# Subject line edit: Talking about Kobo



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Uh oh
http://www.thestar.com/business/tech_news/2014/04/24/torontobased_ereader_kobo_lays_off_63_people.html

ETA: changed subject line to reflect thread content better


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

Kobo doesn't have reviews, put all my books in different folders completely breaking the existing URLs without putting in a redirect, and still haven't loaded my latest from B&N. They are floundering, big time.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

As far as I'm concerned, Kobo was doing great until last October's website re-design when they effed up their categories, which brought them into trouble with various UK retailers and the whole avalanche proceeded from there.


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## C.G. (Jan 23, 2014)

I tried publishing one of my books on Kobo back in January. Here we are 3 months later and despite various emails to support, my book still isn't listed. I'm starting to wonder if it's even worth all the hassle. Anyone have good sales on Kobo?


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## Tim_A (May 25, 2013)

It took over three months, after pulling out of Select, for my books to get listed on Kobo. I could have had another term in Select for all the good it did me. Needless to say I haven't sold a single book on the Kobo platform.

Far as I'm concerned, they are a joke.


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## Ros_Jackson (Jan 11, 2014)

Kobo still hasn't re-added my YA book, which it took off after the dodgy porn disaster when they booted out all of their indie titles. I'm sure I'm far from unique. 

Today Kindle UK has 100,793 titles in its fantasy section, whilst Kobo has 22,968. They're falling far behind in their level of choice, and I'm not keen on their recommendations either. I think the two things are linked, because you don't get great recommendations without a big database of books.


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## ricola (Mar 3, 2014)

They have me in some kind of free purgatory.  NO ONE finds my books.  I sell as well there as I do at Smashwords.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Yeah, they still haven't explained the mysteriously disappeared 700 or so freebie downloads. The only response I got from them is that their web people said the current number is correct. I'm guessing that means the previous number was not or maybe I had some sort of psychotic episode and just made stuff up on my spreadsheet.
I don't trust their reporting on paid sales as a result.

The third of my series is coming out of Select on Tuesday and I'm heading straight to D2D for distribution to iBooks and B&N. I don't think I'll bother with Smashwords or Kobo. The few sales I see there aren't worth keeping up with the formatting they want.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

I think that I am the only writer in the planet who sells more and earns more at Kobo than I do on Kindle.

I can tell you that Kobo is setting up a new review system. I can't tell you when it is coming out - just because I don't really know when - but I do know that it is coming.

I likewise know that Kindle has a LOT more books to choose from than Kobo does. I also know that my lack of Kindle sales is strictly due to something I am doing wrong. I'm not sure what that is - but I'm pretty sure I am somehow or other I am hitching the pony to the wrong end of the cart.

Still - Kobo has worked very well for me and continues to do so.


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## phildukephd (Jan 6, 2013)

Kobo needs new management, it appears no one there understands ebooks. Sign up with D2D.com instead, you will be glad you did.


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## a_g (Aug 9, 2013)

Steve Vernon said:


> I think that I am the only writer in the planet who sells more and earns more at Kobo than I do on Kindle.


I used to. Now, it's dry as a desert. Haven't had a sale in months.


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## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

Kobo has been a big disappointment for my sales, second only to B&N. Nearly 99% of my sales have come from Amazon.

When I hear people comment that their sales on Kobo (or B&N) have outstripped the sales on Amazon, I just shake my head and wonder just what it was they did to light up that sales channel? For now, all I can do is chalk it up to 'luck of the draw.'

A friend of mine runs an independent used-book store. I got into the Kobo to support her store because she gets a small percentage of the sales when someone buys an ebook through her store. Kobo is the only ebook retailer to enact such a program to support independent book stores and keep them relevant in the emerging digital market. Second to that, a couple friends of mine who live in Canada use the Kobo, so it allowed them to buy it as well. Sadly, they seem to be the only people who have bought my book via the Kobo market.

This does make a strong statement on whether I should go with KDP Select when I release my next book in August.


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## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

Quiss said:


> The third of my series is coming out of Select on Tuesday and I'm heading straight to D2D for distribution to iBooks and B&N. I don't think I'll bother with Smashwords or Kobo. The few sales I see there aren't worth keeping up with the formatting they want.


I just went with D2D for my books. They make it easy to include Kobo while you're doing B &N and Apple, so why not do it? It isn't a hassle.


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## cecilia_writer (Dec 28, 2010)

I still seem to be selling on Kobo, mainly in the UK and Canada, but they are very slow to update sales figures on Smashwords and also they haven't managed to have my latest novel on their site yet - it was published on 14th February. I agree that things went badly wrong for them last autumn and they haven't really recovered.
My Apple sales are catching up, especially in the UK (and Norway!).


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## @Suzanna (Mar 14, 2011)

Quiss said:


> Yeah, they still haven't explained the mysteriously disappeared 700 or so freebie downloads. The only response I got from them is that their web people said the current number is correct. I'm guessing that means the previous number was not or maybe I had some sort of psychotic episode and just made stuff up on my spreadsheet.
> I don't trust their reporting on paid sales as a result.


I lost 10,000 free downloads. Went from 66K to 56K. Frankly, I'm amazed anyone can find my free book on Kobo. They certainly don't make it easy for readers!


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## Lady Vine (Nov 11, 2012)

I removed all of my titles from Kobo back in November 2013, I think it was, and closed my account. I had nothing but bad experiences going direct, but didn't rule out going through D2D. Which is what I did a couple of months ago. In my second month I was surprised to see that I'd sold several books, enough to convince me that I'd made the right call in using an aggregator. There's been a lot of hiccups on Kobo lately, but I can sit back and let D2D deal with that stuff - not my headache, not my problem. 

But honestly, the way that website is run I'm surprised anyone finds anything to read.


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## anniejocoby (Aug 11, 2013)

I do ok at Kobo.  I pretty much get around $150 to $250 a month from there with just three titles, so not complaining. So, I really hope they get their act together,  because I would hate to lose that extra income.  It all adds up.


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## ElHawk (Aug 13, 2012)

C.G. said:


> I tried publishing one of my books on Kobo back in January. Here we are 3 months later and despite various emails to support, my book still isn't listed. I'm starting to wonder if it's even worth all the hassle. Anyone have good sales on Kobo?


My sales are pretty decent on Kobo, but nothing world-shattering, either. I don't think you're missing a whole lot of money there. It might fill up your gas tank a couple of times per month.

I've been disappointed enough with Kobo's performance that I might suck it up and go back to B&N until they finally die.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

Kobo blows.


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## Indecisive (Jun 17, 2013)

I've sold very little on Kobo (less than on Smashwords!), but it was easy enough to upload, so why not? I kind of hope they keep going.


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## writejenwrite (Feb 25, 2014)

C.G. said:


> I tried publishing one of my books on Kobo back in January. Here we are 3 months later and despite various emails to support, my book still isn't listed. I'm starting to wonder if it's even worth all the hassle. Anyone have good sales on Kobo?


Ugh, I'm finding the same thing--it's been a week since I published, and still no listings . I'm thinking they got confused because I opted out of Kobo on Smashwords so I could publish to them directly, except they took down my Smashwords listing AND my own listing. Oy vey.

I emailed support and am waiting to hear back...


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## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

ElHawk said:


> My sales are pretty decent on Kobo, but nothing world-shattering, either. I don't think you're missing a whole lot of money there. It might fill up your gas tank a couple of times per month.
> 
> I've been disappointed enough with Kobo's performance that I might suck it up and go back to B&N until they finally die.


E.L.,
I might be missing something... Why wouldn't you be at both B&N and Kobo?
~L.L.


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

writejenwrite said:


> I opted out of Kobo on Smashwords so I could publish to them directly


I went direct with Kobo because after five months my book had not appeared via Smashwords, when I went direct it was up in a day, I then got my ISBN numbers sorted a few days later and on there advice put up a second one with my ISBN and that took two days and then I removed the first one. With Smashwords there was nothing to remove after five months. I have had very few downloads, but then a 1200 word short is not going to set the world alight even at free. I use it (the one in my signature) to prepare for the novel going up on 30th April.


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## gljones (Nov 6, 2012)

If this helps put it into perspective, I asked 10 friends of mine what they thought of Kobo?  The responses ranged from "is that near Sanibel" to "it sounds bad I hope I don't catch it."


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## Tanya Anne Crosby (Jan 12, 2014)

Does anyone know who, if anyone, from the Writing Life crew survived the layoff?


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## JETaylor (Jan 25, 2011)

Zero sales this month on Kobo - in the past only a handful at best. 

I'm beginning to think pulling my titles and going through Smashwords is the right route.  I had more sales through that avenue than direct anyway. 

ETA - now I know why there are zero sales. My books don't show up in any of the categories at all anymore.  I've sent them a note asking what happened and we'll see.  It may mean pulling titles and going back through Smashwords at this point.  Argh!


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## Justawriter (Jul 24, 2012)

This might not be a bad thing. In the article, it mentions the layoffs as part of the new management change and restructure. There's a new President and layoffs/restructures are common with new management. But, it sounds like they are looking to move forward. I hope they do well. The more competition the better for all of us.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Marian said:


> I just went with D2D for my books. They make it easy to include Kobo while you're doing B &N and Apple, so why not do it? It isn't a hassle.


Dealing with the publishing at Kobo isn't all that strenuous so I see no reason to give up royalties by cutting D2D in on my Kobo sales, such as they are.

Didn't Kobo just take over the Sony ebook catalogue?


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## travelinged (Apr 6, 2014)

phildukephd said:


> Kobo needs new management, it appears no one there understands ebooks. Sign up with D2D.com instead, you will be glad you did.


They just got new management last week.


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## DRMarvello (Dec 3, 2011)

I go direct to Kobo through KWL. My sales over there are a nearly unmeasurable percentage of my Amazon sales. Still, as Quiss said, it isn't that hard to load a title into Kobo, and an extra sale every other month is better than nothing.

However, I'm considering a return to Select, and dropping Kobo won't give me any heartburn.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

For me, Kobo is my second strongest sales channel after the various Amazons taken together. B&N is No. 3, to my own surprise, since I sold next to nothing there the first year or so they carried my books. Tiny DriveThruFiction is No. 4, Apple is No. 5, XinXii and OmniLit/ARe share 6th place, followed by Casa del Libro with Libiro and Club Bertelsmann tied in last place.

I've had occasional publishing delays of two or three days, mostly when I uploaded a new book over the weekend, but nothing like what others here are describing. I think the longest I ever waited for a book to go live was five days and then it went live promptly after I e-mailed support. My sales at Kobo were affected by the erotica debacle last year, but they bounced back after two months or so. I'm even selling in the UK again.

I own a Kobo reader and also like Kobo as a customer, though their search engine really needs work. Still, I mostly find what I'm looking for.

In short, I don't really get the disdain towards Kobo, since I've largely had good experiences with them. Doesn't mean that other people won't have different experiences. It also seems to be quite random, which books and/or authors do well at what retailer. For example, my bestseller at Kobo sells very little at Amazon and elsewhere, while my Amazon top seller gets only mediocre sales at Kobo. So I don't see why you wouldn't want to be present at as many retailers as possible, unless you're betting fully on Select.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

CoraBuhlert said:


> For me, Kobo is my second strongest sales channel after the various Amazons taken together. B&N is No. 3, to my own surprise, since I sold next to nothing there the first year or so they carried my books. Tiny DriveThruFiction is No. 4, Apple is No. 5, XinXii and OmniLit/ARe share 6th place, followed by Casa del Libro with Libiro and Club Bertelsmann tied in last place.
> 
> I've had occasional publishing delays of two or three days, mostly when I uploaded a new book over the weekend, but nothing like what others here are describing. I think the longest I ever waited for a book to go live was five days and then it went live promptly after I e-mailed support. My sales at Kobo were affected by the erotica debacle last year, but they bounced back after two months or so. I'm even selling in the UK again.
> 
> ...


That's interesting. Kobo is bottom of the pile for me in sixth place with Audible currently top and Amazon almost exactly the same but just in second place. Google is third, Nook fourth, Apple fifth.

Audible has been utterly shocking to me. I expected something like 10% of kindle numbers, but with only four audible books out, I have more total sales than 10 titles in kindle. You can bet that I'm hurrying to get all 10 into audible!


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## Christa Wick (Nov 1, 2012)

That is very cool to hear, Mark (re audible). It seems there's a good market for SF/Fantasy in audio. 

Anyone who has a book that they are trying to push through KWL - do this to your description field - delete everything in it. Re-enter either manually, or take your description text, put it in a text editor (TextEdit for Apple users, Wordpad/Notepad for PC) and convert to Plain Text then copy the plain text into the description field and use their bold/italics, etc., buttons to format how you want. When you copy/paste from word, internet, etc., you're picking up code along with the letters and Kobo's [email protected], [email protected] system frequently glitches because of that so that a book won't publish or changes won't publish (even though you did nothing new in the description field). It doesn't even matter if the changes have nothing to do with the description field (price, cover image, etc).

If that doesn't work, publish a duplicate (again, using plain text in the description field and Kobo's built in text editor) book because something is clearly stuck in the Kobo system and support isn't sufficiently competent. When the original book finally goes live, just delist it, so you still have just one copy.

Since September 2013, Kobo sales have been enough pre-tax to cover my mortgage. Free and serials help with Kobo.


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## KMatthew (Mar 21, 2012)

Caddy said:


> Kobo blows.


Nicely put.

My sales have been increasing over there, but they've never been impressive.


