David Mark Brown's Blog, page 9

Kobo Books: Writing Life Platform

Posted in eBook revolution

[image error]I’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 Writing Life Platform. (Follow the linked bullet points for the other posts.)

The Results: Writing Life

Props to Kobo. Their new Writing Life spanks Barnes and Nobles’ PubIt! with both hands. I would go so far as saying Kobo’s platform matches Amazon’s KDP. It is early on, and thus Writing Life is not as advanced. But the next iteration could combine many of the abilities of Amazon’s Author Central and KDP into a single source.

The Good

The thing I love most about Writing Life might be a major downer for some. But I love the fact I can simply upload an .epub file directly. Amazon does a pretty good job of converting my files into their proprietary (read, ridiculous) format. But I put work into making my .epubs look the way I want them too (read, awesome). So being able to upload that .epub directly into the Kobo store makes me sing songs of freedom.

The platform is pretty neat, clean and responsive. There are some how-to videos, but I didn’t need any of them. Everything worked as advertised with the first uploads, and took around fifteen minutes a title. I loved the flexibility of setting prices automatically or manually for the different countries Kobo sells in.

The $1.99 price point for getting 70% royalties is significant (compared to $2.99 at Amazon). For several of my 10,000 to 15,000 word short stories I feel $1.99 is a good price where $2.99 feels too expensive.

The dashboard and sales tracking for Writing Life is simplistic at this point, but visual and clear. I like it. As I’ve mentioned before, they seriously need an ability to track free sales. I’m hoping they add this in the next version. That leads us to…

The Bad

First a small thing. I’m disappointed the editor for book description doesn’t allow any HTML. Amazon’s KDP doesn’t either, but you can get around that by using Author Central to update book descriptions. Writing Life has an opportunity to outdo Amazon by supplying that ability from the initial upload and simplifying my life by cutting out the need to log on to another site and perform another task with every single title.

There is no direct way to get from Writing Life to the Kobo store product pages. Another simple thing, but annoying none the less. Lastly, the Dashboard is simply a glance at sales. None of the numbers are “actionable” or linked to any more detailed data. You can’t look back at the month before. You can’t break out price points that copies were sold at, etc. If Kobo is able to add complexity to this tracking then this will be another advantage they will have over Amazon which requires you to go to Author Central to get the rest of the info.

The Ugly

Most of the ugly goes back to my last post on customer service. Kobo assistance seems to be either overworked or undertrained at this point. Response time lags behind KDP by 2 to 4 days on most things. Sometimes that may not matter. But if a promotional is coming up and your price still hasn’t uploaded or your cover disappears, a couple of days could mean being ready for the traffic uptick or missing the entire window.

Lion or Lamb? Lion

Writing Life is the best thing about Kobo currently (from a publisher/indie writer view). I just can’t get over the thrill of uploading an .epub and having it look the way I want it to look, priced the way I want it priced and giving me 70% royalty with each purchase. Top all that off with the ability for readers to read my content on any device (accept a Kindle) and I’m in love.

Plus, Kobo is offering 80% royalties instead of 70% during the entire month of September. These sorts of bold moves give me hope Kobo will make the moves necessary to court and win indie authors in significant numbers (thus benefitting readers and writers both).

Overall the platform is more visually appealing that KDP and just as easy to use. If Kobo is able to improve their stat tracking abilities and simplify the process for users who don’t have ready to go .epubs (every writer should be using Scrivener by Literature and Latte at this point, thus this shouldn’t be a concern) then Writing Life will rock the pants off of KDP in the future. Now if Kobo could get their store anywhere near up to speed with Amazon’s Kindle store we’d have a real competition on our hands (but more about that in my next post).

Top 10 Simpsons Episodes for Spiritual Discussion

Posted in spiritual musing

[image error]It has recently come to my attention that a simple listing of Simpsons episodes openly dealing with spiritual issues can be a bit difficult to find. Since I have watched an episode every night of my life for the past 15 years (thirteen of those as a campus pastor) it took little energy to create such list. So I hope this helps!

