Comments on: Yay for Kobo Writing Life! http://www.onelowerlight.com/writing/?p=7542 Blog of science fiction & fantasy writer Joe Vasicek Fri, 17 May 2013 04:19:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Joe Vasicek http://www.onelowerlight.com/writing/?p=7542&cpage=1#comment-37044 Joe Vasicek Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:17:28 +0000 http://www.onelowerlight.com/writing/?p=7542#comment-37044 Kobo is owned by Rikoten and has about nine million customers. They still have some kinks to work out with their self-publishing platform and their search engine, but I wouldn’t go so far to call them a “rinky-dink outlet.”

All of the previewers (especially Nook and Kindle) have problems. I only check them to make sure that I haven’t uploaded the wrong file by mistake. Instead, I make sure to upload a clean copy of whatever file type actually goes out to the customer, in order to minimize problems with conversion and maximize my control over the process. That is (yet another reason) why Smashwords is so frustrating–they won’t let me upload an actual ebook to their site.

People are buying my books across all the outlets (except Diesel, for some reason). I can’t afford to buy all my books plus a nook, a kobo, and a kindle, so really I have to just trust that everything is fine. I do preview the .mobi files on my kindle, but of course kindle doesn’t take .epub so I have to stick with Calibre for that. But I’m changing my publication process so that I create an .epub first, then convert it into .mobi. Hopefully, that will help me to catch any problems that might happen in the .epub version.

]]> By: Sean http://www.onelowerlight.com/writing/?p=7542&cpage=1#comment-37043 Sean Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:54:32 +0000 http://www.onelowerlight.com/writing/?p=7542#comment-37043 Uploading without previewing?? Not sure that’s the best business model to follow. The only way you’ll know if there are formatting problems is when no one buys your books. We should be sure each book loads correctly and doesn’t end up looking like some Smashwords meatgrinder hack job. I sent Kobo an email yesterday and have yet to hear back. We’ll see how their customer service stacks up against Amazon’s. I was stoked about KWL but I get the feeling they’re going to be the rinky-dink outlet I feared they would. I’ll keep ya posted if I hear back.

Thanks Joe;)

]]> By: Joe Vasicek http://www.onelowerlight.com/writing/?p=7542&cpage=1#comment-37040 Joe Vasicek Wed, 18 Jul 2012 00:57:24 +0000 http://www.onelowerlight.com/writing/?p=7542#comment-37040 Not sure. I formatted my files as .epub beforehand and uploaded them without previewing. I’m pretty sure they’re clean, but if problems pop up, I’ll have to look into that.

I’d suggest asking around on the Kindle Boards.

]]> By: Sean http://www.onelowerlight.com/writing/?p=7542&cpage=1#comment-37038 Sean Tue, 17 Jul 2012 20:58:07 +0000 http://www.onelowerlight.com/writing/?p=7542#comment-37038 I published a book with Kobo today and cannot figure out how to make sure the formatting is correct. Their sample button simply sends it to my library and then nothing happens when I go to my library. I can’t sample any of their books like I can on Amazon and B&N. Not sure that making customers jump through hoops like this is going to give them an edge over anyone. Any tips??

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