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## Speaker-To-Animals (Feb 21, 2012)

We're inexplicably suddenly selling well, as well as Amazon. That said, if these other companies want to compete they need to put their money into search engine development and discoverability, not new hardware or whatever else.


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## Jan Strnad (May 27, 2010)

I've made a little from Kobo, but I don't know how anyone finds my books there unless they search for "Strnad."

I've found them easy enough to publish with that I figure I'll stay with them. I wish them luck!


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## C.G. (Jan 23, 2014)

Thanks guys for all your input! Maybe I'll try to go through D2D, but I hate the thought of having to keep up with yet another distributor. However, I'd hate to miss out on an opportunity if Kobo suddenly gets their act together and they become a force in the ebook market!^^


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## Carolyn J. Rose Mystery Writer (Aug 10, 2010)

In the past two months, my sales on Kobo have zoomed - especially in Canada and Australia. Before that they were pitiful and flat. I have no idea why this happened.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Last year, I sold 70% of my books on Kobo. Since the October debacle, it's been downhill.

I had a Bookbub on Thursday, and have seen not single sale from it. In fact, I suspect their dashboard is stuck.

And whatever the EFF happened to those 5000 freebie downloads I had there? I used to champion Kobo. Clean site, nice dashboard, but I'm increasingly distrusting. All this weird stuff with numbers doesn't do them any good. If their freebie numbers suddenly drop by 50%, what guarantee do we have that the sales are reported correctly?


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## Maria G. Melton (Apr 16, 2014)

I analyzed what peoples to find so difficult, because in the search box unlike Amazon site.

The commission will be paid once a year in Kobo for my country, during March.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Kat S said:


> ...if these other companies want to compete they need to put their money into search engine development and discoverability, not new hardware or whatever else.


Word to the wise.

Are you listening, Kobo?
Google Play?
Nook Press?

Amazon rules because Amazon knows how to show a reader what that particular reader is most likely to buy.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

To highlight their thundering incompetence, I just got an email that they published Rune Breaker: the Complete Saga... the book I published in FEBRUARY.

Luckily, I've had D2D on my side to give them kicks in the rump to push my other titles after the October blunder.


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## MeiLinMiranda (Feb 17, 2011)

I've sold nearly 600 books in the last four years at Smashwords. Yes, Smashwords. I've sold exactly 15 in the two years I've been direct at Kobo.


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## wolfrom (May 26, 2012)

It seems to me, too, that their dashboard is stuck. Lost a whole pile of free downloads, and no sales.

Do any of the big Kobo-selling authors see updates currently on Kobo? Or have we all been stuck for pretty much the entire month of April?


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

C.G. said:


> Thanks guys for all your input! Maybe I'll try to go through D2D, but I hate the thought of having to keep up with yet another distributor. However, I'd hate to miss out on an opportunity if Kobo suddenly gets their act together and they become a force in the ebook market!^^


I just recently started publishing direct with Kobo. It was fairly painless and then you remove the cut from the middle man.


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## Sharon Austin (Oct 13, 2010)

Most of my sales come from B&N. I used D2D to get my books on Kobo. Sold 2 copies of my Hellfire Trilogy on Kobo this month.


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## Avis Black (Jun 12, 2012)

Kobo has at least one bug in its payment software.  I was just trying to buy an ebook from them, but when I tried to enter a new credit card number, and it kept refusing to save the new number and I couldn't complete the transaction.  

One other odd thing.  Literally a minute later after I tried to enter the new card, I got an automated phone call--on a number I never give out to anybody--supposedly from my bank mentioning unusual activity on my credit card.  It sounding like a fishing scheme, so I cut them off and called my regular bank, who said it was probably a scam.  If it was a coincidence, it was a bizarre one.

Someone else bought one of my titles today on Kobo, so part of their payment system works--unless that's a much older payment that finally showed up.  I suspect most of the employees Kobo laid off were in the software department.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

Hmmm, that could be bad for writers and those of us using Smashwords. I have quite a few fans who only use Kobo. They do have an app for tablets and phones, though. They should promote that more.


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

Avis Black said:


> Kobo has at least one bug in its payment software. I was just trying to buy an ebook from them, but when I tried to enter a new credit card number, and it kept refusing to save the new number and I couldn't complete the transaction.
> 
> One other odd thing. Literally a minute later after I tried to enter the new card, I got an automated phone call--on a number I never give out to anybody--supposedly from my bank mentioning unusual activity on my credit card. It sounding like a fishing scheme, so I cut them off and called my regular bank, who said it was probably a scam. If it was a coincidence, it was a bizarre one.
> 
> Someone else bought one of my titles today on Kobo, so part of their payment system works--unless that's a much older payment that finally showed up. I suspect most of the employees Kobo laid off were in the software department.


This does not sound like a problem at Kobo's end. Banks have security teams that will reject payments that they regard as suspicious and then phone you to see if you were trying to make the payment. Staff in non-security parts of the bank have usually got very little clue about what the security team gets up to. It means that the security team have flagged Kobo as somewhere that fraudsters will try to use stolen credit cards. I have been through all this hassle with the over-zealous security team at my bank.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Avis Black said:


> Kobo has at least one bug in its payment software. I was just trying to buy an ebook from them, but when I tried to enter a new credit card number, and it kept refusing to save the new number and I couldn't complete the transaction.
> 
> One other odd thing. Literally a minute later after I tried to enter the new card, I got an automated phone call--on a number I never give out to anybody--supposedly from my bank mentioning unusual activity on my credit card. It sounding like a fishing scheme, so I cut them off and called my regular bank, who said it was probably a scam. If it was a coincidence, it was a bizarre one.
> 
> Someone else bought one of my titles today on Kobo, so part of their payment system works--unless that's a much older payment that finally showed up. I suspect most of the employees Kobo laid off were in the software department.


That sounds like Barlaycard security services. I have had one of those from them. They probably stopped you using your card on Kobo because to them its called unusual activity, meaning that you don't use Kobo very often and have been using your card in the local shops, and then suddenly someone tried to use it in Lichtenstein or something (or wherever kobo payment vendor is located). Their computer is basically dumb. It doesn't know or care that you are using it all over the place online. If you had listened to the call, they ask you to say yes or no if you recognise the transactions they list as being from you. You say yes, and the card is unblocked.


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## Michelle Maibelle (Oct 24, 2013)

I think their marketplace definitely needs an overhaul, though I do enjoy my Kobo Glo. I found it hard to browse for books, and a lot of the things I sifted through were just bestsellers from major publishing houses. I wish they would make the shopping experience better.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

I one-click-buy from Kobo all the time. I've never had a problem at the buying end.


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## @Suzanna (Mar 14, 2011)

I have a Kobo ereader and tablet and have never had any difficulty buying from their store. My two sisters are voracious readers and buy exclusively from Kobo ... neither have ever reported having any problem buying from Kobo. They tend to come to me if they have difficulties with things like that, so I'd have heard if they were having problems.


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## zzzzzzz (Dec 6, 2011)

I make maybe $100 from them a month. Never had any troubles.


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## SWF (Jun 14, 2011)

Well, that explains a lot. I published via Smashwords just two weeks ago and it's still not there. I was going to raise it with them today, but if it's taking five months or more... Maybe I better try do it myself.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

SWF said:


> Well, that explains a lot. I published via Smashwords just two weeks ago and it's still not there. I was going to raise it with them today, but if it's taking five months or more... Maybe I better try do it myself.


Upload direct to KWL. My books are usually live within two hours. But if your formatting is off, it will take much longer. On the upside, if you go direct, you can badger the KWL staff about it. They usually fix it.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

I've never sold well on Kobo, despite having pretty much everything up there the whole time. I do okay outside of Amazon in general, but Kobo is like a black hole of sales for me.

I think KWL accounts for 0.3% of my sales. Which is pathetic! 

I agree with Patti's comments on the redesign. It's bloody awful - like going to an airport bookstore and being forced to choose between 10 authors.

Amazon is the only retailer out there that understands the store is at least as important as the device.

So... yeah. I really want Kobo to succeed but they've got to stop aiming that gun at their feet. It's a pity because I really, really like the KWL people. I suspect the problem lies higher up, and the policy of focusing on what publishers want (rather than what readers want) is killing their chances.

I was looking for my own books on Kobo and this happened. Which is as hilarious as the "bug" which put me in the US Top 20 for Thanksgiving Weekend but resulted in zero sales...


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Quiss said:


> Uh oh
> http://www.thestar.com/business/tech_news/2014/04/24/torontobased_ereader_kobo_lays_off_63_people.html


My sources in Canada say that the reason for the layoffs is... a couple people actually passed KWL's incredibly high sales threshold and had to be PAID their $100.00 in royalties.  Yup, that equals about 63 positions ... in Canadian dollars! *mic-drop*

...and the verdict is *drumroll* .... Kobo is STILL not as "effed up" as Nook/Nook Press!


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## alawston (Jun 3, 2012)

I've sold 2 copies of the same book through Kobo. I happen to know it was a friend who bought one.

Her daughter bought the second one.


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## Gator (Sep 28, 2012)

dgaughran said:


> I was looking for my own books on Kobo and this happened. Which is as hilarious as the "bug" which put me in the US Top 20 for Thanksgiving Weekend but resulted in zero sales...


Oh-ho! The truth comes out! Now we know how Hugh sells so many books.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

SWF said:


> Well, that explains a lot. I published via Smashwords just two weeks ago and it's still not there. I was going to raise it with them today, but if it's taking five months or more... Maybe I better try do it myself.


It is not taking 5 months for me at least. I pulled all of my books form KWL and resent them via Smash recently. After 2 weeks when they did not show I contacted Smash, and they told me there was an error sending and queued them for resend. 2 days later they appeared on Kobo. All of my books are there now.

I have not sold ANY books on Kobo since Kobogate, and all of my books are clean. I gave up considering them as a player at least for me. I wish I knew how some of you were being found and doing so well there.


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Hey Gang - hope it's okay if I jump into this thread and provide some Kobo info. I'm the director of Kobo Writing Life (www.kobo.com/writinglife) and, as an author myself, understand what it's like to try to make it in the writing field. My team is out there, reading threads and paying attention to concerns, issues, desires. We are also out in the physical world doing the same thing. (I just got back from Pikes Peak Writers Conference in Colorado and my team will be in Boston at "The Market & The Muze" in Oshawa, ON at The Ontario Writers Conference and in Italy at the Torino Book Fair - the reason we're there is to connect with authors and listen, understand and help prioritize the work we need to do to keep improving.

I appreciate the comments and the mentions of what could be improved. Please note that WE ARE listening and will continue to listen. The best way to ensure we're aware of your desires, concerns and any issues are via emailing [email protected]. This creates a trackable ticket in our systems that allows us to investigate, prioritize and escalate, particularly when the item involves more than just the KWL development team (and a lot of search and browse issues fall outside our team, but we do ensure that feedback is heard by the teams that oversee them). Not that we don't still listen in digital and physical places, but this communication directly to us does help us help you.

I wanted to highlight a few threads I picked up on here.

*1) Status of the KWL Team. * Thanks for asking, and the concern. My entire global team is still operational and we're still focusing on working with indie authors and small publishers and looking for ways to help them sell more via Kobo globally. We were delighted to help launch the OPEN UP TO INDIE AUTHORS book, part of a program spearheaded by the good folks at ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors program) at London Book Fair (http://kobowritinglife.com/2014/04/03/opening-up-to-indie-authors/) and look forward to helping connecting local authors with local bookstores not just in the US but around the world.

*2) REVIEWS and RANKINGS* are coming back to Kobo. They are coming back very soon (ie, most likely within the next month) We, unfortunately, lost reviews during the web re-design that took place late last summer, and have been working to bring them back. We have been prompting customers, upon completion of the book they are reading, to review, and been collecting them. We also launched multiple requests to our readers via email for the same.

Feel free to use this by sending it to fans and asking them to review your books on Kobo.

http://evocalize.com/consumer/business/520e6ea22f18b/search

*3) FREE DOWNLOADS.* The KWL development team discovered a bug related to free download tracking that came from an update implemented on our web catalog. The bug caused some of the free downloads to become duplicated on the dashboard. They fixed it (explaining the "disappearing download numbers" and, in the process of attempting to inform users of this, uncovered an additional issue with the notification bar that was supposed to appear at the header of all user accounts (explaining the issue) - the good news is that the free download tracking issue has been resolved, and the dev team is now working on fixing the notification bar so that we can more adeptly inform you of known issues or particular updates to them system (such as new features like being able to set up a book for pre-order or the price-scheduling tool we created to ensure your price promos are in the system well in advance of a BookBub promo or some other planned timed promotion you're running.

*4) SALES*. Not everyone's books have found traction at Kobo. Some of you even note suddenly having great sales that seem to have come out of no-where. That's part of the landscape of retailing and one of the reasons why I believe it's important to have your books available in every single retailer available. Why limit your exposure to customers? Even if your sales are currently minimal at any retailer, why would you not continue to make them available? (Imagine not publishing eBooks because 5 years ago they represented less than 5% of the book industry's sales? Publishers who ignored eBooks because they were such a small percentage of their sales almost missed the boat when that grew to where it is today. I admire authors like David Gaughran who, despite having had minimal sales on Kobo, keeps his titles there -- you never know when and where sales might pick up and take off, and David is also ensuring that any fans he has already gained on Kobo can continue to read his books on their preferred eReading platform.

