At the BEA today Kobo announced it’s new self-publishing platform will start up by the end of June. Not much information yet, but I assume there will be more over the next few days.
And remember, as happened with both Kindle KDP and Pubit, this is going to take a few months for the bugs to shake out.
http://www.kobobooks.com/companyinfo/authorsnpublishers.html
Bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith published traditionally more than one hundred popular novels and well over two hundred short stories. His novels include the science fiction novel Laying the Music to Rest and the thriller The Hunted as D.W. Smith. With Kristine Kathryn Rusch, he co-wrote The Tenth Planet trilogy and The 10th Kingdom. He writes under many pen names and ghosts for a number of top bestselling writers.
Dean wrote books and comics for all three major comic book companies, Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, and wrote scripts for Hollywood. One movie actually saw film.
Dean also worked as an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books. He now plays a role as an executive editor for Fiction River.
WMG Publishing Inc. is now my major publisher of all my coming novels, collections, and short stories.
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This is great news. I’ve not been too happy with the Smashwords distribution of my titles to Kobo (i.e. some titles are still missing, slow updates, etc.) and I have family and fans in Canada whose e-reader of choice is the Kobo. I’ll be glad to see this up and running.
From the info you have will royalties by better going through Smashwords or straight to Kobo?
Linda, not a clue at this point on the royalty rate, but my sense is that it will be about the same as everywhere else.
Yeah, I dropped my titles from Smashwords for the very same reason. They were great at first but for some reason they’ve grown progressively worse and worse. Will be great to see how this new platform works out! Just as soon as I’ve met my 90 commitment on the KDP Select program. I definitely don’t think I’ll do that again.
Jon, why would you drop your titles from Smashwords and cut off so much income???? And going to Kindle Select only is like saying, “I only want to sell my books to 3% of the population and screw the rest of you.” Not really a good business plan, honestly.
Oh, Dean… bless you! You apparently have more confidence in me than I do. But the fact is there wasn’t “so much income” from Smashwords. A whopping $41 over a fourteen months. At least with KDP/CreateSpace I’ve sold somewhere on the order of 1300 copies of two of my books, with more than 10,000 downloads when they were up for free.
I’m persuaded more and more I’m one of those writers in a quandary, having had one toe in the water too long without success and now the water’s cold. This is tough to swallow after having written professionally for almost 15 years (with nearly 40 published books to my credit) and not really seeing much in the way of profitability or a gain in readership for my efforts.
It’s discouraging but I’m still determined not to give up yet. That’s why I’m here with you. To learn!
Jon, I have confidence in you because your writing is great (Didn’t you write some Executioner books as well?). The key is to get into the international markets as quickly as possible. We are still in the very, very early days of all this, and most everyone here who is doing this is an early adapter. As for getting more sales, there are a ton of factors with indie books. Writing, of course, but covers, blurbs, and genre shelving (where you put a book). But more importantly is just getting a lot of product out so that every reader on the planet can find it. We had no control over this aspect just three years ago, now we can control it all if we want. And take the time to learn how.
So, Jon, the key is to get excited, write more and faster, publisher more and faster, drive through the problems that stop you, go find people who can help you as well get into some of the places. This is a brand new world now. The water is hot, not cold. Jump in and have fun.
Wow! Thanks, Dean—huge compliment coming from you.
And yes, I’ve written 30 books in The Executioner/Stony Man series (which David Morrell suggested I stop doing and start focusing on my own work) in addition to four titles under my name. And I wholeheartedly agree the markets are ripe for the self-published author.
The cold water was a reference to the things I’ve tried to this point, which I approached in a “wait-and-see” mode. It didn’t pan. Now what I need to do is build a body of work with my name on it and get it out there using a new approach (like the one I’ve been reading about here).
I guess I just know what I know and do what I do. Like a mule.
Jon, you and are are in a similar situation. I also did so much work-for-hire and ghost writing and novels under hidden names that I didn’t end up having enough of my own work in novel form to put up. A billion short stories, but not that many novels, so I will be focusing on writing my own longer work also to build my side of things here. And that’s great fun, but will take time.
I was very happy to read their notification email about that. I was even more happy to see they won’t require ISBNs. Though they did say they recommend ISBNs to ensure books are fully distributed to their partners. To my rookie ears – eyes? – that reads like non-ISBN’d titles won’t get the full treatment. But I could be reading too much into that. Dean, what do you think?
Michael, just means Kobo is setting up their own tracking system and will make no difference. Just as with the tracking system on Kindle and B&N. No difference.