Homer Vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment (Season 2): Homer steals cable (as American as stealing apple pie!), but Lisa fears for his soul. This is a good episode for bringing up character issues, stealing and integrity. How do we respond when corruption is the norm?

Homer the Heretic (Season 4): Homer skips church and proceeds to have the best morning of his life, thus deciding to never go to church again and develop his own faith. This episode brings up the issues of Church and community. Why do we bother to be a part of something so messed up and annoying (sometimes)?

In Marge we Trust (Season 8): Burned out, Reverend Lovejoy passes on the job of spiritual advisor to Marge, who tackles the responsibility with cheerful fervor. But pat answers soon go awry. I like this episode for dealing with the difficulties of the Christian life. Does Christianity guarantee happiness and the easy life? (Answer, no.) How do we listen, grieve with those who grieve, and how does Jesus call us to care for others in genuine community?

Lisa the Skeptic (Season 9): Lisa uncovers what appears to be an angle skeleton causing a debate between faith and rationalism. This is a good one dealing with the value of skepticism. Does God require Christians to check their brains at the door?

The Joy of Sect (Season 9): The Movementarians set up camp in Springfield, asking people to surrender all their possessions and labor to the cause (which almost everyone does). Other than being freaking hilarious, this episode deals with reason and faith and cults. How do we believe in evangelism (or Evangelicalism) without falling into the trap of religion as manipulation?   Can Christian faith operate as a set of rules, “do this in order to go to paradise”?

Simpsons Bible Stories (Season 10): In three parts, this episode colorfully retells the stories of Adam and Eve, the Exodus and David and Goliath. I like this one for a look at how today’s non-churched culture sees the Bible. Where does the Word of God intersect post-modern culture? How do we apply this dusty old book and seemingly nonsensical OT stories to real life?

Faith Off (Season 11): Bart becomes a faith healer after removing a bucket from Homer’s head, but then goes through a crisis of belief. Miracles. Are they real? Do they happen today? Should we pray for/ask for healing? What if it doesn’t happen? If I pray for someone not to die of cancer and they do, does that mean I don’t have faith? or I didn’t pray correctly? These are all extremely poignant questions dealt with in this episode.

Missionary Impossible (Season 11): Homer needs to lie low and ends up being sent to a pacific island as a missionary where he quickly corrupts the indigenous population. Missions and evangelism. Do all paths lead to heaven? Why should we bother trying to convert people away from their beliefs if they are happy the way they are? Aren’t missions just an attempt to convert people to our Western culture? This episode raises these tough issues.

She of Little Faith (Season 13): Lisa shops for a new belief system, one that suits her wants and needs. What does the church today stand for? Relativism, commercialism and health and wealth have all caused much of the mainstream church to be so watered down that universalism has made it seem that all faiths are basically the same (and none of them worth real devotion). Can’t I just shop around for the pieces of religion that serve me the best and follow that? These issues are so much a part of Western culture that many won’t even see the need to discuss this. It’s just accepted truth.

Pray Anything (Season 14): Homer tries to get to the bottom of Flanders’ success, and decides it is prayer. But does he have a grip on what prayer is? This episode deals with the nature of prayer. How does it work? Can I/should I pray for anything? How do I know if God is answering? What about people who misinterpret God’s answers? Should prayer always be an individual exercise? or communal?

There are many more great Simpsons episodes for spiritual discussion, but these are some of the most obvious. I used some of them in talks and discussions and could imagine a zillion other uses. (Here is a link to a site where a guy developed a 10 commandments series using Simpsons episodes.) So go crazy! Who doesn’t like to talk about real life issues and the Simpsons? Get your Flanders on!

