Just a quick update to let you know that The Rising is now available on the Nook and on Kobo e-readers as well as the Kindle. If you’re wondering why no Apple version it’s because I don’t own a Mac computer, so I can’t do Apple Store self-publishing stuff. I could go through other sites to get that, but I don’t really care about Apple. When Apple starts allowing someone with Linux to access it’s store, then I’ll care. Don’t hold your breath.
Tales From Ocherva, Volume One is now only .99 cents on Kobo, Nook and Kindle. At least it will be soon. This is your gateway into the Star Saga universe with short stories set on the dessert moon and featuring the Devon Ardel and her Stellar Rangers. Looks like Nook was first to post the new price.
In honor of all of Sony’s Ereader users being moved to Kobo, I’ve decided to set free my latest short stories on Kobo. They will be free until I deem it otherwise. Possibly forever. But maybe just a week. Don’t risk missing out.
If you are an Indy author, you really should have as much of your inventory on Kobo as you possibly can. I have all of my novels and one anthology on Kobo right now, with plans to bring my short stories over as soon as they clear the KDP Select program and get new covers.
Here’s why –
Kobo’s Writing Life program for Indy authors is easy to use and feature rich. If you can load your books onto Amazon you can certainly do so with ease using Kobo’s Writing Life.
As an Indy author I’ve also made all the links to the books on my website point to my local Indy bookstore (Yeah for Rediscoverd Books), so they get credit for the Kobo sales from people who loiter on my website. This helps your local Indy book seller and you, the Indy author. If you don’t have a local Indy bookstore, use the closest one to you. If anything it might get you into their store and talking to their staff.
Kobo is a Canadian company and they have lots of hooks in overseas markets. So you can’t lose anything by selling with them. Who knows, you could be real big in Japan and never know it.
In case you haven’t been paying attention to Kobo, they have some really cool ereaders these days. You can purchase the readers from your local Indy bookseller too. Or you could get the Kobo app for your Android or Apple device. You’ll need at least the app to verify that your formatting is good.
It is my contention that Indy authors should both support their local Indy bookstores and be a presence in as many online stores as possible. Making your inventory available on Kobo helps the little guy and adds to the available market place. If you only sell on Kindle, you are putting all your eggs in one basket and that could be trouble if they ever change the rules down the line. The same goes for all the online ebook sellers.
I still get the majority of my sales from Kindle, but in the last six months or so, both Kobo and Nook sales are increasing. Even in the incredibly low margins that I play in, I still benefit from having a diverse portfolio.
Just a quick note to let you know that you can now purchase my novel Tyrmia and my anthology – Tales From Ocherva, Volume One on Kobo. Both ebooks are DRM free and epub formatted. Enjoy!
These two ebooks are also available in other formats from Smashwords. Click on the book covers in the right hand side bar to select a vendor.
I’ve changed up how I now use the Kindle Select Program. My novels and the anthology are now off the program and available in as many ebook stores as I can get them. But my related short stories are still in the Kindle Select Program. Instead of offering a short story free for the weekend, I have made it free for a solid five days. This means that you won’t see it for free again for about 90 days. But each week, I will feature a new story, so in a month you could get as many as four stories for free.
I wasn’t seeing any value to having the stories available for only two days out of the week. As for the novels, the Halo Effect that I was seeing when I offered them for free, is now no longer effective. Amazon changed their ways in the last few months and now offering books for free is kind of useless. Not sure what they were trying to do there, but they lost my books because of their changes.
The good news for most readers is that now only the short stories are exclusive to Kindle and all the other books are more widely available. Savvy readers will just buy the anthology and get most of my shorts on their chosen non-Kindle platform.
