Kobo Writing Life: Avoid KDP Select, Try Kobo Plus Instead

About this video

Dale presents Kobo Writing Life as a non-exclusive alternative to Amazon KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited, drawing on an interview with Tara, director of Kobo Writing Life, about the expansion of Kobo Plus to the US and UK. He says Kobo Writing Life, founded on July 17, 2012, is a free self-publishing platform distributing ebooks and audiobooks to readers in over 200 countries, and to his knowledge the only platform offering ebook and audiobook distribution under one roof. Accepted ebook files include Doc, docx, ODT, ePub and Mobi; audiobooks use MP3 and m4a, each file no more than 200 megabytes and the whole audiobook no more than two gigabytes. Distribution covers retailers across regions and, via OverDrive, he says 76,000 public libraries, schools, colleges, universities and corporate libraries, where authors set a separate library price. Kobo Plus reaches about 10 regions, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the US and UK, compared with 12 regions for KDP Select, but without exclusivity and with the ability to select regions. Royalties are revenue share: ebooks 70% if priced $2.99 or more and 45% below that, public domain 20%; audiobooks 45% at $2.99 or more and 35% below; OverDrive sales pay 50%; Kobo Plus pays authors 60% of a per-minute value calculated by dividing monthly subscription revenue in a region by total minutes read or listened to. Payouts are by electronic funds transfer 45 days after month-end once a cumulative $50 threshold is reached. Dale’s pros are the intuitive interface, direct library distribution, and non-exclusive Kobo Plus; his cons are smaller reach than KDP, no print books, and lower reader awareness of Kobo.

Key takeaways

• Kobo Writing Life is a free platform for ebooks and audiobooks, presented as an alternative for authors wary of KDP account suspensions and KDP Select exclusivity.
• Kobo Plus is non-exclusive and lets authors select regions, unlike KDP Select, and expanded most recently to the US and UK.
• Kobo Plus pays 60% based on minutes read or listened to, calculated from a monthly pool of subscription revenue divided by total minutes.
• Standard royalties cited are 70% for ebooks priced $2.99 or more, 45% below that, 45%/35% for audiobooks, and 50% for OverDrive library sales.
• Dale’s pros are the simple interface, direct OverDrive library distribution, and Kobo Plus; his cons are less reach than Amazon, no print books, and lower reader awareness.

Episode details: published April 20, 2023 · 13:37 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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