU and make authors choose Walmart over Amazon by floating some better incentives (royalty, marketing tools, less competition, featured book-of-the-day, etc).

September is going to be super interesting. I can't wait.


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## jb1111 (Apr 6, 2018)

Quiss said:


> I wonder what their demographics are, in my case in terms of sci-fi readers.
> Given the number of sites that post images of people dressed weirdly at Walmart, this could be an odd lot.
> 
> Budget-conscious, certainly. Older demographic, perhaps.
> ...


I have no idea what Walmart's online store demographics are, but the local store is maybe 50% recent immigrant.

And young. With kids.

At the same time I don't see how the in-store demos necessarily need to match the online store demos. Two different situations entirely.

One thing that may help is Walmart's knowledge of advertising. None of my acquaintances even know what a Kobo is.


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## MissingAlaska (Apr 28, 2014)

jb1111 said:


> I have no idea what Walmart's online store demographics are, but the local store is maybe 50% recent immigrant.


I'm sure Walmart's in-store demographics vary drastically by community and location. I live in a rural area where there aren't a lot of other options -- so everyone, rich or poor, shops there. I've seen some pretty expensive sports cars in a the parking lot of a Walmart in California.

That said, I still wonder who their typical online customer is considering that Amazon is really the "everybody shops there" place online.


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## dgcasey (Apr 16, 2017)

The biggest wonder I have about this situation is, will all Kobo authors be treated the same? Meaning, will authors that come to Kobo through D2D be treated the same way as authors that go directly to Kobo?


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## notjohn (Sep 9, 2016)

MissingAlaska said:


> I've seen some pretty expensive sports cars in a the parking lot of a Walmart in California.


Many years ago, I was conscripted for jury duty. The county courthouse (as it was then called) was still located in the city center, and the welfare office was in the same building. On Thursday afternoons we used to hang out of the second-story windows and inspect the cars of the people coming in to get their food packages (no debit card in those days!).

There were some expensive cars in that parking lot, too, though not sporty ones. We especially enjoyed the Cadillacs.


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## KelliWolfe (Oct 14, 2014)

MissingAlaska said:


> I'm sure Walmart's in-store demographics vary drastically by community and location. I live in a rural area where there aren't a lot of other options -- so everyone, rich or poor, shops there. I've seen some pretty expensive sports cars in a the parking lot of a Walmart in California.
> 
> That said, I still wonder who their typical online customer is considering that Amazon is really the "everybody shops there" place online.


I recently made a new friend who works as a troubleshooter for Walmart ecommerce's fulfillment division, and they are supposedly looking to double their warehouse space in the DFW area to keep up with the demand for online orders. According to her, their online business is booming. They're competitive on pricing and shipping (without having to pay for Prime), and can often get things to you faster than Amazon.

WM has massively upped their game over the last 10 years, both online and in the brick and mortar stores. The brick and mortars aggressively target the local demographic of the area the stores are in, so the upscale neighborhoods have bigger, nicer stores with higher end merchandise than the ones in poorer and more rural areas. If you go to the stores in the wealthier areas of Austin and DFW there are always plenty of BMWs and Mercedes in the parking lots. WM actually makes money on brick and mortar retail, which ought to scare the hell out of Amazon, who haven't been able to make a profit with _online_ sales despite all of their little games with taxes and such. As they expand and improve their online presence, they are going to give Amazon some serious competition.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Well the "Walmart month-long sale" promo is running from August 21st to September 17th, so I assume some time in the next couple of weeks.


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## 97251 (Jun 22, 2017)

That promo states: "please keep the dates of this sale confidential". 

That means that we haven't heard anything about it because they're planning a big surprise launch.


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## 97251 (Jun 22, 2017)

I do not accept the new Terms of Service


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## 88149 (Dec 13, 2015)

Yesterday I was notified that one of my books was accepted for the promotion. Got the same "please keep the dates of this sale confidential," so I didn't mention it here until I discovered this thread.

It'll be interesting to see what turns up, if anything.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Denise Leitao said:


> That promo states: "please keep the dates of this sale confidential".
> 
> That means that we haven't heard anything about it because they're planning a big surprise launch.


Oops. They really need to take account of people like me who never read emails properly.

ETA I've just read the email and it doesn't mention confidentiality.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Pfft. Instructions, schminstructions.


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## John Twipnook (Jan 10, 2011)

The Walmart store is up.

https://www.walmart.com/cp/books/3920

Pursuant to Nate Hoffelder's very thorough report on The Digital Reader https://the-digital-reader.com/2018/08/21/walmarts-ebookstore-is-launching-today/ , I thought I'd check out my own local Walmart store. It's in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. There were no announcements inside. There was no hardware. The lady manning the electronics section didn't know if they even had any e-readers (but she was kind enough to ask another worker. Answer: no).