Kobo Books: Customer Service

Posted in eBook revolution

[image error]I’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 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. They are optimistic, slow and impersonal, but trying to figure it out. Initially publishing my books (via .epub file upload) was completely easy and certainly comparable to Amazon’s process. My books began appearing in the Kobo store in less than 8 hours.

Then I decided to run a special and lower the prices on some of my titles. This didn’t go as smoothly. A few of the titles updated the price within the promised 72 hours. Two of them updated the price but lost their covers. I tried uploading the covers again after sending an email to the staff. I got a response from my email three days later, a couple hours after the covers reappeared “on their own.” (Because I reuploaded them).

Out of the two titles that never updated their prices, one of them finally changed after saving the new price again (and three days of waiting). The other title never corrected the price. After the month long promotional ended, it didn’t matter. So I dropped it.

I also queried in regards to Kobo’s “short reads” list. After four days I heard back from someone via a semi-form letter ignoring the main gist of my question. Rather than answering my question about how material is selected for the list, and if there was a process I could engage, the response said something to the effect of, “thanks for using writing life, and yes we have a “short reads” list.

After a second attempt, I got a response stating that everything for sale on the Kobo store is considered and that someone curates the list. Later on I commented that the Writing Life platform dashboard would be greatly improved by the ability to track free sales. Five days later I got a response saying the current version was a beta and they planned on making improvements. Again, a very general sort of thing. Why did it take 5 days to send out a form letter?

Kobo does haver some automated emails that have been helpful. After making my first $10 worth of sales they sent me an encouraging email with some suggestions on how to improve my Kobo presence.

Royalties are sent out after reaching the $100 marker, which sadly I haven’t hit yet. And I live in the States where such services usually work a bit smoother even for a Canadian based company. So that is where my experience with Kobo comes to an end.

Kitten or Lion? Over-worked kitten

I really like the Writing Life platform. While setting up my titles I didn’t need any customer service (which is always the best kind!) But Kobo doesn’t appear to have the personnel in place to fulfill all of their promises just yet. I did just get a notice from one of my readers a few days ago that they got an email suggesting one of my other works (due to her buying of another one of my stories). This is another good sign that Kobo is trying to boost their recommendation abilities. But so far, Amazon has set the gold standard for customer service. Of all my interactions with Amazon I had only one negative one with CreateSpace which just forced me to come up with a work around. (Systems always have their silly rigid spots.)

Partly my response may be tainted by the fact that for some reason I expected a smaller company like Kobo to be able to put a little more personal touch on their interactions. That hasn’t been the case, and may be unfair of me to expect.

Downtown Nampa: Bowl of Phở

Posted in Downtown Nampa

[image error]At 83,000 residents Nampa, Idaho is the second largest city in the state. Both the redneck and spiritual center of the state, Nampa is the rural, God-fearing workingman’s urban hub. But, after suffering a series of brutal economic blows and setbacks, downtown Nampa now teeters at the brink. Or maybe it’s a turning point.

Step aside BoDo. It’s time for another installment of DNT. (Official revival name yet to be determined, but work with me on this.)

Downtown should always be synonymous with diversity (in my opinion), so this week I’m proud to boast about Nampa’s best and only Vietnamese restaurant, smack dab in the middle of downtown.

The Little Saigon

I realize I am a whitey, like most of those here in Nampa (either hispanic or whitey). But I do own a Vietnamese kid and spent a couple weeks in country while acquiring him. My wife and I have eaten Pho in five states and two countries (including the one it originated in). So I have a little authority when I say Little Saigon makes a mean bowl of Pho. (Maybe a little more cracked pepper than traditional, but I find the twist a nice touch). My only criticism is they don’t have a large bowl option. The only size they serve is plenty satisfying for normal or healthy appetites. But there is occasion for a whopping bowl.

The restaurant is actually owned and run by Vietnamese. While they do offer the typical selection of Chines dishes as well, do yourself a favor and order from the Vietnamese selections. A steak house may have a great hamburger, but when you have the chance for excellent steak, why settle for burger?

