international market – Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast

SFFMP 78: International Sales Trends/Tips and Selling More Ebooks at Kobo with Mark Lefebvre

April 26, 2016 SFFpodcast Author Interview, Podcast

Today we chatted with Mark Leslie Lefebvre, a horror author who also happens to be the Director of Self-Publishing & Author Relations at Kobo.com. We talked about how to increase visibility and sell more books at Kobo, and also about trends for science fiction and fantasy, both in the main Canadian store and in the numerous international stores that Kobo works with.

Here’s some of what we covered:

Keeping things in perspective: Kobo is a much smaller store than Amazon (but they often go toe-to-toe when it comes to non-U.S. markets)
Reasons to go direct to Kobo through Kobo Writing Life (versus using Smashwords/Draft 2 Digital distribution)
The new “promotions” tab that’s available to authors (currently in beta) via the dashboard in Kobo Writing Life
Tips for getting on the radar of those who handle merchandising for Kobo
Best pricing tactics for science fiction and fantasy
Which countries are growing and friendly to speculative fiction?
Pricing considerations for international markets
How science fiction and fantasy are trending upward and more authors are appearing in the Top 10 of overall best selling indie authors at Kobo (it’s not all just romance anymore!)
A tip for visibility: make sure to fill out your series meta data, keywords, and put something in the imprint field (even if it’s your author name), in addition to having a good cover and blurb.
Increasing a book’s “temperature” at Kobo through sales (even looks and clicks can help)
Mark suggests SF/F authors hit up their local ComicCon and pay for a booth there (hint: he sells tons of books when he goes)

If you want to check out Mark’s fiction, his short story, “Snowman Shivers,” is free on all platforms: Kobo, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Apple.

You can find Mark on Twitter @markleslie and you can also follow @KoboWritingLife