Anyway, looks like the Walmart ebook store has launched.

Edit: correction: the Walmart ebook store is not up! I mistook their regular book page for an ebook sales page. My goof. Nate's reporting stands however. And there is indeed no mention of the launch in my local Walmart store.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

I see they're straight in there with a row of sponsored products.


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## Accord64 (Mar 12, 2012)

I was at my local Walmart this afternoon and not a sign (or hint) of eBooks or Kobo readers. Perhaps it's a staggered roll-out? My Walmart is a smaller (and crappy) store anyway.

I also have a Kobo Walmart promo running as of today, and yet I can't see how/where it's placed. Nothing on the Kobo page and the Walmart eBook links aren't working.



> Very disappointing that with months to prepare, they are so slow getting this running. It is not encouraging for future success, but still it's the first day.


Agreed, and as it's a month-long promo, I also wasn't expecting to see much (if any) activity this soon. I hope they can get this thing into gear soon.


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## katherinef (Dec 13, 2012)

I didn't expect it to launch today. From what I read when I applied, I assumed they wanted to have some books ready for when they launch, and that could be any time, or the promo period wouldn't be so long.


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## Accord64 (Mar 12, 2012)

> The launch date is still confidential, but we will be sharing further details very soon, so please stay tuned to our blog and social media for more information!


Am I the only one who thought today was the launch date? Didn't Kobo 's promo info say it would start on August 21st (and we were supposed to keep that a secret until today)?

I get the feeling that something didn't go very well in preparation, so this is their way of dealing with the delays. I hope they get it sorted out soon.


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## RobinGreaves (Jul 23, 2018)

katherinef said:


> I didn't expect it to launch today. From what I read when I applied, I assumed they wanted to have some books ready for when they launch, and that could be any time, or the promo period wouldn't be so long.


When you applied re: advertising opportunities or re: any of your books being on the "walmart" site? (quotes since it looks like a kobo subdomain)

One thing I haven't really seen addressed is whether all writinglife (ie self-published/small presses using KWL) ebooks automatically are available under the subdomain. Given Walmart's conservative leanings and history of music censorsihp, I have doubted KWL ebooks will have full access. I realize Walmart sells R rated moves and "mature" rated games, but some of the KWL ebooks are way above R rated and not appropriately categorized.


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## katherinef (Dec 13, 2012)

RobinGreaves said:


> When you applied re: advertising opportunities or re: any of your books being on the "walmart" site? (quotes since it looks like a kobo subdomain)


Advertising. I was referring to the promotion on Kobo that started today. There wasn't anything mentioning the exact date of the launch of the Walmart ebook store, just the start and end date of Kobo's promo, and since the promo period is so long, I assumed the launch would be somewhere in the middle of it or whenever they're ready. I don't know if we'll have to do something so our books can appear on Walmart too or if that will happen automatically.


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## Cactus Lady (Jun 4, 2014)

RobinGreaves said:


> One thing I haven't really seen addressed is whether all writinglife (ie self-published/small presses using KWL) ebooks automatically are available under the subdomain. Given Walmart's conservative leanings and history of music censorsihp, I have doubted KWL ebooks will have full access. I realize Walmart sells R rated moves and "mature" rated games, but some of the KWL ebooks are way above R rated and not appropriately categorized.


If you go to the Walmart site's current Books department (for paper books) https://www.walmart.com/cp/books/3920 and browse the Romance category (under Literature and Fiction), it might be eye-opening. They have an LGBT category and even an erotica category. Also, Adult Non-Fiction Top 100 has what looks like a pretty even distirbution among political viewpoints. So I wouldn't worry too much about KWL books being excluded.


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## RobinGreaves (Jul 23, 2018)

Kyra Halland said:


> If you go to the Walmart site's current Books department (for paper books) https://www.walmart.com/cp/books/3920 and browse the Romance category (under Literature and Fiction), it might be eye-opening. They have an LGBT category and even an erotica category. Also, Adult Non-Fiction Top 100 has what looks like a pretty even distirbution among political viewpoints. So I wouldn't worry too much about KWL books being excluded.


Thank you for pointing that out, Kyra


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## Simply_Me (Mar 31, 2016)

I just realized something that I hadn't consider before.  

