This will be a story in pictures. Because why not at this stage. (This launch is an exercise of what can go wrong will go wrong.)
Here is what Kobo’s product page shows:
This is what deployed to my Kobo:
The best part is, I had uploaded four different final versions of the book to Kobo to prevent just this from happening.
In good news, A Light in the Dark seemed to deploy correctly, so that’s something.
This was completely outside of my control (as the placeholder file (which is what had been deployed) had been replaced numerous times over the past week and a half. I have attempted to populate the correct version to Kobo again, but I will be reaching out to customer support to make certain everyone gets their book.
But first, I will go to my corner and cry for a while. Then I’ll dust off, figure out what the heck happened, and get Kobo customer service to correct this.
I don’t know what I did to upset the universe so much this week, but I’m sorry. I will try to get this fixed as rapidly as possible.
Gremlins! Take a deep breath and remember that lots of people appreciate your work.
Yeah, I’m crushed, not going to lie. The crying is real, because this is not the experience I want for my readers. I’ve published well over 60 books, and this is the first time Kobo has dropped the ball like this. And there was ZERO way of being able to identify this problem existed on my end.
My backend showed yesterday for latest uploaded. It was queued in. I uploaded a change, but I just don’t know if it’s going to work. I’ve reached out to Kobo.
But… this is NOT the experience I want for my readers.
Dear SK, and we readers thought all our favourite writes simply wrote. For us. You have been burning up the tissues this week, no? So very sorry for your angst. We will read the book with relish, regardless of the cover. Promise. That’s why they call technical difficulties just that.
Follow up: KOBO downloaded the correct cover with 2 pages, then mark as finished. It said coming November 19. No book at all. Bigger problems than the cover, I’m afraid. I read on the Kobo app on my iPad.
Yep. The book is being delisted and resubmitted. Get kobo to give you a refund.
And for those of us that preordered? Will we get it for the lower price?
Partner in Crime never had a lower price. It was always $7.99. A Light in the Dark was the one that was $6.99.
Estimated time for arrival on new, correct, version?
Depends on Kobo. I’ve already asked them to refund the old book, and the new version is processing. (The old one hasn’t even delisted yet, much to my irritation.)
I go BN and both showed up in my inbox early this morning. Already on the tablet AND phone. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I need a diversion right now.
Unfortunately I can only read through Kobo. And I have Kobo Plus so I don’t preorder (I read with subscription). I love all your books and was really looking forward to this one ( already finished the other release). I’ll just have to patient then…. Keep writing the good stuff, you’re books are a light in my darkness.
(Ps greetings from the Netherlands)
yeah, alas, it’s just a waiting game at this point, sorry.
Sorry to read about this kerfuffle. This curmudgeon has enough trouble dealing with Kindle, so I haven’t dared trying to go Kobo, and didn’t see the mess myself.
Ah, well, once again we see that The Ancient Wisdom is true:
To err is human,
To really screw things up, you need a computer.
I am so sorry that you’re stressed about this. But there is a bright side… I, one of your many many devoted readers, I don’t have the stress of choosing which book to read first. Just try to stay positive. I had this probleem before with an other author and Kobo fixed it after a couple of days. So I just wait. I use Kobo plus (dutch), I don’t have the extra costs. So relax, get a cup of coffee and everything will be allright.