Here’s a brief update for those of you interested in Kobo (and who wouldn’t be?).
I heard back from an individual within author relations about the current changes going on at the Kobo Book Store. It turns out the version of the book store I have been seeing is a beta roll-out that only 25% of users are currently seeing. I logged out and refreshed and sure enough, the older (and better) version reappeared!
I was reassured that the changes were in progress and that the final product will be much better than the old interface. So far I have noticed that some of the curated lists are beginning to return in the form of visual book-cover-sliders. Plus, I’ve seen a slider for “Hidden Gems,” which appears to be a new curated list (and something tantalizing for writers such as myself, even though all the hidden gems on the list currently appear to be with major publishers).
Reading between the lines of the email communication with said Kobo representative, I came away with my suspicions confirmed that the reviews and star ratings have been nixed due to Amazon’s buyout of Goodreads. I suppose all the realists saw that one coming.
Here is the relevant quote from the email response, “I believe we are working toward creating our own system for leaving reviews, instead of relying on an outside source.” I read this as, “Amazon blew-up our outside source, so now we figure it smart to develop our own.”
For the many of you who may not have noticed, Kobo books (an entity I have much praised in the past) has made some bizarre changes to their online book store that have me stumped (and hopeful that they are merely hallucinations). No one else online seems to be talking about the chances, so I thought I should. I sent the below letter to feedback@kobo.com and now post it here. I’ll let you know if I hear anything in response!