One of the factors that I like the most about Walmart picking Kobo as a partner, is not only Kobo worldwide distribution, or the Kobo ereader, but the Kobo multiplaform app. Or apps, as they state in their website. I guess what they mean is that there is an app for each OS, and the devices that run said OS. So, if one happens to own a device that runs Android, Apple, BlackBerry 10 and Windows, one can buy ebooks from them. Also, the Kobo Desktop for Windows and Mac, offers interesting features like synchronization, so I can start reading in the Kobo eReader and continue in my Desktop at home, which is connected to a large screen. 

This is important, because Amazon became popular selling ebooks, not just to people who owns or could buy a Kindle, but to anyone who had a device compatible with the Kindle app, or could read online, on the reader. Other vendors has apps too, but they weren't as reliable. The Kobo apps appears to be reliable. I'm going to do some testing as soon as I get the time.


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## John Twipnook (Jan 10, 2011)

Okay, the Walmart ebook store is up--for real, this time!

Of note, they are offering an audiobook subscription for $9.99/month ($5 less than Audible), with free 30-day trial. Their audiobook bait includes Stephen King, _Game of Thrones_, _Unhinged_ by Omarosa, _Fifty Shades of Grey_...

https://www.walmart.com/cp/5632020

Walmart's press release:

https://news.walmart.com/2018/08/22/walmart-and-kobo-launch-walmart-ebooks-including-an-audiobook-subscription-for-999

Looks like Walmart's game plan is to push the audiobook subscription. That's where the current (and future?) big money is after all?

The Walmart site on Kobo looks strangely bare and barren. Work in progress?

https://walmartebooks.kobo.com/hc/en-us

Interestingly, there is no automated system for ebook or audio returns. Both Kobo and Walmart say that to return, one must "contact customer care."

https://help.walmart.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2858/kw/ebooks#QO


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

https://news.walmart.com/2018/08/22/walmart-and-kobo-launch-walmart-ebooks-including-an-audiobook-subscription-for-999

This should be interesting.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Thanks for posting.

I wonder how/if it will work in other countries  .


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

I think our books have to be on Kobo to sell at Walmart. Other countries? Hopefully. Kobo is all over the world. Is Walmart?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Hi folks, I've merged two similar threads.  Sorry for any confusion.

Betsy
KB Mod


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## GeneDoucette (Oct 14, 2014)

What i'm wondering is, since Walmart sells physical books and Kobo sells ebooks, if the listings for the two editions are going to be combined, in the same way B&N and Amazon do it.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

JRTomlin said:


> The ebook cards will be for an extremely limited selection of traditional publisher novels but if it helps get Walmart customers accustomed to buying ebooks, that will be a positive.
> Kobo is all over the world. Walmart is in the US, Canada, and Mexico. It's in some other countries but I'm not sure how many or which.


Walmart acquired a majority stake in Massmart Holdings Ltd. in 2011. Massmart operates more than 400 stores in South Africa and 12 other sub-Saharan countries.


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## MissingAlaska (Apr 28, 2014)

It's interesting how this partnership is being branded. I thought that shoppers would remain on the Walmart page. Instead, Walmart directs you to the Kobo website. It appears that Kobo has simply changed their logo and branding -- maybe just for US residents? (For those in other countries, are you seeing the blue Walmart asterisk on the Kobo website now?) I wonder how the checkout process works -- does Kobo redirect you back to Walmart to finish filling your cart and to pay?


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## RobinGreaves (Jul 23, 2018)

MissingAlaska said:


> It's interesting how this partnership is being branded. I thought that shoppers would remain on the Walmart page. Instead, Walmart directs you to the Kobo website. It appears that Kobo has simply changed their logo and branding -- maybe just for US residents? (For those in other countries, are you seeing the blue Walmart asterisk on the Kobo website now?) I wonder how the checkout process works -- does Kobo redirect you back to Walmart to finish filling your cart and to pay?


In the US, if I use the walmart link, I see the walmart branding plus (by rakuten kobo - or vice versa). If I go to my bookmark for my author page, it's the same old kobo website it's always been. Rakuten hasn't given up its branding on the kobo site. What you see depends on how you get there, that's all.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> It appears not, if you look at the Walmart book page. They are separate listings it looks like.
> 
> https://www.walmart.com/cp/5632020
> 
> ...


It's on Fox news. That's a pretty big promotion if you ask me. Also on Yahoo, and other news sites.


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## Accord64 (Mar 12, 2012)

I just received an email from Kobo announcing the Walmart launch sale is now live.

