Kobo vs the others

[JRTomlin]

Just an interesting (to me) observation. At the moment, I am actually doing as well on Kobo as iBook and B&N put together. Mind you, that's still only a few hundred bucks each but interesting. It isn't because of Walmart though. My biggest sales are in Canada and Australia. I am in one of their promotions which no doubt explains it. Still, it is new for me to have Kobo doing that well. The three of them together are making up for leaving KU - barely.   

As for Google Play, one day they may total enough for a coffee at Starbucks.

[Sailor Stone]

Kobo is easily my best site for sales these last six months. It's all about being accepted into their promos I believe. Walmart is a non-factor for me as well; hopefully that changes with time.

[Joe Vasicek]

I've found that Kobo promotions are hit or miss, largely miss. Is there a trick?

[guest14]

Amazing! Some people are cooking with Kobo and Walmart. Me, I was doing well until Walmart appeared on the scene. Now? I'm nowhere. Amazon goes down each month regardless of the level of interest because the influx of new writing takes precedence and there is no value in quality or sustainability. Good quality merchandise is valueless in Amazon. Price and novelty wins out. B&N works hard to build market share, Apple is, I dunno - just Apple, I guess and the rest.. well, just who are the rest?

Me? I'm just plodding along...

[Max]

Okay. I'm clearly lost here. How do you know which of your Kobo sales can be attributed to WalMart on the dash?

As far as sales, Kobo, it's usually number three, but a close number three between them, Apple, and Nook.

[Kate Elizabeth]

The past few months, about half of my sales were coming from Kobo promos.  The other half were mostly Google Play international sales.  Lately, though, the promos have been hit or miss.

[JRTomlin]

You can't tell for sure which are attributable to Walmart, but I am assuming that ones in Canada and Australia aren't. Also, I am pretty sure that the promo I am part of at the moment which is not in the US does not show at Walmart. I admit I am making some assumptions though. I would say that generally, ignoring a promo that is doing pretty well - for Kobo that is - that my Kobo sales are up about 10% since the Walmart 'thing' (what do you call it? It's not a merger) went into effect.

I have only been on in a few Kobo promotions. The ones I look for say something like this - which is the box set promo I'm in now: "This promo will be advertised to customers in Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand on the Kobo homepage and by email." The $3.99 and under sale that is coming up says this: "The sale will be promoted by email and by banner on the Kobo store." It is a US sale. I'll see if I can get in that one but the price reduction on my $4.99 novel may not be enough to get it into that one.

If they aren't being actively promoted by Kobo, I don't bother. The one that I was in that did absolutely nothing was the one tied to the Walmart startup.

[David VanDyke]

My wide sales rise and fall on each vendor with only a loose link to promos and known factors. Sometimes, such as recently, they double on one vendor almost overnight. Usually they rise fast for no apparent reason, then sink slowly--presumably from some kind of promo or publicity I know nothing about.

[Max]

You can't tell for sure which are attributable to Walmart, but I am assuming that ones in Canada and Australia aren't. Also, I am pretty sure that the promo I am part of at the moment which is not in the US does not show at Walmart. I admit I am making some assumptions though. I would say that generally, ignoring a promo that is doing pretty well - for Kobo that is - that my Kobo sales are up about 10% since the Walmart 'thing' (what do you call it? It's not a merger) went into effect.

I have only been on in a few Kobo promotions. The ones I look for say something like this - which is the box set promo I'm in now: "This promo will be advertised to customers in Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand on the Kobo homepage and by email." The $3.99 and under sale that is coming up says this: "The sale will be promoted by email and by banner on the Kobo store." It is a US sale. I'll see if I can get in that one but the price reduction on my $4.99 novel may not be enough to get it into that one.

If they aren't being actively promoted by Kobo, I don't bother. The one that I was in that did absolutely nothing was the one tied to the Walmart startup.

Thank you.

I've applied to almost a hundred promos and been in 25. Some were decent, some, nah. I didn't see an uptick with the new collaboration with Walmart.  I know my perma isn't on Walmart, and I've given thought to taking it off perma at Kobo so it can get into Walmart.

[CoraBuhlert]

Kobo has been my second biggest market after Amazon for years now.

Their promos are hit and miss for me. Some do well, others don't. For example, the recent 3 books for 5 bucks promo in the UK, Australia and New Zealand I was in did nothing, but then I couldn't even find the promo link on the respective sites. I still keep applying to any Kobo promo that's a good fit for my books, because it can't hurt and might just do something.

I haven't noticed any impact from the Walmart thing at all. Most of my Kobo sales are outside the US anyway (Canada usually, but also Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands) and I have seen no increase in US sales at Kobo.

[LD]

I get crickets on Kobo.  It's pretty dismal there.

[Mark Gardner]

I get crickets on Kobo.  It's pretty dismal there.

I also do poorly on Kobo, but I'm gonna have to figure that out if I want to chase the Wal*Mart sale.

[EllieL]

Some months I sell better on Kobo than on Amazon. I usually do well with their promos, and I love the dashboard that shows where the sales are coming from. Australia is my best market behind Canada. Today I saw a Singapore and a Sveden... er Sweden.

