Kobo Writing Life Podcast
Kobo Writing Life
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Top 10 Kobo Writing Life Podcast Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Kobo Writing Life Podcast episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Kobo Writing Life Podcast for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Kobo Writing Life Podcast episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
#262 - Finding Writing in Retirement with Michael Polelle
Kobo Writing Life Podcast
08/31/21 • 41 min
We are joined by author Michael Polelle on the podcast this week. Michael is a former lawyer and emeritus law professor who started his writing career after he retired from practicing law. He talks to us about his two novels, The Mythros Conspiracy and American Conspiracy, what his research process was like for his books, and what his writing process (which includes morning chocolate!) is like.
#65 - Matthew Cobb of Reedsy
Kobo Writing Life Podcast
08/30/16 • 31 min
Reedsy's ambition extends beyond just being a place where authors can connect with publishing professionals; it's a place for collaborative tools and with an ultimate goal of assisting the publication process right from the first written word of an author's manuscript right through the typesetting, publishing and marketing of the final book.
Mark Lefebvre, Kobo Writing Life Director, interviews Matthew Cobb, co-founder and lead designer of Reedsy regarding the platform and the amazing online Book Editor tool.
In the interview Mark and Matthew discuss:
- What Reedsy is (a marketplace for authors and editors, designers, etc to meet and collaborate as well as an online tool that allows authors to both collaborate in the creation process, but also produce production ready ePub and print on demand files)
- How the filters allow an author to find the right professional to provide the right editorial services to them, and the quote request process where you can request a free quote from up to 5 different matching professionals
- The curatorial process by which editors and other professionals apply to be within this ecosystem and are vetted and approved by the team at Reedsy
- How Reedsy doesn’t only handle the introduction to the publishing professional but also the transaction (ie, payment to the editor), but also the file transfer, as well as customer support and assistance
- Details about the online book editor and how it was born out of the frustration inherent when one of the founders wanted to publish a book
- The issues inherent with trying to use WORD to typeset and prepare a book for print-readiness along with how an author can simply copy and paste their WORD file document into the editor and it’ll preserve all the formatting, including headings, alignment, etc
- The ability for editors and authors to work together collaboratively online using the Reedsy Book Editor
- The use of templates that authors select, when they’re ready to export their print ready or ePub format file
- Whether or not this free editor is good for other formats such as children’s books, cookbooks, or other fixed layout types of book formats
- A bit about the four co-founders of Reedsy and the internal Reedsy family of employees
- Matthew’s favourite advice for a beginning writer to get on the right track for success
Mark then talks about the importance of finding the right person for the right job (ie, an author looking for just the right editor) and relates that to both the story of Goldilocks (how she kept trying things until she found the one that was just right), as well as the concept of asking a more detailed question in order to get the most optimum answer for you.
Links of Interest:
#40 - The Importance of a Strong Blurb with Bryan Cohen
Kobo Writing Life Podcast
09/08/15 • 46 min
While every author has heard the age old advice that it's important to have a professional looking and beautiful cover that appeals to the target audience, not as much attention has been paid to the blurb, description or "sales copy" that helps inspire the potential reader to click that all important BUY button. This interview with Bryan Cohen, author of the TED SAVES THE WORLD series, podcast host and man for all seasons includes an in-depth look at the importance of a strong and solid blurb. Also included are two different amazing prizes for writers.