Interesting statement:

_"Please note that there were an overwhelming number of submissions to this sale and the lists (specifically the Romance list) are overcrowded. This means that not all titles can be surfaced at the same time. Keep in mind that the list is not static and titles will shift around as the sale continues."_

I've been part of many Kobo promotions in the past, and if your book cover isn't on the carousel, it's not likely to be seen. The only "shift" that occurs is when your book increases in rank after making a sale or two. It will be interesting to see if this will apply to the Walmart promo as well.


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

Interesting - the Kobo site is now down.

_Service Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later._

Either random coincidence or a LOT of unexpected traffic.

Edit: It's back again, but maybe they're struggling a little.


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## David VanDyke (Jan 3, 2014)

JRTomlin said:


> Kobo is all over the world. Walmart is in the US, Canada, and Mexico. It's in some other countries but I'm not sure how many or which.


Slightly old info, but here's some:

https://www.quora.com/Which-countries-does-Walmart-have-stores-in


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## notjohn (Sep 9, 2016)

JRTomlin said:


> It appears not, if you look at the Walmart book page. They are separate listings it looks like.
> 
> https://www.walmart.com/cp/5632020
> 
> Clicking on ebooks seems to go directly to Kobo. One minor note, if the Kobo 'roll-out promotion' is getting any promoting, I don't see it.


I got all excited that my books were there -- but you're right, they're not THERE, they're on Kobo. So nobody can buy without owning a Kobo reader?

Just searching by author / title on the Walmart store didn't bring me up at all.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

If I search by author, mine are there. I think the search does take me to Kobo because ... nope they are not there now. It's a conspiracy. Anyway, it might be good that it goes to the Kobo site since it shows the reviews.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

By the way, I made $23 and change on Kobo's plus subscription service this month. It's not much, but it's something that has potential.


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## RobinGreaves (Jul 23, 2018)

Marti talbott said:


> By the way, I made $23 and change on Kobo's plus subscription service this month. It's not much, but it's something that has potential.


on English language books?


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## DarkScribe (Aug 30, 2012)

JRTomlin said:


> As with Amazon, Kobo is supposed to be putting out apps. I don't think they're out yet though. It is a pretty clumsy interface at the moment. *crossing fingers they're still working on it*


There is a Calibre plugin that allows you to download Kobo books from your Kobo account and convert them to whatever format you need. You have to install the Kobo for PC app from the Microsoft store first. I do the opposite - I convert ePubs to Kobo format. I prefer to use Kobo's reader with its waterproofing and night reading mode. If Amazon ever catches up with technology I'll consider going back to Kindle.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

RobinGreaves said:


> on English language books?


Yes.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

DarkScribe said:


> There is a Calibre plugin that allows you to download Kobo books from your Kobo account and convert them to whatever format you need. You have to install the Kobo for PC app from the Microsoft store first. I do the opposite - I convert ePubs to Kobo format. I prefer to use Kobo's reader with its waterproofing and night reading mode. If Amazon ever catches up with technology I'll consider going back to Kindle.


The latest Kindle is waterproof. Not sure what night reading mode is?


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## Tulonsae (Apr 12, 2015)

Content removed due to TOS Change of 2018. I do not agree to the terms.


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## RobinGreaves (Jul 23, 2018)

Shelley K said:


> Apple users apparently have a less straightforward purchasing method because of some deal with Apple.


Not really a "deal" with Apple (if you meant it in the literal sense). If an app downloaded from Apple's app store allows purchases within the app, Apple takes 30% of the sale. It was sometime around 2014, I think, when all of a sudden you couldn't buy within the Kindle app on your IOS devices. That hurt sales some.

ETA - digital content purchases. Obviously, I have a kroger app and other things that let me order and pay for physical goods and Apple isn't getting 30% of that. But if the digital product is ordered within the app and delivered within the app, Apple takes 30%.


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## Tulonsae (Apr 12, 2015)

Content removed due to TOS Change of 2018. I do not agree to the terms.


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## RobinGreaves (Jul 23, 2018)

Tulonsae said:


> I couldn't find any app for Walmart in the Apple Store, so I suspect it hasn't been rolled out to Canada yet. (We sometimes get things up to a week later. In my experience.) So far, there's just the old Kobo app.


I was experiencing the same issue in the app store searching from my Macbook. You have to look on the IOS device (iphone or ipad) to find it.

It also looks like you have to have a kobo (reader) account (kwl credentials don't cut it) and a walmart ebook app account.

This is more than a little bit ridiculous!


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## Tulonsae (Apr 12, 2015)

Content removed due to TOS Change of 2018. I do not agree to the terms.


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## Avis Black (Jun 12, 2012)

I notice that if you go inside the settings option in the Walmart ebook app, it allows you to buy Kobo ebooks with a Walmart gift card.  Kobo now has another way of making money that they didn't have before.  