I have titles that sell in different quantities on Kobo, Amazon, Nook, iBooks and Smashwords. What does well on Kobo in Canada, doesn't sell well at Amazon in the US. What sells on Amazon UK isn't the same as what sells for me on Kobo in AUS or Nook in the US. What's important, to me, is growing my readership across as many different platforms as possible. The industry is better served by having multiple retailers in competition. We each bring our own unique customers from all over the globe. And you can't sell in a retailer or a country if your books aren't available to them. (Kevin J. Anderson was remarking to me last week that he was delighted when he was in Europe last year, that he was able to satisfy his readers in Poland by using KWL to make a book available to them that wouldn't otherwise be available to his fans there)

*5) DROPPING DIRECT FROM KWL, DELISTING & USING THIRD PARTIES.* I'm not sure why, if you already have a KWL account, you'd choose to go with a third party. Don't get me wrong. I think they are wonderful and admire how they help authors. But I, personally, go direct where I can and use these third parties for platforms I can't get into. I use Smashwords, for example, to get into iBooks and Nook (iBooks because it's too difficult to go direct, and Nook because they don't let Canadians go direct) - Smashwords also gets my ebooks into all kinds of other eReading platforms (not that I sell much there, but an occasional sale here and there from those other platforms is better than not having them available, and you never know when sales on those other platforms might pick up). But I go direct to Kindle and Kobo, because I can and it's easy.

However, as good as third party distributors are, there are, unavoidably, always issues with every extra layer and data feed that you include in a process. Not through anybody's fault, but just due to Murphy's Law. Every additional data point/exchange you introduce, you introduce the chance that something will be delayed.

I would also provide a note of caution regarding DELISTING and re-LISTING and continually changing how your titles are loaded (not just to Kobo, but elsewhere). Because the metadata and content is similar, whenever there are conflicting feeds (one feed saying this book should be PUBLISHED and LIVE, and another feed saying it should be DELISTED), it can cause the systems to get confused and the data update to be delayed because the update requires additional vetting before it can be processed. If you are encountering an issue with a third party company data feed, it's best to communicate directly with THEM and they'll work with our publisher operations team to resolve it. For issues with KWL directly, email [email protected] with the specifics of the issue you're facing.

My apologies for the long -winded post - I'm hoping I was able to address most of the items that were raised and that some of you are able to glean useful information from it.

But please do be aware that the Kobo Writing Life team are listening and paying attention to the things that are important for authors in order to be successful via Kobo's global catalog and global partnerships.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Mark Leslie said:


> Hey Gang - hope it's okay if I jump into this thread and provide some Kobo info. I'm the director of Kobo Writing Life (www.kobo.com/writinglife) and, as an author myself, understand what it's like to try to make it in the writing field.


You are MORE then welcome! Thanks for joining us!



Mark Leslie said:


> *5) DROPPING DIRECT FROM KWL, DELISTING & USING THIRD PARTIES.* I'm not sure why, if you already have a KWL account, you'd choose to go with a third party. Don't get me wrong. I think they are wonderful and admire how they help authors. But I, personally, go direct where I can and use these third parties for platforms I can't get into. I use Smashwords, for example, to get into iBooks and Nook (iBooks because it's too difficult to go direct, and Nook because they don't let Canadians go direct) - Smashwords also gets my ebooks into all kinds of other eReading platforms (not that I sell much there, but an occasional sale here and there from those other platforms is better than not having them available, and you never know when sales on those other platforms might pick up). But I go direct to Kindle and Kobo, because I can and it's easy.
> 
> However, as good as third party distributors are, there are, unavoidably, always issues with every extra layer and data feed that you include in a process. Not through anybody's fault, but just due to Murphy's Law. Every additional data point/exchange you introduce, you introduce the chance that something will be delayed.


As one of the people in this thread that stated doing this, I can tell you why I did it at least.

1) Categories - I can not get them to stick in Kobo Writing Life. They change randomly and do not respect what I put in. I was never able to get them into categories that made sense. My SciFi books end up in inspirational and religious categories for example. Never had this problem when going via Smashwords.

2) Updating Backmatter - the less stores I have to deal with each release or update the simpler my life is

3) Lack of sales - I do not understand this but I sold better on Kobo BEFORE going to KWL. I actually went to KWL because it looked like Kobo was going to be a player to pay closer attention to. I have seen a decline in sales since doing that. Perhaps it was related to #1?

4) Kobogate. NONE of my books have ANY sex in them at all, yet I was pulled from the market with everyone else without warning. That damaged trust. Also I have not sold a single book or free download since then, so I really do not know how live my books are.

Is all of the above fixable? Sure. In the future will I go back to direct? Maybe.


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## Rayven T. Hill (Jul 24, 2013)

Mark Leslie said:


> 4) SALES. Not everyone's books have found traction at Kobo.


I have had a free book on Kobo, through Smashwords, for 1 year, and it's been downloaded 1, yes 1 time. Compare that to almost half a million on Amazon over the same period.

What's my incentive to drop KDP Select and put my other books on Kobo?


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## noodle24 (Dec 11, 2012)

I should also add, I bought one book on Kobo. Then as I was reading, I got to chapter 2 and it said "Chapter 2 doesn't exist." Seriously? I skipped to Chapter 3, then went backwards in order to get to Chapter 2, proving it really was there. But it kept happening, saying chapters didn't exist when they really did.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Patty Jansen said:


> I one-click-buy from Kobo all the time. I've never had a problem at the buying end.


Never have I. 90% of my ebook purchases are with kobo.


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## @Suzanna (Mar 14, 2011)

noodle24 said:


> I should also add, I bought one book on Kobo. Then as I was reading, I got to chapter 2 and it said "Chapter 2 doesn't exist." Seriously? I skipped to Chapter 3, then went backwards in order to get to Chapter 2, proving it really was there. But it kept happening, saying chapters didn't exist when they really did.


That sounds to me like it's a problem with the file. I'd report it to Kobo and hopefully they'll pass the info on to the content creator (I don't know their process in cases like this.) Just like Amazon can't be blamed if an author uploads a file that has glitches (for example, using black text instead of auto text, which means the text would be invisible in night mode in the Kindle app), I don't really think you can fault Kobo if there's something wrong with an ebook file. Report it and see what they say.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

noodle24 said:


> I should also add, I bought one book on Kobo. Then as I was reading, I got to chapter 2 and it said "Chapter 2 doesn't exist." Seriously? I skipped to Chapter 3, then went backwards in order to get to Chapter 2, proving it really was there. But it kept happening, saying chapters didn't exist when they really did.


That's a problem with the ebook file, not Kobo.


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## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

Thanks for chiming in, Mark. It's good to get word from someone in KWL.

Point three brings up a sore point for me: the only communications (emails) I get from Kobo are advertisements. I have never once gotten a status message from Kobo-or any of the other retailers (Apple the only exception) to be fair-about system changes, problems, or fixes. I never heard anything from Kobo about there being a problem with the free downloads count coming from Kobo.

I am not a customer of Kobo, I am a _*business partner*_. As someone whose living depends on the flow of sales of my product, I need to know when there is a problem so I can make adjustments. Kobo makes a tidy profit margin from the sales of my product, I deserve to know when there has been an issue, what fix is planned or has been enacted.

I really need to stress, it isn't just Kobo. The only retailer who has sent me _any_ communication about there being a problem and what they did/were doing to address it was Apple. Everyone seems to have taken the attitude, "Don't let them know there was a problem!" That's akin to being in a building without a fire alarm. I certainly understand the need for discretion when there is a security problem. But I should be informed that there was a problem and what was done to address it when the matter has been made safe.

This leads to my next issue with Kobo-again, remember that I am a supplier of products to Kobo, a business in my own right, and I am trying to work as a partner with Kobo to make money in business: there is NO dedicated line of communication with Kobo for business partners. Every time I have had an issue that needed immediate attention, I've wasted hours trying to find a link or a phone number that would connect me with a business agent at Kobo. Each time I've contacted Kobo, I've been forced to use the system used by customers. When I have a concern about my product and how it is being presented by a retailer and it is something I need to address quickly, that means I am likely to be losing money NOW. My need to fix it shouldn't be pooled in with customer service problems where it may languish for days or weeks before some overloaded and underpaid operator finally gets to it in their queue.

I created a business account on Kobo's system so I could sell product through Kobo's retail system. I should expect to see on my account page a prominently placed box with a telephone number and/or an online contact system that I can turn to when I have a business issue. I don't want to have to drill down through page after page under the "Support" link that sends me to customer support when I have a business issue.

Consider this: it took a bunch of independent authors blowing off steam on a third party web forum about their issues with Kobo to get a response from anyone at Kobo on these matters. Kobo seems to be reorganizing the company and worse, things are so bad at Kobo that they had to lay off employees. Yes, I know that is overly dramatic. But to the public-and I've only gotten news from Kobo through public news channels-the moment a company has started to layoff employees, there is a problem with the business. An announcement of layoffs in any company is usually grounds for me to sell off any stock I have in that company.

I fully agree with you: don't close a retail channel because it is underperforming. For Point #4, the issue with how well my book is selling falls on the Sales-Marketing department in my company. And seeing as I am self-employed, that means *Me*. However, I do have to put my energy where the money is. Hence, why I am seriously considering launching my next book in Amazon's KDP Select program. I figure I won't be losing anything if I delay sales for three months on the other channels, while leveraging Amazon's promise of more aggressive promotion and flexibility in exchange for that three-month exclusive. For the record, sales through Kobo only make up .68% of my total sales-I still have yet to sell enough copies to actually be paid my sales proceeds by Kobo.

I do not wish to turn my back on Kobo. My Kobo Glo is my favorite ebook reader to read with, because I like the library interface it has. I like that Kobo is trying to share the profit with independent book sellers when someone buys an ebook from Kobo through their web sites. Actually, that is HUGE with me as I have a friend who owns a book store. I keep promoting Kobo like crazy for that reason.

I don't expect that I'm going to wake up tomorrow (or next month) and discover that I've suddenly sold 10,000 copies of my book on Kobo. (Not that I don't dream about it&#8230 Mike, your communication about what is happening at Kobo and your feelings on the matter have gone a long way with me. It shows me that there _IS_ someone there who cares enough to let me know what is going on with my business. There needs to be more of that-even if there is less than pleasant news. It shows me that there is still energy up there and not a bunch of shell-shocked employees staggering around like zombies waiting for their turn to be laid off.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Mark Leslie said:


> Hey Gang - hope it's okay if I jump into this thread and provide some Kobo info.


Definitely okay. When dealing with larger vendors, it's often easy to get frustrated with less-than informative help desks or opaque policies and processes. Often things happen (not just at Kobo) that don't seem to have any explanation or cause, which leads to angry voices on the message boards.

To know that someone is paying attention is a relief.


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## Joe_Nobody (Oct 23, 2012)

I think it's very, very cool that _the man _stopped in to reply to this thread.

I don't sell so much on KOBO, but have never had issues with the interface or getting a book loaded up. The category thing has been a little maddening from time to time.

They pay on time and customer support does respond. That's more than can be said for some of the other channels.


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## lewaters (Jun 25, 2011)

Patty Jansen said:


> As far as I'm concerned, Kobo was doing great until last October's website re-design when they effed up their categories, which brought them into trouble with various UK retailers and the whole avalanche proceeded from there.


I agree. My sales surged there before the redesign. They were competing nicely with my kindle sales and then... everything slowed to a trickle. It would be nice if they could correct things. Kobo definitely reaches more international readers for me.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

OFF TOPIC BUT: A friend mentioned something called Tolino. Any one know how to get into that?


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## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> OFF TOPIC BUT: A friend mentioned something called Tolino. Any one know how to get into that?


It uses EPUB for ebook files, so they can buy your ebooks from wherever. (Kobo, even.)


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## Jan Strnad (May 27, 2010)

The tactic of selling books based on author and even genre is going to have to change to keep up with the times.

What we're headed for is a world in which sales are driven by recommendations based on your personal preferences. The leader to look at is Netflix with all of their categories, many of them almost whimsical. The algorithms that push books toward people are going to rule. 

Whoever pushes books best to the individual reader, will be the winner. Right now, Amazon does this twenty times better than Kobo and Barnes and Noble who seem to stick primarily with the bookstore model: Grouped by genre, here are the top-selling authors.

How about my being able to go to Kobo and rate a bunch of books to improve my personal recommendations, a la Netflix?


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

WDR said:


> It uses EPUB for ebook files, so they can buy your ebooks from wherever. (Kobo, even.)


Kobo, right...very funny! Like I ever sell anything there 

Seriously, Jen was saying that where she has been holidaying there is no mention of Kindle AT ALL and Tolino is everywhere. Do you think the Tolino users in Austria and Gernany are buying through Kobo and Google?

I actually create all my books as epubs and upload the same file everywhere even Amazon, but I know Amazon converts to mobi. I actually reached $300 at Google last month. It's going up slowly.


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Hey guys - hope I didn't miss anything - LOTS to read through and try to reply to. So if I missed anything, please excuse me.

And, if it's okay, I'll say THANKS to you all for the "welcome" and kind comments - below I'll now try to address the questions/concerns raised.

