Delilah Waan | Epic fantasy author
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delilahwaan.bsky.social
Delilah Waan | Epic fantasy author
@delilahwaan.bsky.social
1.1K followers 210 following 640 posts
📚 PETITION (Resonance Crystal Legacy, Book 1) | 2023 #SPFBO semi-finalist and #IndieInkAward winner.
👇 SUPPLICANT, the epic fantasy heist sequel, is out now!
https://www.delilahwaan.com/books/
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delilahwaan.bsky.social
There is a previewer which is kinda laggy and occasionally buggy but if you're patient with it, you can see how the cover will turn out based on your uploaded template and switch on the guidelines there.
Screenshot of BookVault book previewer showing the uploaded template file with edge and center guidelines for the spine overlaid on top of the template.
October 1, 2025 at 8:50 PM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
Essentially, yes. The template doesn't have lines to show you where the folds are, but the dark blue areas are where it's folded over, the medium blue is the fold, and light areas are basically where the spine, front, and back cover faces are.

This is a test proof of Supplicant vs the template:
Photo of a BookVault bespoke hardcover juxtaposed against the BookVault template file on a screen
October 1, 2025 at 8:43 PM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
👻 HORROR
itch.io/b/3242/narra...

📚 LARGE NOVELS & CHONKERS
itch.io/b/3246/narra...

OTHER BUNDLES
Short stories & novellas: itch.io/b/3243/narra...
Short novels: itch.io/b/3244/narra...
Mid-range novels: itch.io/b/3245/narra...

💙📚🪐
A graphic with 12 covers with text "Narratess Indie Book Sale August 2025. Horror Bundle” The Killing Song by Felix Graves Lesser Known Monsters by Rory Michaelson Water’s Edge by Ellie Lieberman Dark Heart of Ilmoure by Cara N. Delaney The Erstwhile Tyler Kyle by Steve Hugh Westenra Killer Debt: An Anthology of Murder by Dianna Gunn My Lord by L. B. Shimaira Coal Gets in Your Veins by Cat Rector The Devil in the Woods by S. Jean Bad Grains by Susanne Schmidt Dirt You Shall Become by Karen Lykkebo A Crack in the World by James Mordechai A graphic with 20 covers with text "Narratess Indie Book Sale August 2025. Large Novels & Chonkers Bundle” When the Stars Alight by Camilla Andrew Non-Player Character by Veo Corva Shadows Dark and Deadly by Andrea Marie Johnson The Grand Duke’s Masseur by Rori Thornton Petition by Delilah Waan The Revenge of Captain Vessia by Leslie Allen Usurper by J. M. Rose Merchants of Light and Bone by Erika McCorkle The Erstwhile Tyler Kyle by Steve Hugh Westenra My Lord by L. B. Shimaira Lost Blades by Liz Sauco The Dragon Next Door by Vanessa Ricci-Thode Coal Gets in Your Veins by Cat Rector Children by Bjørn Larssen Sidetracked Part 1x by S.K. Kelley Child of the Sun by Audrey Simmons A Path of Endless Crossroads by M.C. Burnell Song of the Wolf by T.C. Smith Birthright by M. A. Vice Between Starfalls by S. Kaeth
August 24, 2025 at 12:25 AM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
If you like to actually OWN your ebooks, the amazing @clh2oars.bsky.social has set up 9 bundles over on itch.io, sorted by either genre or length.

✨ FANTASY
itch.io/b/3238/narra...
itch.io/b/3239/narra...
itch.io/b/3240/narra...

🚀 SCI-FI
itch.io/b/3241/narra...