If you have lived here in Nampa for a while and still haven’t tried Little Saigon’s Phở Thì, for shame. (You don’t want people to think you’re a racist, do you?) Just kidding. But just incase you thought Asians were only good at math and science, remember, cooking involves both! (I know, I’m horrible.)

Doing better than most downtown restaurants, Little Saigon actually maintains good hours even in the summer! They are wisely closed on Sunday, considering that like 80% of Nampa’s population deems it anathema to dine out on the Sabbath (you know I kid!) (Sorta). So feel free to  adventure there most anytime you get hungry. Make DNT (Down-Nampa-Town) great!

Kobo Books: Search Capabilities

Posted in eBook revolution

[image error]I’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 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?

I’ve already written about Kobo’s genres lists and recommended reading lists. The fact Kobo has these lists is a positive. For the most part their genre listings follow the Book Industry Communication standards much like Amazon. These lists help readers find books they might be interested in.

Kobo has two basic ways to search

First, one can browse the category (genre) listings I’ve just mentioned. Navigating these can be a little confusing due to the difficulty of classifying some genres. Something like Steampunk tends to float around from Historical to Science Fiction to Adventure. Currently Kobo has the Adventure and Action classification under Mystery and Thriller, which may not be intuitive to many.

These genre lists can also be sorted to help in your searching. The default is “Bestsellers.” I have not been able to deduce whether this term is based on pure number of units or if pricing effects this. But free titles do not rise to the top of these lists, so free sales almost certainly to not count the same as others. Usually the top ten in any genre will combine some expensive titles and some 0.99 to 1.99 titles. Kobo also allows sorting by price, rating and title.

That being said, the rating sort is almost worthless due to the fact Kobo does not weigh titles with 1 five star rating any differently than ones with 40 five star ratings. So the top of the list consists of books mostly with a few five star ratings from friends and family. The price sort is not much better due to the fact it does not include free books and that any given genre may have hundreds of titles at each price point (0.99, 1.99, etc.) Some gaming of this has begun with titles being set at 0.98 and 1.98, etc. But so few people use the price sort that this appears to gain the author/publisher nothing.

Second, one can search Kobo using the search field in the top right corner. This feature has tons of potential, but Kobo has not made the most of it. If you know the author or title of a book, sure. Type it in and if you get the exact name or pretty dang close, you will probably get what you want. But this search feature is not as intelligent as it should be. Some examples:

Type in Zombie and get 370 titles with the word “zombie” in the title. No Dawn of the Dead, Walking Dead or Day by Day Armageddon, because they don’t have the word Zombie in the title. Search for the word Zombies and get a whole different list of books with the word “zombies” in the title.
Search for “World War Z” and the Hunger Games come up as the 3,4,5 and 7 options of the top 10. Pride and Prejudice comes up #8 (not the one with zombies).
Type in “Steampunk” and get 64 results, again, only ones with the word “steampunk” in the title.
Searching for broader genre identifiers is still hit or miss. Sometimes the results are spot on, others not. Kobo seems to be in the process of improving this.

But, it is evident Kobo is working on this. Two months ago my search for “pulp fiction” brought up everything with either “pulp” or “fiction” in the title. Now it brings up only 10 titles with “pulp fiction” in them–a little more helpful.

After executing your search Kobo gives you the option to “sort” and “filter.” The default sort is “best matches,” which is usually not all that helpful unless you are looking for a specific title or author. You can also sort by “bestsellers,” “price,” “rating,” and “Title.” Again, bestseller is the most helpful. But due to the low volume of sales on Kobo now a title with only a few sales could be at the top of the list.

Here is where things get both interesting and disappointing. Kobo has a “filter” option that comes up only after doing a specific key word search. This allows the reader to filter the search results for stuff like “pdf” and “free.” This is basically the only way to shop for free titles in the Kobo store. But when using the “free” filter the “bestsellers” sort feature disappears. Kobo simply doesn’t have a way to track free sales. I inquired about this and they sent me back a rather general response saying they had plans to enhance their tracking capabilities (not mentioning free at all).

