One of the best ways to enhance and increase your sales is to ensure you are providing the best quality metadata (Metadata = the data that provides information about data, the main purpose of which is to facilitate in the discovery of relevant information) The more accurate and consistent your metadata is, the more enhanced your discover-ability options become.
Kobo Writing Life which has always had a “Series Name” field, now allows authors the ability to enter the series number (AKA Volume Number) associated with any books they have written that are part of a series.
Based on the analysis of patterns of reading behavior Kobo is in the process of optimizing sales for books in a series with the desired effect of helping customers read more of the books they love by authors they love in a series they love while helping publishers and authors to continue to grow their sales of those books.
This optimization is based on the raw data that is provided to us by publishers and authors. So the cleaner your data, the better the dynamic and “behind-the-scenes” work we’re doing will work ensuring that the right customers are presented with the right book for a smooth and enjoyable buying and reading experience.
We encourage KWL authors to take a second look at their metadata to make sure that your Series Name values are consistent and that you enter the appropriate numerical value for the books in your series in the Volume Number field.
Here is how this works:
When you are entering or updating a title if you do NOT enter a Series Name then you won’t see the Volume Number field. (See example screen shot below)
However, when you begin to enter your Series Name the Volume Number field will appear. (See below) Please be sure to enter the exact same text in the Series Name field for all books in your series so that they match.
Once you have entered your Series Name, you can then enter a value in the Volume Number (AKA Series Number) for the book (See example screen shot below). This value should be a whole number (ie, “1” and not “one” or “I” — or, for the example we are using, “14” and not “fourteen” or “XIV”). You may also enter 0 which some people might use for a prequel. In additional to being able to enter whole numbers (0, 1, 2, 3, 4), you may enter decimal values such as 1.5 or 2.5 for novellas or stories that take place between two full length novels.
After you enter the Volume Number field and then hit “Save and Continue” or “Save and return to Library” the data will be sent to our database which feeds the website (as per any metadata updates that you make)
The end result that you will see on the item detail page will look something like this, with the numeric value you entered appearing in a distinctive way that informs customers and, very importantly, empowers us with the ability to help customers get to their next great read.
Please note that changes you make typically show up on the item detail page of Kobo’s web store within approximately 24 hours, but often take a bit longer to refresh into the search results list view of those same items due to standard search result caching.
Love the ability to add the series number! I do wish I could add a .5 for the ‘in between short stories’ –but this is awesome! Thank you!
Thanks, Maria. We actually have that additional update in the queue and will be rolling it out in a few weeks, so you soon WILL be able to enter things like 0.5 and 1.5 to represent prequels and novellas or stories that take place BETWEEN or BEFORE books in a series.
Oh, that’s great news! Like so many others, I have short stories that happen between the books, and I don’t want to use a full number for them. By doing that, the numbers of the books start mismatching the information showed on Kobo.
Awesome! You rock!
That is absolutely amazing. I am doing some prequel and between novellas and shorts for my main series, and I would love to be able to have a 2.5 or Book 0 in it. Is it possible to have a Book 0, at the moment?
Yes, you can input a 0 for a prequel as well as decimal values for stories or novellas between books in a series. 🙂
I can vouch that this works. I’m still a small fry, but I have all of the books in my ESX series meticulously organized in my dashboard. The first book, Amplified, is free. It’s hard to tell exactly how many free copies I’m giving away per month, but I usually sell a few copies per month of the rest of the books in the series. The digital boxed set sells like hot cakes. I think people are trying #1 and, when they finish it, can easily see that it’s part of a series and go on to buy the boxed set.
We’ve seen the same things in extensive studies, Elizabeth. In fact, in many cases, for readers who actually read the ENTIRE First Book Free in a series, between 40% and 50% of them actually go on to buy one or more of the others. (The sad thing is that MOST customers who download a free book leave it sitting completely un-opened and un-read. On the flip side, of course, is that for those who DO read it, the stats are phenomenally positive)
Curious as to how long things take — I went through and numbered all my series books yesterday after reading this. This morning, I’m seeing only some of them are showing the series numbers in the Kobo store, and it seems almost random. In one series, 2 and 4 are missing, in another it’s 1 that’s not showing up.
Hi Terry – you’ll notice that the items are all already updated on the ITEM PAGE, but that the search results (which always lag behind) take a little bit longer. There are currently some huge backlogs of updates happening there, so if you’re checking, make sure you click on the item itself to see the full item page details.
Thanks! Too many places to look! But I see them now that you’ve pointed out where to check.
Done! Thanks for the tip.
Y’all rock! I noticed that some of my books have reviews that don’t show in the tally in the search results. How often are the review tallies updated to show that new reviews are available when someone goes to the book page? Thanks!
Search results are typically 24 to 48 hours behind the details seen on the item page.
Thanks–it seems that something has gone amiss. I am pretty sure the reviews for Executive Affairs and Executive Lunch went up a week or two ago. But the search results for Maria Schneider shows those two with only 1 review. I think there are others where the count is off as well, but I don’t track it religiously. I shall keep an eye on it. Perhaps it will update over the weekend.