💙📚🪐
A graphic with 24 covers with text "Narratess Indie Book Sale August 2025. Fantasy Bundle #1” Prophecy Trilogy: New Moon by Liz Bullard Usurper by J. M. Rose The Moss Dragon of Brittlekeep by Ashley Capes Petition by Delilah Waan Trick by Cara Nox The Living Sword by Pemry Janes Of All the Stars by Kris Madigan Thief, Acolyte, Consort by James Robert Paige The Hand That Feeds by Sass Everett Skin Deep by Marie Blanchet Mercy by Ian Haramaki The Sunset Sovereign: A Dragon’s Memoir by Laura Huie The Dream Haunters: A Metaphysical Mystery of Magick by Megan Mary Merchants of Light and Bone by Erika McCorkle The Shifter: Legends of Pern Coen by Hannah E. Carey Tales of Lunis Aquaria by Tessa Hastjarjanto Birthright by M. A. Vice Witch Test by Katie L. Carroll The Selkie and the Minstrel by Elis Madsen Speak The Ocean by Rebecca Enzor Whispers in the Dark by Niranjan The Revenge of Captain Vessia by Leslie Allen Song of the Wolf by T.C. Smith Gift of Snow by C.L. Carhart A graphic with 23 covers with text "Narratess Indie Book Sale August 2025. Fantasy Bundle #2” Masks: Legacy Edition by Amara Lynn Shadow of a Dead God by Patrick Samphire Office Maxi by Aaron Frale Like a Bullet to the Head by Claude Hamesh Journey Home by May Barros Running with the Wolf by Bryony Rosehurst Obsidian Island by Arden Powell Child of the Sun by Audrey Simmons Riyati Rebirth by Kai Zeal Non-Player Character by Veo Corva Chai and Cat-tales by Lynn Strong Prince Ewald the Brave by Dylan Madeley No Land for Heroes by Cal Black A Bitter Drink by Azalea Forrest Over the Dragon’s Gate by Juliana Jones Lost Blades by Liz Sauco Sidetracked Part 1x by S.K. Kelley Once Upon A Wave of Witches by Helen Whisberry (and Eli Belt) Lantern by Burgundy Athena Pendragon Shadows Dark and Deadly by Andrea Marie Johnson Og-Grim-Dog: The Three-Headed Ogre by Jamie Edmundson Imbued by Helyna L. Clove How to Soothe a Fallen Hero by Jeremy Rayne A graphic with 24 covers with text "Narratess Indie Book Sale August 2025. Fantasy Bundle #3” The Whisperer in White by Y. R. Liu Higanbana by Jake Vanguard Dame Ophis by Merlina Garance The Lion by Lee Burton Grey Angel by Dani Finn Children of the Dragon by Melissa Stone The Grand Duke’s Masseur by Rori Thornton Ghosts of the Catabombs by Janna Ruth Children by Bjørn Larssen An Uncommon Curse by Devan Barlow The Dragon Next Door by Vanessa Ricci-Thode Flooded Secrets by Claudie Arseneault Carp in the Pond, Crane on the River by Ruth Miranda Tales of Yamato by Odessa Silver Far Removed by C. B. Lansdell Blood by D.C. Hart A Path of Endless Crossroads by M.C. Burnell Soultaming the Serpent by Tar Atore Durga by Geetha Krishnan Blind the Eyes: Enter the City of Nightmares (Threads of Dreams 1) by K.A. Wiggins How Six Saved the Frogs by Blaine D. Arden Dirt-Stained Hands, Thorn-Pierced Skin by Tabitha O’Connell Between Starfalls by S. Kaeth When the Stars Alight by Camilla Andrew A graphic with 16 covers with text "Narratess Indie Book Sale August 2025. Sci-Fi Bundle” Wasteland Heart by Al Hess Secrets of PEACE by T. A. Hernandez Debunked: Volume One of the Terravenum Chronicles by Dito Abbott Walking the Knife’s Edge by Elise Carlson Werecockroach by Polenth Blake The Warm Machine by Aimee Cozza Unburnt by A.M. Weald Cat/Mouse: An Allied Space novella by Eliza Mares Moral Laundry by Conrad Altmann The Edge of a World by JD Rivers Mechanical Heart by Beverly Anne Michel Kotov Syndrome by S. Morgan Burbank Bridges of Smoke by Julie March In Spite of the Inevitable by Morgan Biscup Ancient as the Stars by Maya Darjani A Spark in Space by Janina Franck
August 24, 2025 at 12:25 AM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
What happens after magic school?