So, for free books one is forced to do a keyword search for “fiction” then filter by “free only” and sort by either “best match” or “rating.” When sorting by “rating” the first 370 titles have been given a few 5 star ratings. My free offering, Fistful of Reefer comes in around 463 with 38 ratings that average out at 4 star.  There are currently 5591 free titles under “fiction.”

Due to recent changes one can now search for genre keywords such as “action,” “western,” etc. and then filter by “free only” and sort by “rating” or “best matches” and end up with a decent list of free titles that will most likely fit what the reader is searching for.

Kitten or Lion? Baby Lion

Kobo has made improvements in their search capabilities even over the two months I’ve been watching them closely. So they seem to understand the importance of helping readers find niche material. But in my opinion two things are still keeping them from playing with the big cats.

1.) lack of flexibility in keyword searches. Amazon’s tagging system really goes a long way in helping customers sort material very specifically. Sure, the tags get used for all sorts of nonsense as well, but overall I have found them to work.

2.) no free sales tracking! This is a big one for me. I think tons of eBook readers find new authors and new genres via free content. It is the way people browse these days. When a reader feels adventuresome enough to try something or someone new, they will rarely be adventuresome enough to pay for it. Not only does Kobo lack a simple and straightforward way to search free books (unless you are looking for classics in the mainstream genres), but Kobo does not allow for tracking sales stats on free books. This is a serious party foul in my opinion.

Bottom line, Amazon is still leaps and bounds ahead of Kobo in this area. Author pages on Amazon even have similar author recommendations! But it appears that Kobo is making moves in the right direction. I’m optimistic they will develop roving killbots of their own which could some day compete with Amazon’s.

Kobo Books: Recommended Reading Lists

Posted in eBook revolution

[image error]I’ve tracked www.Kobobooks.com for several weeks now, keeping my eye on the following things:

rankings
recommending reading lists
search and sort capabilities
customer service
changes to both the store and the writing life platform
my personal content for sale in the kobo store

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.

First, some of the basics. The available lists evolve. Two examples during my time of observation include the trendy beyond 50 Shades of Grey list and the renaming of the indie product list to “Reads from Kobo Writing Life” and then to “Kobo Writing Life Bestsellers.”

The lists update sporadically, but usually between once to three times a week. When they do, the most common method of updating is to toss a few titles into the top few slots and push all the rest down accordingly. I suppose the good thing about this (as an author/publisher) is that once you make one of these lists you will remain on the list for a while.

Curation Vs. Statistics

The main differentiation between these lists and the bestseller lists is that the recommending reading lists are curated by Kobo staff, and apparently have nothing (or very little) to do with statistics. Upon inquiring about the “Short Reads” list I was told as much.

I like curation, theoretically. The bummer is that the titles chosen seem random and based on reasons other than either quality of product or quantity of sales. As a reader, I don’t trust the lists due to their misleading nature. A book at the number one spot of “Great Reads under $4.99″ should, in my mind, be the best or top-selling inexpensive title in the kobo store.

Occasionally these lists reshuffle, moving all the books around to different spots on the list while barely changing the actual content of the list. To me this felt like a slight of hand to try to get customers who have recently viewed the list to see new books they might have missed before by convincing them it was a new list. And again, it seemed irrational, or at least non-statistical.

After a few comments and recommendations from me I did notice one of my titles suddenly pop onto the bottom of the “Reads from Kobo Writing Life” list. Apparently it didn’t merit being added at the top via common practice. I had noted by checking the rankings of the indie products at the top of the list that being so ranked didn’t really seem to help sales anyway. I didn’t gain any additional sales from my week-long stay on the bottom of the list. Then the list changed to an actual “bestseller” list and I was dropped.