As for the app itself, it could use more font choices.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> The latest Kindle is waterproof. Not sure what night reading mode is?


I'm not 100% sure, but this may be a reference to the way the screen illumination on electronic devices can disrupt a person's sleep pattern. There is supposed to be a way of shifting the kind of light generated in a way that moderates that effect, though I haven't seen any studies on how effective that is.


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## RobinGreaves (Jul 23, 2018)

Tulonsae said:


> Umm... I am on my iPad. Is there a different name for the Apple Store on the iPad than when on the Mac?


You need to open the app that is the App Store, not use safari to go to the store via your web browser. The one with this icon:










sorry the original was massive 

ETA: when using the "same" app store app on macbook, it won't show up because (presumably) the app store only allows you to search for apps that work on the machine you are accessing the app store from.


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## katewrath (Jul 9, 2018)

Anybody else get an email from Walmart offering $10 off ebooks and a free month trial of audiobooks?


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## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

***********

Comment removed to protect content and data from the over-reaching TOS of new forum owner VerticalScope.

VerticalScope claims rights to any content posted to this site as theirs to disseminate beyond this site in any way they see fit.

Read the Terms of Service, both before AND after you've registered. At the time of this post, the new, more egregious TOS is available to read only after you've registered.

KBoards was purchased by VerticalScope 7.5 years and 4000 posts after I joined. VerticalScope will not allow that existing content to be permanently deleted, despite the fact I did not and do not agree to granting the new owners the rights to my content. 

***********


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## katewrath (Jul 9, 2018)

PhoenixS said:


> And with the book having to be listed at $10.01 or more, that's going to favor trad ebook sales.


Quick! Raise your prices to $10.01!


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

PhoenixS said:


> Now, I haven't been out to the Kobo store in a long while, but I see that, when I'm not logged in, if I click on the flag in the upper right-hand corner (browsing via a laptop), it takes me to a page where I can choose which country store to browse, much like Apple. Maybe this has been a feature for a long time; when I was last interested in browsing across multiple regions on Kobo, it required a proxy server.


If you change the au (or other 2 letter country code) in the URL to any other 2-letter country code where Kobo has a presence, that should work too:

https://www.kobo.com/au/en/ebook/

If you leave out the au/en/ altogether, it will default to the user's local store, which is handy if you want a smart link for your website.


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

The Walmart/Kobo tie-up was posted to slashdot overnight. Maybe that's why the site was down briefly yesterday - the slashdot effect, if that's still a thing. (It's like fifty simultaneous bookbubs, but for web traffic.)


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## 39416 (Mar 18, 2011)

So if a Walmart-signed-up-for-the-audio-subscription customer downloaded, like, a $25 audio book from Walmart in that $9.99 per month subscription, how much would the author get paid?


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

I'm already seeing some category stuffing going on, which is nice.


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## David VanDyke (Jan 3, 2014)

I have a Kobo book in the mystery/thriller section of the promo at half-off (2.99)...no visible results yet.


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## Accord64 (Mar 12, 2012)

JRTomlin said:


> I also have seen no results from the 'promo'. It's not surprising since the promo doesn't seem to be promoted anywhere.


No results as of yet for mine, either.

However, I did find the promo page on the Walmart eBook site. When you've navigated to the eBook page, click on the "_Featured deals and more_" button under "The perfect story is waiting for you" section. Then you need to scroll down to the "_Find your next favorite read for $4.99 or less_" banner and click on it. Now you're on the right promo page.

And there's the problem. Way too much navigation required to get there. Why didn't they just put it all under "Featured deals and more?"


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## KelliWolfe (Oct 14, 2014)

Jeff Tanyard said:


> I learned something interesting about Kobo's categorization this week, at least as it applies to ranking. Apparently, choosing the correct categories isn't enough. You must also choose them in the correct order.
> 
> My short story _Mr. Wilson_ was ranked in Romance. It's not a romance, and I certainly didn't intend for it to be there. I asked Kobo if they could remove it from the Romance rankings. They suggested I move the first category I picked--short stories--to the third slot instead of the first. So that's what I did. I didn't change my categories at all; I just shuffled my picks. And now the story's not ranked in Romance anymore.
> 
> ...


Seriously? Well, that explains a lot.

Edit: It's true. OMG. I want to bang my head against a wall. Better yet, I'd like to bang their developer team's heads against a wall.