[LD]

Some months I sell better on Kobo than on Amazon. I usually do well with their promos, and I love the dashboard that shows where the sales are coming from. Australia is my best market behind Canada. Today I saw a Singapore and a Sveden... er Sweden.

I just signed up direct a few days ago, to take advantage of their promos.  Here's hoping it'll help.

[JRTomlin]

One thing I really like about Kobo promotions is that for quite a few of them the discount is by promo code at checkout which means you don't actually have to lower the price and risk price matching.

[Bill Hiatt]

I think it's interesting that I haven't yet heard from anyone who saw any impact as a result of the Walmart promotions. I would have expected at least some little ripple. Of course, Walmart is new at this. It may yet push Kobo sales upward as time goes on.

[guest153]

A few months ago, I took my mystery series wide because it wasn't getting any love in KU. Tried Bookbub ads, tried several of Kobo's promotions (including that Walmart one), and in grand total I've sold about four copies in four months. I still get more sales in one month off of a low-cost Amazon ad than I've gotten from Bookbub and Kobo promos in four months.

[JRTomlin]

I've never had any luck with Bookbub ads. David Gaughran says he does well with them but darn if I can figure out how.


ETA: I think David has made some posts on his blog about how do get better results with them. Might be worth checking.

[Gaylord Fancypants]

I think it's interesting that I haven't yet heard from anyone who saw any impact as a result of the Walmart promotions. I would have expected at least some little ripple. Of course, Walmart is new at this. It may yet push Kobo sales upward as time goes on.

I think their launch was really a pretty soft launch. It takes time to get people excited enough to buy the ereader and then actually start buying books. They probably wanted to stress-test the site and the sales process anyway before they try to crush it. So hopefully sales will keep going up from here. They couldn't really go down, my sales on Kobo flatlined when the Walmart thing happened.

[RPatton]

The guy who runs Walmart's online store is in a personal war against Amazon. He hates Amazon and hates Bezos. He's also the guy who started jet.com.

Check out this https://jetsupportdesk.blob.core.windows.net/jetsupportdesk/Jet%20Onboarding%20Guide%20V3.pdf to get an idea of how friggin' smart this guy is.

If he could somehow bring what he learns from Kobo to Jet.com (a subsidiary of Walmart), I would pay them money to let me sell ebooks with them. The storefront is brilliant, the landing pages for the print books, perfect. Seriously, it's what I always thought an online book store should look like.

[JRTomlin]

If he hates Amazon, then  maybe they will make a real try at it. I have no problem with a soft start. So far my increase in Kobo US sales has been tiny, but I suppose any increase at all is good. Overall for the last two months, Kobo has beat Apple for sales, for what it's worth, but mostly Canada.

[guest153]

The guy who runs Walmart's online store is in a personal war against Amazon. He hates Amazon and hates Bezos. He's also the guy who started jet.com.

Check out this https://jetsupportdesk.blob.core.windows.net/jetsupportdesk/Jet%20Onboarding%20Guide%20V3.pdf to get an idea of how friggin' smart this guy is.

If he could somehow bring what he learns from Kobo to Jet.com (a subsidiary of Walmart), I would pay them money to let me sell ebooks with them. The storefront is brilliant, the landing pages for the print books, perfect. Seriously, it's what I always thought an online book store should look like.

I hope he makes a real effort. With all the scammers and unscrupulous publishers at Amazon and Amazon moving away from recommendations and also-boughts and more towards paid advertising, there's going to be a real vacuum for organic recommendations.

[SCapsuto]

I'm intrigued by your success with Kobo. The bulk of my sales have been through Amazon, with iBooks a distant second. By contrast, I'm averaging just one sale per year through Kobo.

Does Kobo have a marketing tool that I've missed? Perhaps something analogous to Amazon's AMS?

[WasAnn]

I love Kobo, but it blows for sales. I'm only moving books wide very slowly, but still. I probably should promo...probably. If that Jet.com guy gets moving, I'll be right there and strapping tiny rockets to his feet to add to the escape velocity. Anything that will compete with Amazon's Pay-Us-Or-Die twist is great by me (and I say that as a reader almost more than an author).

[JRTomlin]

I'm intrigued by your success with Kobo. The bulk of my sales have been through Amazon, with iBooks a distant second. By contrast, I'm averaging one sale per year through Kobo.


Does Kobo have a marketing tool that I've missed? Perhaps something analogous to Amazon's AMS?

Kobo has promotions that you can access by asking. Email them and ask for the Promotions tab. Analogous to Amazon's AMS? Not exactly.

This is one that I just completed that did pretty well for me:

September 40% Box Set Sale

Description
Submit a title to our September 40% off Box Sets sale which will take place September 20th-October 1st 2018. This promo will be advertised to customers in Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand on the Kobo homepage and by email. The sale will take place at various times in various territories during the sale period. Please note that this sale will not be advertised in the US. Your box set must have a price of $4.99 or higher to be considered (3.99 in the UK and EU). You do not have to submit a discounted price for this sale, as the discount will be provided by promo code during checkout. This also means you don't have to worry about other retailers price-matching!

They usually have a dozen or so promotions you can apply for. You aren't always approved and not all do as well. I try to aim for the ones that Kobo advertises.