*VydorScope* - I appreciate hearing your reasons. The Category thing was a temporary mis-match brought about by a change to one system that didn't propagate to another -- it that should have been corrected and be smooth now. The fact that sales went up or down shouldn't be related at all to whether they were direct or through Smashwords - the correlation you saw must have been coincidental. The very temporary removal of titles from the UK during EroticaGate was resolved within days (unlike the rumors that were widely spread), and my entire team worked really hard for extended overtime sessions to ensure all titles that were not in violation of the Content Policy were brought back as efficiently and quickly as possible. I'd love to have your titles back on Kobo when you're ready (and if you're aware of any that should be there but aren't, let us know so we can look into it)

*Rayven T. Hill* - I'm quite curious with the strategy to put a single book up on Kobo (BLOOD AND JUSTICE) but not have anything available to sell (and earn $$ off of). It doesn't make sense to me as an author. Now, just a quick look at your covers and I have to say I'm impressed. They look like intriguing thrillers with a consistent branding across the series. I can't see how a customer who tries the first book out wouldn't want to buy the 2nd book. We have seen authors gain traction on Kobo, but there usually needs to be more titles available so they can reap the benefits of free. Otherwise, the free leads to . . . . nothing . . . . no action for the customer to take.

Can I suggest this to you? I'd love it if you signed up for Kobo Writing Life (www.kobo.com/writinglife) and published COLD JUSTICE and JUSTICE FOR HIRE. With an "action path" for customers to take after reading the first book, we could look at featuring it IN FREE FIRST IN SERIES - http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/Collection/free-first-in-series - for some authors, that's all it takes to help us help their sales get a decent kick-start. (And it's fine to publish them through a third party, ie Smashwords, but one thing you won't see right away are the download stats nor the sales numbers until about 45 days after -- within KWL you see those numbers in "live" or "real time" -- usually within 15 minutes of the download or sale happening. I'd be curious to see if that helps get any traction.

*noodle24* - I just want to repeat what both *Krista D. Ball* and *Suzanna Medeiros* said, because they pretty much nailed it. That sounds an awful lot like the publisher's file itself and not our system/eReader. When a customer is not satisfied with a product they bought because of a tech issue/etc we will issue a refund, then try to replicate the issue ourselves and then contact the publisher to let them know what the customer reported (sending them our example). So maybe we should do that for the book you encountered....?

*WDR* - Thanks for the in-depth note on the sore points. We do send out monthly newsletters to KWL authors - in it we include articles on the craft and business of writing as well as updates on various system updates we do. We are in the process of streamlining a few more automated system updates and strict business communications, but often, those emails, we learn, are getting caught in people's spam filters. I even had publishers and authors contact to say they rec'd payment but never rec'd the emailed excel spreadsheet documenting their sales details. We learned, later, that they were caught in the spam filter.

You might also notice, within the Kobo Writing Life LEARNING CENTER (in your header is DASHBOARD / EBOOKS / LEARNING CENTER) there is a contact email ([email protected]) - that goes to a specific group that can respond to basic questions specific to writers for Kobo Writing Life and escalates to my team for more detailed investigation/etc where required. Emailing [email protected] does go to a generic global hotline for READER issues. That's why we set up [email protected] - so that writers could get unique customer responses that are more in line with their needs and their issues.

Glad you like the partnership with indie bookstores in the US - we hope to continue to help indie authors and indie booksellers embrace and support one another.

*Jan Strnad* - Love the idea. If you look at an item page for a book on Kobo, you'll see dynamically generated recommendations for other titles. For example, here's a link to WDR's book on Kobo - http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/aggadeh-chronicles-book-1-nobody-1 -- notice that, below the synopsis, there is a RELATED TITLES list - this is generated from customer click-thru behaviour and reader library similarities and appears on every book's item page -- the list continues to evolve and change based on patterns, clicks and customer behaviour. We do the same sort of automated recommendations within emails to our customers and even in the apps and reading devices. The suggestions are drawn from metadata similarities, customer click behavior in A/B testing and sales patterns (customers who have BOOK A in the reader library also have BOOK B. Some of our emails and auto-pop ups have included a NetFlix-style "let us know how good the suggestion was" style response for our readers to provide feedback - we also have used that data to help generate more dynamic and useful

*Mark E. Cooper* - Let's see if we can break that track record of your low sales on Kobo, shall we? Check out FREE FIRST IN SERIES (http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/Collection/free-first-in-series ), scroll down to Sci-Fi & Fantasy....see anything familiar there? (store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-god-decrees/ )


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Just to back up what Mark has said: I've had some files that didn't read right on my Kobo. I contacted support and they always refunded my money and, in a couple of instances, the publisher updated the file within a day and support let me know. Kobo support is generally full of nice, helpful people. (No support is perfect; that's just insanity).


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

I was just about to post that after nearly a month and a half, Kobo finally added my latest to their site.

Mark Leslie--all us want Kobo to succeed. It's nerve wracking to have 75% of your sales on one site. 

(Also, if you want to add I Bring the Fire to your Free first in series I will not complain!)


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Mark,

Thanks for replying. All of us want Kobo to do well.

As a reader and Kobo owner, I would like to see more specials by genre. When the site has specials, most of the 100 or so books in the list are contemporary romance in which I have zilch interest. I'm sure you could split out the list by genre and list more books so that buyers are not hit in the face with a giant list of what they don't want and have to scour for things they do want and then find that they already have those three or four titles on special.

In general, I want more subgenre-specific browsing so that it's easier to drill down to the books I want.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Does anyone know how you get listed in that First of Series page?  Other than having a series, I mean


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Quiss said:


> Does anyone know how you get listed in that First of Series page? Other than having a series, I mean


I wish I knew. I'm not seeing Mark's book on the page linked, but that could be because Kobo is different for all regions.

How about a special Australian writers first book in series page for the Australian site. I'm just looking at the Kobo site and can't find the first in series link anywhere


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## Guest (May 1, 2014)

Yeah, I really wish I knew how to get onto that "Free First in Series" page. Knowing that it exists, I feel like a rat stuck in a cage just out of reach from a giant block of cheese.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

All right, I caved.

Because Mark Leslie is engaging with us, I've uploaded my third book to Kobo after all. Like he said, the more markets the better, specially since Kobo doesn't require a special edition.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

I keep thinking there should be more ways of advertising on Kobo.

I inherited the admin of the Kobo Indie Writers group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/333142976774844/?ref=ts&fref=ts. I keep thinking we should do more with it.

Since Kobo gives us the opportunity to plan sales, maybe we could organise coordinated sales.


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

C. Gogel - you likely had issues getting the title added because it came through Smashwords - I love the folks at Smashwords (I respect Mark Coker to the ends of the earth - he is really supportive of authors and I admire him - even USE Smashwords myself) - but there are often issues with getting data feeds between SW and us sorted out. It's not their fault, it's not our fault, and we keep trying to make it better; but I haven't seen much improvement despite repeated attempts from both the good folks at SW and our internal publisher operations folks. That being said, loading direct to KWL typically takes 24 to 72 hours. When the files come via a separate system there's VERY LITTLE visibility my team has into that.....    

Patty - I've seen your titles regularly featured in FREE FIRST IN SERIES - we try our best to cycle through as many different titles and authors as possible to give everyone a chance. And that collection/landing page is visible worldwide, so Australia shouldn't be seeing anything different?  (Does your cache need clearing?)

The FREE FIRST IN SERIES is findable via search and is communicated to customers via targeted emails as well as via other dynamic methodology. We often push that to new customers who want to try out Kobo - it gives them a great chance to check out new titles and new authors and then maybe (ideally) they love the author so much they go buy all their other titles......(that's the desire, at least)

In terms of getting onto the FREE FIRST IN SERIES - we troll the KWL database for free titles to include there - if you have any titles that you think we should consider, send an email with the details to [email protected] to let us know about them. The titles are bounced off the merchandisers and if they are appealing, they get listed. (Yes, I'll be the first to tell you, you'll be judged by your covers, your synopsis, all that stuff........)


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> OFF TOPIC BUT: A friend mentioned something called Tolino. Any one know how to get into that?


XinXii distributes to the Tolino alliance stores (you need an ISBN, but they offer free ISBNs for fiction) as does Overdrive and some "pay to play" outfits.


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## 28612 (Dec 7, 2010)

Great to have you here sharing info, Mark. Thanks for the updates.

My top wish would be to strongly identify other books in a series on all the connected books' book pages. And where in the series they are (with enough flexibility that it can accommodate series that mix books, novellas, short stories.) I think readers would appreciate that.

My Kobo income bounces around from month to month. April was quite nice (cover the mortgage-payment nice.) Even the months it has not been that nice, there's never been a time when I though, nah, don't want that money this month  

And I get a kick out of sales in places I never thought I'd have readers. Qatar in the past couple days. Love it.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Is there a way to get to the first free page via the main website?

When I browse for books on my Kobo the library links to the main page. I normally buy books off my list of samples, and those are once I've collected from off-site. But sometimes if I'm just goofing around, I'd like to find an easy place where I can find free and slightly vetted books to download. I can browse more easily on the tablet, except I prefer to read on the Touch because the batteries last so much longer and it's lighter.


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## Joe_Nobody (Oct 23, 2012)

Mark - I have a suggestion;

I have a seven book, 730,000 word series that I would like to wrap up in an omnibus edition and give readers a price break over the current $9.99 per title price.

The upper royalty limit (decrease to 45%) makes this prohibitive. Rather than the $70 investment required to read the series now, I would live to give the volume purchaser a discount - say $35 for the entire set. But then I take a large revenue hit that doesn't make business sense.

I know other writers who face similar situations. 

Why don't you good folks get ride of the upper limit? I can understand the logic of it five or even three years ago, but now days I can't see any advantage for the distributor. A small segment of the market to be sure, but it could be another differentiator between you and the competition. 

Just a suggestion...


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Seriously, Jen was saying that where she has been holidaying there is no mention of Kindle AT ALL and Tolino is everywhere. Do you think the Tolino users in Austria and Gernany are buying through Kobo and Google?


We have plenty of Kobos and Kindles, too, (and my German language books do well on Kobo) and many early adopters stick to their Sony readers. But the Tolino is indeed popular, because it is marketed by an alliance of brick and mortar bookstore chains and also supported by the German Telekom. As for where Tolino users buy e-books, they buy them via the Tolino alliance stores such as Thalia, Hugendubel, Weltbild, Der Club, Donauland, etc... Which are mostly the same stores where they used to buy print books.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Mark Leslie said:


> *VydorScope* - I appreciate hearing your reasons. The Category thing was a temporary mis-match brought about by a change to one system that didn't propagate to another -- it that should have been corrected and be smooth now. The fact that sales went up or down shouldn't be related at all to whether they were direct or through Smashwords - the correlation you saw must have been coincidental. The very temporary removal of titles from the UK during EroticaGate was resolved within days (unlike the rumors that were widely spread), and my entire team worked really hard for extended overtime sessions to ensure all titles that were not in violation of the Content Policy were brought back as efficiently and quickly as possible. I'd love to have your titles back on Kobo when you're ready (and if you're aware of any that should be there but aren't, let us know so we can look into it)


The categories _never_ righted themselves. Maybe the sales change was a coincidence, but I think it might be more related to the category issue then anything else.

BUT you convinced me to try Kobo again. The fact that you cared enough to come here - which must have looked like hostile territory - and try to resolve things wins huge points in my book. I sent you a PM cause I am concerned if there will be issues with delisting at Smash, and relisting with your store. If it takes a week or two to resolve, I am cool with that.

Thanks!


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Actually, Kobo handles double listings all by itself. If there is a double listing because Smashwords takes its sweet time to remove a title, Kobo gives preference to the one listed on their own site and doesn't show the Smashwords one in searches.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Patty Jansen said:


> Actually, Kobo handles double listings all by itself. If there is a double listing because Smashwords takes its sweet time to remove a title, Kobo gives preference to the one listed on their own site and doesn't show the Smashwords one in searches.


Oh cool.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

That's what I like about this guy. Mark is the number one ambassador for Kobo products. He is Kobo's secret weapon. He turns up in e-book festivals and conventions and writer gatherings all across the globe.

The man has more frequent flyer points than James Bond.


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Joe_Nobody said:


> Mark - I have a suggestion......I would like to wrap up in an omnibus edition and give readers a price break over the current $9.99 per title price.
> 
> The upper royalty limit (decrease to 45%) makes this prohibitive. ......Why don't you good folks get ride of the upper limit?


Hey Joe_Nobody (and for the record, I doubt you're a nobody) - you really should check KWL's terms to see we're already following your GREAT suggestion. When we launched in July 2012, it was 70% for $1.99 USD to $12.99 USD. We since changed it to $2.99 USD at the lower end (since nobody ever really noticed ours was more generous, and because $1.99 as a price for novels was a "dead zone" - (See this post about it on our blog and referred to in the KWL newsletter - http://kobowritinglife.com/2013/09/16/a-dead-price-point/

So, when we walked the low end up from $1.99 USD to $2.99 USD we also REMOVED THE CAP ENTIRELY!!! Yes, you get 70% even if you price the books at $1000 - we did this specifically because authors who were selling bundles didn't want to cap it at $9.99. So, go ahead, price it at a reasonable price beyond $10. It's still a great deal for customers and you get to keep a higher % too -- win/win....go ahead, change the price in the KWL tool and you'll see the royalty still reflects 70%....

So please go ahead and take FULL advantage of that.....


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Patricia McLinn said:


> Great to have you here sharing info, Mark. Thanks for the updates.
> 
> My top wish would be to strongly identify other books in a series on all the connected books' book pages. And where in the series they are (with enough flexibility that it can accommodate series that mix books, novellas, short stories.) I think readers would appreciate that.


