Michael Tomblyn, chief content officer at Kobo is next at Digital Book World. Click on headline of this post to see updates.
Tomblyn asserts that book-loving traditionalists waited to go digital. I doubt this, actually. The most voracious readers, in my experience, went to eBooks earliest. There must be data on this.
Some stores are very good at the in-store Kobo experience, Michael Tomblyn says. Powell’s Books is killing it. They have decided to go all in. Fantastic in-store trial stations – photos look very attractive. Others doing well: One More Page in Arlington, VA. Photo of Obama looking at the Kobo display there.
Indie eBook sales: Less fiction and religion, more literature. Less “active romance” and romance. Great term: active romance.
Listening to Michael Tomblyn makes me understand how smart the ABA was to choose Kobo to succeed Google eBooks as the indie ebook partner. These guys are hot!
The eBook fiction sold through independent bookstores is weighted toward literary, less to romance and genre.
Indie eBook buyers buy different books. Not so much genre books like romance. More nonfiction, less fiction, more juvenile. Biography sells better at indies, for example.
The indie book reader is different. They buy more expensive eBooks than other Kobo customers. Completely different price tolerance. Price distribution for a regular Kobo US buyer skews to $2.99 area. Not much over $10. That’s the general U.S. eBook market. Indi eBook buyers completely different – less self-published, less backlist, more frontlist. They buy at higher prices. 57% of purchases are $9 and above. 31% for average US eBook buyers.
450 of ABA stores joined. Devices went into stores in early November. “Then there’s this pause.” Devices go into closets and you don’t know what’s going to happen. Waiting for Christmas. Will light up a whole new segment of the market, but they have to wait till 12/25 at noon EDT. Presents get opened at 9 am, have to charge the device, have breakfast. At noon they are ready to buy a book with their new Kobo.
Big hurdle for new customer is answering five or six basic questions. How train stores to do that. Kobo worked with ABA and also put together a 26-person sales team, moving from store to store training booksellers. In-store training, staff info sessions.
Kobo was used to working with national chains. How would they get devices to small and mid-sized stores? Indies do have a central fulfillment service – Ingram. They used Ingram’s book fulfillment to get devices into stores. Was ready out of the box. Kobos go out with shipments with books; they have an ISBN in the Ingram system.
Indies had to keep a relationship with customer as they entered eBook world. Needed to keep customer over time.
When Google departed from American Booksellers Association deal, Kobo approached them. Why did they think they could help indie booksellers sell eBooks when Google had failed? Getting and keeping customers online is hard. Indies needed to be fully equipped to win online – devices, apps, sharing, everything. And leverage advantages of bookstores.
Kobo is “the largest eBook company in the U.S. that you’ve never heard of.” Based in Canada, they decided to leave U.S. market alone. Now selling books in 190 countries. Have 3.2 million titles in their catalog.
Source:
http://www.thekindlechronicles.com/2013/01/17/the-kobo-story-at-dbw-live-blog/
Next countries Kobo looks at may not have a monolithic bookseller chain. Indies more important in those countries, like China. eBooks are the asteroid hitting printed books. Indies are the fast-moving animal that will survive. The sense of place, the physicality, the environment that says reading is important. “We want them to keep fighting. If they will, we will.” Bravo.