PETITION is about an angry daughter of immigrants fighting privileged rich kids in a ruthless job hunt tournament.

⛩️ East Asian–inspired setting
✨ Everybody has magic
🏅 #SPFBO semi-finalist & #IndieInkAward winner!

www.delilahwaan.com/books/petiti...

💙📚🌎🪐📚
Sale graphic with image of the ebook cover for Petition by Delilah Waan. Text on cover reads "Their sacrifice. Her debt. One chance to succeed." Text on the sale graphic reads: What happens after magic school? $1.99 Ends 27 Aug Art on the sale graphic is of a dragon on a starry purple background. Art by Arden Powell Black and white brushwork side portrait of a young Asian woman wielding a spear. Art by Rosemary Fung (www.witbik.com) Text reads: "GREEN BONE SAGA, but with more female rage."
August 24, 2025 at 12:25 AM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
Hey #booksky, #ICYMI: there's 320+ #indiebooks on sale this weekend ($1.99 or less). The handy filter on the @narratess.com sale page indiebook.sale will help you find EXACTLY what you're looking for.

Me, I've been scoping out the epic fantasy titles 👀 there's 21 of them, including mine.

🪐📚💙
Indie fantasy sci-fi horror sale: montage of all 21 covers for epic fantasy titles in the sale. Juniper Butterworth - Priest-Queen Talli L. Morgan - The Oracle Stone Emma L. Adams - Death's Disciple Patrick Samphire - Shadow of a Dead God Audrey Simmons - Child of the Sun Joanna Maciejewska - By the Pact M. A. Vice - Birthright T.C. Smith - Song of the Wolf Nikky Lee - The Rarkyn's Familiar Brendan Noble - The Crimson Court Delilah Waan - Petition J.D.L. Rosell - A King's Bargain Scott Marlowe - The Assassin's Blade Courtney & Clarke Collins - In the Name of Honor Leslie Allen - The Revenge of Captain Vessia Elise Carlson - Walking the Knife's Edge Erika McCorkle - Merchants of Light and Bone Morgan K. Bell - Broken Sky M.C. Burnell - A Path of Endless Crossroads Dylan Madeley - Prince Ewald the Brave Hannah E. Carey - The Shifter
August 24, 2025 at 12:25 AM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
Finally, sub to @pattyjansen.bsky.social's #indiesff #bookdeals newsletter, Ebookaroo, esp if you're outside US/UK: pattyjansen.com/pages/ebooka...

Features worldwide deals on ebooks/audiobooks that are available other places in addition to Amazon/Audible, as well as Kickstarter.
Screenshot of Ebookaroo newsletter homepage. Text reads: PATTY'S EBOOKAROO Cheap & Free books - New Releases - Giveaways - Non-profit - Run by authors What is the Ebookaroo? A mailing list for readers who like sales, giveaways, new releases and audio books in the genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy. The list is run by authors. 100% non-commercial, a goodwill project. INTERNATIONAL focus. None of these US and UK only deals. Genre fiction: Fantasy and Science Fiction How often will you mail me? Ebookaroo emails go out on dates with a 5 in them (Australian time). Depending on your interest, you may also receive 1-2 additional emails in between. Discover great new writers for the best prices! We are an international crowd and feature promotions that are worldwide on a variety of retailers
August 23, 2025 at 1:02 AM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
NOTE: the @narratess.com sale is ebook only & many authors likely won't have audio versions.

But one challenge in tracking down non-KU/non-Audible-only books is figuring out which authors DIDN'T sign exclusivity agreements.

Well, the Narratess sale page has a filter for that.
Screenshot of the Narratess sale page filters, where you can filter availability by stores and select from Amazon, Other, and Direct.
August 23, 2025 at 12:52 AM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
The team @narratess.com is especially great at curating sales where readers can buy from places that AREN'T Amazon, including highlighting all the books that can be purchased directly from the author.

