Kobo is where a great many of them buy. Canada, much of Europe, Australia and New Zealand, markets where it is a serious presence and where your book may currently not exist.
Kobo Writing Life is a straightforward platform with an unusual strength: its readership is concentrated outside the United States, in markets where Amazon's share is lower and a well-listed independent title has more room. It also supplies a network of library and retail partners.
For authors writing in genres that travel, that is a real audience being left on the table. The work to reach it is the same as anywhere, a valid file, complete metadata, and pricing set per territory rather than converted from dollars and forgotten.
Available individually. A book already published elsewhere usually needs only setup and listing work.
- 01
Publication
Account setup, title details, file upload and the territory and pricing configuration that makes the international reach actually worth having.
- 02
Editing
A professional pass over the manuscript before publication, with your voice preserved.
- 03
Cover design
A cover that reads correctly on Kobo's e-ink devices as well as in the colour store, greyscale legibility is a real constraint here.
- 04
Marketing
Listing metadata and categories written for this store's search, plus the promotional programmes Kobo runs for independent titles.
- 05
Distribution
Configuration of the wider distribution Kobo offers, including its library and retail partner network.
Four things that make an international listing worth the effort.
- 01
Territories set deliberately
The value of Kobo is international, and it is lost if pricing is set once in dollars and left. Prices are set per market to figures that look sensible in that market.
- 02
Quality through the chain
Editorial, design and production handled to the same standard as any other platform, so the book is not a lesser edition because it is a secondary channel.
- 03
Explained as it goes
A transparent process: you know what is happening to your title and why at every stage.
- 04
Yours throughout
Your account, your rights, your royalties paid directly. The house is engaged for work, not for a share of the book.
Eight steps, and a proof approved before publication.
Manuscript preparation
The manuscript refined for structure, tone and consistency before production begins.
Account setup
Your Kobo Writing Life account created and configured, with the payment details in your name.
Book setup
Formats chosen, book information entered, and the manuscript and cover files uploaded to specification.
Distribution channels
The reach configured, including Kobo's library and retail partners, the part of the platform most authors do not know exists.
Pricing and royalties
Prices set per territory, with the royalty implications of each band explained rather than assumed.
Proof
The title reviewed as a reader will see it, on device, before it is approved for sale.
Global distribution
The book published across the markets and channels you selected.
Sales and royalties
Performance monitored by market, with regular updates, which is how you learn which territories are worth more attention.
A few of the people the house has worked with, in their own words.
I had eleven years of notes and no book. What I got back read like me on a good day, my turns of phrase, my arguments, and none of the padding I would have added myself. The first chapter arrived and I stopped worrying.
Marianne ElleryIndependent author The structural edit was not comfortable reading. It told me the second half started in the wrong place, which I had suspected for a year and nobody had said out loud. Moving three chapters fixed a problem I had been trying to solve with better sentences.
Devon AlukoIndependent author What sold me was being told I did not need half of what I had asked for. I came in wanting the full package and left with a cover, a proofread and an honest explanation of why the rest would not have helped yet.
Priya RaghunathanIndependent author Three cover directions, all of them plausible, none of them the thing I had described. The one I picked worked at the size that actually matters, I could recognise it in a list of forty other books, which is more than I can say for my first attempt.
Tobias HearnIndependent author I own the book outright and that was written down before I paid anything. After two years of being quoted percentages by people who would not put them in writing, that was the whole reason I stayed.
Cecile MarchandIndependent author The audiobook took longer than I expected and they told me why each time rather than going quiet. The narrator they cast got my grandmother's accent right, which I had assumed would be the thing I had to let go of.
Nathan BoakyeIndependent author
How Kobo Writing Life works for independent authors.
Create a Kobo Writing Life account, upload your ebook as EPUB with its cover, enter the title details and description, choose your categories, and set pricing and territories. The title is then published to the Kobo store, typically within a day or two.
Kobo pays a percentage of list price that depends on the price band and the territory, and the rates are competitive with the other major platforms. As with every retailer, the terms are Kobo's and they change, so check the current schedule in Writing Life before you set a price rather than relying on a figure quoted elsewhere.
Yes. Kobo does not require exclusivity, and publishing widely is the normal approach. The only thing that would prevent it is having enrolled the same ebook in Amazon's KDP Select, which requires digital exclusivity for its term.
Usually within a day or two of submission, though it can take longer if the file needs review. Distribution to partner channels and libraries takes longer than the main store, so do not judge the whole rollout by the first day.
Get the metadata right first, categories, description and keywords aimed at how readers search in this store, which is not identical to how they search on Amazon. Kobo runs promotional programmes that independent titles can apply for, and its merchandising is genuinely accessible to independents in a way some platforms' are not. Price for the territories that matter, and use your own audience, since that works everywhere.
You do, completely. The author holds 100% of the rights to their work, in every format, for its whole life. The house is paid for the work it does, not with a share of the book. That is the arrangement the house reopened in 2008 to offer, and it does not change with the tier, the price or the point at which you come to us.
Yes. Your name is on the cover and in the record. Everyone who works on the book (writer, editor, designer) works on your book, and none of them is credited on it unless you ask for them to be.
Yes. Your story is yours, and nothing about the project leaves the house. We will sign your NDA before you send anything, or supply ours if you would rather use one.
No. Six disciplines are available and you take the ones you need. Authors arrive here at every stage (with an idea, a half-draft, or a finished manuscript that only needs a cover and a shelf) and the work starts where you actually are.
It depends on the work: length, how much research is involved, how much of the book already exists, and which disciplines you need. There is no list price for a book, and any firm who gives you one before reading your material is quoting something other than your book. Tell us where you are and we will price the actual job.
Move the marker. You do not need to know what to call it: you only need to know where you are.
Tell us where your manuscript is, where you want it to go, and we'll show you what's possible.