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## Starry_Knights (Sep 15, 2016)

Jeff Tanyard said:


> I learned something interesting about Kobo's categorization this week, at least as it applies to ranking. Apparently, choosing the correct categories isn't enough. You must also choose them in the correct order.
> 
> My short story _Mr. Wilson_ was ranked in Romance. It's not a romance, and I certainly didn't intend for it to be there. I asked Kobo if they could remove it from the Romance rankings. They suggested I move the first category I picked--short stories--to the third slot instead of the first. So that's what I did. I didn't change my categories at all; I just shuffled my picks. And now the story's not ranked in Romance anymore.
> 
> ...


How would picking short stories third put a non-Romance book into Romance? Everything you just said sounded like _A Clockwork Orange_ gibberish to me, lol.


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## Starry_Knights (Sep 15, 2016)

Jeff Tanyard said:


> It didn't. Having "short stories" in the first slot was what put it in Romance. Moving it to third was the fix I made.
> 
> Well, I _do_ write science fiction.


I guess what I meant is, why would sticking short stories _anywhere _put it into Romance? I would have thought only putting Romance into one of those slots would do that.


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

I'm in the promo with a non-fic, and I don't think I've sold any yet.

On the other hand, the rest of my stuff has seen a fairly obvious bump on the Kobo store.


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## Tulonsae (Apr 12, 2015)

Content removed due to TOS Change of 2018. I do not agree to the terms.


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## Bookread (Mar 8, 2016)

This is so exciting! I can't wait for this to roll out.


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## Claire_Gem (Aug 26, 2016)

notjohn said:


> I'm surprised that some find Kobo unrewarding. Often in my monthly ebook income, Kobo comes third, after Amazon and Apple and before B&N. Other months it's B&N third, Kobo fourth. I distribute through Draft2Digital apart from Amazon and Google.


I was exclusive through KU up until this year, then have been gradually going wide through D2D, to include Kobo et al. In the four months since I started this process, I've sold ONE BOOK through D2D, while my books continue to sell (slowly but consistently) through the 'Zon. What am I doing wrong? I have been using both links when I send out tweets and FB posts. What's everyone out there using for advertising that's really worth the investment?


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

Claire_Gem said:


> I was exclusive through KU up until this year, then have been gradually going wide through D2D, to include Kobo et al. In the four months since I started this process, I've sold ONE BOOK through D2D, while my books continue to sell (slowly but consistently) through the 'Zon. What am I doing wrong? I have been using both links when I send out tweets and FB posts. What's everyone out there using for advertising that's really worth the investment?


For me, Kobo promotions and Bookbub CPC ads are the only way I've managed to get my wide books moving.

In June, July and August my wide sales were equivalent to 3 times the highest KENP payout I've ever received in a single month.
In each of those months, my KDP royalty was higher than my highest royalty payment while I was enrolled in Select.

Maybe my stuff just wasn't suited to KU, although the SF bestseller lists are dominated by KU novels.


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## unkownwriter (Jun 22, 2011)

> I have been using both links when I send out tweets and FB posts.


Try just using the wide link, and not the one to Amazon. I don't know, I haven't started promo yet, but that's what I plan to do.

Anyway, I just looked, and my stuff through D2D is up, and three anthologies I'm in. The cover images are a nice size, very clear, and the type is easy to see and read, unlike some places where I have to scroll my screen to be able to read anything. And there are ranks on the books, though I don't think anything has sold yet. Not sure what that means.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

Simon Haynes said:


> For me, Kobo promotions and Bookbub CPC ads are the only way I've managed to get my wide books moving.
> 
> In June, July and August my wide sales were equivalent to 3 times the highest KENP payout I've ever received in a single month.
> In each of those months, my KDP royalty was higher than my highest royalty payment while I was enrolled in Select.
> ...


Agree, it's the Bookbub that gets the ball rolling. Hard to get, expensive, but worth the price. My last Bookbub had a tail that lasted almost three months in higher than usual sales. Made the money back the first day. The next best promotion site is Freebooksy. Their ads are cheaper and easy to get. I don't buy ads from sites that only promote to Amazon.


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

Marti talbott said:


> Agree, it's the Bookbub that gets the ball rolling. Hard to get, expensive, but worth the price.


My apologies, in this instance I was talking about the bookbub CPC ads rather than the Featured Deal. Yes, the latter is great, but you can start running CPC ads on bookbub in minutes rather than waiting for lightning to strike ;-)


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## BillSmithBooksDotCom (Nov 4, 2012)

One thing that I find intriguing is that the generic gift cards are redeemable at Kobo, not Walmart ... so now there is a new way that someone with cash and who doesn't have a PayPal or credit/debit card can buy ebooks. (Great for younger/teen readers who don't want to beg Mom or Dad to buy for them.)