At the moment, I am selling slightly better on Kobo than Apple. Both outsell B&N and I couldn't afford to even go to Starbucks if I had to depend on Google Play. None of them equal Amazon yet, but they more than make up any loss from not being in KU. YMMV

WasAnn, I have done promotion wide. I am pretty sure I would be dead in the water there otherwise.

[SCapsuto]

Kobo has promotions that you can access by asking. Email them and ask for the Promotions tab.

Thanks! That's very helpful. 
I've done moderately well with AMS, and I'm surprised more platforms don't have something similar.

[guest14]

I've found that doing promotions with Kobo is the kiss of death for my sales. I've tried a couple of times over several years and found that to be consistent.

I do quite well with sales on an increasing scale most months, especially post BookBub (obviously) and have learned not to respond to the clarion call of Kobo promotions. If I just keep quiet, the sales keep on going. If I promote... they die. As it is Walmart has killed sales for September. I now have better sales elsewhere (not saying where I don't want to jinx it) and await return to favour in Canada and Australia.

[Joe Vasicek]

I've found that doing promotions with Kobo is the kiss of death for my sales. I've tried a couple of times over several years and found that to be consistent.

I do quite well with sales on an increasing scale most months, especially post BookBub (obviously) and have learned not to respond to the clarion call of Kobo promotions. If I just keep quiet, the sales keep on going. If I promote... they die. As it is Walmart has killed sales for September. I now have better sales elsewhere (not saying where I don't want to jinx it) and await return to favour in Canada and Australia.

Kobo Promotions kill sales? Why is that?

[guest14]

I've found that doing promotions with Kobo is the kiss of death for my sales. I've tried a couple of times over several years and found that to be consistent.

I do quite well with sales on an increasing scale most months, especially post BookBub (obviously) and have learned not to respond to the clarion call of Kobo promotions. If I just keep quiet, the sales keep on going. If I promote... they die. As it is Walmart has killed sales for September. I now have better sales elsewhere (not saying where I don't want to jinx it) and await return to favour in Canada and Australia.

Kobo Promotions kill sales? Why is that?

I actually have no idea except I'm doing well, and think - 'aah! let's do a promotion'...and then 'splat!' (that's the sound of my sales hitting the pavement). It recovers eventually, but it's like pulling teeth. Same with the Walmart launch. My figures were going up weekly/monthly and I'm thinking.. 'good, we have traction', then Walmart happens and suddenly... it's a desert. I have no explanation how that could be except I'm suddenly invisible to the marketplace. My only thought is that Walmart brought a lot of new authors onboard and for Kobo that meant lots of new material. Maybe I should promote again, but it's parched out here in the dunes... :D

[JRTomlin]

The Box Set that I mentioned, I had never before sold any of it at Kobo so I feel reasonably certain that the 31 I sold was the promo. It's not exactly getting rich money, but for a $9.99 box set, even 40% reduced, gave a bump to my Kobo sales total. Why they don't do well for some people, I couldn't say, but so far my experiences are more positive than negative. Since I am backing away from Free for a time being, I am not doing any of their Free promos which they don't seem to advertise anyway. And I think the Walmart rollout was pretty poor for all of us.

 

[Kathy Dee]

QUESTION: those of you who are doing well on Kobo, are you direct or through an aggregator?

 

^ Just wanted to put that cat in there 

[The Doctor]

QUESTION: those of you who are doing well on Kobo, are you direct or through an aggregator?

 

^ Just wanted to put that cat in there 

Not quite doing well but I was originally sending my books to Kobo via D2D. I sold okay (but my own prawns standards). Then I decided to go direct, and... crickets.

I've gone back to using D2D but my Kobo sales haven't recovered.

[JRTomlin]

I'm not sure I would describe it as 'doing well' but I am direct. More 'having some sales at least'. Direct is the only way to have access to the Kobo promotions.

There is no dog emoji! The injustice of it all! 

[CoraBuhlert]

I'm also direct. For starters, I signed up with Kobo Writing Life before D2D or StreetLib existed and didn't use Smashwords at the time. And besides, if you're direct with Kobo, you get access to their promotions.

[JRTomlin]

I've applied for 8 Kobo promos running later this month, none freebies. I'll let you know which I get into and how they go.

[Tom Wood]

...
There is no dog emoji! The injustice of it all! 

Would this one suffice?

[JRTomlin]

That one works! Thanks.

[JRTomlin]

Continuing my Kobo saga, this month (unlike the previous two) so far iBooks is doing far better than Kobo on sales. Kobo seems to be more volatile and dependent on promotions, at least so far.

I do have a promotion coming up on the 12th - a one-day promotion. It is for my 2nd most expensive book, Not for Glory, which is $5.99 so I can reduce it to $2.99 for a promotion.

The Daily Deal feature on the Kobo homepage is a coveted merchandising spot. Your Double Daily Deal will run in Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. This feature represents an opportunity to be featured as a secondary daily deal, to accompany the primary daily deal. Double Daily Deals are now featured on our Deals page – the home of all active deals on Kobo, and one of our most-frequented pages as a result. This is a huge boost to the deals visibility. The deals will also be promoted on the @KoboDeals Twitter account. To be eligible, your book must be priced at a 50% (or more) discount off your regular price during the deal time period.