Excellent news and features that will make them competitive. Very pleased. Now if Sony would just embrace the future, I could completely avoid Smashwords and their insulting Meatgrinder and slow distribution and reporting entirely. They seem like nice people and I appreciate their mission, but the Meatgrinder, ugh.
David, Smashwords is helping in other ways that will keep you there. I know we sell a bunch of titles through their bookstore, plus instead of going direct to Apple, we are staying with Smashwords there because of the new instant update. And Apple is difficult at best to go direct to. As is Sony. Possible, but difficult. Also, there are rumors and leaked rumors of Smashwords getting to other retailers as well, so I have a hunch they will have more announcements soon. My only issue with Smashwords is the payment schedule. If they move to paying monthly, even that issue would be gone for me.
I love the meatgrinder: I now write my manuscripts in their format and have found it even easier to convert “meatgrinder-ready” .docs for POD and other formats, including converting to my own Epub.
The meatgrinder is like an enema. With a little discomfort, it gets you squared away.
I never in a million years would have thought that fickle Word, piggish Powerpoint (both of which I’ve suffered with for decades because of their ubiquity) and the grueling meatgrinder would somehow conspire to make my life easier and more efficient, but they have: by a country mile.
Meatground Word docs convert quite nicely into any other format you can imagine, and are a style setting or two away from being formatted at submission quality standards, too.
I love being able to dashboard against a list of outlets, and Kobo has been one of my better suppliers. I doubt I’ll go directly through them in the near term. SW is working well for me. Besides, I like their other services and want to keep them operating. As long as their cut hovers around 10%, I’m willing to pay for that (I go to B&N through SW for the same reason – to keep SW at a “fair” cashflow w/ my business, and therefore able to provide all their other services – for one thing, they have way more clout with B&N than I do when there is a problem, and usually when I have a problem, so do other SW clients, and they go to bat on behalf of all of them), even if, in the short sight, I could make the same sales by going through Kobo directly.
Of course, that could always change. Let’s just see what they come up with.
I honestly don’t understand why so many people don’t like smashwords. Because of them, I am able to better utilize MS Word, (though after the book I’m writing, I will be using scrivener) but also it helped me to format my ebook manuscripts better in general. They’re not perfect, but I like smashwords.
Yeah, me too, Ramon. I like Smashwords and what Mark has done. I don’t like a few details, but except for the payment schedule, nothing major. An accountant friend of mine tells me that with how Mark started and the money not spent on accounting, now with this many authors, switching his accounting practices would be next to impossible. But even with that problem, I still like a lot what Smashwords does.
Exactly my feelings. They distribute to places that would be much harder to do on my own, and Mark is always trying to improve where and when he can. I’m excited to see what new vendors will be on board!
And then there’s the time saved from one upload => so many stores. If you publish frequenty, the time saved adds up.
My problem with Smashwords is I can’t get my manuscripts formatted to their specifications not even using the nuclear option (over and over again.) And it has taken them a few weeks to tell me the formatting’s wrong for their full distribution or whatever they call it on a couple of them. So I understand Dean’s point but am stymied at taking advantage of it.
But the Kobo news sounds great.
Are you using styles? I don’t, and I don’t have a problem getting through the MeatGrinder.
Carradee is right, shut off the styles in Word. Those things will kill you in the conversion. Also, kill all table of contents unless you need them for a collection or have a book where every chapter is named. If that’s the case, don’t use “Chapter One” kind of label. Just the name of the chapter or in a collection the name of the story. Kill table of contents unless completely needed. That will also help a ton.
I use my TOC very sparingly…for the Dedication and Acknowledgments, for the start of the book (but not each chapter; with 40 chapters that would be silly), the Books By to list my other hyperlinked titles, About The Author, A Note From the Author, and any excerpts I’ve included. I followed the formatting instructions Mark Coker published and have had no problem getting my work accepted in Smashwords.
I use styles and find them immensely useful in formatting the manuscript for Smashwords. I don’t get rejected.
Elizabeth McCoy has an excellent blogpost on using styles to format for Smashwords: http://elizabethmccoy.dreamwidth.org/5952.html
I have had exactly the same problem, but I see it from such a different perspective.
a) Considering I was once in talks with a company about a project for two years before finally getting the answer (and vaguely, at that) that it was a no-go, waiting a few weeks for fixes is a feature to me, not a bug. Heck, even the best short story outlets take a month or more to get back to you on acceptance. Publication and distribution can take a year (or in the case of my favorite magazine, Black Gate, two, three or four years!)
b) They’ve never been anything but responsive and helpful with me. I’ve had to learn patience with the system, because I’ve been amazed at the number of problems that they solve without my input at all.
c) Maybe it helps that I set my goal for 2012 as: “Put up 50 different things through SW and Amazon and POD.” Because I’m killing myself to create and submit the next thing, sometimes a week or two (or a month) goes by before I realize there’s a problem with one of the other things. More than half the time, the problem resolves about the time I notice it.
d) On the other hand, I was very disappointed to realize that my stuff started selling right away. That’s an annoying distraction, and can set up bad expectations. I hadn’t planned for anything to accidentally sell until June (started in January) at the earliest, since I do no promotion, period. I just want the stuff up so I can start worrying about sales in 2013.
