Kobo vs the others

[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.