BTW, the #IndieAugust sale is on right now: indiebook.sale
Large image of ebook covers with the feature tile at the center reading: INDIE BOOK SALE (indiebook.sale) FANTASY, SCI FI & HORROR, August 23-25
August 23, 2025 at 12:47 AM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
#Kobo runs a quarterly spotlight of #indiefantasy and #indiescifi titles that are available in #KoboPlus. That includes a whole bunch of audiobooks!

www.kobo.com/en/list/find...
Montage of audiobook covers, available in Kobo Plus: Petition by Delilah Waan, The Crimson Court by Brendan Noble, Spaces of Silence by Niranjan, Ambassador 1: Seeing Red by Patty Jansen, The Ziva Payvan Collection by EJ Fisch, The Star We Call Home by Cidney Swanson, Brambles by Intisar Khanani, Big Demon Energy by Deborah Wilde, The First Yule by TJ Green, Mtho: One by TJ Nichols, Love's Misfiring Magic by Heather Silvo, The Harper Witches Collection by Sarah Painter, The Vanishing Tome by Stella Fitzsimons, Queen of Frost & Ice by Aisha Urooj
August 23, 2025 at 12:39 AM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
Readers, at the risk of sounding like I'm giving you the hard sell:

If you're on #Kindle because you're a fan of Amazon's #KindleUnlimited program, I beg you to please please please please please give #KoboPlus a shot.

Here's a quick spotlight of what's available: www.kobo.com/en/p/kobo-pl...

💙📚🪐
Graphic titled "Fantastical reads on Kobo Plus" featuring 12 books: Queen of Egypt by Kylie Quillinan, The Crimson Court by Brendan Noble, Petition by Delilah Waan, Supplicant by Delilah Waan, A Storm Rises by Rose Garcia, Broken Sky by Margan K. Bell, Fire Mage by Trudi Jaye, The Maker of Spells by Jenny O'Kell, Pacts Arcane and Otherwise (Complete Series) by Joanna Maciejewska, The Bestowed by C. Ryan Crockett, Me Three by Jamie Edmundson, The Hidden Tower by James E. Wisher. Text on the bottom reads "Discover magic, myths, and more"
June 28, 2025 at 11:57 PM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
You can now get my books on Campfire bc Jason, the CEO, personally reached out (I assume bc I've been so terribly vocal about needing Amazon alternatives) and got me set up: www.campfirewriting.com/explore/seri...
Screenshot of Delilah Waan's profile on Campfire: https://www.campfirewriting.com/user/DelilahWaan
June 28, 2025 at 11:40 PM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
Was real fun for me and @siennaf.bsky.social to discover that although we are eligible authors, our books aren’t eligible works for the Chommanard International Women Literary Award because they’re self-published.
Screenshot from https://virf.io/home/detail_news/22 May 24, 2025 Open Call for Chommanard International Women Literary Award 2025 Chommanard International Women Literary Award 2025 ( For female authors from ASEAN, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan ) Screenshot from https://virf.io/home/detail_news/22 About the Award The Chommanard Women’s Literary Award, sponsored by Bangkok Bank, celebrates exceptional female literary talent from ASEAN-member countries, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The award honors fiction works that demonstrate cultural relevance, social impact, and literary excellence. Originally established to recognize outstanding Thai female authors, the award has since evolved into a regional platform dedicated to uplifting women's voices across Asia. A shortlist will be announced for each eligible country, and one Country Winner may be selected per country only if the jury agrees that the work meets the award’s standards. ** Note: Jurors may remain anonymous, but their collective comments on winning works will be shared to ensure transparency in the judging process. ** Screenshot from https://virf.io/home/detail_news/22 Work Requirements 1. The submission must be a fiction novel (no word count limits), originally written in any national language and later published in English, either as an original or as a translation, between 2015 and 2025. Work must be submitted in English. 2. The work must be original and not plagiarized, AI-generated, or adapted from pre-existing content. A signed letter of originality is required. 3. The book must be published by an established imprint based in the Asia-Pacific region or English-speaking countries. (An “established imprint” refers to a legally registered publishing company with a track record of publishing works by multiple authors, professional editorial standards, ISBN assignment, and distribution through recognized channels. Self-publishing imprints do not qualify.) 4. All publication rights remain with the author during the judging process. 5. Any translator-related disputes are the sole responsibility of the author.
June 25, 2025 at 10:28 AM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
#Kobo is considering an open Q&A forum.