Thanks, Patti - that particular update is indeed in the backlog of work that the KWL is working on - look for the series number option in the metadata to appear in KWL and on the website.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Mark Leslie said:


> So, when we walked the low end up from $1.99 USD to $2.99 USD we also REMOVED THE CAP ENTIRELY!!! Y_*es, you get 70% even if you price the books at $1000*_ - we did this specifically because authors who were selling bundles didn't want to cap it at $9.99. So, go ahead, price it at a reasonable price beyond $10. It's still a great deal for customers and you get to keep a higher % too -- win/win....go ahead, change the price in the KWL tool and you'll see the royalty still reflects 70%....
> 
> So please go ahead and take FULL advantage of that.....


Okay I am moving my permafree to $1,000 a copy!


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Hey Mark, since we're talking Kobo, will you or others be coming to the Book Expo Australia? Because I will SO be there if you are.


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Mark Leslie said:


> Thanks, Patti - that particular update is indeed in the backlog of work that the KWL is working on - look for the series number option in the metadata to appear in KWL and on the website.


WHOOPS - Sorry, PATRICIA - didn't meant impose a short-form on your name. Must have been confusing you with Patty J. You're both cool peeps with great ideas!


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Patty Jansen said:


> Hey Mark, since we're talking Kobo, will you or others be coming to the Book Expo Australia? Because I will SO be there if you are.


Hey Patty - Australia continues to be an important market for us, and I met, earlier this year, with some great folks from the booksellers association there - we don't have a dedicated KWL representative there, but we DO have an amazing guy who works with publishers who will be helping us out by making an appearance. I'll make sure to connect the two of you. Also, our AUS/NZ merchandiser is really keen on featuring local Aussie and Kiwi authors - would love to work with you, Patty, on figuring out a way to better spotlight Australian authors. You've got my email - let's figure something out.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Ohhh, are any hardware Kobo people listening?

The Sony reader has a feature that lets you scribble notes right on the page. This is PERFECT for proofing without having to highlight, or have other people see it, or having to stop and make notes. That way you can make notes on the fly without interrupting the flow of reading the story from a reader, rather than an editor's, perspective.

I don't know what I'll do when my Sony gives up the ghost.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Hi, Mark! Thanks for posting here. It's so nice to see.

To paraphrase the great Chico Escuela, "Kobo's been berry berry good to me."

They're my second largest retailer for sales and the staff has always been responsive and supportive. That's not to say the site hasn't been without issues, but I'm one of the lucky ones there. Found a whole new set of readers who don't frequent Amazon. I wish there were more ways to promote books there (sites like BookBub) and that search was a little less hinky, but I'm rooting hard for Kobo to succeed.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Monique said:


> but I'm rooting hard for Kobo to succeed.


I agree. From a customer side, I buy the majority of my books from Kobo. I want them to survive!

From a content provider side, I want them to succeed because it's scary relying on one income stream.


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## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

I've gone direct with Kobo after previously using Smashwords. And my experiences as an English writer living in a country where the primary language is not English is that it is frustrating _as hell_ to navigate the website. Took a few emails to Kobo's support team before I could even sign up for Kobo Writing Life, because every single link I followed to sign up kept redirecting me to Kobo's main Japanese page.

As for some of the problems other people have said about their books showing up in the wrong categories, I honestly can't even search for this stuff through Kobo's site. Because, again, every time I do I kept getting redirected to a Japanese-only site with zero option for switching to English. With Amazon I can check the different stores, but Kobo keeps locking me into the Japanese site. I need to use a proxy just to view the site in English. As a reader, I wouldn't bother with that and would just stick with Amazon.

But I struggled through all of that as an author because I kept seeing advice everywhere to go direct with Kobo. After jumping through all those hoops just to sign up and log in, I've sold exactly 0 books. I made the entry books in two series permafree recently. They've been free on Kobo for almost a month, not a single download. Within a few hours of going free on Amazon, I saw hundreds of downloads.

Knowing what I do now, if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't jump through all those hoops for absolutely no return and would have just continued using an aggregator.


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Monique said:


> I wish there were more ways to promote books there (sites like BookBub) and that search was a little less hinky, but I'm rooting hard for Kobo to succeed.


Thanks, Monique - we wish search was a little less "hinky" too - and trust me, we provide feedback on a daily basis to the search and browse teams, sending suggestions and specific issues to help improve it.
In terms of third party sites to promote on Kobo, it's mostly non-Amazon sites that are doing them (there are, maybe 100 of them) - at least BookBub includes Kobo and other retailers, but there aren't really any third party "promote to Kobo" sites out there. In my mind, that's a huge opportunity for some third party company to haul in good marketing $$.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Mark Leslie said:


> In my mind, that's a huge opportunity for some third party company to haul in good marketing $$.


Hmm. My youngest step-son is looking for a new scheme after his illegal junk food ring was discovered at school. This could be an opportunity for him...


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Hmm. My youngest step-son is looking for a new scheme after his illegal junk food ring was discovered at school. This could be an opportunity for him...


HAHAH!!!!


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## E. Christopher Clark (May 1, 2014)

Well, I've had "Get books on Kobo" on my to-do list for a while now, after seeing them advertised at my local indie book shop. But, after reading this thread, I think I may lower that to-do in priority.


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Perry Constantine said:


> And my experiences as an English writer living in a country where the primary language is not English is that it is frustrating _as hell_ to navigate the website. ..... every time I do I kept getting redirected to a Japanese-only site with zero option for switching to English.


Sorry to hear that, Perry - could you please do me a favour and email these details to [email protected] mentioning that Mark told you this was an important matter that we need to check with our team for localized Japan content - if you set your language preference to ENGLISH it shouldn't matter that you're in Japan, it should show you ENGLISH (you will, however, see the TOP 50 localized to Japan) . . . but in any case, that should be investigated . . .


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

> In my mind, that's a huge opportunity for some third party company to haul in good marketing $$.


LOL. I really should dig through my emails and figure out how to imply the Rakuten linkshare thingie I got. I didn't bother because they required an EIN, but now I have one, so I should do something about that.


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Clarkwoods said:


> Well, I've had "Get books on Kobo" on my to-do list for a while now, after seeing them advertised at my local indie book shop. But, after reading this thread, I think I may lower that to-do in priority.


Let us know when your books are live on Kobo - we haven't yet done a fun local bookstore event in New England, and I'd LOVE an excuse to go hang out at one or more of the amazing indie bookstores there with some great local authors, promoting both the author's books and the indie bookstore.....just sayin'


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

I wonder what happened to kobobookhub.com  
Seemed so promising, but seems to have faded away.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Mark Leslie said:


> we could look at featuring it IN FREE FIRST IN SERIES - http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/Collection/free-first-in-series - for some authors, that's all it takes to help us help their sales get a decent kick-start.


Hey! I want my book featured in FREE FIRST IN SERIES!
http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/dog-aliens-1


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## lewaters (Jun 25, 2011)

Quiss said:


> I wonder what happened to kobobookhub.com
> Seemed so promising, but seems to have faded away.


Actually, come to think about it, my sales surged at Kobo after promoting my perma free on a couple of Kobo specific sites. Then they disappeared and my sales slowed down after that. Maybe if Kobo helped start up some specific Bookbub type sites targeted for Kobo readers it would boost sales and help people find books. I think there's an eager market there just hard to browse and search.


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## 28612 (Dec 7, 2010)

Mark Leslie said:


> WHOOPS - Sorry, PATRICIA - didn't meant impose a short-form on your name. Must have been confusing you with Patty J. You're both cool peeps with great ideas!


No problem. After all these years, I still wonder why I chose to use Patricia -- makes me feel as if I'm in trouble. And so rarely do things that would get me in trouble. Really.

Glad to hear series-highlighting's in the works.


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## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Mark Leslie said:


> Sorry to hear that, Perry - could you please do me a favour and email these details to [email protected] mentioning that Mark told you this was an important matter that we need to check with our team for localized Japan content - if you set your language preference to ENGLISH it shouldn't matter that you're in Japan, it should show you ENGLISH (you will, however, see the TOP 50 localized to Japan) . . . but in any case, that should be investigated . . .


Thanks for the response, Mark, much appreciated. I've gone ahead and sent an email to [email protected] about this. Unfortunately, I can find no option for changing the language settings, either on Kobo's site or in my account. Granted, my Japanese ability isn't great, so I could be missing it. But Japanese literacy shouldn't be a pre-requisite for switching languages (also I just discovered that on the Japanese site, if you try to access the payment settings of your account, it leads to a Runtime Error page).

Kobo really needs a link at the top of the page for an English version of the site (that's also written in English).


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Mark Leslie said:


> *Mark E. Cooper* - Let's see if we can break that track record of your low sales on Kobo, shall we? Check out FREE FIRST IN SERIES (http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/Collection/free-first-in-series ), scroll down to Sci-Fi & Fantasy....see anything familiar there? (store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-god-decrees/ )


Cool! Thanks Mark. I'll report back to the guys


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## AliceLingard (Mar 7, 2014)

Mark

Can I suggest you start a separate thread (one with a better subject line) which can be used to develop a dialogue between authors and KWL. I suspect any publisher willing to do that would earn a great amount of respect here on KB.

There have been some KWL issues which have dragged on for way too long. Many of these could have been resolved much more quickly had there been a better point of contact. By that I mean someone who can actually *make things happen*. I personally had issues with royalty payments (now resolved) which dragged on months and months. It could and should have been resolved in days.

You will not find the book in my signature on Kobo because I chose to go KDP Select. I do however have numerous books on Kobo under other pen names. Like others in this thread, my sales on Kobo are almost irrelevant when compared to other outlets (particularly Amazon). The reason must be clear to anyone - *discoverability*. Kobo's number one priority should be in improving it's search/categories- if you could get that right you'd be onto a winner.


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

AliceLingard said:


> Mark Can I suggest you start a separate thread (one with a better subject line) which can be used to develop a dialogue between authors and KWL.


Great idea - and I've been thinking about doing that for a long time. I just have to get my head out from underwater, so look for that in the near future.
In terms of payments, there have been multiple issues related to the manner by which info has been flowing to and from Western Union (who process the payments for us) - it has been a long, difficult road to get to the bottom of why some payments are an issue, but I do have a dedicated person working with this third party to make it better.

And my team reports search improvement suggestions and issues to the web team multiple times per week (based on feedback from our own experience and from authors)

As a few others mentioned, there are no specific to Kobo promo tools - remember, 95% of the promo engines for books and ebooks point to Amazon are yet are not controlled by Amazon. They are run by third parties. Most of the drivers TO Amazon (like the KBoards) are run independent from Amazon. Kobo needs more - of course, Kobo is only 4 years old, Kobo Writing Life is not even 2 years old yet, and Amazon has been around for many years - building that brand recognition takes time. KobobookHub was cool, but, apart from places like BookBub including Kobo and the other retailers, there aren't many options yet - like I said, a smart marketing person could easily cease that market.

I'll be back on the boards, but if you don't see immediately responses please note it's not because I'm ignoring - it's just that there is a LOT to do, I might be stuck in meetings, working with the dev team on resolving certain issues, and there are only so many hours in a day. [Insert best Arnie voice here] "I'll be back!"


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## Ros_Jackson (Jan 11, 2014)

> The very temporary removal of titles from the UK during EroticaGate was resolved within days (unlike the rumors that were widely spread), and my entire team worked really hard for extended overtime sessions to ensure all titles that were not in violation of the Content Policy were brought back as efficiently and quickly as possible. I'd love to have your titles back on Kobo when you're ready (and if you're aware of any that should be there but aren't, let us know so we can look into it)


My clean YA fantasy The Secret Eater got booted from Kobo during EroticaGate, and still isn't properly back. There's a listing, but it doesn't display in search and there's no associated category. It's also not available in the UK (Google's cache shows it for sale in the US, but I haven't checked other countries). It was distributed through Smashwords. Do I need to just go direct? For the number of sales I get through Kobo, it hardly seems worth it.


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## Joe_Nobody (Oct 23, 2012)

Mark Leslie said:


> Hey Joe_Nobody (and for the record, I doubt you're a nobody) - you really should check KWL's terms to see we're already following your GREAT suggestion. When we launched in July 2012, it was 70% for $1.99 USD to $12.99 USD. We since changed it to $2.99 USD at the lower end (since nobody ever really noticed ours was more generous, and because $1.99 as a price for novels was a "dead zone" - (See this post about it on our blog and referred to in the KWL newsletter - http://kobowritinglife.com/2013/09/16/a-dead-price-point/
> 
> So, when we walked the low end up from $1.99 USD to $2.99 USD we also REMOVED THE CAP ENTIRELY!!! Yes, you get 70% even if you price the books at $1000 - we did this specifically because authors who were selling bundles didn't want to cap it at $9.99. So, go ahead, price it at a reasonable price beyond $10. It's still a great deal for customers and you get to keep a higher % too -- win/win....go ahead, change the price in the KWL tool and you'll see the royalty still reflects 70%....
> 
> So please go ahead and take FULL advantage of that.....