(Amazon gift cards are found in just about any retailer except Wal-Mart and while Google Play cards can be found just about everywhere, including Wal-Mart, getting into Google Play is problematic for some.)


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

Makes sense. Walmart isn't a bookstore, they're a retailer, and every free book their customers download could cost a sale of a non-free book.

Then again, in 20-30 years when automous neighbourhood robots can make anything with their inbuilt 3d-printers, whose going to need stores?


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> I have never managed to get Bookbub CPC ads to pay for themselves, much less make a profit. &#128530;
> 
> I understand that some people have, just adding my experience. The promos on the other hand do give a good ROI.


Neither have I, but I haven't put a lot of time and money into it. Glad to know someone figured out how to make them work.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> Did other people know this? I didn't. Received this email this morning from Kobo in response to my asking about free ebooks on Walmart:
> 
> I suppose that they still aren't there should have been a hint.


What to do, what to do? I think I'll try raising them on Kobo. It seems to me that Amazon wants to have the lowest price and since they will still be free on Apple, B&N, etc., maybe they won't notice? Did we resolve this issue yet?


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

Marti talbott said:


> What to do, what to do? I think I'll try raising them on Kobo. It seems to me that Amazon wants to have the lowest price and since they will still be free on Apple, B&N, etc., maybe they won't notice? Did we resolve this issue yet?


Funnily enough I was reading Kobo's TOC today, and ebooks have to be the same price or lower than everywhere else on the Kobo store too.


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## KelliWolfe (Oct 14, 2014)

Marti talbott said:


> What to do, what to do? I think I'll try raising them on Kobo. It seems to me that Amazon wants to have the lowest price and since they will still be free on Apple, B&N, etc., maybe they won't notice? Did we resolve this issue yet?


I bumped my permafrees on Kobo to 99 cents. I doubt that Amazon will revert a book back to paid so long as it is still free on iTunes, GP, and B&N.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

It's just that Bookbub is cheaper for free books and without book one, there is no hope for me at Walmart. Guess I will have go for a $.99 Bookbub. Ouch, I'm feeling the pain already.


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## Guest (Aug 28, 2018)

Marti talbott said:


> It's just that Bookbub is cheaper for free books and without book one, there is no hope for me at Walmart. Guess I will have go for a $.99 Bookbub. Ouch, I'm feeling the pain already.


It might be painful, but I buy a LOT of my books from BB and I don't mind paying 99p or 99c for them either. If other readers are the same, then you're not going to worry when you see pay back in the first 24 hours. I did one last year (International only) and made a profit in the first few days.

Good Luck!


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> Fair point. 99Cent with BB is definitely painful. Ouch. Ouch.


I've been posting figures on a thread about my 99c BB (Sunday 26th). I doubt a freebie would have done anywhere near as well. This was the first 99c one I applied for, after all my freebie BB applications were knocked back.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

Simon Haynes said:


> I've been posting figures on a thread about my 99c BB (Sunday 26th). I doubt a freebie would have done anywhere near as well. This was the first 99c one I applied for, after all my freebie BB applications were knocked back.


Simon, would you be interested in comparing just for fun? My last Bookbub in June, for a free book netted over 17,000 downloads on Amazon that month. Not sure it's possible to compare since we write in different genre, I have more books to sell, and my sale was two months ago. But, maybe we could compare sales of one or two follow through books in each series and then work out a percentage?


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

Marti talbott said:


> Simon, would you be interested in comparing just for fun? My last Bookbub in June, for a free book netted over 17,000 downloads on Amazon that month. Not sure it's possible to compare since we write in different genre, I have more books to sell, and my sale was two months ago. But, maybe we could compare sales of one or two follow through books in each series and then work out a percentage?


Sure - I haven't updated my thread today because while there have been sales since the BB, they're mostly of the 99c special. The Omnibus is over 1100 pages, so I'm assuming it's going to be quite some time before anyone gets through it and decides they want the next 1100-page monster.

There was good sell-through on the day though, people picking up both in one go I guess.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Simon Haynes said:


> I've been posting figures on a thread about my 99c BB (Sunday 26th). I doubt a freebie would have done anywhere near as well. This was the first 99c one I applied for, after all my freebie BB applications were knocked back.


BB gives the impression that a freebie is the best way to go. I've also been rejected for freebies, but they are the only ones that are really affordable (for me, that is . )


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## Accord64 (Mar 12, 2012)

Curious - for those who have a book in the current Kobo/Walmart month-long promo, have you seen any sales yet?

No sales for me, but I'm not surprised. I was never sure what to expect, and if sales do come it'll likely take more time. I also wonder if Walmart sales will take more time to report.


