Kobo et al.

[I. J. Parker]

A question:  What does it take to publish for Kobo?  Apparently they do some excellent promotion for their books.

 

I have so far shied away from Smashwords because formatting costs me extra and their sales have been pityful.  Is another formatting version required for Kobo?

 

Since KDP has proven to have the best sales, the cost of formatting has to be weighed against potential income from other devices.

 

Any input?

[Benjamin Sobieck]

When creating a Word doc for e-books, the formatting can be identical across all platforms. So you pay for formatting for Kindle, then use the same document for BN, Kobo, etc. I'm on Kobo via Smashwords.

Kobo is the black sheep of the US market. Its first mistake was tying itself to Borders. It's much more successful in Canada.

[I. J. Parker]

Now that isn't what I'm dealing with, Benjamin.  I pay for formatting.  It's 150.00 total for conversion to Epub (B&N) and PRC (KDP).  Smashwords formatting is an extra 50.00.

 

But I take it that Smashwords uploads to Kobo among others.  I upload KDP and Pubit myself.  I just don't make any money from the assorted Smashwords venues.  Why is it that others have such good luck?

[Benjamin Sobieck]

What!?

The source Word document your formatting service is using requires very little tweaking to make it compatible across the board. $50 is criminal for the extra .2 seconds it takes to "format" for Smashwords. Unless your stuff is full of images and interactive stuff, I call BS.

The reason people don't make money off the other Smashwords channels is that they aren't popular in the first place. Amazon is where the money is made. I go to the other ones only for good measure.

[I. J. Parker]

Thanks.  Well, I'd always heard that Smashwords is a bitch to format for.

[Benjamin Sobieck]

P.S. The best way to view Smashwords isn't as a retailer, but as a distributor. Handle Amazon KDP yourself, but let Smashwords hit the rest of the channels so you don't wind up creating a bunch of accounts.

[I. J. Parker]

Yes, I see that, but so far I don't see the economic advantage.

[Mark Young]

I had the same question, Ingrid, after reading Joe Konrath's blog with Black Crouch anbd his brother. (Kobo information buried deep in the article)  http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2012/07/exclusivity-and-free.html . Kobo looks like they are coming out with their own publishing platform, Kobo Writing Life, which seems like it might be similar to other digial publishing platforms. Still search for mor informatoin, http://www.kobobooks.com/KoboWritingLife 

I got on their mailing list to be notified when it comes out. In the meantime, they advised that Smashwords is one of "our partner digital aggregators" and that I should continue to go through Smashwords to sell on Kobo.

Does anyone have a better understanding of what is going on with Kobo?

Can't wait to get my two novels off Amazon's KDP Select program and try other platforms like Kobo. Select was good while it lasted, but I am not pleased with recent results.

[Mark Young]

Sorry for mistakes: "Blake Crouch" and "and" etc. My mind runs faster that my fingers can keep up. One of the reasons I love my editors. They don't let me get away with this stuff. LOL.

[I. J. Parker]

I don't know.  Black Crouch has a certain ring to it.  :)

 

The problem with Kobo, even in a new incarnation, is that it doesn't command the same market.  I'm also a bit disilluioned with KDP.  My sales are stagnating, even with select.  On the other hand, I still sell more there than on Nook or Smashwords.  Smashwords is particularly bad.

KDP needs to come up with a new advertising gimmick.

[EDWARD C MORGAN]

I will say this about Kobo.

I approach it from the other side - I use Kobo for my ereader. Their "promotions" which include a combinatino of emails pointing to books similar to what I've purchased and/or downloaded, as well as occasional discounts is pretty regular.

What I've noticed is that for ME, their "recommendations" are far more accurate than Amazon's.

Might Kobo be a good route to penetrate the Canadian market?

[I. J. Parker]

Well, that's a thought.  I actually once had a Canadian market.  Alas, it slipped away again.