So, I can understand the “feeling” that “Oh no! It isn’t working at Smashwords right now! How many sales am I losing?” But it really doesn’t work that way. It is far more important to get as many good things up than it is to worry about your distribution partners getting your data products up perfectly right away.
I guess the upshot is that patience and ignorance are helpful business policies for me. Leaving the publishing partners alone is a good practice. After all, it is in their business interests to have all of their authors’ work available as quickly as possible. For SW services, they are a few weeks or (in the case of severe problems) a few months off of Amazon’s standardized (but far less robust) services. But we are talking about copyrights that run for the rest of your life. In the grand scheme, those are insignificant differences.
I guess it is impatience a lot of it. The funny thing is that it isn’t impatience to get in on the goldrush with my one manuscript which seems to define a lot newbies these days. (I now have about fifty items up and counting.) But it’s impatience to get back to writing the next one (and the next one and the next one.) I have taken that to heart from being around here with Dean and at his inestimable wife’s blog.
But thanks for this. The perspective helps.
And thank you Carradee and Dean for the info.
Now back to work.
Scott
Good point Scott. It is of critical importance that you move on and write the next thing. Sometimes tech glitches can spazz out your brain and stop you from moving. That part I hate, but now, I just take it as a sign to move on worry about fixing it later. As I said, about half the time, it fixes itself. The other half I can fix really quickly when I simply don’t prioritize it and work on it when I’m at a natural 15 minute break from writing a few weeks later.
This will sound weird, but a couple of SW uploads ago, I had an important (i.e. my first print and e-book combo) piece fail premium distribution. I non-sarcastically said, “Yay! That’s my sign to move on!”
A few weeks later, I remembered that it had been broken, and took about 20 minutes digging around to see what I had screwed up (instead of the hours I would have wasted in fret-mode at the time) and it came as a welcome, refreshing break to the writing grind. Everything’s good.
One other tip: throw up a huge volume of stuff on SW – that way you can handle your problem files all in one swoop after a few months. On the other hand, if you hit a certain volume, your problem files will decrease in number naturally.
Thanks for this again xdpaul. I am taking the advice. Appreciate it.
And thanks Dean for all the good advice. By the way, I thought I’d let you know that I was reading an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel the other day (the one about Venus; can’t remember the name off hand) and he was talking in the first part about the perfect book and how elusive it is. Thought of what you have been pounding away at here, Dean, immediately.
Cheers.
Here is an email I received from Kobo announcing their writing life platform:
Thank you for signing up to receive notification regarding Kobo’s forthcoming DIY portal for authors.
This is an update to let you know that development and beta testing are progressing nicely.
We are just a few weeks away from the official launch of the platform we are calling Kobo Writing Life.
The portal was designed with a self-published author’s needs and desires in mind, and for that reason contains all of the functionality that you have come to expect from an easy to use and intuitive self-publishing platform, while also including features that fall in line with Kobo’s “Read Freely” philosophy.
- Point and click cover upload and simple metadata entry
- Clear and flexible regional price setup and territorial rights control
- Simple and easy price updating (with no restrictions or exclusivity clauses) – if you want to make your eBook FREE, you should have the freedom to do so AT ANY TIME with no strings attached. It’s YOUR book after all
- Free and automated ePub conversion, along with allowing you to download the ePub and use it for whatever purpose you require (again, no strings)
- Option to upload your own ePub
- No ISBN is necessary to self-publish your eBook with Kobo. (Although we still advise you use an ISBN to ensure it is listed with our various global retail partners to give your eBook maximum exposure in catalogs in over 170 countries)
- A comprehensive and attractive dashboard for quick and easy monitoring of your live sales in a single quick global overview
- As QA and beta testing continues with Phase 1, we are ALREADY working on the next round of updates to Kobo Writing Life, which will include even more comprehensive and customizable reporting, auto-notification options and a unique look into the various social connections readers are having with your books. Making it good is step one; continually making Kobo Writing Life better is our ongoing goal.