I will be curious to see what kind of results it has since I've never had one before. They like books that are at least $6 for that so I don't have many that are likely to get it. I'll post how it goes.

[JRTomlin]

To update, my Kobo sales this month have averaged a very, very modest 1 - 2 a day. On the twelfth, I had a promo that sold 10, but it was 3rd in my trilogy so I promptly sold 6 others in the trilogy that day and the next. For Kobo, that's not bad. Then sales went back to the 1 - 2 a day.

I have two more Kobo promotions this month, both 40% off which buyers use a purchase code for, so I don't have to lower the price and risk an Amazon price match. So far those are my favorite Kobo promotions. I also like the fact that Kobo actively promotes them with emails, etc. So we'll see how those go. 

[LilyBLily]

I’ve got one next week, my first. Just heard tonight!

[JRTomlin]

 

[Simon Haynes]

Once they post the sales report (spreadsheet) for September, I'll take a look and see if there's a field in there identifying Walmart sales.

The report has a LOT of fields, but it's always so far out of date it's next to useless.

Still hoping they release their new reporting features, as promised on That Other Place by the Kobo CEO, earlier this year.

[CoraBuhlert]

My Kobo sales have been low this month, but I am in a promo right now and in another later this month, so I'll see how these do.

[CoraBuhlert]

Of the two Kobo promos I was in last month, the 99 cent spy thriller promo didn't do much. However, the 40% off promo delivered nicely.

[rdperry57]

I get crickets on Kobo.  It's pretty dismal there.

Me, too!

[Sailor Stone]

I just completed a free promo for one of my books through Kobo's promotion tab and it netted about 960 downloads for the book, and, so far, 17 sales of the next book in the series. Considering most readers won't even open the book for a long while, if ever, I don't think that's too bad a ratio of sales-to-free downloads. Kobo is my best vendor.

[Maggie Ann]

I just uploaded five books direct to Kobo over the weekend and they went live yesterday. There is no promotions tab. Does it take awhile after first publishing for it to appear?

[Sailor Stone]

You need to send Kobo an email asking to be included in the Promotions page. They are great about responding.

[Maggie Ann]

You need to send Kobo an email asking to be included in the Promotions page. They are great about responding.

Thanks. Will do that right now.

[JRTomlin]

Last month my sales on Kobo were about twice what I sold on Apple and B&N combined. That still doesn't come close to Amazon but it is definitely going up. However, US sales still lag way, way behind sales in Canada. I am not sure how much Walmart has spurred US sales.

I have done pretty well with Kobo promotions. I generally avoid the Free ones unless I have something free anyway. I had my Black Douglas Omnibus in the just completed 'Black Sunday - Cyber Monday' sale that did particularly well. Some of their promotions Kobo does actively promote with emails, etc. Those are the ones I look for.

[Maggie Ann]

I recently switched one four-book series direct to Kobo. I wasn't getting any freeloads through D2D (first in series is free) but I'm getting a few on Kobo now. I have a promo running on 12/10. Fingers crossed, candles lit. If this one does well on sell-thru, I'll bring more books over.

[Marti Talbott]

I'm late to this discussion. How do you find if you've sold books on Walmart? Is it on the Subs report?

[JRTomlin]

No, they don't separate out which sales are through Walmart. I just assume that any sales outside the US are not Walmart ones. The ones in the US may or may not be.

My US sales have gone up since the Walmart alliance but US sales are still not even enough for grocery money.

So far I haven't snagged many Kobo promotions for December, but I do have one for the 30th which is usually when post-Chrismas sales start heating up.

[Marti Talbott]

Thanks JR. They keep turning me down for promos, but my Sub sales are looking good. Hopefully next year, they'll break those and the Walmart sale out and put them on the dashboard. We can hope, anyway. For me, Kobo and Google play are in a tie for last place when it comes to income.

By the way, some of my books are in large print and when I had to turn in a report for state taxes, I was surprised at how many I had sold over the years. Guess it's more worth the work than I thought. Large print has to be font 16, which makes them more expensive for the customer. Can't help that, I guess.

[Maggie Ann]

Is Kobo not updating because of the "bank search tool" problem or am I just not selling anything there?

[Joe Vasicek]

Is Kobo not updating because of the "bank search tool" problem or am I just not selling anything there?

I just had a BookBub featured deal and it's updating for me.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I just had a BookBub featured deal and it's updating for me.

Congratulations.     Which book?

[Joe Vasicek]

I just had a BookBub featured deal and it's updating for me.

Congratulations.     Which book?

Heart of the Nebula.

[garygibsonsf]

I get good sales on Amazon UK, practically zero on Amazon US, and decided to go wide a few months back and...like people say, crickets. Evil as Amazon is, they seem to shift books, not least because they're practically ubiquitous.

However, I've done little promo with my book going through D2D. I considered going through Kobo direct, but then read supposed horror stories about people having to wait months to pull them back out again if they decided it wasn't worth it. Is that still the case? if it isn't, I might try and go direct and take advantage of some of the advantages people are talking about here.

