Feb

Kobo Writing Life Introduces Pre-Orders

Last year Kobo unveiled Writing Life, which is its seminal indie self-publishing platform. It has attracted many prominent authors, such as H.P. Mallory and Kevin J. Anderson. In the last few days, Kobo has quietly introduced the ability for authors to issue pre-orders for their ebooks. This adds a tremendous amount of versatility to promote your upcoming title before the official release date.

Authors have two main options for uploading their book with a future release date. Basically, if an author, when they are ready to publish, WANTS to set a pre-order, they have the option of either keeping it hidden until the release date (the way Kobo used to do it), or making it available for pre-order so they can start selling it now and also build anticipation.

Mark Lefebvre, the Director Self-Publishing & Author Relations told Good e-Reader, “We wanted to make sure that self-publish and indie authors have the ability to take advantage of pre-order activities, but not force them into it. So we give them a choice. It is important to allow them the freedom to decide what marketing pre-release strategy they want to employ.”

Honestly, I think this was a savvy move by Kobo. Not many ebook publishing companies allow you to issue your book as a pre-order with their self-publishing systems. This should be a major competitive advantage for authors looking for a more global reach.

Michael Kozlowski (3018 Posts)

Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about electronic readers and technology for the last four years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the Huffington Post, CNET and more. Michael frequently travels to international events such as IFA, Computex, CES, Book Expo and a myriad of others. If you have any questions about any of his articles, please send Michael Kozlowski an email to michael@goodereader.com