The Kobo Writing Life team is excited to announce our latest Live Q&A on August 20th 2020. From 12:00 PM-1:00 PM EST, our very own KWL team, will be answering all your questions on the Kobo Writing Life Facebook and YouTube pages. If you can’t make the takeover, feel free to comment on this post with your questions and we can ask them for you!
Is there a question you’ve always wanted to ask Kobo? Well now is your chance! We’re going to leverage our in house experts, who can answer any questions you may have. Whether it’s Kobo specific or questions about the independent publishing industry, our team live and breathe publishing and will be able to offer their unique insights. Let’s learn more about the team:
Joni Di Placido

Joni works on Kobo Plus, as well as audio and OverDrive promotions. She studied Italian and Spanish language and literature and moved to Toronto from Edinburgh. She mostly reads lit fiction and non-fiction, and loves listening to podcasts.
Stephanie McGrath

Stephanie works on our Content Management team at KWL. She studied Book and Media Studies and English literature at the University of Toronto. She loves to discuss popular culture, true crime and the latest romance book she is reading. She is also a big reader of KWL authors, if you need a recommendation, she’s got you covered!
Shayna Krishnasamy

Shayna works on Promotions and Author Relations for KWL. She is an author of literary and young adult fiction, and studied English literature and creative writing. Shayna has worked at Kobo for nearly 12 years. She hates cheese and loves seriously depressing books that will one day be made into low-budget indie films which will bomb at the box office but become cult-classics.
Tara Cremin

Tara is responsible for the overall author experience on Kobo Writing Life, from optimizing current features to looking for new avenues of growth. Her aim is to make KWL the greatest and most user-friendly self-publishing platform available.
Tara has an MA in American Literature and Film from University College Cork, Ireland and has worked for KWL since inception. She reads a lot of non-fiction but balances this out with a healthy love of bad reality tv. She also likes listening to audiobooks while cycling around Toronto, but should probably pay more attention to the road.
Will there be an opportunity in the near future for authors to run self-serve advertisements on Kobo’s website like there is now with other prominent online booksellers?
Will Kobo Plus be coming to other countries, and if so, is there an indication of timescale?
Hi,
I noticed that there is no option to search books by language. So I have a suggestion that maybe you should do something about that.
Kind regards
Hi! Love KWL, but would like to see pre-orders on the dashboard. Is that something on the to-do list?
Why is it taking century for a ebook image to upload and delete.
Can I use earnings shown on my dashboard to pay for advertising?
Hi there.I’m brand new to Kobo and just self-published my three books. Is there a way to track the traffic to my sales pages? Thanks Maggie Holman
Can you talk about the importance of audio and the best book to publish in audio as far as genres or length? With audio being so expensive, I lean towards doing a shorter book–but my sales are better with Under Witch Moon or Executive Lunch!
Also, if there is time, I would like to know if it’s possible to do a “page promotion” with other authors (such as a 99 cent or free books) and have Kobo help promote the page/mention the page of deals. I’ve done promo pages from my blog with other authors and had success with this method, but what is the best way to work with Kobo on such a collaborative marketing effort?
I have a few questions for each of you
Joni Di Placido: what are the most successful genres for KWL audio books? What KWL book was accessed the most in Overdrive?
Stephanie McGrath: I am a poet who created a few poetry books, can you recommend a KWL poetry book ? What genre of ebooks need to exist that currently do not, if any in your opinion?
Shayna Krishnasamy: What promotional tools for KWL are least underutilized, I admit I have not used them all? Name the KWL book you read that is most depressing and can become that cult classic?
Tara Cremin: Is fan-fiction based on games an area of possible growth? For the dashboard of kobo writing life, you can see the geography of places that desire a book but when you have multiple locations how can you know which location for which book?
I enjoy being a KWL member, thanks kobo
Hello! I love KWL. Thanks for all you do for authors. I have a few questions: 1. Does Kobo count a borrow from Kobo Plus as a sale in the sales rank? 2. What is the most popular genre in Kobo Plus? 3. Do short stories sell well on Kobo? Thanks in advance for answering my questions.