Edit: I came across this article. It doesn't bode well. https://www.indiesunlimited.com/2016/05/08/book-promotion-through-kobo-writing-life/

[Maggie Ann]

I get good sales on Amazon UK, practically zero on Amazon US, and decided to go wide a few months back and...like people say, crickets. Evil as Amazon is, they seem to shift books, not least because they're practically ubiquitous.

However, I've done little promo with my book going through D2D. I considered going through Kobo direct, but then read supposed horror stories about people having to wait months to pull them back out again if they decided it wasn't worth it. Is that still the case? if it isn't, I might try and go direct and take advantage of some of the advantages people are talking about here.

Edit: I came across this article. It doesn't bode well. https://www.indiesunlimited.com/2016/05/08/book-promotion-through-kobo-writing-life/

Looks like that article was written over two years ago.

I just recently went direct with KWL with a four book mystery/romance series. The first book is permafree with the following novellas 99c each. I've had ten freeloads, but no sell-thru at all. Those ten freeloads came about as a result of piggy-backing on another author's promo. What propelled me into KWL is that my books are doing just fine on Apple and B&N through D2D but I can't even move a freebie through Kobo/D2D.

I have a one-week promo starting on Monday but I really don't have much hope for it. I'm giving this experiment three months.

[LilyBLily]

I attended the Reedsy-sponsored Kobo webinar yesterday. Mark LeFebvre, who currently works for D2D but used to work for Kobo, was the speaker. It's clear Kobo favors higher-priced books, so it can earn some reasonable amount of profit off them. And he stressed that people, not algorithms, chose the books to be in promotions. That emboldened me to apply for the next promotion. They've accepted both my higher-priced promotion submissions for their 40% off deals in the past. This book is only $4.99, and its genre is not super popular. I'm not surprised they turned me down this very minute as I've been writing this.

Other than through two 40% off promos and a random sale or two from a BookBub CPC ad (not discounted), I've never sold a novel on Kobo. Ever.

[notthatamanda]

It took a free promo to get the ball rolling on Kobo.  I have two trilogies, first in the each permafree.  The trickle is pretty damn nice.  In the six months I've been on Kobo, I'll come close to four figures this year.  A prawny number for sure, but I'm happy about it.

The only bummer is since those initial free promos, I can't seem to get another one. 

   Kid said to put the cat in.

[Maggie Ann]

It took a free promo to get the ball rolling on Kobo.  I have two trilogies, first in the each permafree.  The trickle is pretty damn nice.  In the six months I've been on Kobo, I'll come close to four figures this year.  A prawny number for sure, but I'm happy about it.

The only bummer is since those initial free promos, I can't seem to get another one. 

   Kid said to put the cat in.

Smart kid!   

[David VanDyke]

While Kobo is my bottom earner among the five major vendors, it does earn.

IMO (YMMV) it's vital to have at least one good first-in-series permafree for all vendors, to introduce you to new readers.

Then, it's vital to apply for BookBubs for that permafree while at the same time using the other good promo sites such as ENT and FreeBooksy to juice your permafree and get your read-through going.

But Kobo seems to be the least responsive to outside promos, even BookBubs, so it's also vital to use their in-house promos. They do have plenty of promos of free books, but they also do favor higher priced books with bigger discounts. Trilogies/box sets of the first part of a series are best for this--even a dualogy (two-book set composed of books 1 and 2 together) can work. Price your box set at least 5.99 and apply for those curated promos. You do have to conform your tactics to Kobo's own culture, which is to provide at least the illusion of big discounts.

[JRTomlin]

I get good sales on Amazon UK, practically zero on Amazon US, and decided to go wide a few months back and...like people say, crickets. Evil as Amazon is, they seem to shift books, not least because they're practically ubiquitous.

However, I've done little promo with my book going through D2D. I considered going through Kobo direct, but then read supposed horror stories about people having to wait months to pull them back out again if they decided it wasn't worth it. Is that still the case? if it isn't, I might try and go direct and take advantage of some of the advantages people are talking about here.

Edit: I came across this article. It doesn't bode well. https://www.indiesunlimited.com/2016/05/08/book-promotion-through-kobo-writing-life/

Regarding the article, it starts out "Remember Kobo? They’re the Canadian eBook retailer..."

No, they are not Canadian and have been Japanese-owned since Rakuten acquired the company in January 2012. The author does not seem to be big on details. He doesn't even know who owns Kobo or what country it is from.

As far as the promotion he describes, he should have noticed that Kobo did not say they were promoting that. They just gave it space on their 'Free' page. Other promotions, the ones David referred to, they advertise. In my experience, the Free pages don't do that much. Kobo, unlike Amazon, is not all that enthusiastic about Free, free ebooks don't even appear on the Walmart site at all, and the free pages get no outside advertising. You MUST look at the description of the promotions because they are not all equal.

This was a promotion that did well for me:

Kobo is running a MAJOR price promotion for Black Friday & Cyber Monday in Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. The sale will be promoted via email to customers and through banners on the Kobo store in these territories.

Note that they pushed it with emails and banners. Some also get in their twitter feed. That definitely, again as David mentioned, was slanted towards higher priced books with a deep discount so I ran my trilogy omnibus.