You guys stole my idea! (just kidding)

I'll get on this mega-omnibus thing then. One additional suggestion - the help documentation, which I went back and double checked before writing the post above, is very unclear about this. Maybe I just missed it? Anyway, thank you for the response and I wish you and your firm the very best. As stated above, we all want KOBO to win. Competition is a good thing IMHO.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Mark Leslie said:


> As a few others mentioned, there are no specific to Kobo promo tools... [snip] ...apart from places like BookBub including Kobo and the other retailers, there aren't many options yet -


I know this isn't really Kobo's area of expertise or business model, but is there any reason you can't delegate one person to build your own bookbub (Kobobub?) It's basically an email list isn't it? Building the list takes time, but I bet you already have thousands of contacts.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> I know this isn't really Kobo's area of expertise or business model, but is there any reason you can't delegate one person to build your own bookbub (Kobobub?) It's basically an email list isn't it? Building the list takes time, but I bet you already have thousands of contacts.


Seconding this, and also, does anyone notice how this thread has gone all warm & fuzzy?

Mark really needs his own thread. We have a Google Play thread, so why not?


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Ros_Jackson said:


> My clean YA fantasy The Secret Eater got booted from Kobo during EroticaGate, and still isn't properly back. There's a listing, but it doesn't display in search and there's no associated category. It's also not available in the UK (Google's cache shows it for sale in the US, but I haven't checked other countries). It was distributed through Smashwords. Do I need to just go direct? For the number of sales I get through Kobo, it hardly seems worth it.


Hi Ros - that's strange - what we did, in collaboration with our aggregator partners, like SW, was have them provide a full list of the "safe" titles so we could ensure they were all back up - it's possible this file wasn't in those feeds and thus was missed. You might be better off coming direct, since it'll allow you to control your prices in more than a single currency, be aware of sales/downloads, etc immediately, and not wait 45 days to find out (or weeks for price and data changes) But that, of course, is entirely up to you if you feel it is worth it.


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> I know this isn't really Kobo's area of expertise or business model, but is there any reason you can't delegate one person to build your own bookbub (Kobobub?) It's basically an email list isn't it? Building the list takes time, but I bet you already have thousands of contacts.


Mark - I do love the idea. We have a dedicated CRM feed specific to promoting great titles to our readers (it's just not heavily weighted towards indie titles - it's all all-inclusive list of everything from the catalog. And we have dedicated promo spots (for indie titles) such as the FREE FIRST IN SERIES and KOBO NEXT (which appears in twice weekly emails to Kobo customers) - I wish I had the resources to go build a third party application, but my team is kept running at full tilt just maintaining and building the basic internal stuff. Besides, an externally created promo driver would likely be better trusted than one built by a biased internal party, no?


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Joe_Nobody said:


> Competition is a good thing IMHO.


Competition is the BEST thing - in an ideal world, there'd be at least four or five really strong players to sell eBooks and that way no author would ever have the risk of all their eggs in one river's basket......

And Joe, most of the development that my team has worked on since we launched KWL in July 2012 has been based on feedback from our users. (Like your great idea to remove the $12.99 cap that we previously had) -- the challenging thing is that our development team already has about 18 months of "backlog" stories to work on, and my team keeps taking suggestions from users and re-prioritizing the things they are working on and ADDING to their work........we usually roll out new features every 6 to 8 weeks (some you can see and use, like price promo tools, etc, and some that you can't see but which improve performance, the time it takes to publish, etc)


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Patty Jansen said:


> Seconding this, and also, does anyone notice how this thread has gone all warm & fuzzy?
> 
> Mark really needs his own thread. We have a Google Play thread, so why not?


Absolutely. It doesn't take much to keep us happy, just some TLC from someone respected and in the know. We have a mega D2D thread too, so why not a mega Kobo thread?


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Mark Leslie said:


> Mark - I do love the idea. We have a dedicated CRM feed specific to promoting great titles to our readers (it's just not heavily weighted towards indie titles - it's all all-inclusive list of everything from the catalog. And we have dedicated promo spots (for indie titles) such as the FREE FIRST IN SERIES and KOBO NEXT (which appears in twice weekly emails to Kobo customers) - I wish I had the resources to go build a third party application, but my team is kept running at full tilt just maintaining and building the basic internal stuff. Besides, an externally created promo driver would likely be better trusted than one built by a biased internal party, no?


I am all for competition, Mark. I don't expect favours from anyone--Amazon could care less about me over someone else and I am fine with that. I sell very well there and feel I can compete just fine. What interests me about the feed you mention is this:

HAS ANYONE AT ALL HEARD OF IT?

Because I haven't and I'm very much interested in all things digital publishing. If I have not heard of it, then might I suggest you need to look into why not? The obvious conclusion is that it isn't well enough publicized or accessible.

Regarding the bias: You don't think Bookbub is biased? They aren't in the way most would consider the true meaning of the word, but they are a business and paid service. Of course they promo books that they feel will make them money. And that's a good thing, because they are ethical and make us all money too!

When I suggest you build something to promote your catalogue, I did not mean to suggest that you NOT make it a paid service. It doesn't have to be targeted at Indies, I wouldn't suggest it anyway as the users will not like that. I have noticed Bookbub doing promos now for the big 5 and that's fine. They are promoting a good mixture. I suggest you do the same sort of thing.


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## Ros_Jackson (Jan 11, 2014)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Regarding the bias: You don't think Bookbub is biased? They aren't in the way most would consider the true meaning of the word, but they are a business and paid service. Of course they promo books that they feel will make them money. And that's a good thing, because they are ethical and make us all money too!
> 
> When I suggest you build something to promote your catalogue, I did not mean to suggest that you NOT make it a paid service. It doesn't have to be targeted at Indies, I wouldn't suggest it anyway as the users will not like that. I have noticed Bookbub doing promos now for the big 5 and that's fine. They are promoting a good mixture. I suggest you do the same sort of thing.


I'm not keen on the idea of a Kobobub run by Kobo. I think it would be a conflict of interest. Kobo should be focused on what's best for their customers, and let any willing third party worry about paid promotions for advertisers. It's far better for a retailer to focus on developing a great recommendation algorithm than to get diverted into building something that relies on a more manual assessment of which book is best, coupled with which publisher has the deepest pockets.

Google became big because they automate where possible, and they always avoid going for the manual fix. The same is going to be true of any retailer's recommendation engine.


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## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

Hey, Mark, how well do children's books do at Kobo? My first fairy tale collection, Dragons and Dreams, is coming off KDP Select shortly. I was going to experiment with just putting it on Google, but what I'm reading here leads me to believe that I might do well at Kobo. I can't do a free first in series with my books, because each collection and separate short story(illustrated) stand alone. I do have some stories in an shared universe, but like most fairy stories, each is self-contained.

I get a certain amount of love at Amazon, if I do a promo, but it doesn't seem to last long. 

also, is the no pay until you hit $100 in royalties still in effect? because if it is, I will definitely rethink going on kobo.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Ros_Jackson said:


> I'm not keen on the idea of a Kobobub run by Kobo. I think it would be a conflict of interest. Kobo should be focused on what's best for their customers, and let any willing third party worry about paid promotions for advertisers. It's far better for a retailer to focus on developing a great recommendation algorithm than to get diverted into building something that relies on a more manual assessment of which book is best, coupled with which publisher has the deepest pockets.
> 
> Google became big because they automate where possible, and they always avoid going for the manual fix. The same is going to be true of any retailer's recommendation engine.


Recommendation algorithm is another name for an unpaid bookbub you realise? But no matter, either one works for me. What doesn't is Kobo's current system... as yet. I am very hopeful now that we are seeing a personal contact from the company here. It makes a BIG difference knowing someone is there and listening.

As for Google, they have huge reach and potential, no one doubts that. My sales there are increasing nicely each month, but they are a LONG way from being the right channel for anyone to emulate--again I say yet. The potential is there and huge. Amazon is who Barnes, Apple, and Kobo need to emulate.

Audible is owned by Amazon, and is emulating the Amazon system of also-boughts and recommendation engine. It is definitely starting to work. I am getting great emails from Audible, and sales are blossoming.


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> HAS ANYONE AT ALL HEARD OF IT?


Could it be because you're not a Kobo customer, Mark? We tend to focus promoting and recommending titles to those who are reading on Kobo -- customer emails and inside the apps and reading device. Those lists are sent to folks who read and buy on Kobo - KOBO NEXT has appeared as a feature in customer emails every Tues and Thurs for the past two months. Our merchandising team does vet what gets put there, trying to ensure that the titles that get listed are quality (we're not all "needs good reviews before we consider it" the way BookBub is - we merely try to find great stuff from the midlist and less-visible part of the catalog that are likely worth checking out)

I know BookBub is biased, but they built a great service that makes money for smart marketers - indie authors proved it could work (ie, you pay $$ and much of the time you make more money than you spend), and now the big publishers are following indie author leads and taking up spaces - I would prefer, as Ros mentions, a third party company to run that sort of thing - just seems less "conflict of interest" -- my goal with KWL was removing barriers for authors to get their work into Kobo's catalog for FREE -- we ARE still looking at various ways we can further remove barriers for publishers and authors to promote their work on Kobo and are experimenting with all kinds of things....I'll be sure to share.

Just a quick FYI, but we have been using www.kobowritinglife.com as a way to share a combination of craft of writing/business of writing hints, tips and suggestions. We also have a podcast that we use not only to talk about these things with writers, but also as a way of helping provide additional spotlight/links to those author's titles on Kobo......

Robert E. Keller - I saw your question about getting traction on Kobo - some of that I try to provide within the KWL Podcast (found on iTunes, etc or via www.kobowritinglife.com) - but I'll try to start a thread here in which I can share insights and various authors who have been successful at Kobo (I'm looking at YOU, Steve Vernon, and YOU Monique Martin) might also share things that have worked for them . . . (cause let's be honest - you guys all have great ideas and can likely help one another better than any retailer can help you)


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

beccaprice said:


> Hey, Mark, how well do children's books do at Kobo? My first fairy tale collection, Dragons and Dreams, is coming off KDP Select shortly. I was going to experiment with just putting it on Google, but what I'm reading here leads me to believe that I might do well at Kobo. I can't do a free first in series with my books, because each collection and separate short story(illustrated) stand alone. I do have some stories in an shared universe, but like most fairy stories, each is self-contained.
> 
> I get a certain amount of love at Amazon, if I do a promo, but it doesn't seem to last long.
> 
> also, is the no pay until you hit $100 in royalties still in effect? because if it is, I will definitely rethink going on kobo.


Becca - YA/New Adult and young reader books are continuing to grow at Kobo. We actually have a "kid safe" store and the ability for parents to set up a children's account, where they can load that account with an "allowance" but which the kids can't find anything that isn't flagged as children's or kid's safe.....and the KWL team is constantly propping KWL youth titles in front of the Kids Store merchandiser to try to get them a little TLC. - http://kids.kobobooks.com/en-US

If you're coming out of KDP Select, Becca, I would strongly suggest you don't just go to Google, but go to Google, Kobo, Nook, iBooks and as many places as you can - if you're not exclusive, why not be everywhere? every single sale you get in every single channel helps build your "profile" and increase your traction and what we at Kobo call "temperature" - these things take time, and, as many have said, they've been on Google for years but are only NOW seeing a lift in sales - that happens to authors on all the platforms, after they keep the titles available and customers have time to find them.

We DO have an incredibly complex system of "also boughts" and "you might be interested in" which appears on every single book's item page - but it takes time being IN the catalog and customer clicks and previews and buys for those things to build. Every time someone drops their title from Kobo to go KDP Select, they completely wipe out any lift or history they have built and you have to start almost from scratch again.

I know of authors who were consistently in the TOP 10 of their category at Kobo and then went KDP Select just for 3 months, only to come back and realize they'd lost all that traction. (Consider the reader's POV when they start buying your stuff, and are working their way through your catalog and then one day your books are gone - yikes!) Many authors do well on Amazon, but others do better on Nook, others do better on iBooks, others do better on Kobo, others on Smashwords, etc -- often different titles sell better on different retailers and even in different countries -- you never know WHERE your next biggest fans might be waiting.......


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Mark^2,

I'm a Kobo customer and get all the emails. Also, I get books recommended to me when I visit the site. That part works.

I think what really helps is living in a country where Kobo is big. You can buy Kobos on every street corner in Australia, and funnily enough the ad boxes at the top and bottom of the KB page are often populated by Kobo. I've seen Kobo ads on TV. Many of my readers are in Australia because I am, and Kobo ads are all over the place here.


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## K. D. (Jun 6, 2013)

On a side note, I noticed there are no English books available on the German KOBO site, at all. I'm curious why. Germans DO read in English. 
German indie content is sparse, too - can it be because payment is only twice yearly? 
The missing buy through from apps is a factor, too. And I'd love to start promotion for Kobo, but there is NO affiliate offering for Germans at all ... 

EDIT for stupidy...


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

CeeDee said:


> On a side note, I noticed there are no English books available on the German KOBO site, at all. I'm curious why. Germans DO read in English.
> 
> The missing buy through from apps is a factor, too. And I'd love to start promotion for Kobo, but there is NO affiliate offering for Germans at all ...


This is interesting, because I get sales in Germany.


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## Christa Wick (Nov 1, 2012)

Joe_Nobody said:


> Mark - I have a suggestion;
> 
> I have a seven book, 730,000 word series that I would like to wrap up in an omnibus edition and give readers a price break over the current $9.99 per title price.
> 
> ...


This would be cool, even with a file transfer fee for titles priced above 9.99.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Mark Leslie said:


> Could it be because you're not a Kobo customer, Mark?


I have a Kobo reader here, but I agree I don't buy books for it any more. I use it now for testing as I do my kindles.

I prefer to read on my Nexus these days, but TBH, I much prefer audio above all. I like to listen while I work, or run, or do the garden  Thanks for the reply though. Maybe I need to switch something on at my kobo account to see what you mean at least?