Currently the “Kobo Writing Life Bestsellers” list includes any products uploaded via the Writing Life platform. Most of the titles are smaller to mid-size, indie presses and not individuals. Hugh Howey’s Wool Omnibus is at the number one currently, with a Terry Goodkind book in third.

Curation without Trust = Laxative Brownies

Overall, the concept of curated lists could serve Kobo well. One thing I have begged for in the past is a sort of online eBook version of the local neighborhood bookstore that thrives via curation rather than box-store tactics. But these curated lists don’t seem to make sense or hold authority. They almost feel like “staff picks” but without the transparency as such.

As a small fry it feels unfair. At least Amazon treats a number as a number. If I push up sales my title can rank next to the biggest name author. On Kobo it feels like the curated lists are overflowing with big name and big press titles simply because a staffer has easier access to them and knows it will take less effort to convince a reader to buy them (thus making Kobo money).

It’s possible that if I pushed my sales up I would flag the attention of a staffer who would then put my book on a list. But honestly, in this case an Amazon killbot seems more reliable than a human who might have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed or taken offense at my wee-beady eyes.

Lion or Kitten?: Kitten

The bottom line is that Kobo is not pushing enough sales to rely completely on sales-based rankings. So they have wisely moved toward curated lists. But these curated lists are not working. Making the top ten on these lists does very little (from what I can tell) to generate actual sales.

At first this shocked me. I assumed most Kobo shoppers would be pouring over these immensely accessible lists for their next read. But after following how the lists were curated/updated it didn’t surprise me that readers do not trust the lists. They might be using the lists as a place to start, but are sticking to the big name titles or books they already recognize.

Some of the titles being added to the top of these curated lists smack of favoritism or deals worked out between Kobo and publishing houses.

To move toward Lion, Kobo needs to start creating lists readers care about and can trust. Maybe something like a zombie list chocked full of quality reads that have a reason to be on the list, or steampunk or YA dystopian or Anti-heros to die for. Do something different and do it right. The purpose of curation should be to 1.) Help readers easily find new books 2.) they enthusiastically want to read. (Not to make publishers happy with worthless visibility or sort readily available, commercial titles arbitrarily.)

Kobo Books: Kitten or Lion?

Posted in eBook revolution

[image error]I’ve tracked www.Kobobooks.com for five weeks now, keeping my eye on the following things:

rankings
recommending reading lists
search and sort capabilities
customer service
changes to both the store and the Writing Life platform
my personal experience with Writing Life

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.

I’ll do my best to breakdown each of the above bullet points in a series of four posts. I’ll provide my observations/data and give my personal opinion whether Kobo is currently taking a kitten stance, or lion. Today we’ll deal with Kobo’s rankings.

The Results: Rankings

Kobo appears to have two sets of connected rankings. From any product page consumers are given rankings for said product for each of the product’s listed genres (the Writing Life platform allows publishers to select up to three). These rankings are slow to change and only reflect the general rank rather than exact.

By clicking on the actual genre, Men’s Adventure in this case, you will be directed to the Men’s Adventure genre list sorted according to “Best Sellers” (you can also sort by price, rating and title). If a product is rated #83 on the product page this indicates that the product will be specifically ranked somewhere below #83 and above whatever the next selected breakpoint may be (possibly somewhere around #120). Once the product slips below #120 it would then be ranked #120 on the product page.

In general this causes products to reflect higher rankings on their product pages for longer periods of time. Also it should be noted that many (probably all) of Kobo’s genre lists are significantly less competitive than Amazon’s. This makes sense. There are less titles and these titles are selling less copies. For example, selling three copies of a product within the Men’s Adventure genre (a smaller one) will move that product from the bottom, #990, to around #60. AND keep the product there for a month.