I have high hopes for this one:

Major Sale Alert! Kobo will be running a Holiday/Boxing Week sale from Dec 20-Jan 2 in all English-language territories (CA, US, UK, AU, NZ). This is the last BIG sale of the year and will be promoted by multiple emails to our customer base, as well as banners on our website.

I have one novel in that one as well. This is why I don't do permafree though because I was able to get the first novel of my trilogy into it since I could price reduce it. I like that flexibility.

It pays to pay attention to the details and pick and choose your promotions carefully.

As far as perma free, I do better with doing a regular price on all my novels and then only doing free or 99 cents for Bookbub promotions, but that may be genre related. Horses for courses, as they say.

At the moment, Kobo is doing slightly better than Apple and substantially better than B&N for me. GP is not even worth mentioning.  Amazon of course is still the big dog, but I think (emphasize think) that Kobo sales are gradually growing in the US. Rakuten has deep pockets, and Kobo does well in other markets, so they have time to build.

[Mammasan]

"GP is not even worth mentioning."

Same for me and I don't get it. I've sold on all the platforms I'm on --except Google Play. There, nothing. Lots of views and pages read, but sales, nope.

[notthatamanda]

https://www.indiesunlimited.com/2016/05/08/book-promotion-through-kobo-writing-life/

Kobo is running a MAJOR price promotion for Black Friday & Cyber Monday in Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. The sale will be promoted via email to customers and through banners on the Kobo store in these territories.

Note that they pushed it with emails and banners. Some also get in their twitter feed. That definitely, again as David mentioned, was slanted towards higher priced books with a deep discount so I ran my trilogy omnibus.

I have high hopes for this one:

Major Sale Alert! Kobo will be running a Holiday/Boxing Week sale from Dec 20-Jan 2 in all English-language territories (CA, US, UK, AU, NZ). This is the last BIG sale of the year and will be promoted by multiple emails to our customer base, as well as banners on our website.

I have one novel in that one as well. This is why I don't do permafree though because I was able to get the first novel of my trilogy into it since I could price reduce it. I like that flexibility.

It pays to pay attention to the details and pick and choose your promotions carefully.

As far as perma free, I do better with doing a regular price on all my novels and then only doing free or 99 cents for Bookbub promotions, but that may be genre related. Horses for courses, as they say.

At the moment, Kobo is doing slightly better than Apple and substantially better than B&N for me. GP is not even worth mentioning.  Amazon of course is still the big dog, but I think (emphasize think) that Kobo sales are gradually growing in the US. Rakuten has deep pockets, and Kobo does well in other markets, so they have time to build.

It very well may be a genre thing.  I have done Kobo 40% off sales, 40% off box set sales, 3.99 and under sales, 3 for 2 sales, the Walmart sale (wow I am reliving my massive disappointment over that one), daily double.  The only thing that worked was the Free Page Romance List.  I'm dreaming of the Free Page Editor's Pick now but I probably have as big of a shot at that as I do a bookbub (namely zero to never).   Kobo is beating Amazon some months for me now, dependent on other promos.

GP - on my list to look into ads and promos in January.  I would like to think my read throughs would be the same there, I just need to figure out how to give it a good kick in the butt to get it started.  I've sold some, $15 last month, which was the biggest month.  Nothing this month.

[Miranda]

Thanks for the information, lots of things to think consider.

[JRTomlin]

I don't even bother to look at my GP sales anymore but I usually make enough for a cappuccino at Starbucks.

It is amazing how much results can vary from one author to another. I think the only way to figure out what works is to experiment.

ETA: I just checked GP for last month. I don't  think it would even pay for a cappuccino.

[CoraBuhlert]

My Google Play sales are minuscle as well. Of course, I don't have all my books up there yet, but considering how low sales at Google Play are, it's not exactly a high priority.

[JRTomlin]

https://www.indiesunlimited.com/2016/05/08/book-promotion-through-kobo-writing-life/

Kobo is running a MAJOR price promotion for Black Friday & Cyber Monday in Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. The sale will be promoted via email to customers and through banners on the Kobo store in these territories.

Note that they pushed it with emails and banners. Some also get in their twitter feed. That definitely, again as David mentioned, was slanted towards higher priced books with a deep discount so I ran my trilogy omnibus.

I have high hopes for this one:

Major Sale Alert! Kobo will be running a Holiday/Boxing Week sale from Dec 20-Jan 2 in all English-language territories (CA, US, UK, AU, NZ). This is the last BIG sale of the year and will be promoted by multiple emails to our customer base, as well as banners on our website.

I have one novel in that one as well. This is why I don't do permafree though because I was able to get the first novel of my trilogy into it since I could price reduce it. I like that flexibility.

It pays to pay attention to the details and pick and choose your promotions carefully.

As far as perma free, I do better with doing a regular price on all my novels and then only doing free or 99 cents for Bookbub promotions, but that may be genre related. Horses for courses, as they say.

At the moment, Kobo is doing slightly better than Apple and substantially better than B&N for me. GP is not even worth mentioning.  Amazon of course is still the big dog, but I think (emphasize think) that Kobo sales are gradually growing in the US. Rakuten has deep pockets, and Kobo does well in other markets, so they have time to build.