Contest 1 -- Win one of three carefully crafted book description services valued at $149 USD. Giveaway ends Sept 31, 2015. ENTER HERE
Contest 2 -- $1000 Copywriting for Authors Giveaway. Giveaway Ends October 9, 2015 - ENTER HERE
Bryan is interviewed by Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre. During their chat Mark and Bryan discuss:
- The great work that Bryan and Jim Kukral do putting together the SELL MORE BOOKS SHOW podcast and how that keeps Bryan on top of things for his own writing
- The non-fiction works that Bryan has written to help prompt writers to get started, which include the first one that Bryan wrote in 2010 (1000 Creative Writing Prompts), and how these books are still often among his best-selling titles
- How, if Bryan himself is ever stuck doing his own fiction writing, he can often turn to his own prompts
- Bryan's site Build-creative-writing-ideas.com which has about 700 articles and sees significant traffic on a daily basis
- How writing something timeless will ensure its long term viability and sales
- Bryan's YA podcast co-hosted with Robert Scanlon about reading and writing called The Split
- The work that Bryan does writing "sales copy" blurbs for writers (BEST PAGE FORWARD) -- and how the demand for those services has recently exploded
- How a solid writing blurb can work as effectively as a good cover at helping convert those looking at your book's landing page into buyers
- THE CONTEST BY WHICH a KWL LISTENER CAN RECEIVE A FREE BOOK BLURB FROM BRYAN
- How Bryan is looking into also helping writers with drafting email campaigns for auto-responders, helping with Facebook ad copy, author bios and similar communications
- The importance of priorities when it comes to maintaining a balanced life while producing as much content as Bryan produces
- Knowing your own strengths and weakeness for performing different types of tasks at certain times of the day and what makes Bryan a fantastic husband (he may love his readers, but he loves his wife more)
- How TED SAVES THE WORLD came from watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and asking the question: "What if Giles and Buffy were the same person? (ie, combining the intelligence & wisdom with the power and ability)"
- When Bryan, who used to do improv comedy, changed himself from a "panster" to a "plotter" while developing TED SAVES THE WORLD from a novella into a full novel and series. And the seeming contradiction in how Bryan often feels like he is "pantsing" in the discovery process of plotting out a novel.
- The replacement of the original terrible cover and the local photo shoot with actor friends that helped Bryan to produce a well-branded and consistent series. http://robotbraindesign.com/
- Bryan also shares his favourite advice for beginning writers
Mark then provides a quick summary of some of the advice and examples regarding a strong professional product as gleaned from the interview and then provides further details about the aforemention contests.
Other links:
#140 - Building your Brand Using Pinterest and Instagram with Lauren Layne
Kobo Writing Life Podcast
03/05/19 • 44 min
Lauren Layne, New York Times bestselling author and branding superstar, shares her secrets on cultivating an author brand and mastering trickier social media platforms, specifically Instagram and Pinterest. Lauren demystifies author branding and explains how authors can find their own aesthetic. She also discusses why she chose to limit her social media presence to two platforms and how she has made these platforms work for her. We also discuss the evolution of her newsletter and how it has changed throughout the years.
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Start self-publishing today with KWL. Join the platform that's fast, free, easy. We put authors first. www.kobo.com/writinglife
#52 A New Storytelling Platform with One More Story Games
Kobo Writing Life Podcast
02/25/16 • 26 min
There has never been more opportunities for writers and storytellers than ever in the history of publishing, and Episode 52 of the Kobo Writing Life Podcast demonstrates yet another amazing opportunity that exists for writers.
KWL Director Mark Lefebvre interviews Jean Leggett co-founder of One More Story Games, a company from Barrie, Ontario that has developed a storytelling platform with a team of gamers, geeks, storytellers and programmers that creates a community for collaborative story game opportunities.