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## K. D. (Jun 6, 2013)

Patty Jansen said:


> This is interesting, because I get sales in Germany.


Hmm ... Trolling the site just now ... and can't find any. Where are they hidden

EDIT: Found them. Waaay back scroll down. 
I didn't bother earlier because there is a "Language" button, and if I click "All" only German is offered .... Huh.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Mark Leslie said:


> Mark - I do love the idea. We have a dedicated CRM feed specific to promoting great titles to our readers (it's just not heavily weighted towards indie titles - it's all all-inclusive list of everything from the catalog. And we have dedicated promo spots (for indie titles) such as the FREE FIRST IN SERIES and KOBO NEXT (which appears in twice weekly emails to Kobo customers) - I wish I had the resources to go build a third party application, but my team is kept running at full tilt just maintaining and building the basic internal stuff. Besides, an externally created promo driver would likely be better trusted than one built by a biased internal party, no?


For the folks here who aren't Kobo customers:

I get an email a week usually from Kobo, letting me know what's new (it's typically a Big 5/6/whatever book), 2-5 other new covers or maybe some pre-orders, and sometimes a reminder to pick up books off my wishlist or that are recommended for me.

Every so often, there's a coupon, too.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Mark Leslie said:


> We actually have a "kid safe" store and the ability for parents to set up a children's account, where they can load that account with an "allowance" but which the kids can't find anything that isn't flagged as children's or kid's safe.....


This is pretty brilliant. Is this widely knowns? My nephew is 13 and his mother worries what books he's downloading. He's a good kid but boys will be boys. 
Giving him a good choice withing a safe "sandbox" would put her mind at ease.


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Christa Wick said:


> This would be cool, even with a file transfer fee for titles priced above 9.99.


No cap on 70% - price as high as you want - and we don't charge a transfer fee. Honest......


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

DTW said:


> This would be my experience as well. Non-Amazon retailers keep saying "authors, keep your books listed with us" . . . what are they doing to earn that? I see very little being done to build the brands, to spread the platforms. Kobo and Smashwords in particular seem really bad about this; both spend time reaching out to authors, but I never see any reaching out to CUSTOMERS.
> 
> Repeating a mantra of "please don't stay exclusive with the one platform that's making you money" doesn't help me as an author. I had works up everywhere for over a year; my worst month on 'the river' was still over twenty times the value of my best month ANYWHERE else.
> 
> ...


I hear you. And we're all working at building our brands, but like you said, they've been building theirs for 20 years and they also have a HUGE ground-swell of Amazon-centric thinking feeding the beast repeatedly. We're up against a 20 year old world's largest online bookstore, the world's most powerful search engine, the world's most successful hardware i-Company and the largest book chain retailer - and that's just in the US. We have partnered with indie bookstores and are working WITH those retail partners to build a brand with a new set of customers who haven't already been swimming in the world's longest river. All I can say is, we are building the brand and we are also reaching out to authors - you won't find me whining about Amazon - I sell books there too as an author . . . . I'm also just trying to help people see beyond the borders of that river (which is really really really hard to do with an 800 pound gorilla like that) ........we're not giving up the good fight though......


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## Leanne King (Oct 2, 2012)

Do you have to opt into these Kobo emails? I've been a kobo customer for years, bought a lot there (more stuff is DRM free on Kobo, which is why I prefer it), and I've never had a promo email from them, not once.

They don't go to my spam folder, because I manually check that twice a day. I do get WritingLife emails, just never seen a promo one, so I was surprised to hear they exist.


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Pelagios said:


> Do you have to opt into these Kobo emails? I've been a kobo customer for years, bought a lot there (more stuff is DRM free on Kobo, which is why I prefer it), and I've never had a promo email from them, not once.
> 
> They don't go to my spam folder, because I manually check that twice a day. I do get WritingLife emails, just never seen a promo one, so I was surprised to hear they exist.


Hmm - yes, because they are marketing emails, you have to opt into them -- there's at least 2 or 3 per week with new releases, suggestions for titles based on what you've already read and other special offers (Like Krista mentioned) - if you log in to your customer account on www.kobo.com you do need to opt in, since they ARE marketing emails and as such we can't send them unless you say you want them.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

My marketing emails were switched off. I just turned them on so I can see what we are talking about. Tomorrow is the next?


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> My marketing emails were switched off. I just turned them on so I can see what we are talking about. Tomorrow is the next?


There are regular weekend promo emails going out, Mark - different customers receive different targeted ones (well outside my visibility on how they're scheduled) - HOWEVER, on Tues and Thursday there is a regular generic "new title" and "other stuff" (usually - "recommended for you" based on dynamic bot-thingys) email that includes the KOBO NEXT side-bar - each time, a different GENRE is featured.


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## Oscar Arias (Dec 17, 2013)

I have a somewhat.... different view on Kobo.    Let me explain...

I have some of my books listed there, and will continue to do so.

The amount of money I make is secondary to people being able to find my books.  

I want Kobo/B&N/Google Play/etc to stay alive as long as possible.

Why?

Well, take a look at what happened with audio book royalties on Audible recently.

Royalty rates went from a sliding 50-90% payout to a flat rate 40% payout!  

Could it be that they had no real competition in the audio book world?  No competition means they get to pay you what they want, take it or leave it, they are the only game in town.

How badly would it suck if Azon decided to do this with digital books also?  

They go from a 35 or 70% rate to say 30% for EVERYONE.    If they are the only game in town, they could do this.

So I will keep supporting Kobo and Nook and the rest, they keep the wolves at bay!


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Oscar Arias said:


> I have a somewhat.... different view on Kobo. Let me explain...
> 
> I have some of my books listed there, and will continue to do so.
> 
> ...


You raise an EXCELLENT point, Oscar - competition keeps everyone on their toes, and with no monopoly, and with choice, authors and customers are better served.

However, in defense of AUDIBLE, I still think those royalties are pretty decent. They likely did the crazy "pay way too much" royalties in a typical Amazon-play to wipe out any and all competition (a move they make so well) - they likely lost money doing that, lots of money (which is something they do well on books all the time), but, due to the growth of audio I am glad to see them return to a more balanced and sustainable payment plan -- meaning it'll be there for the long run and not die off. Meaning more authors can make more money long term selling audio books and customers get to continue to enjoy them. So I applaud them for creating a self-sustainable ecosystem while still being pretty generous to authors. (Of course, I see the 30% royalties as generous because for my traditionally published print books, I make 8%)

FYI, speaking of saying nice things about competitors, authors actually have Apple to thank for the standard 70% terms we're seeing today. If it weren't for them, we'd all still be making 30% and 35% -- anyone else here remember what it was like publishing direct to Amazon BEFORE Apple go into the eBooks game and forced the 70% for authors move? When I first started doing this many many years before the eBook "Rush" that's what royalties were (and heck, they were still better than what I get via traditional publishing.....)

(Don't worry, I won't launch into a story about how, when I was young there was no internet and I had to walk to school both ways uphill in ten feet of snow.....I'll save that for another thread)


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## Courtney Milan (Feb 27, 2011)

I'm very happy with my Kobo sales. I think one of the reasons I've sold there consistently is that I got in early and I've never left. I think if you wait to see if a market is "big enough" before you get in, you'll be getting in when there's hundreds of people rushing to wave their work in front of readers, and you won't stand out.

I don't know that I have any great ideas for people about how to break out at Kobo, except to say that you certainly won't do it if your books aren't there.

The other thing I will say in GENERAL is that if you have impressive sales on one venue but not on another, try to find a vendor contact and let them know that you think your books would do well if they got a little marketing push. It can't hurt to try, and it might be exactly what you need to find traction.


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

I'm doing better at Kobo after two successful multi-author boxed sets. That's about the only thing that has gotten me traction there. The thing about Kobo is that all of their lists are curated. The First Free in a Series is hand picked by someone(s) over there. If you can get on that list, it's very helpful as long as customers can find it. There are other lists as well. One of my titles was features on Kobo Next a week or so ago. It did help a little bit. If you can find a way to get on a curated list, your sales can be really good. If not, it's a pretty tough dog fight to get traction there.


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## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Oscar Arias said:


> I have a somewhat.... different view on Kobo. Let me explain...
> 
> I have some of my books listed there, and will continue to do so.
> 
> ...


This times a thousand. I had a bad experience with Select which is one reason I won't go through them again. But another reason is because I'm against exclusivity and locking customers into a single ecosystem. I don't want readers to have to buy a Kindle or download a Kindle app on their tablet in order to read my books, I want them to be able to read my books on any device they choose, in any app they choose (which is also a reason why I don't use DRM).


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## B&amp;H (Apr 6, 2014)

I actually try and support Kobo. I appreciate that they have a channel that you can go direct. I've actually had 10 free downloads on Kobo which I think is a minor miracle since I can't even find my own book on there unless I type in the exact title.

I love the great Zon - with good reason since they currently dwarf every other channel for my downloads (On UK at least) by a factor of 500 to 1), that said Kobo is actually in Number 2 ahead of Google Play at the moment, Apple are playing catch up. 

Things I would like to see.

Kobo's massive weakness is the poor retail experience. They work fantastically well if you know exactly what you are looking for but compared to Amazon it is like shopping for books on pinterest, the categories are terrible and the bestseller list rankings don't ever seem to update.

So i would like to see better genre categories with a proper browse by genre facility just like Amazon. I'd also like to see both pop lists and bestseller lists, and maybe new releases for each category.

You know what? i'd just like Kobo to make finding books on Kobo as easy as it is on Amazon. The reason people shop on Amazon is because it's a great user experience, you can find what you want, if Kobo REALLY wants to take a dent out of Amazon all you need to do is fire your UX team, hire some guys who worked for Ebay or another big search driven retailer. Like Amazon... and then fix your discoverability problems.

Kobo's interface looks very pretty but it is appallingly bad at browsing, it is too slow and the books don't ever seem to come up in any sort of meaningful order. Browse by price, browse by popularity, browse by release date, by author. - its all basic DB search 101.

If i struggle to find my own book and I know what I'm looking for then the 10 people who managed to find it deserve to work for the NSA.

But I will continue to support Kobo. Since i provide links to drive readers from my website TO Kobo and help them find my book there the least Kobo could do is actually help people with some tools to discover my book through genre lists that aren't so wide as to be meaningless. Look at all the niche categories we have on amazon, Kobo that is like one BISAC category.

I'm not especially bothered about reviews. In fact I would prefer an option to opt out of them, look at the mess they have caused on Amazon, but the starting point is providing a decent genre browsing experience. I think if you fixed that aspect then your customer experience would improve hugely, because unless you are buying trad bestsellers off your front page it is like searching for a needle in a haystack.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

On a bit of a side-note - here's why my wife LOVES her Kobo Mini...

http://stevevernonstoryteller.wordpress.com/2014/05/03/1734/


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## tknite (Feb 18, 2014)

Josef Black said:


> I actually try and support Kobo. I appreciate that they have a channel that you can go direct. I've actually had 10 free downloads on Kobo which I think is a minor miracle since I can't even find my own book on there unless I type in the exact title.


Same. I will continue to upload my books to Kobo, because I believe in getting my titles in front as many eyes as possible and on as many retailers as possible so everyone has the opportunity to check out/purchase my books where they choose. Alas, I haven't sold a single book on Kobo yet, but I'm not particularly bothered by that fact.


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## Ros_Jackson (Jan 11, 2014)

I do want to support Kobo, which is why there are two Kobos in my house. I wonder whether it's doing considerably better in the UK since their ereaders were put on sale at under £30. 

What I'd like to ask Mark Leslie is whether Kobo have had any talks with Booklamp, and the Book Genome Project people. It's an intriguing project that could be harnessed by a retailer and combined with sales data to create a very advanced recommendation engine. The trouble with Kobo at the moment is it doesn't have the breadth of data it needs to make fantastic recommendations, due to both its smaller number of customers and its smaller catalogue. So it needs something like Booklamp to give it an edge by offering a greater depth of information on each book.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

One of the most awesome things about the KWL dashboard is that it tells you what country your buyers are in. A few weeks ago, I sold a book in the Falkland Islands. Seriously, how awesome is that?


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## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

***********


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## scribblr (Aug 20, 2010)

Oscar Arias said:


> Could it be that they had no real competition in the audio book world? No competition means they get to pay you what they want, take it or leave it, they are the only game in town.
> 
> How badly would it suck if Azon decided to do this with digital books also?
> 
> They go from a 35 or 70% rate to say 30% for EVERYONE. If they are the only game in town, they could do this.


Let us NEVER forget that Amazon only paid 35% back when they were the only game in town. They didn't raise the rate until Steve Jobs announced he was going to pay his Indie authors 70%; the same rate as Apple paid musicians. Amazon had to match the competition or die on the vine.

The downgrade of audiobooks royalties is EXACTLY because Amazon is really the only game in town. The decent rate was only to get the ball rolling. Now that it is, they show their true colors. I wouldn't be surprised to see them lower the rate again, say to 30%.

But the money grab by Amazon might be good for the industry. It might bring some competition into the market.


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Phoenix Sullivan said:


> For me, I would MUCH rather see sales on ALL books at a glance, not just the top 10 sellers.


