The Toronto Romance Writers welcomed Mark Leslie Lefebvre, Director of Kobo Writing Life, the self-publishing arm of Kobo. I had been to several TRW events in the past and had always left with great craft and promotional tidbits that Cecilia and I were able to use in our work. Needless to say, I was giddy to attend this one since I had missed meeting Mark at another event earlier this year.

Mark's speech was enlightening and a breath of fresh air. We listened to him talk about his own path to publishing and to self-publishing. We heard success stories and learned about the many great developments Kobo Writing Life has introduced since its inception. All of that punctuated with great laughs and very interesting tidbits such as the fact Mark drives around with a skeleton next to him in his passenger seat. Yes. I said a skeleton. His name is Barnaby and he's quite famous, too.

Mark was also generous in providing us with insight into pricing strategies and what to add to the metadata to increase the searchability and visibility of books. We were able to put some of those tips and advices to use immediately. We are looking into ways to incorporate others.

Some of the highlights of the event are as follows:

• Although Kobo's payment threshold in higher than Amazon's, the territories are combined which means you will get paid independently of sales numbers in remote territories;
• The use of the imprint field to link all titles and enhance discoverability;
• Upcoming improvements in Kobo's search and KWL's system;
• Deployed fixes;
• Promotion techniques that work.

We'll be keeping a close eye on Kobo. It's growing fast and promises to give Amazon a good run for its money in the near future.

For more information about Kobo's self-publishing platform and to access many great resources for authors, visit:
http://kobowritinglife.com/
Or like them on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/KoboWritingLife

Sláinte!