Kobo sells in markets where Amazon is weak — Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, and through library systems that pay per borrow. It also has the most generous promotional machinery of any store, and most authors never touch it because the dashboard looks quieter than KDP’s.
What you receive
- Complete Writing Life metadata: categories from Kobo’s own list, keywords, series data and language flags.
- Series page configuration so volumes appear in order with a shared landing page.
- Promo readiness: the requirements for price promotions, box sets and the Kobo Plus subscription catalogue, checked and prepared.
- Territory pricing converted sensibly rather than left at one dollar-equivalent figure across every market.
- Library channel guidance — whether to opt in, and what borrows mean for revenue and reviews.
How it is set up
- Audit the dashboard for missing fields, unpublished drafts and duplicated books.
- Fix the metadata, including the series fields that Kobo requires but KDP does not.
- Set the territories and prices market by market within Kobo’s tier system.
- Submit for promotions and confirm eligibility rather than assuming it.
Why Kobo Plus is worth a decision, not a default
Kobo Plus is a subscription catalogue: readers pay a monthly fee and you are paid per page read. For a series with high completion rates it can add real income; for a short standalone it may cannibalise sales. The choice should follow your catalogue shape and your read-through, which is why we look at both before recommending enrolment rather than ticking the box.
International readers and library borrows
Kobo’s audience skews towards readers outside the United States and towards library users who discover authors through borrows. That means the description should avoid American-only references, prices should look native in each storefront, and the series should be complete enough that a library reader who finishes book one can find book two immediately. A missing volume in a series is the most common missed sale on this store.
Reviews behave differently here
Kobo’s readership reviews less than Amazon’s but borrows more. A single well-placed review on the store’s own page carries proportionally more weight, and library recommendations move books in ways that reviews do not. That means the practical work here is completeness and series order rather than review solicitation: a reader discovering the series through a library borrow should never hit a gap between volumes.
What to check before you publish there
Three things break a Kobo listing more often than anything else: a series with a missing volume, an EPUB that fails the store’s own validator, and a category chosen from a list that no longer exists in the dashboard. Each is a five-minute check and each costs a week of visibility when missed. We run all three before submitting, then confirm the book appears in its categories and returns in search for its own title rather than assuming the upload did what the dashboard implied.
Pricing
| Tier | Scope | Price | Was | You save |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 1 ebook | $20 | $25 | |
| Professional | 3 ebooks | $60 | $60 | |
| Bulk / Authority | 5 ebooks | $80 | $95 |
Frequent questions
Can I use the same EPUB as KDP?
Usually yes. We check the file against Kobo’s validation first, because a few constructs that Amazon tolerates are rejected here.
Do you handle the promo submissions?
Yes, including the artwork and copy those promotions require.
Is Kobo worth the effort for a small catalogue?
One or two titles, modestly. A series or a backlist of six or more, clearly — the series page and subscription catalogue start to compound.
Optimise my Kobo listing — send the title and the current Writing Life dashboard view.