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

...


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## NoLongerPosting (Apr 5, 2014)

Removed due to site owner's change to TOS.


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## EmparentingMom (Jun 20, 2011)

Does anyone know if you can sell POD paperbacks througj Walmart/kobo?


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## NoLongerPosting (Apr 5, 2014)

Removed due to site owner's change to TOS.


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## Accord64 (Mar 12, 2012)

JRTomlin said:


> Let me say that I have had better success with _other_ Kobo promotions, so I wouldn't write them all off. This one just seems to be very poorly thought out.


Agreed. I had another Kobo promo running over the weekend and it produced. I think the Walmart promotion is buried too deep.


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## NoLongerPosting (Apr 5, 2014)

Removed due to site owner's change to TOS.


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## NoLongerPosting (Apr 5, 2014)

Removed due to site owner's change to TOS.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Content removed. I don't consent to the new TOS of 2018.


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## dgcasey (Apr 16, 2017)

Accord64 said:


> Agreed. I had another Kobo promo running over the weekend and it produced. I think the Walmart promotion is buried too deep.


Not nearly as deep as mine will be. Apparently I was correct when I thought any books in Kobo that came through D2D would be treated as redheaded step children. Those of us that came through D2D will never have to worry about the hassle of promos with Kobo.


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## jb1111 (Apr 6, 2018)

Remember, Walmart moves slowly in some respects. Their online store grew slowly. First I'd see the ads for Walmart online in Google searches on products, and then a few months later there it is: the Walmart 'pick up your online purchase desk'.

They don't tend to jump. They move like a bulldozer.

I'm not saying they will ultimately succeed in this venture. Maybe it will flop. But I don't think that this Walmart-Kobo thing is done gestating.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

jb1111 said:


> Remember, Walmart moves slowly in some respects. Their online store grew slowly. First I'd see the ads for Walmart online in Google searches on products, and then a few months later there it is: the Walmart 'pick up your online purchase desk'.
> 
> They don't tend to jump. They move like a bulldozer.
> 
> I'm not saying they will ultimately succeed in this venture. Maybe it will flop. But I don't think that this Walmart-Kobo thing is done gestating.


That's a good point. Amazon frequently takes a while to roll out new programs, so we shouldn't be surprised when other vendors do it.

I think the reason folks are disappointed is that a lot of us were hoping for Kobo-Walmart to be a serious competitor to Amazon sooner rather than later. The fumbling beginning suggests that the program should have spent more time in the womb instead of continuing to gestate in the public eye. Promotion is uneven--if not for Kboards, I wouldn't even know this new initiative was happening--and results don't seem to be stellar, either.


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## Guest (Sep 3, 2018)

What you have here is a _soft_ launch. They're not going to jump on this until they're sure it's actually functional. When it's proving reliable they will still proceed slowly, except it will be will be more painful. At the moment I'm in both Kobo and B&N and while B&N is pulling ahead of the game very slightly. Kobo, it seems, has temporarily dropped the ball and repeatedly falling over (giving error 500 pages) throughout the days since launch. Probably from an overload of interest from Walmart customers who have yet to jump in and buy.

If all goes well we might see some hype come Christmas.... I'm not holding my breath


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

Does anyone know if the Kobo reports will show books sold on Walmart? By the way, I think Walmart will probably only sell ebooks online rather than in their various stores. Could be wrong - it's happened before.


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## Accord64 (Mar 12, 2012)

Well, the Kobo/Walmart month-long sale is over. I hope somebody did better than me, which would be easy since I sold nothing. Not surprised since I thought the ad banner placement was too deeply buried.

I'd be curious to know how the Kobo/Walmart partnership is doing in general, and what types of books are selling. It's probably going to be a slow build, but my concern is that Walmart readers will mostly be looking for deals on recognizable, best-selling books. This will make it an even steeper climb for indies.


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## Guest (Sep 18, 2018)

Accord64 said:


> Well, the Kobo/Walmart month-long sale is over. I hope somebody did better than me, which would be easy since I sold nothing. Not surprised since I thought the ad banner placement was too deeply buried.
> 
> I'd be curious to know how the Kobo/Walmart partnership is doing in general, and what types of books are selling. It's probably going to be a slow build, but my concern is that Walmart readers will mostly be looking for deals on recognizable, best-selling books. This will make it an even steeper climb for indies.


My sales have actually dropped by 50% since the Walmart move. Which is a shame when they have been building nicely throughout this year. Luckily, elsewhere my books are still selling well so Kobo Walmart link-up has proven to be a non-event.


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