In the interview, Mark and Jean discuss:
- Jean’s background as a recovering Haiku addict and recovering stand-up comedian
- How Jean’s love of storytelling combined with her husband’s similar love and a computer science background and background working in the games industry led to the formation of One More Story Games
- The underlying concept of bringing more reading into the game space
- How the experience of these games is similar to the “Choose Your Own Adventure” branching narrative experiences
- StoryStylus – the story creation platform that helps creators break down the elements of story (such as people, places, things, relationships, conversation and dialogue, etc) that publishes to an interactive games marketplace
- The fact that you don’t need to be a programmer to be part of creating an interactive story game and how virtually any writer could participate in this process. (With a reminder that “Beta” means “patient, early adopters”)
- A writer, photographer and graphic designer in Tillsonburg, Ontario (Dan Wilkins) who is writing an 8 part series for One More Story Games and involving real people, such as the town’s mayor as characters in the story
- The manner by which a platform like this seems ideal for mystery stories, but the manner by which science fiction and adventure stories have already been built for it
- The exciting announcement that One More Story Games will be working with New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris (author of the Sookie Stackhouse - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sookie_Stackhouse - novels which have been adapted into the True Blue television series) to adapt her novel Shakespeare’s Landlord
- How the Charlaine Harris project will include a “behind the scenes” look at breaking the book itself into various plot points and how it was developed into the interactive storytelling experience (https://onemorestorygames.com/2016/02/16/lily-bard-online/)
- The idea of making smarter more casual games available to the growing demographic of women consumers in their mid 30’s who are interested in and playing these types of games
- The concept of how a game like this demonstrates the progression of writer to narrative designer for a storyteller
- Recommendations on how authors who are interested in exploring these opportunities might get started
Links of Interest:
One More Story Games on Twitter
#55 - Behind the Scenes at Kobo
Kobo Writing Life Podcast
04/11/16 • 51 min
In this episode, Christine takes you behind the scenes at Kobo to hear from colleagues on five different Kobo teams who each play a different role in getting eBooks to customers and analyzing data post-publication. Tune in to hear from:
Chris, KWL Development
- “Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for our users to publish their content, and then after that do as much as possible to drive the success of those published titles.”
- How does the dev team manage to wrangle KWL’s seemingly never-ending list of features and ideas we want to implement? He has to balance new projects with maintaining and testing the current platform, and evaluating the necessity and value of each new idea.
- With each new to-do item, he needs to collaborate with the rest of the broad Kobo team to make sure we can support these changes from a data and software perspective.
Sarah, Content Analytics
- Why and how you should measure the halo effect of promotions and price changes.
- Learning what prices sell well in different countries - certain geos are more price-sensitive than others, and you can adjust your territory pricing accordingly. For example, US and UK shoppers are used to paying less for eBooks, while readers in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada are more willing to pay more.
Ben, QA & Content Display
- Ben's main responsibility involves seeing content coming in and deciding whether or not it's ready to go for sale to customers. When the answer is no, his team works to problem solve, find bugs, and support fixes.
- Common errors found during the QA process: all content lumped in chapter 1; mismatched file uploaded for the title (ex Book 2 in a series instead of Book 1); missing or out of order chapters; low image quality.
- Ben's favourite QA lingo. Aren't you dying to know what an obfuscated font is?
Patricia, Publisher Operations
- The detective work of PubOps, who are always working to answer a question from a publisher, another internal team, or retail partner. Why hasn't a price changed? Why isn't a book for sale? Why has this eBook failed QA testing?
- Why Patricia likes projects that involve launching in a new territory - a large cross-functional team basically gets to recreate Kobo, and rebuild the catalogue, in a short period of time.
Jared, Big Data
- Reading data that Kobo collects and analyzes. How we're currently using it for our readers - to show them patterns in how they read, when they read, and help them set reading goals.
- How we hope to share it with authors and publishers to help improve content and sales.
Do you have a question about what it takes to run a digital retail company that we didn't answer here? Leave a comment on our blog at www.kobowritinglife.com
Thanks for listening!