It very well may be a genre thing.  I have done Kobo 40% off sales, 40% off box set sales, 3.99 and under sales, 3 for 2 sales, the Walmart sale (wow I am reliving my massive disappointment over that one), daily double.  The only thing that worked was the Free Page Romance List.  I'm dreaming of the Free Page Editor's Pick now but I probably have as big of a shot at that as I do a bookbub (namely zero to never).   Kobo is beating Amazon some months for me now, dependent on other promos.

GP - on my list to look into ads and promos in January.  I would like to think my read throughs would be the same there, I just need to figure out how to give it a good kick in the butt to get it started.  I've sold some, $15 last month, which was the biggest month.  Nothing this month.

I think something Amanda said here, or implied anyway, is worth emphasizing. Kobo offers a variety of types of promotions and it is worth trying them all out to find out which work for you.  What works for romance rarely works for historical fiction and vice versa. That is true for other genres as well and probably other variables too such as pricing.

It is possible to start building sales on Kobo. Mine don't come anywhere close to Amazon - yet, but in the past few months they are going in the right direction almost totally because of their in-house promotions.

[notthatamanda]

My Google Play sales are minuscle as well. Of course, I don't have all my books up there yet, but considering how low sales at Google Play are, it's not exactly a high priority.

That's how I feel about Smashwords, except I'm running a total zero there.  I don't have my trilogies with permafrees up there.  Oh look another thing for my list in January.

[garygibsonsf]

Has anyone applied for the Kobo Daily Deal on their homepage, which costs 50 GBP, and did they see a return?

I hadn't realised until recently you could get promo opportunities on Kobo and switched from D2D to go direct to try and take advantage of them. I'm curious about how a Kobo daily deal might compare to, say, a Bookbub. I'm guessing the Bookbub is a lot higher, otherwise I'd have heard a lot more about the Kobo Daily Deal before now. But how much better?

[notthatamanda]

I did a daily double deal on my New Adult Romance compilation back in July.  Sold 1.
I've yet to figure out how to maximize the promos out over there, except for the free, which were great.
It may be like using your free/kindle countdown days on KU, in that you have to advertise the deal
to see any results.  That's just a guess though.

Edited to add:  I'm in the US and the copy that sold was in CA.  The deal ran in CA, AUS & NZ.

[Maggie Ann]

I just had a week-long promo with Kobo that cost $5. I had 425 freeloads with only two follow-up sales.

The book was a historical mystery/romance permafree first in series with three sequels.

I'll try another deal at some point but probably not for a couple of months.

[Sailor Stone]

I just had a free romance promo and so far it has had 900 or so free downloads and 16 follow-through sales to the next book. The thing is (if this follows the norm of other promos I've had at Kobo) the sales-tail (that was a fun word to write) will continue for quite some time as most of the free downloads have not been opened.

[notthatamanda]

I just had a free romance promo and so far it has had 900 or so free downloads and 16 follow-through sales to the next book. The thing is (if this follows the norm of other promos I've had at Kobo) the sales-tail (that was a fun word to write) will continue for quite some time as most of the free downloads have not been opened.

Ditto.  My read through is pretty consistent, same as Amazon.  But the really nice thing is the free downloads continue at a nicer clip, for longer, at Kobo.
Also ditto on sales-tail.   

[garygibsonsf]

Sounds like it's pretty decent for free downloads, but my focus, at least for the moment, is on reduced price sales on Kobo and how they tend to work out for people. Anyone else got specific experience of that kind of thing? Kobo's a pretty big site unless you compare it to Amazon. I know at least one of you had a less than positive experience of a lowered-price promo. Did anyone do well out of it?

I guess I could just throw £50 at a book and find out for myself, but there's a part of me that immediately says 'or you could try for a bookbub one of these days'.

[notthatamanda]

Since you can only submit a Bookbub on a specific book every four weeks, you can try for that and if you don't get it, try for the Kobo promo.  Kobo generally doesn't let you know until the last minute about their promos.  Bookbub responds in seven days, though usually sooner.  You can always keep applying to both.  Some people may have had fabulous results with reduced price promos on Kobo.  I am not one of them but it may be genre specific.

[Ros]

Kobo got in touch with me because they've updated their categories.

https://kobowritinglife.com/2018/12/10/update-new-categories-for-your-book/

You can now have up to 3, which correspond with the usual BISAC categories. I had a look through their retail site though, and in the genres that interest me I can't see what's changed on the front end yet.

[JRTomlin]

Thanks for the head's up. I hadn't seen that.

[cecilia_writer]

Kobo is my second best sales outlet after Amazon UK (iBooks have been catching up lately) however I never do promotions there as I am not direct with them. I think it's to do with the demographics of my readership (such as it is). I was quite startled yesterday when I announced a new release on my FB page - by some miracle Smashwords had shipped it straight to Kobo etc so it was live there at the same time as on Amazon. Out of the very small number of extremely loyal readers who haunt the FB page, one bought it on Amazon, one on B&N and 3 on Kobo immediately. I wish I could scale this up a bit! May have to consider promoting after all.

