d2d – Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast

SFFMP 210: Selling More at Kobo, Relying Less on Amazon, and What’s Coming for Authors in 2019

December 4, 2018 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

We talked to return guest Mark Leslie Lefebvre this week. You may remember him as the director of author relations at Kobo, but he’s moved over to the distributor Draft2Digital. We talked about some of the new features coming online there. Mark has recently published a couple of non-fiction books, Killing It on Kobo and The 7 P’s of Publishing Success, so we asked him some Kobo-specific questions as well as his thoughts on succeeding at the non-Amazon retailers and where the self-publishing industry is going in 2019.

If you want to check out the other episodes Mark was on, try Kobo’s New Subscription Service and the State of the Industry (125) and International Sales Trends/Tips and Selling More Ebooks at Kobo with Mark Lefebvre (78).

Here are some of the specifics that we went over this week:

Author consulting and what some of the common problems are for newer authors.
How the industry is doing as of December 2018 and whether the ebook market is truly saturated.
Whether authors need to be smarter these days to succeed.
Why the digital ebook world can present some challenges for branding and keeping fans once people find one of your books or series and enjoy it.
How social media, if you’re comfortable learning one or more of the platforms, can help you connect more fully to readers and become an author they remember.
Some of the basic things you can do to sell more books at Kobo.
Using the Books2Read site to create links that will redirect readers to their preferred retailer.
Remembering that Kobo is bigger in other countries than in the US and paying attention to global pricing.
Kobo’s distribution deal with Walmart in the US.
Whether you can “make it” wide (in the non-Amazon stores) without getting Bookbub sponsorships or spending a lot on advertising.
Tips for making readers aware of subsequent books in a series.
Tips for succeeding in the non-Amazon bookstores.
Thoughts on Google Play and whether any authors are doing well there.
Some new features coming up at Draft2Digital including print formatting and D2D Universes (something of a replacement for the now defunct Kindle Worlds).

Make sure to visit Mark on his website (you can contact him there if you have any Draft2Digital-specific questions) and check out Killing It on Kobo for tips on selling more books there. You can also subscribe to Mark’s publishing-related podcast, Stark Reflections. And finally, if you’re a horror/ghost fan, Mark published some new stuff this year! Macabre Montreal: Ghostly Tales, Ghastly Events, and Gruesome True Stories (with Shayna Krishnasamy) and Nocturnal Screams.

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amazon, d2d, draft2digital, google play, kobo, mark lefebvre, mark leslie

SFFMP 100: Increasing International Sales and Doing Better on Non-Amazon Platforms with Dan Wood of Draft2Digital

September 27, 2016 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

Today, we spoke with Dan Wood from the ebook distributor Draft 2 Digital. We asked him a bit about D2D itself and then jumped into marketing questions and best practices based on what he sees.

Here are some specifics of what we covered:

Which stores can Draft2Digital get you into and in which countries?
Which e-tailers account for the most sales for D2D authors
The state of international markets and whether any are coming on strong
Some of D2D’s new features, such as the ability to do pre-orders with several retailers and the ability to put your own affiliate links in the back of your books
How to get on the radar with the various retailers and get invited into special promotions
Who pre-orders are best for
How to gain traction on the non-Amazon platforms
Whether permafree is still effective with Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc.
Suggestions for reaching international audiences and whether permafree works there too
Best practices when it comes to pricing in the different countries
When going wide makes sense and when it might make more sense to be exclusive with Amazon
If there is anything to watch out for as far as using keywords in titles and book descriptions
Whether D2D is going to make a deal with Google Play and start distributing to them
Who to email to ask about possibly getting invited into a promotion for a specific retailer (authorrelations@draft2digital.com)

You can visit Draft2Digital if you’re interested in creating an account or check out their blog for marketing advice. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.