Authors & #booksky: email writinglife@kobo.com or submit a ticket via kobowritinglife.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/req... & tell them how much we WANT & NEED this to happen.

Kobo, if you're willing to listen, we're willing to work through this TOGETHER.

🧵15/15
Screenshot from the closing portion of the Kobo email dated 11 June 2025. Double asterisks indicate underlined text. Text reads: **Thank you for the suggestion about a Q&A open forum. We will look into this as an option to keep this conversation open** but in the meantime, we welcome any questions from authors. Best, Tara Director, Kobo Writing Life
June 11, 2025 at 11:23 PM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
Funny thing is, I think if Kobo had taken a consultative approach from the start and ASKED for volunteers, they would've had takers.

There are many authors out there who would be open to licensing their work for training gen AI.

Source: www.draft2digital.com/blog/2024-ai...

🧵12/?
Screenshot from D2D survey of indie authors regarding licensing AI training rights. Source: https://www.draft2digital.com/blog/2024-ai-training-survey-results/ TEXT reads: Indie interest in AI rights licensing The indie publishing community currently doesn’t have the ability to consider licensing opportunities for their AI training rights. The next question sought to understand if indies would want the ability to consider AI rights licensing opportunities, asking simply, “Would you appreciate the ability to evaluate and join AI rights licensing opportunities?” 56% of respondents indicated potential willingness to consider AI rights licensing opportunities, as expressed with 31% indicating Yes they would be interested and 25% indicating a Maybe. A solid 45% of authors answered No; they would not be interested in evaluating AI rights licensing opportunities. The answers indicate there’s a solid block of authors and publishers firmly opposed to the concept of AI rights licensing, yet there’s a slightly larger group that is curious to consider it. Are authors interested in the opportunity to sell their AI training rights? [graphic with 3 circle charts showing 31% yes, 25% maybe, and 45% no]
June 11, 2025 at 10:57 PM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
...given that:

a) Kobo firmly asserts it has & will NEVER use our books to train gen AI models, and
b) is thus far unable/unwilling to say where its recap LLM's training data came from

it's more likely that:

1) the LLM powering the recaps feature is outsourced

which means that...

🧵8/?
Screenshot from Kobo email dated 10 June 2025. Double asterisks indicate highlighted text. Text reads: Hi Delilah, Thanks for your email. At Kobo, our focus is on enhancing our promotional activities to help your book find its perfect audience, and we’re committed to doing it ethically and effectively. **Let’s be clear from the start: Kobo will never use your books to train AI models to generate new content. Your creative work is yours, and we respect that.**
June 11, 2025 at 10:51 PM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
The 2nd para of the email is key: "Some of the features mentioned are still in development so I don't have specific answers to everything, however, we will be sharing all the feedback with our development teams to aid their work."

That's a deflection of my questions regarding data laundering.

🧵6/?
Screenshot from Kobo email dated 11 June 2025. Text reads: Here's a link to our FAQ around these Terms changes. We will be updating this proactively as more questions come in. We welcome feedback and I appreciate you taking the time to write this thoughtful email. Some of the features mentioned are still in development so I don't have specific answers to everything, however, we will be sharing all the feedback with our development teams to aid their work. When it comes to tags/categories, we believe it would be a disservice to the reader if we were miscategorising books. We want to use these tools to ensure we're serving a reader exactly what they're looking for and even something they may have not realised they wanted. And as with all things we develop, we will have a layer of human oversight involved.
June 11, 2025 at 10:30 PM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
The email has more acknowledgement then dodges by pointing to Kobo's CSR page on sustainability, which has nothing on gen AI: ca.kobobooks.com/pages/sustai...

