Kobo

Kobo Books: Customer Service

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Customer ServiceI’ve tracked www.Kobobooks.com for several weeks now, keeping my eye on the following things:

My intent has been to deduce whether Kobo seems to understand what it will take to become a serious player in the eBook retail universe currently dominated almost exclusively by Amazon and their Kindle store. My perspective is unabashedly that of an indie author. Today’s post will discuss Kobo’s customer service. (Follow the linked bullet points for the other posts.)

Results: Customer Service

I’ve by no means tested every aspect of Kobo’s interaction with users of its new Writing Life platform, but I’ve published a handful of titles, changed prices, sent some inquiries, suggestions and complaints.

Here’s what I’ve learned.

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Kobo Books: Search Capabilities

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Kobo free filtered searchI’ve tracked www.Kobobooks.com for several weeks now, keeping my eye on the following things:

My intent has been to deduce whether Kobo seems to understand what it will take to become a serious player in the eBook retail universe currently dominated almost exclusively by Amazon and their Kindle store. My perspective is unabashedly that of an indie author. Today’s post will discuss Kobo’s search and sort capabilities. (Follow the linked bullet points for the other posts.)

Results: Searching and Sorting

Shelf space has been heralded as the game changing factor of the eBook age. No longer are books, readers or authors restricted to the physical space of brick and mortar stores. As a result smaller genres and niche and/or genre bending stories have more likelihood of gaining readership (theoretically).

But these eBooks still have to grab the attention of readers in order to be read. SEO has become the new shelf space. Search capabilities and clever algorithms (killbots as I like to call them) rule the day. So, for Kobo to be a real player in the emerging eBook retail sector it would stand to reason they must address this critical need. How have they done?

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Kobo Books: Recommended Reading Lists

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Kobo Books Reading ListsI’ve tracked www.Kobobooks.com for several weeks now, keeping my eye on the following things:

  • rankings
  • recommended reading lists
  • search and sort capabilities
  • customer service
  • the writing life platform
  • the app, the eReader, etc.

My intent has been to deduce whether Kobo seems to understand what it will take to become a serious player in the eBook retail universe currently dominated almost exclusively by Amazon and their Kindle store. My perspective is unabashedly that of an indie author. Today’s post will discuss Kobo’s recommending reading lists. (Follow the linked bullet points for the other posts.)

Results: Recommended Reading Lists

Depending on how you arrive at the kobo store (none of this applies to the kobo application) the left bar will look slightly different. But all configurations include some variation of “browse by category” lists, “Recommended Reading” lists and “Today’s Top Fifty” (top 50 bestseller’s list).

The category lists take you to the same genre lists we’ve already explored. The top fifty is just that, and it is refreshed on a daily basis as advertised. This list appears to be where the vast majority of Kobo shoppers shop.

The “Recommended Reading” lists seem to be an integral part of what Kobo is trying to do to court both readers and publishers. But I found their methods rather disappointing and their results even more so.

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