Killing It On Kobo (eBook)

LET’S START WITH a basic understanding of what Kobo is.

Some of the information in this chapter you might already be familiar with. But I’m willing to bet there are at least a half dozen tidbits the average writer never knew about Kobo. After 6 years of sharing knowledge via media, interviews, podcasts, blogs and during thousands of conversations, I realized that very little of the information being relayed was actually retained by authors.

So, I put this together to provide that information in a handy and accessible format.

What is Kobo?

Kobo was born in Canada out of the country’s largest book retailer, Indigo Books & Music — similar to Barnes & Noble in the US or WHSmith in the UK. Originally launched in December 2009 as Shortcovers, a cloud-based e-reading service, the concept behind the company, and the vision of Michael Serbinis, the founder, was that anyone should be able to read any book on any device at any time.

By December 2009, the company was spun-off from Indigo into an independent company under the name Kobo, with Indigo as the majority owner and with global investors that included Borders, Cheung Kong Holdings and REDgroup Retail. The www.kobo.com website and bookstore was launched with localization to 16 different countries and with a catalog of millions of titles in their eBook catalog.

In January of 2012, Kobo was acquired by and is a subsidiary of Rakuten, a Japanese digital company with an Amazon-sized presence in Asia and other global territories. While most people in the United States who are familiar with Kindle and have, perhaps, never heard of Kobo (or, officially, Rakuten Kobo, Inc.), the company’s ownership by Rakuten, Inc. (Japan’s largest e-commerce site) whose sister companies include PriceMinister, Play.com, Wuaki.tv, Viber, Ebates, Viki, Slice, LinkShare, and OverDrive gives it an incredibly powerful global presence.

Kobo not only has free apps available on tablets, smartphones and desktop computers, but it also manufactures a line of award-winning eReader devices that use an electronic ink screen. The readers, which, in the summer of 2018 included the Kobo Aura ONE, the Kobo Aura H20 Edition 2, the Kobo Clara HD, the Kobo Aura Edition 2, and the Kobo Forma support the industry ePub standard for reading, and also have multiple waterproof design features. Digital Trends described the Kobo Aura One as their top eBook reader to buy in a summer of 2018 article, and many of their devices have been cited by places such as PCMag, Forbes, Business Insider, Wired and CNET as among the top eReaders in the world.

Because of the company’s connection to Japan, many assume that the name “Kobo” is of Japanese origin. The reality is that Kobo is an anagram of the word “book.” That is, perhaps, a little piece of trivia you might be able to use during a friendly bar-bet to secure yourself a free drink or appetizer.

Why Kobo?

While many authors see the largest percentage of their sales via Amazon Kindle –Amazon is, after all, the world’s largest online bookstore – those same authors (if they bother to look) will likely also find that the majority of those sales originate in the US and the UK.

Because Kobo and other eBook retail platforms like Apple Books (formerly iBooks), spent a significant amount of time in the earlier days of the eBook boom focusing on markets outside the US, the sales aren’t concentrated in America.

Kobo’s EVP of Business Development, Todd Humphrey was quoted in a September 27, 2013 Forbes article by Ava Seave entitled “Digital Reading Company Kobo ‘On Pace To Be A Billion Dollar Company,” as saying: “From day 1, we made it our goal and a priority to be international.” Humphrey went on to say that if they weren’t international, they wouldn’t be able to get to scale.

In a January 2012 Wired article, the magazine cited Kobo as “the only global competitor to Amazon” in the eBook market. Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani has publicly stated that Kobo is number one in France, ahead of Amazon in Japan as well as in Australia and New Zealand. Partnerships in the Netherlands, in Italy and in other European companies had led to Kobo having a far stronger presence there, as well. Also, because of the company’s Canadian origins, it has a far stronger market foot-hold and brand recognition within Canada.

If you are content to sell in the US, and perhaps in the UK, then Amazon is likely still your best bet for the majority of your sales and income. Of course, as of the writing of this, Kobo just launched a US-based partnership with Walmart, powering the Walmart eBooks brand (Walmart eBooks by Rakuten Kobo). This service – intended to bring eBooks to Walmart customers both online and in-store – represents Walmart’s continued fight with Amazon, and could mean a growth for Kobo eBook sales in the United States.

However, if you are looking to expand your sales to other countries and to gain a readership in other global territories, and, perhaps most importantly, not be dependent upon a single retailer for the majority of your writing income (also known as “publishing wide”), leveraging Kobo should be among the strategies that you employ.

Ways that Kobo Differs from Amazon

Kobo is Only About Books and About Reading

Unlike Amazon, whose entire service is centred around selling any and all products, Kobo is entirely focused on the experience of readers via eBooks and audiobooks. They also take a human approach to merchandising — that is, deciding which books to promote, and to whom. This is similar to how good physical bookstores work, as opposed to Amazon, who allow their algorithm to make most of the merchandising decisions. It also has an effect on pricing strategies, since books aren’t part of a “loss leader” strategy to sell other products — they're the only thing that Kobo sells.

The Rakuten Advantage

Because Rakuten owns several complimentary digital companies, authors can leverage that to expand their reach and market presence. For example, OverDrive will help you get your books into local library systems, while LinkShare will let you create affiliate links that will help get other people promoting and selling your book.

Kobo Partners with Retailers Across the World

Kobo partners with dozens of global physical and online retailers around the world such as WHSmith (UK), Mondadori (Italy), FNAC (France), BOL (Netherlands) and American Booksellers Association and Walmart in the US. When you publish to Kobo, your book also appears in the catalogs of thousands of these global partners. Instead of competing, Kobo collaborates with those retailers. Unlike Amazon, with an operation meant to compete with and dominate the market, Kobo seeks out collaborative bookselling operations, leveraging their strengths in digital, eBook and audiobook sales with their partner’s strengths in selling physical books.

This collaborative approach is quite Canadian, eh?

A Look at Kobo’s Global Retail Partners

As of the summer of 2018, the webstores powered by Kobo include:

• Walmart (US) https://www.walmart.com/cp/5632020

* This URL won’t work for people outside the local territory. It will re-direct.

Kobo Writing Life’s Royalty Structure is Far More Generous Than KDP’s

Kobo Writing Life authors and publishers receive a 70% or 45% royalty rate on each eBook sold through the Kobo store. eBooks that are priced according to the following pricing rules are eligible to receive a 70% royalty rate:

• CAD – Canadian Dollar – greater than or equal to $2.99
• AUD – Australian Dollar – greater than or equal to $2.99
• GBP – British Pound Sterling – greater than or equal to £1.99
• EUR – Euro – greater than or equal to €1.99
• NZD – New Zealand Dollar – greater than or equal to $2.99
• HKD – Hong Kong Dollar – greater than or equal to $15.99
• JPY – Japanese Yen – greater than or equal to ¥299
• CHF – Swiss Franc – greater than or equal to 2.99
• TRY – Turkish Lira – greater than or equal to ₺5.99
• BRL – Brazilian Real – greater than or equal to...