Kobo Cover Problems

[Twolane]

.

[Eric Thomson]

There's a workaround.  Draft 2 Digital converts your docx and jpg cover to a single epub file.  Download that file and upload it to Kobo instead of a docx.

[Bill Hiatt]

That is a good workaround. Still, it's scary that Kobo somehow replaced covers on books that had originally published with the correct cover.

[littleauthor]

Similar but different problem here. I changed my covers in 2014, and recently, when I was about to run a promotion, I happened to check the store for the books. Two of the three in the series still have the covers from 2014. The new covers are on my dashboard. Not in the store.

I emailed and was told they would make a push to get the covers updated. A few days later I was on another site and the books in the ads (trying to sell me my own book) had the old covers. For the past five years, Kobo has been showing an old cover and using it in their ad rotations.

My feeling is that anything "indie" goes to the bottom of their To-Do list. I don't have the mental energy to check the store to see if the covers have been updated yet.

[notthatamanda]

I don't think I am understanding the problem.  I looked at a couple of my books.  They look okay on my Kobo author page and the individual book pages. I did the preview on one and it just had the title with my name on it when that opened, rather than the cover.  Is that what you are referring to?

Believe me I'd love to blame my lack of sales at Kobo on something, so I can figure it out, and fix it, but I think if someone opens the preview they want to read the book and will be heading right to where the book actually starts.  I can't see it being that huge of a turn off.

The preview for Harry Potter does not have the cover in it, though they got a fancier cover page.
Stephen King got his fancy cover for The Institute in his preview.

Maybe I misunderstood.  I do create my epubs with D2D so maybe next time I am redoing a file I will try to fix it for this.

Littleauthor - I am sorry for your woes.  I hope you get your covers upgraded soon.

ETA - I just checked two successful indies, one book each on Kobo and they had their covers in the previews. So maybe you are onto something.

[Bill Hiatt]

I'm aware of D2D, but I don't use them when I can go direct. I fact, I don't use them for anything. I upload an epub to Google, but I use Calibre to convert my .docx first.
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Edited to add that, in any event, I'll deal with the 30 or 40 cover uploads required on the weekend.

Also, I see below that I'm not the only one with a somewhat similar problem. Anyway, I've passed on what I've learned. I'll leave it up to those with concerns do do their own work sorting out Kobo's problems.

Just so you'll know, D2D says you can use its epubs anywhere, not just when you distribute through them. Would that be faster at this point? I don't know, but I offer it for whatever it's worth.

[ingobernable]

Are you saying Kobo replaced the cover that was in your Word file with a generic one? Usually that happens when you forget to include the cover in your Word file or if the system fails to detect it for some reason. Or are you talking about the cover that you upload during "describe your book" step that has nothing to do with the book file? 

[Bill Hiatt]

I'll try one more time in an attempt to make it clearer. I go direct. I do not use D2D. I do not want to use D2D. If you use D2D, you may not be affected by this KOBO bug. You can't log into KOBO and download copies of your KOBO ebook from the KOBO author account/dashboard.

I sign into my Kobo author account dashboard. From the menu I then select eBOOKS. That menu choice takes me to the thumbnails of all of my titles. I then select a thumbnail at random. That takes me to the Describe The Ebook Menu as indicated by highlighted Describe Your Ebook menu selection on the top right.

From there I select Add ebook content, highlighted by a red menu item.

Partway down that page is a link Download and preview this eBook. I click on that, and an epub downloads. I open the epub in my reader, and there is a dull, dimwitted KOBO filler cover attached to the front of my downloaded ebook, even though all of the menu selections show my apparently uploaded cover that ISN'T attached to the front of the downloaded book's epub.

Can I make it any clearer? Please let me know.

I don't use D2D. I don't want to use D2D. I won't consider using D2D. I'm not looking for suggestions on how to use D2D.

My intent is to make others aware of what might be a problem with your KOBO ebooks. Or not. Perhaps you don't have any problems with your covers making it through using D2D. I don't use D2D.

Thank you for your suggestions.

I wasn't telling you to use D2D as a distributor. I was simply pointing out that you can use their files without distributing through them, an option your earlier comment didn't make clear you were aware of (and possibly a decent one if Kobo is going to keep having issues with covers uploaded separately).  As far as I can tell, the inability to download copies of your book from Kobo isn't relevant. The question is whether or not you can upload a single epub to Kobo instead of doing the separate Word/jpg route.

Also, that wasn't just intended for you. Other people read this forum, and some of them might have been interested.

 

[Eric Thomson]

I'm direct with Kobo. I'm direct with Google Play.  I'm with D2D for iTunes and Nook because they're a f***ing pain in the a$$.  I use the D2D epub output to upload directly on Kobo and Google Play so I don't get epub problems.  I've given you a painless, costless workaround.  You don't want to hear it.  Fine.  Your loss.

[notthatamanda]

Eric, I'm interested in the D2D work around.  I do use D2D for my epub file and my cover didn't make it into the epub file.  Do you have to check something off?

Second the feeling on Nook and iTunes, I use D2D for those.  Thanks for the help.

[Eric Thomson]

Eric, I'm interested in the D2D work around.  I do use D2D for my epub file and my cover didn't make it into the epub file.  Do you have to check something off?

Second the feeling on Nook and iTunes, I use D2D for those.  Thanks for the help.

My covers always make it into the epub files without a special check off.  I make sure of that every time I publish.  If yours don't I can't figure out why.  Sorry.

[notthatamanda]

No worries, thanks anyway.

[notthatamanda]

Oh, I may have figured it out.  I always create two books on D2D, one for publishing to iTunes and B&N, and one for meat grinding the epubs for everyone else. I like to have Amazon links in the Amazon books, Kobo links in the Kobo books, etc.   I don't upload the cover to the meatgrinder book, so I don't get them mixed up and mess with the one I want published when I am generating epubs.  So it's not surprising that there is no cover in some of those.

Next time I upload a change I'll see if I can sort it out.  It will make the product better, whether or not it will help sell books I don't know.

[Jeff Tanyard]

I make my epubs in Calibre.  I add the cover in the "Edit Metadata" screen.  So when I upload the file to Amazon/Kobo/D2D, the cover is already included.  I also then upload the cover separately on each retailer's dashboard.  The uploaded cover simply replaces the included cover; there aren't duplicates.

I don't mess with .doc or .docx at all.  I write in OpenOffice and convert directly from .odt to epub.  The only times I've had errors in the epub were when I removed a bookmark but forgot to remove the link to it in the Table of Contents and ended up with a link to nowhere.  Otherwise, the epub always passes the validator.