The interesting part: it says Kobo has "some great thought leaders in [the environmental impact of gen AI use] on staff"

👀 Who???

🧵5/?
Screenshot from Kobo email dated 11 June 2025. Text reads: Regarding the environmental impact, this is something that we're very conscious of with any work we're doing regarding AI. We are lucky to have some great thought leaders in this space on staff and it is a factor we consider as part of the development process. You can see this with our devices in particular, since 2022 all of our eReaders are made from recycled ocean-bound plastics and are also now repairable. We want to be kind in our environmental impact where we can be. Link in screenshot points to a corporate social responsibility (CSR) page on sustainability.
June 11, 2025 at 10:24 PM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
First part of the email reply points to a new FAQ on the ToS changes: kobowritinglife.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/art...

Most of it is just formally documenting the talking points from @mtamblyn.bsky.social's thread and Tara's email dated 10 June 2025.

Only one part has new information...

🧵2/?
Screenshot of Kobo's new FAQ on the Terms of Service changes. Source: https://kobowritinglife.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/37446931721883-FAQ-June-2025 Screenshot from new Kobo FAQ on changes to the Terms of Service. Source: https://kobowritinglife.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/37446931721883-FAQ-June-2025 TEXT reads: Some AI techniques have significant energy, water, and carbon impacts. What is Kobo doing to minimize these impacts? Most of the machine learning approaches we describe above are vastly smaller in power consumption compared to Learning Language Models. These are run on regular servers like the rest of our software infrastructure and don’t have the environmental impact that is a real concern with LLM use. Where we do use generative AI elsewhere in the business, it is with the understanding that there is a real cost, not just in dollars, but in negative environmental externalities that have to be a part of any conversation about efficiency, cost savings, or reducing employee toil. How can I provide feedback on Kobo's use of AI? We value your feedback! You can contact our author support team here. We are always looking for ways to improve and appreciate your input. We want to hear from you.
June 11, 2025 at 10:04 PM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
#Kobo Update 4: Two more official comms landed in my inbox overnight.

1. Reply re: concerns I raised yesterday.

2. I FINALLY got a "We changed the ToS" email.

This'll be the last thread I make on this subject; the next thing is gonna be a long-form YT video covering all of them.

🧵1/?
Annotated screenshot of Kobo email reply 11 June 2025. See rest of thread for full text of email and annotated commentary. Annotated screenshot of the beginning of Kobo email dated 12 June 2025, titled "Important Update to the Kobo Writing Life Terms of Agreement" Annotations read "Finally!" and "Looks like a new email. Very long & verbiage is based off all the verbiage in the CEO thread and various email replies I've received from Tara"
June 11, 2025 at 9:57 PM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
...since a lot of us have books that were stolen as part of those datasets.

So if Kobo's using an outsourced LLM model trained on those datasets, it means our books would already have been ingested by said AI model, despite Kobo's intent.

🧵27/?
Screenshot of The Atlantic's LibGen search tool, showing that both PETITION and SUPPLICANT by Delilah Waan are included in the LibGen dataset.
June 11, 2025 at 6:05 AM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
The second chunk pertains to the clarifications I asked for around "generated recaps/other content".

I'm gratified to see Kobo has ruled out whole summaries of books right off the bat. They're on the same page as we are about potential spoilers, etc that might ruin things for readers.

