My experience with Kobo Writing Life so far...

A few days ago, I wrote about how Kobo had launched its first e-book publishing platform - Writing Life -one that may eventually come to rival Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing. I was excited and eager to get my books up on the site as I love to see my books sales in 'real' time and not have to wait until Smashwords decides to report them.

So, how have I been getting on?

The answer to this would be 'slowly.' It turns out my tried and trusted formatting for Smashwords doesn't work so well for the epub conversion on Kobo. Or at least it does... for some books... not so much for others. And considering all the books have been formatted in exactly the same way, I've no idea why this is! So, I've been playing around with different formatting, using 'Heading 1' to create an automatic TOC, but again, in some books this is working fine, in others it isn't! I'm sure the formatting experts around won't be struggling with this at all, but I'm finding it a bit of a head-ache.

Secondly, I'm finding the actual publishing process (that is, the time I've hit the publish button to when it actually appears on the site) to be very slow. Two of the books I already had published on Kobo (the Serenity series) and had removed by Smashwords, went up quickly, but a new book, which I published on Thursday, is still not showing on the site.

One final negative, before I start on the good stuff, is the lack of categories Kobo has available to choose from. For romance - which is the biggest genre out there - they only have four categories, and one of those isn't paranormal romance! Considering this is the second category in which I would normally place my vampire series (after Contemporary Fantasy) this leaves me in a bit of a quandary.

However, on a positive note, apart from the conversion issues (which are more due to my lack of knowledge than any fault of Kobo's) the upload process is pretty simple. And - the best part! - you are able to download the epub file to use as you wish, which is fantastic. I also like the ability to over-ride the automatic conversion price to either round up or round down in Hong Kong, and Australian, and New Zealand Dollars, among other currencies.

But here is the big thing, so far, sales have been (drum roll please) a big fat Zero! Now I admit I've only got a couple of books up so it isn't really a fair comparison, but considering my sales on Amazon, B&N, and Apple are easily enough for me to support my family on, not having sold anything yet is a little disappointing.

However, I'm planning on looking at this long term. Kobo are only just starting to build their own sales platform. If they're going to be the next big thing in self-publishing, I plan to be right there beside them!

Kobo's new 'Writing Life' Platform is Open for Business!

Just now I received the email to alert me, along with numerous other indie authors and publishers, that the new 'Writing Life' platform  from Kobo is open for business! This platform has been heralded as the next big competitor to Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon) so I was keen to jump on board.

The first thing I did was register (a quick process) and then I went and removed all my books from the Kobo Smashwords channel. I've seen a few sales come through this channel, but Smashwords are so slow with upload and sales reporting, I'd much rather see the sales come in real time directly via Kobo.

Kobo are paying 70% royalties on higher priced books, so are a good competitor as far as comparing them to the other big publishers (Amazon pays 70%, but Barnes & Noble Pubit, only 60%). I believe they're also saying (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that they're happy for you to take their ePub conversions for you to sell and use as you wish. For me this is a big draw. I struggle with getting ePub files properly converted, and Smashwords doesn't allow you to use their conversions anywhere else.

Well it's ten-thirty at night here in the UK, so I don't intend on starting any uploads tonight. However, tomorrow I'm going to be getting right on it. I'll be sure to report back if their upload and conversion processes are as easy as I've heard from the hype!

Having to reply to comments through new posts!

Not being able to comment on blogger anymore in really annoying (I've tried everything, even switched my email accounts, but no success) so I've decided to reply via new blog posts. Okay, it might end up reading slightly strange to new readers, but I hate not being able to respond and makes it look like I don't either read or appreciate your comments, which I do!

So, in response to yesterday's post; the changes I'm making to Alone don't involve any of the storyline or changes to character. The book will essentially be the same but I'm hoping by tightening up the writing, it will push the book from being good, to great. Readers probably won't even consciously notice the difference but the scenes should be more vivid, the action more immediate, the emotion in the book more powerful. They're small changes I hope will make the book even more readable.

I know you can't please everyone in this business and for the most part Alone has had great reviews, but I just feel my writing has come a long way in the last two years and I want my older work to live up to that standard. There are people in this industry who I've had the good fortune of meeting who have given me loads of advice and help. I trust their opinions and I know if I'm being told something (even if its a bit hard to take sometimes) for the most part its to help me grow as a writer.

Thanks for all your encouragement guys. I'm so glad so many people are enjoying my work!

Oh, and I meant to say thanks so much to Denise for becoming my 100th follower!

Who'll Be My 100th Follower???

My writing life has been under going a lot of changes this past month. My novel, The Followers, has now been put aside (only for the moment) while I make some changes. Honestly, I've never worked as hard on a book as I have on this one, and I'll always listen to constructive criticism when it comes back from Beta Readers. Of course, you can never change everything people throw at you, but if it makes sense and more than one person had brought it up, then I think it's always best to listen. I'd hate to put a book out simply to hit a deadline and for that book to be less than perfect.

In other news, my other two novels, Alone and The Dark Road are also having a revamp. I've learnt a huge amount in the past two years and my writing has come along way (though I still have loads to learn!). Because of this, I couldn't help but feel that both books needed to be worked over again and they'll also both be launched with brand new covers.

While these changes are happening they'll be unavailable to buy. As I mentioned before, I want everything I have out to be nothing short of perfect. But watch this space, guys! They'll be better than ever and I'm super excited about seeing them all in paperback.

So... I'm up to 99 followers on my little old blog. Who will be number 100, I wonder??? Whoever you are, it's lovely to meet you!