[JRTomlin]

One thing I have noticed is that my Kobo sales are climbing in Canada but not in the US. Getting a foothold in Walmart just is not happening for me. A matter of genre? Possibly or the sales there are going to the trades? Or another explanation entirely?

[notthatamanda]

I'm not sure Walmart is doing anything to sell ebooks.  I have to order something from them right now so maybe I'll opt in on the emails and see what they are spamming people with.  I'm ordering a shelving unit though so...

If they pushed and sold a lot of Kobo readers for the holidays, it should start picking up after that, I would think.  But I have no idea how hard they advertised it. 

My big hope for Walmart is still POD and ship free to the store.  No signs of that happening either.

Australia and the UK are beating the US on sales along with Canada for me. 

[Maggie Ann]

One thing I have noticed is that my Kobo sales are climbing in Canada but not in the US. Getting a foothold in Walmart just is not happening for me. A matter of genre? Possibly or the sales there are going to the trades? Or another explanation entirely?

I'm ranking Canada, UK, AU, US for the month.

Have you ever tried to find a particular book on the WalMart website? Or anything else for that matter. Their search engine is horrible. I really don't expect anything from them.

[CoraBuhlert]

Just wanted to give you a heads up that I have four books in their current 40% off VIP sale and while Kobo's promos can be hit and miss, this one is really moving books for me.

[Bruce Fottler]

Edit: I came across this article. It doesn't bode well. https://www.indiesunlimited.com/2016/05/08/book-promotion-through-kobo-writing-life/

I'm a bit late to this party, but as the author of that guest blog (from 2016) I want to point out that my experiences with Kobo promotions have changed for the better. Not that I'm a huge-selling author, but my 2018 Kobo sales blew past Amazon - to the tune of 75% of all my eBook sales.  In 2017, Kobo only had 33%.

I also wrote about my latest experiences with Kobo (and other retailers) here: https://www.indiesunlimited.com/2018/07/30/the-indie-quest-visibility-through-ebook-distributors/

For me, success with Kobo promotions took time. I noticed that the more sales you have for a book, the better chance it has for promotion acceptance - particularly for double daily deals. Even then you're likely to get rejected a couple of times before being accepted.

Once a promotion is in progress, I think the key for scoring sales is when your book is displayed on the carousel. Otherwise it's lost in the weeds. Again, sales dictate your position on the carousel - which changes as the promotion progresses. It also varies with each country (which you can see this by going to the promotion and changing countries). I've had a book on the lead carousel page in Canada, while in the US it's buried on page 9 in the "see more" list.

   
   

[JRTomlin]

Just wanted to give you a heads up that I have four books in their current 40% off VIP sale and while Kobo's promos can be hit and miss, this one is really moving books for me.

I also have a book in the 40% off VIP sale that is doing fairly well. However, I also have one in the Jan 40% off Box Sets sale which is doing even better. My Kobo sales are looking pretty good this month, still nowhere near Amazon, of course, but making up for the lack of KU sales.

Apple is doing fairly well this month as well although Kobo, thanks to Canadian sales, is ahead.

Bruce, glad to hear you are now having better luck with Kobo promotions.

ETA: To expand on 'my sales are looking pretty good' I already have surpassed any previous month's sales on Kobo, and it is considerably outselling Apple. That is almost entirely in Canada though. I have to say if you want to push sales in Canada, Kobo seems to be the way to go.

[APP]

Just wanted to give you a heads up that I have four books in their current 40% off VIP sale and while Kobo's promos can be hit and miss, this one is really moving books for me.

I also have a gook in the 40% off VIP sale that is doing fairly well. However, I also have one in the Jan 40% off Box Sets sale which is doing even better. My Kobo sales are looking pretty good this month, still nowhere near Amazon, of course, but making up for the lack of KU sales.

Congratulations to both of you.

Kobo's 40% promos have always been a hit and miss for me, with my last outing being a total miss. I doubt I'll be trying their promos again in the near future.

FYI: Until yesterday, I'd never sold anything on Kobo outside of the promos. But when I checked Kobo this morning, lo and behold, I found I'd made two non-promo sales.

A minuscule start, but I'll take it.

[Maggie Ann]

Just wanted to give you a heads up that I have four books in their current 40% off VIP sale and while Kobo's promos can be hit and miss, this one is really moving books for me.

I also have a gook in the 40% off VIP sale that is doing fairly well. However, I also have one in the Jan 40% off Box Sets sale which is doing even better. My Kobo sales are looking pretty good this month, still nowhere near Amazon, of course, but making up for the lack of KU sales.

Congratulations to both of you.

Kobo's 40% promos have always been a hit and miss for me, with my last outing being a total miss. I doubt I'll be trying their promos again in the near future.

FYI: Until yesterday, I'd never sold anything on Kobo outside of the promos. But when I checked Kobo this morning, lo and behold, I found I'd made two non-promo sales.

A minuscule start, but I'll take it.

I had a $5 Kobo promo on a freebie. I believe it started on 12/9. I'm still getting sell-thru. I've sold 32 as opposed to 49 on Zon in the same time period. Not much by most standards, but at least I'm seeing some movement. I've got another series ready to go exclusive with Kobo and I'm looking forward to putting that in a promo. It's romance and they are harder to get, but I'll keep trying.