This latter part seems to be what others have referred to via casual observation. Kobo’s bestseller lists (not to be confused with their recommending reading lists) are not as volatile as Amazon’s. If you can get on to one of Kobo’s bestseller lists, or climb near the top, you are much more likely to stay there longer than with other eBook retailers.

Kobo has a “list of latest free eBooks.” But the list is apparently devoid of any sort of rhyme or reason. I uploaded a free eBook via Writing Life that certainly did not go on the list. So it is not all of the latest free eBooks. In fact there are only thirty modern eBooks on the list, and around 24 of those have been the same for the last five weeks (10 of them Star Wars freebies). The rest of the list consists of classics that can be found for free almost anywhere online. My assumption is that again this list is curated, but based on what criteria?

The Writing Life platform has no means to track “free sales” so I have no idea how many downloads I’ve gotten. The same title has been free in the Kindle store for several months. After the first three months of increased downloads it has settle into an average of 5 downloads a day. If I were to make a guess, I would say I’m getting around 1 a week on the kobo store, and that from links outside the store. (Kobo has no viable way to search free eBooks unless you know exactly what you are looking for, but more on that in my search and sort post.)

My titles simply do not sell enough copies for me to have the statistical feedback needed to make hard and fast conclusions on how Kobo’s rankings work. But initial observations indicate Kobo puts more weight on monthly sales than hourly, daily or weekly. While a sale will effect a product’s climb up the rankings within minutes or hours, that product will not be subjected to the same sort of downward fall.

My suspicion is that Kobo’s rankings are actually quite simplistic, possibly based entirely on monthly sales. This could mean they are ripe for the sort of gaming indie authors slammed Amazon with during the winter of 2011/2012.

Kitten or Lion? Inconclusive (sorry)

The fact Kobo has product page rankings and genre lists is a positive indicator they are moving toward Lion. B&N has made no progress forever. Kobo has a star rating system. But the system is independent of leaving a review, because they snag their reviews from Goodreads. On the one hand I like the fact that my reviews from Goodreads automatically load onto my Kobo product pages (if you use the same ISBN on page sites). But this makes the star rankings less meaningful.

Overall, Kobo is in a catch 22. I think they could be poised for Lion status w/rankings, but due to the low statistical sales in comparison to Amazon, they appear to be stuck. If only a few sales can put a book near the top then rankings mean very little. So they curate several lists. But their curation makes little sense to me and feels purely commercial rather than being based on a more reader friendly or “neighborhood bookstore” method.

Kobo cannot and should not try to duplicate Kindle. I don’t want more 50 Shades of Grey and Hunger Games. I wish instead I could peruse an eBook retailer that would say, “Hey, I bet you haven’t seen these books. Check ‘em out, and you’ll be glad you did.”

*If anyone who has access to higher sales numbers (around 30 to 50 units a month) could contribute to this it would help greatly.

Guerre Stellari

Posted in Centerfolds

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Illustrator Timothy Anderson has re-imagined the original Star Wars trilogy films asSpaghetti Westerns. Various sized prints are available for purchase at the Timothy Anderson Art Print Store.

Microwave Auditory Effect: Uncle Sam Says

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[image error]Heard any voices in your head lately? I know I sure have.

While I’m fairly sure mine are simply the result of the sort of self-willed madness we writers invite upon ourselves in the name of creativity (I’m winning three separate arguments with myself even as I type), your voices could be another result of government interference.

And I’m not talking about the oppressive polity of overly-bored and underly-creative legislators. No, this time I’m talking about the microwave portion of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. Who knew, but during the cold war the United States government funded research that revealed it was possible to deliver audible clicks and noises directly into the human head via microwaves.

The phenomena has been labeled the microwave auditory effect or the Frey effect, named after the researcher, Allen H. Frey.

Nothing sinister yet, but we all know that everything during the Cold War was most certainly taken to sinister extremes only to be covered up and disavowed by Ronald Reagan (conveniently effected by his own administration’s mind ray).