#9 - A Podcast for Writers, Interview with Terry Fallis
Kobo Writing Life Podcast
11/05/13 • 40 min
Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre interviews Terry Fallis, multi-award winning author of The Best Laid Plans, The High Road and Up and Down. Mark and Terry talk about:
• How they met when Mark was a bookseller at McMaster University’s bookstore, and Terry, a former McMaster student self-published The Best Laid Plans in 2007. • Mark’s comparison of Terry’s writing to John Irving • How Terry applied his knowledge of politics and engineering to create the characters of Daniel and Angus (the main characters from The Best Laid Plans and The High Road) • Terry’s original nativity when venturing into the realm of self-publishing back in 2006/2007 • How Terry used podcasting to gain a worldwide audience for The Best Laid Plans and was the first Canadian to follow in the footsteps of such podcasting pioneers as Scott Sigler • Mark’s original reluctance as a bricks and mortar bookseller to carry The Best Laid Plans or even read this satirical novel of Canadian politics, but how, after a single page, Terry’s prose won him over • How, feeling “up” from the McMaster Bookstore launch event led to Fallis deciding to submit The Best Laid Plans to the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour (which Terry won and which led to his book deal with McClelland and Stewart) • How Terry is thrilled to have Beverly Slopen as his agent and Douglas Gibson as his editor & publisher • Winning November 2010’s CBC Canada Reads for the Essential Canadian Novel of the Decade • The importance of local community bookstores and the great relationships that Terry has forged with so many amazing Canadian bookstores (Canadian Booksellers Association honoured Terry with the CBC Libris Author of the Year Award in 2013 • CBC’s creation of The Best Laid Plans miniseries (and having lunch with the fictional Angus McClintock in Ottawa during filming) - (which will begin airing January 2014) • Terry’s use of humour and heartfelt moments in The Best Laid Plans and The High Road • Terry’s membership in the “Write What You Know” club – and how he takes advantage of that by writing about things he already knows a lot about (public relations, politics, etc) rather than spending more time doing research • How Terry’s latest novel Up & Down seemed to almost predict the incredible manner by which Commander Chris Hadfield captured the hearts and minds of people who again became interested in the space program. • A bit of insight into Terry’s forthcoming (spring 2014) novel No Relation – about a writer with the unfortunate name of Ernest Hemmingway (although spelled differently) who is trying to leave the family business to pursue a writing career • How Terry manages to write novels while working full-time • The importance of writing detailed outlines (each outline approximately 65 page long) and how, when you know that much about the story the efficiency of getting the manuscript completed in about 4 months • How, despite the detailed outlining, how at least half of the comedic moments and humour comes to Terry during the actual writing process • Terry’s creative/musical family and the dinnertime family tradition which included the goal of trying to tell a story that would make his stone-faced father laugh • The importance of being true to one’s own writing and one’s own personality • How there are likely some fine manuscripts sitting in publisher slush piles right now and the opportunities authors have to creating bold new opportunities For this episode’s side-bar note, Mark reflects back on Terry’s journey into publishing and how he and authors like Scott Sigler used podcasting as a way to help find an audience for his novel. Mark mentions the website Podiobooks.com and using programs such as GarageBand (MAC) or
#5 - Managing Language and Adaptation Rights Douglas Smith
Kobo Writing Life Podcast
09/09/13 • 31 min
Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre interviews Douglas Smith, an award-winning Canadian author of fantasy, SF, horror and supernatural fiction with over 100 short story sales in 30 countries and two dozen languages.
Doug and Mark discuss the following:
• Doug’s start to writing in 1995 stemming from a “mid-life” crisis • How Doug’s new novel The Wolf at the End of the World ties back to the very first short story he wrote in 1995, Spirit Dance • Doug’s prestigious career as a short-fiction writer (how he turned the sale of 40 short stories sold into re-selling them to 170 markets globally), the importance of taking advantage of reprint rights • Doug’s outstanding foreign language rights sales of short fiction: 25 languages in 30 countries • Ralon.com – online free short fiction market listings • Doug’s strategy for hiring a cover artist, an ePub formatting conversion company to create a consistent professional look and feel to generate a catalog of eBook versions of his short story fiction collection. (And how he made his investment back within a year selling short stories in eBook version for 99 cents – where he keeps 35 cents on Amazon and 45 cents on Kobo per unit sold) • The adaptation of one of Doug’s short stories “By Her Hand She Draws You Down” into a short film of the same name. • Doug’s penchant for writing fiction that references Bruce Springsteen’s music • How Doug discovered he had written a vampire story only after reading customer reviews Mark also talks about discovering ingenious use of social media by authors and cites author Chele Cooke’s intriguing use of Pinterest for her forthcoming novel Dead & Buryd as an example. Here’s a link to Chele’s website and her forthcoming book on Kobo. OTHER LINKS/RESOURCES Daniele Serra – Italian Artist
Doug's website: www.smithwriter.com Twitter: @smithwritr Doug’s article on Selling Foreign Language Rights Doug’s Foreign Market List Doug’s Amazing Stories Blog Series
Short fiction recommendations to check out Doug’s writing:
If you like Horror check out By Her Hand She Draws You Down If you like Urban Fantasy check out Spirit Dance If you like post-apocalyptic science-fiction check out Memories of the Dead Man If you like revenge/science-fiction/time-travel stories check out State of Disorder
If you like martial arts/Japanese fantasy check out The Red Bird
If you like modern thriller/fantasy, check out The Wolf at the End of the World
#4 - Engaging Readers with Mitch Joel
Kobo Writing Life Podcast
08/24/13 • 47 min
Check out the books we're discussing here!