All of the features and functions have been created based on feedback from thousands of self-pub authors Kobo has been working with and Kobo’s open, social and collaborative spirit. We also spent a great deal of time listening to what indie authors need to be successful. (And since I’m a writer myself, I made sure that throughout design and development an author’s perspective was held – after all, I’m not only at the helm of this project, but I want to be able to use a DIY portal that is quick and saves me time)
A bit more information about the platform can be found on the following website.
http://www.kobo.com/writinglife
The press release going out to media this morning appears below my signature.
Please note that you DO NOT need to enter your email address again at that site – we already have your email handy and will notify you when the portal goes live.
Thanks again for your interest in Kobo Writing Life. I’m looking forward to working with you.
Sincerely,
Mark
Mark Lefebvre | Director, Self-Publishing & Author Relations
Kobo Inc | 135 Liberty St. Suite 101 Toronto ON M6K 1A7
mlefebvre@kobo.com | 416-977-8737 X3484 http://www.kobo.com
PRESS RELEASE:
Kobo Writing Life Delivers Best-in-Class Open, Collaborative Self-Publishing Portal
Easy-to-use, data driven portal provides authors with reader insights never before seen in self-publishing
New York City, NY (Book Expo America), June 5, 2012 – Kobo Inc., a global leader in eReading, today introduced its self-publishing portal Kobo Writing Life for independent authors and publishers. Designed to help writers become the best authors and publishers possible, Kobo Writing Life offers key reader insights and marketing tools to engage with fans on a global scale.
Another step in the company’s focus and support of open standards, Kobo Writing Life uses industry standard ePub files giving readers more flexibility to choose on what computer, smartphone or eReading device they want to read the self-published titles. At no cost to the author, Kobo Writing Life titles are published easily using a revolutionary self-service portal in minutes. The platform is designed to put the power of all aspects of publishing – from price setting to advertising to marketing – in the hands of the writers helping them to maximize sales.
“When we started working on Kobo Writing Life, the first thing we did was ask authors what they felt was most important in a self-publishing platform,” said Michael Tamblyn, EVP Content & Merchandising, Kobo. “They were incredibly clear: openness, control, great royalties, incredible reporting and global reach. It should be powerful but drop-dead simple. And there should be people running it who care about writers — not like dropping your treasured manuscript into a machine. We can’t wait to see what authors will do with this.”
Unlike competitive self-publishing tools, Kobo allows authors to set their book price to “FREE” at any time without restrictive exclusive agreements, in addition Kobo pays 10% higher royalties on sales in many growing international markets and allows authors much more freedom on pricing. The company’s focus on Social Reading will also give authors the opportunity to connect with readers through its Kobo Author Notes program enabling writers to provide commentary within the book for readers to enjoy as well as through Kobo’s free apps, integrated with Facebook Timeline.
“Kobo has designed an intuitive dashboard that is easy to use and loaded with features important to me as an author,” said Bella Andre, best-selling author of the Sullivan series. “The ability to see the performance of my books across different markets helps me to understand how my advertising and promotions are influencing sales so that I can engage with more readers around the world.”
“Self-publishing is an important way for even established authors to strengthen a personal relationship with fans by offering them new or backlist titles that might not be suitable for large-scale print publishing,” said Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author. “The technology behind platforms like Kobo Writing Life is offering ways for writers to reach specific audiences easily. Some books are suitable for release by a major publisher, while others are better suited to a targeted approach.”
Kobo Writing Life, currently being tested by 50 authors in its beta program, will be available in English at the end of June for the more than 1,600 authors already signed up. Additional languages and country-specific support will be added in the coming year. To sign up for Kobo Writing Life, please visit http://www.kobo.com/writinglife and check out the tutorial videos and FAQ.
Thanks, Josh, for posting that. Much appreciated.
Smashwords is my favourite retailer. I love how you can check views and sample downloads. I know I spend too much time doing that
but I’ve also made more money there than at Amazon. I’ve never had problems with the formatting or the meatgrinder.
This is great new. I tried to get my father’s text books into Kobo before this, not using Smashwords or other service and they made it next to impossible. I’m glad that they have finally seen the light to letting author’s upload their work to the site.
I am a little worried about their “conversion” software I would much rather do the formatting myself.
The email I received (posted above) also states that you’ll have the option to upload your own epub instead of using Kobo’s conversion software.
I just signed up for notifications. I’ll be very happy to go to Kobo directly. My covers don’t look right through Smashwords. Don’t get me wrong, I love Smashwords, but there’s something nice about being able to do it myself. Now if only I could figure out what the hell happened with Diesel….