Great suggestion, Phoenix, and this is certainly something we have in our backlog of development tasks to work on. Just a quick FYI, but the total dollars earned, the world map and the country total stats account for ALL titles in a single viewing for the range selected (default THIS MONTH but customizable so you can narrow down to a single day or a period of time of your choice

The list of Top 10 the way it currently looks was capped at 10 by the User Experience team as a way of preventing the dashboard from scrolling on to infinity (particularly for those authors or publishers who have hundreds of titles) The monthly excel spreadsheets that the finance team mails out (the invoices from which payments are generated) include all sales for that month. Prior to capping it, the look of the dashboard was inconsistent and created what the UX team determined was an unattractive and overflowing dashboard.

We are exploring two possible ways of allowing you to see a full list of both in a "single" screen from the dashboard
1) Allow you to click on the Top 10 List (which would be default view) and modify the view to a new number (50, 100, 1000, 2000, etc) which would open onto it's own view (in the same way that clicking any of the titles on the current list or searching for any of your titles via the SALES BY BOOK tab will bring up sales of JUST that single title.
2) Or perhaps just allow users to export the full list to an external document (such as Excel)


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

> What I'd like to ask Mark Leslie is whether Kobo have had any talks with Booklamp, and the Book Genome Project people.


We have indeed, Ros, and they are amazing people. We do have plans to provide deeper insights into all kinds of interesting data back to authors and publishers that allow them to better understand the things that are working for their readers and what isn't working.


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## Leanne King (Oct 2, 2012)

Mark Leslie said:


> Hmm - yes, because they are marketing emails, you have to opt into them -- there's at least 2 or 3 per week with new releases, suggestions for titles based on what you've already read and other special offers (Like Krista mentioned) - if you log in to your customer account on www.kobo.com you do need to opt in, since they ARE marketing emails and as such we can't send them unless you say you want them.


Okay, so it's been more than a week since I opted in to everything possible. I've had precisely one email, urging me to buy a Kobo reader as a mother's day gift. Nothing mentioning actual books at all


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Pelagios said:


> Okay, so it's been more than a week since I opted in to everything possible. I've had precisely one email, urging me to buy a Kobo reader as a mother's day gift. Nothing mentioning actual books at all


Really? That's strange. I've rec'd three this week so far. They come from [email protected] - This morning's (5:15 AM Eastern) was titled "Pick up the best eBooks of May" - and on Tues I rec'd one with a combination of personal recommendations, a headliner on L. Marie Adelaine and Kobo Next Sci-Fi (with 4 Kobo Writing Life titles featured in the right-hand sidebar and a link to the full Kobo Next collection.

If they're not caught in your spam filter, send me a DM with your email and I can forward that over for someone in the customer relations team to check to make sure the correct flag is checked for your account to ensure we have permission to send you emails.


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## Mark Lord (Jun 29, 2011)

Josef Black said:


> Kobo's massive weakness is the poor retail experience. They work fantastically well if you know exactly what you are looking for but compared to Amazon it is like shopping for books on pinterest, the categories are terrible and the bestseller list rankings don't ever seem to update.


I think this is the main problem - they seem to have changed their site in the last 12 months to make it less browsable. I own a Kobo but I have started using Amazon to discover books and then go over to the Kobo site to see if they have it there! That's not right is it.

My Kobo sales have definitely dwindled.

I wonder if its still a hangover from the WH Smith porn debacle from last year?


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Mark Lord said:


> I think this is the main problem - they seem to have changed their site in the last 12 months to make it less browsable. I own a Kobo but I have started using Amazon to discover books and then go over to the Kobo site to see if they have it there! That's not right is it.
> 
> My Kobo sales have definitely dwindled.
> 
> I wonder if its still a hangover from the WH Smith porn debacle from last year?


This. The new site is infinitely worse for discovering books.

The old site had funny little quirky categories besides the main ones. Now there are only the main categories and a few subcategories, all static. Some bestsellers manage to hog all the top spots, and if I'm not interested in those books, it's very hard to find anything else.

During the site redesign in October, all my books were lumped in Religious fiction (they are dark fantasy and there are LGBT characters, so you can imagine what that did to my return rate). My sales have never really recovered from this.

The scrolling-into-infinity design of the site leaves huge gaps on my screen that I have to scroll past, and, worst of all, when I want to read a book's blurb and I click "back", the site goes back to the top of that list I've just scrolled through!

Can we have the old site back, with ratings (my short story had more than 900 ratings. Now they're gone), with rankings, with its quirky categories, and without the annoying infinite scrolling design?


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Patty Jansen said:


> Can we have the old site back, with ratings (my short story had more than 900 ratings. Now they're gone), with rankings, with its quirky categories, and without the annoying infinite scrolling design?


Be assured that I am relaying these complaints and suggestions to the appropriate teams. Reviews ARE coming back and concerns regarding the way browse and search operate are being forwarded on . . .


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

Pelagios said:


> Okay, so it's been more than a week since I opted in to everything possible. I've had precisely one email, urging me to buy a Kobo reader as a mother's day gift. Nothing mentioning actual books at all


I signed up to KWL (with marketing emails checked) 12th April and all I have ever received was a Digest on 22nd April.


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## Mark Leslie (Dec 8, 2012)

Mercia McMahon said:


> I signed up to KWL (with marketing emails checked) 12th April and all I have ever received was a Digest on 22nd April.


Hmm...I'm wondering if perhaps there are two layers of emails -- one is to receive info/newsletter (usually only once per month) via Kobo Writing Life -- that's the monthly KWL Newsletter with links to articles on the craft and business of writing, My Writing Life features on authors and contests (usually for a chance to win free pro services like cover design, marketing opps, etc). Then, within the regular reader profile...

https://secure.kobobooks.com/profile

....there's a check-box for regular customer email updates.

We split the two so that if you didn't want regular Kobo customer updates but DID want KWL emails, you could have that option.

If you have them both checked, do DM me so I can flip that over to our customer care team to trouble-shoot why you're not receiving the promotional emails.


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## mphicks (Jan 29, 2014)

Mark Leslie said:


> Really? That's strange. I've rec'd three this week so far. They come from [email protected] - This morning's (5:15 AM Eastern) was titled "Pick up the best eBooks of May" - and on Tues I rec'd one with a combination of personal recommendations, a headliner on L. Marie Adelaine and Kobo Next Sci-Fi (with 4 Kobo Writing Life titles featured in the right-hand sidebar and a link to the full Kobo Next collection.


Hi Mark,

Just wanted to thank you again for the inclusion of Convergence in the Kobo Next Sci-Fi pick. It's been a great help!


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

Mark Leslie said:


> Hmm...I'm wondering if perhaps there are two layers of emails -- one is to receive info/newsletter (usually only once per month) via Kobo Writing Life -- that's the monthly KWL Newsletter with links to articles on the craft and business of writing, My Writing Life features on authors and contests (usually for a chance to win free pro services like cover design, marketing opps, etc). Then, within the regular reader profile...


Thank you Mark that was the solution I had ticked for emails in KWL, but not in Kobo Store.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Mark Leslie said:


> Be assured that I am relaying these complaints and suggestions to the appropriate teams. Reviews ARE coming back and concerns regarding the way browse and search operate are being forwarded on . . .


It's awesome that you're here and responding to these things. I'm still thinking about the Australian situation to see if I have any suggestions.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

Mark, so happy to see you here. I have 29 titles on Kobo and want you to know your customer service is excellent. My sales dropped too over the porn thing, but I didn't lose any titles. I have three free first in a series and didn't know about that page. I'll check it out. 

I have two wishes. 

First, I run free book contests on my Facebook page and would like a way to give a book as a gift on Kobo. Second, someday I would like to see a "clean" category. I've sold over 100k of my clean books since 2010 over all venues, so I know there is a definite market for them. My customers often complain about how hard it is to find books without profanity and explicit sex scenes. I realize having a special category for those books might be impossible, and involve more work for your team, but if you did it, you might start a new trend. 

Your team published my latest title in record time. Bravo! 

Marti Talbott


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Martitalbott said:


> Second, someday I would like to see a "clean" category. I've sold over 100k of my clean books since 2010 over all venues, so I know there is a definite market for them. My customers often complain about how hard it is to find books without profanity and explicit sex scenes. I realize having a special category for those books might be impossible, and involve more work for your team, but if you did it, you might start a new trend.


THIS!!!!! Me too!!!!  (well I have not sold over 100k but besides that...)


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Pelagios said:


> Okay, so it's been more than a week since I opted in to everything possible. I've had precisely one email, urging me to buy a Kobo reader as a mother's day gift. Nothing mentioning actual books at all


I also opted in around that time. And I don't think I have had even one email. I wonder if they are getting spammed or something by ISPs.


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## GUTMAN (Dec 22, 2011)

Hi Mark:

Many of us are short story writers. While $1.99 might have been a dead zone for novels, it was not for novella and shorts. Raising to 2.99 for the 70% royalty made you no different than the Mighty River (which, I suppose, is an argument for competition forcing companies to do things--like change royalty rates.

At least the Zon has Kindle Shorts, although there's a gateway to get in.  I'd love to be able to say that Kobo recognizes the potential for short fiction and e-readers, but I'm not seeing it quite yet.

I'll speak for myself: being able to set to FREE through Kobo is nice, but I don't live at free. Being able to set at $.49, would be a game changer as a short story writer. I would not always live there either, but at least Kobo would be giving me a tool no one else seems to care about. And giving me a 70% royalty,  or ANYTHING above 35% at $.99 would absolutely assure that my work lived on your platform. Also paying monthly direct deposit without waiting for some threshold would be nice.  Short Story writers operate in the land of lower numbers than novelists, and I don't like lending you my money month after month until I generate enough to be paid.

Thanks for caring!

G


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

Kobo has announced in Kobo Writing Life blog that they are going to have reviews on their site and how you can start collected them in advance:

http://kobowritinglife.com/2014/05/16/kobo-reviews-coming-soon/


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Unfortunately that page is using OLD listings of books, so not only are some of mine missing - there are duplicates and books that I no longer have published. There does not appear to be anyway to know which of the duplicates are real so I am kind of stuck.


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## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

VydorScope said:


> Unfortunately that page is using OLD listings of books, so not only are some of mine missing - there are duplicates and books that I no longer have published. There does not appear to be anyway to know which of the duplicates are real so I am kind of stuck.


They admitted on their blog page that there are some bugs in that system. Yeah, they pulled out my original blurb which has since evolved a few times. My guess is that is all they had backed up when they dropped the reviews in the first place.

However, the proper blurb is on the active sales page. So my advice to everyone is to just take a deep breath and calm down. Focus on getting your reviews pumped into the system in time for the grand revealing.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

WDR said:


> They admitted on their blog page that there are some bugs in that system. Yeah, they pulled out my original blurb which has since evolved a few times. My guess is that is all they had backed up when they dropped the reviews in the first place.
> 
> However, the proper blurb is on the active sales page. So my advice to everyone is to just take a deep breath and calm down. Focus on getting your reviews pumped into the system in time for the grand revealing.


Oh, I am calm...not sure where the calm down comments is coming from? The problem is I can not get reviews. Since there are duplicates of my books, I cannot guess which ones to ask readers to put their review with, and the books that are missing obviously can not be reviewed. For those of you it will work for, it is great! Go bug your readership to review. You will have an advantage that way.  For me, eh, oh well.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Hey! Is anyone else getting this?

My Kobo sales have recently started picking up again after a long slump. I was looking at how my titles presented on the site today. Underneath the description there is a strip of "alsobots". When I hover over those covers, I get a little hand to show me that there is a link to those covers, but the link doesn't actually, y'know, link to anything! When I click, nothing happens, and the URL of the book in question doesn't show up in the bottom bar of my browser.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Patty Jansen said:


> Hey! Is anyone else getting this?
> 
> My Kobo sales have recently started picking up again after a long slump. I was looking at how my titles presented on the site today. Underneath the description there is a strip of "alsobots". When I hover over those covers, I get a little hand to show me that there is a link to those covers, but the link doesn't actually, y'know, link to anything! When I click, nothing happens, and the URL of the book in question doesn't show up in the bottom bar of my browser.


It should open a pop-up of sorts beneath it with buy link and a view details link.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Aaah! I wondered about that for months.Now I feel kinda stupid but I'm also wondering how many other people don't see this... *because this is where their laptop screen cuts the window*! And nothing happens to the open window to suggest that the link is actually working and it's displaying something where you can't actually see it and not giving a warning that it's doing so.


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## michaelwlayne (Sep 7, 2013)

Quiss said:


> Yeah, they still haven't explained the mysteriously disappeared 700 or so freebie downloads. The only response I got from them is that their web people said the current number is correct. I'm guessing that means the previous number was not or maybe I had some sort of psychotic episode and just made stuff up on my spreadsheet.
> I don't trust their reporting on paid sales as a result.
> 
> The third of my series is coming out of Select on Tuesday and I'm heading straight to D2D for distribution to iBooks and B&N. I don't think I'll bother with Smashwords or Kobo. The few sales I see there aren't worth keeping up with the formatting they want.


I had the same thing happen to the number of reported free downloads. After a decent amount of hassle, they finally claimed that they had an error in their system that was doubling the number of reported downloads. They assured me that the current number (half of what it used to be) was now the correct one. All I could think about was how this would have impacted me if such an error had occurred with actual book sales. Luckily, after having all my books in Kobo since the beginning of the year, I have sold exactly zero, so this isn't really a concern for me. I'm about to take my books off the site since this is only one of several experiences I've had with them that left me feeling that they just didn't have a matured platform and set of processes yet. Totally happy for folks making good money on their site but for me it's more of a pain than it's worth.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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