Kobo Writing Life Director Mark Lefebvre interviews Mitch Joel, author of the books Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT DELETE: Reboot Your Business. Reboot Your Life. Your Future Depends on it.
The conversation between Mitch and Mark involve the following:
- Mark’s riffing on Mitch’s regularly used consistent classic opening for interviews in his Six Pixels of Separation Podcast
- The importance of creating consistently delivered content (Mitch’s 6 times weekly blog content and his weekly podcast) and how that relates to author branding
- The nature of having an audience available BEFORE you have a book and providing value to the community that you are creating content for
- How publishing his first book Six Pixels of Separation was a bit of a social experiment
- Never making an ask unless there is something more to give/offer as part of that ask
- The reality that selling a book is really hard
- Mitch’s expression: “digital crickets and virtual tumbleweeds”
- Twitter perspectives – who to follow, who is spamming, who is followed by who; why am I following someone?
- Figuring out your work/life balance: Mitch’s blending theory for work and play and the three tiered-stool of professional, family/friends and community
- The importance of presenting your ideas and yourself
- The “mystery” aura of an author such as the time when Mitch met Michael Connelly in the hallway his publisher’s NY office
- What, in Mitch’s view, makes Margaret Atwood so amazing in the way that she tries new things and engages with the community in social media
- The size of certain physical books (like the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson or Under the Dome by Stephen King) and how reading on an eReader has freed Mitch up
- The importance of “above the neck” exercises – ie, reading
OTHER NOTES
Taking a note from Mitch’s book, Mark talks about the concept of treating indie publishing as a profession and a business as well as highlighting the importance of connecting with your audience as opposed to being “that pushy guy.” Mark also discusses the value of pitching your book to the right target audience rather than trying to broadcast to everyone and to people who aren’t in your target audience group.
Bonus Episode: The Future of Publishing with the Kobo Writing Life Team
Kobo Writing Life Podcast
02/21/20 • 47 min
Our international KWL team members were in town earlier this month, so we all crowded into our small (and very warm) podcast room to discuss the future of publishing, where we think indie publishing is heading, and our current reality television obsessions.
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FAQ
How many episodes does Kobo Writing Life Podcast have?
Kobo Writing Life Podcast currently has 362 episodes available.
What topics does Kobo Writing Life Podcast cover?
The podcast is about Publishing, Writing, Writers, Author, Podcasts, Books, Arts, Business and Careers.
What is the most popular episode on Kobo Writing Life Podcast?
The episode title 'Bonus Episode: 5 Tips to Help You Write a Novel in a Month #NaNoWriMo with Joanna Penn' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Kobo Writing Life Podcast?
The average episode length on Kobo Writing Life Podcast is 42 minutes.
How often are episodes of Kobo Writing Life Podcast released?
Episodes of Kobo Writing Life Podcast are typically released every 10 days, 2 hours.
When was the first episode of Kobo Writing Life Podcast?
The first episode of Kobo Writing Life Podcast was released on Jun 28, 2013.
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