The official record states that zapping people with communication consisting of more complex words and sentences was not attempted due to requiring unsafe exposure of the human guinea pigs. Well, we all know that is government-ese for “Off the record, we mind-juiced a bunch of inmates something fierce until they thought they was carrying on a conversation with Allah, Jesus and Buddha all three!”

Another shocking developement, but it turns out lots of American citizens (and a gaggle of Soviet ones too) all suspect they were zapped with microwaves during the 70′s and 80′s without their expressed written or implied verbal consent! In my opinion, it goes without saying that they most certainly were. (Government sympathizers blame things like drug-induced freak-outs for all these feelings of paranoia, but we all know drugs during the 70′s were as rare as polyester at an Elvis convention.) And how else could the government try out the more dispersed effect of their crazy ray and make sure that it would work on people who hadn’t already been institutionalized.

Heck, in 1976 Time Magazine even reported on how the Soviets had been busted for beaming microwaves directly at the U.S Embassy building for 15 years. Of course they later claimed it was simply to jam sophisticated electronic equipment (likely story). But we all know the real intent was to bury the latest Bee Gee lyrics so deep into those diplomats’ psyches they’d disco themselves to death (a form of torture tragically overlooked by all four Geneva Conventions).

Anyway, all of this to say, you really shouldn’t listen to the voices in your head. Not because you might be crazy, and the voices might not represent socially acceptable mores. But ultimately, you should ignore those ethereal ramblings because they could be the sinister misleading of Uncle Sam. The next time you hear a little voice telling you to jump start the economy via buying a third bomb shelter or increasing your nuclear arsenal, you just tell them “David Mark Brown says no.” They know where to find me.

What Raw Brain Juices Read Like

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[image error]This might be a bad idea, but hey, it wouldn’t be the first and won’t be the last. Anywho, for my blog post today I’m blessing you fine readers with an example of what the unrefined fiction goo looks like while it is still fresh on the digital page. Why? You might ask?

Reason One: It might be fun to see another step of the process.
Reason Two: Maybe it will prick your curiosity.
Reason Three: I’m behind schedule on writing blog posts.

Just this last week I’ve started on the first draft of my next novel. Without any set-up or background, here is a snippet (context is overrated):

The second figure I had tried to shoot held me by my belt at eye level. He revealed the palm of his hand, holding it open inches in front of me. A 9mm bullet lie there, glistening. He choked, struggling to breath before huffing a clot of phlegm into my face.

Where was I? Who? I fumbled between realities. In one world a blistering, hot wind scoured my face with sand. In the other an isopropanol solution stung my eyes. The man starring at me blurred between a craggy-faced red-eyed demon and a bland cubical-drone performing his duties without emotion. “Do I know you?”

The red-eyed man laughed. “We’ve met, once.”

I blinked droplets of isopropanol and detergent from my eyes. Thirty-two seconds. Tossing me upward, the drone spun. Instantaneously he caught me with a roundhouse kick to the chest. I felt every aspect of the kick, experienced the expenditure of every ounce of energy required to generate it… and more. I saw its color as light bent around the moving foot. I heard the red-eyed man’s laughter, tasted what he had for breakfast—salted fish and black coffee, arabica.

I floated, ascending slowly toward the ceiling. The drone followed through the kick with angry efficiency. Then transferring the shiny bullet from left hand to right he propelled it forward like a pitcher toward home plate.

Droplets of solution shattered and spiraled clear of the bullet’s path before collapsing in its wake. Marisol.

I smashed into the ceiling as her taught body jerked, her finger twitching on the trigger. She resisted the reality, forcing her mind to reject the misfiring signals from the region around the bullet wound.

“Marisol!”

I felt the river rising. I felt the torrent stealing me away.

“Marisol.”

My mind’s screen blanked, all of me now subsumed in the background. Jim Buckner dead, gone, disappeared. Blackness.

That about sums it up. Now you won’t even need to read the book! (Just kidding.)