🧵16/?
Screenshot of excerpt from Kobo email dated 10 June 2025. Double asterisks indicate underlined text. TEXT READS: **We are not interested in doing whole summaries of books.** Authors provide us with title descriptions – that's what we rely on to describe the book to customers. We don’t want the risk of spoilers, plot details, or anything else being revealed that would ruin the experience of a book. What we are interested in is **making the reading experience even better for people who have already purchased the book, and finding ways to get more books finished.** So, we are exploring a recap inside a book that has already been purchased. One of the problems we see is that, if someone steps away from a book for a period of time, they are much less likely to finish it. **Picking up where you left off – getting back into a book – is a problem in both fiction and non-fiction.** As a potential solution, we will be testing this **beta feature in the Kobo App**: **Readers can request a short, personalized recap of their recent reading activity. The amount of summary will be limited to their last reading session; it will be short and quick, viewable only by the reader and will include references to any highlights or annotations they've made. The recaps are short (~150 words), generated on the fly uniquely to the requesting user, and are not permanently saved. The creation of the summary does use a generative AI model, but neither the input or the output are used as training data.** **While this feature uses an AI model to generate the recap, no author text will become training data for the model.** It's an application of generative AI, and we understand that some people have concerns about that. We hope you can see **we're trying to use it in a way that helps readers finish books, which is usually the step before they buy the next one** – a benefit for everyone.
June 11, 2025 at 5:34 AM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
Everybody knows that our devices are tracking everything we do. Kobo discloses exactly what they are collecting in their privacy policy: authorize.kobo.com/terms/privac...

That's a lot of data to analyze—and this is a pretty good use case of machine learning to cluster users.

🧵3/?
Screenshot of Kobo privacy policy. Double asterisks indicate highlighted text. TEXT READS: Information we collect automatically Usage information: We collect Personal Information when you use or otherwise interact with the Kobo Services or our marketing and communications. For example, **we collect information about how you use the Kobo Services, such as pages you view, the rate at which you consume e-content (how often and for how long), genres, authors or subject matter you read or listen to frequently and searches you make or share, the ebooks or audiobooks you rated, where you left comments and websites you viewed through links in the comments. We collect this information across the various devices, applications, and other tools via which you access and interact with the Kobo Services.** Device information: We collect certain technical information about your device - such as your IP address, device type, device model and manufacturer, device identifier and your device operating system type and version. Transactional information: We automatically collect certain information about your transactions on the Services such as amount charged, date and time, and use of promotions including affiliations with any retailer partners.
June 11, 2025 at 4:26 AM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
The beginning, middle, and end of the email are reiterations of value statements, but there are two meaty sections of disclosures with ACTUAL DETAILS.

The first chunk pertains to the clarifications I asked for around "generated marketing/promo/ads".

🧵2/?
Screenshot of an excerpt from Kobo reply dated 10 June 2025. Double asterisks surround underlined text TEXT READS: We **leverage machine learning** to connect your book with readers who are most likely to enjoy it, **by looking at reading habits and trends**. This means your book is seen by the right people, increasing the chances of them falling in love with your story. **AI also helps us identify books that fit specific themes or categories, assembling books into collections or other promotions and personalized recommendations**. We also **utilize design tools, like Figma and Adobe products, which include AI-powered components, to quickly adapt marketing materials for various screen sizes and formats**, ensuring the marketing that includes your books looks great on any device. We **may use AI-assisted design tools to automate book cover placement in banners, emails, and other marketing materials**. Additionally, **short quotes from your book or metadata may be incorporated into promotional materials to highlight key selling points**. All of these AI-assisted processes are carefully **reviewed by our team** to ensure they meet our high standards. We want to **automate tedious graphic production tasks** so that our marketers and designers can do more interesting and valuable work.
June 11, 2025 at 4:26 AM
delilahwaan.bsky.social
#Kobo Update 3: @mtamblyn.bsky.social might not be personally posting, but there is Stuff and Discussions Happening behind the scenes because I got another official response—and it has the clarity and straightforwardness I've been hoping for.

But I still have questions.

Let's get into it.

🧵1/?
Screenshot from official Kobo reply dated 10 June 2025.
June 11, 2025 at 4:11 AM