When it comes to ebook distribution, the major players are Amazon KDP, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble Press, Google Play Books and the subject of this post, Kobo Writing Life.
How do you publish on Kobo Writing Life? First, go to the following page and select Get Started: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/p/writinglife
After entering your contact information and payment information 🤑, you can add your book. Kobo Writing Life is arguably the easiest ebook platform to use.
Create new ebook
Select the “Create new eBook” button to begin.
Describe your ebook
You will fill in the following information:
- Title
- Subtitle
- Series name
- Author(s)
- Publisher name
- Imprint
- Original publication date
You will also upload the ebook cover.
Likewise, you can enter an ISBN or have Kobo generate one for you. You can also provide the print ISBN associated with the ebook. Choose the ebook language, select the copyright status and add categories.
Finally, add the description.
Add ebook content
Upload your interior file. You can upload your manuscript in .epub, .doc, .docx, .mobi or .odt fomat.
Recommendation: Prepare your manuscript with the Reedsy Book Editor and export it as a Word document (.docx). Upload the .docx file to Draft2Digital. Download the .epub file generated by Draft2Digital and upload it to Kobo Writing Life.
Rights and distribution
Kobo Plus: To join Kobo Plus or not to join Kobo Plus? Kobo Plus is basically Amazon Kindle Edition Normalized Page Count (KENP), but without exclusivity. So, adding your book to Kobo Plus ostensibly means more reads and more royalties.
OverDrive: You can also add your book to OverDrive’s catalog, making it available to throusands of libraries. This obviously is a good move, unless you’ve already distributed to OverDrive through an agreggator like Draft2Digital. It’s up to you: Distribute to OverDrive through Kobo Writing Life or distribute to OverDrive via Draft2Digital.
Set your price
If your book is priced below $2.99, you’ll earn 45%. If it’s priced above that, you’ll earn 70%. The price can always be changed later.
Publish your ebook
Publish!
Promote your ebook
Kobo Writing Life makes promotions easy. If you don’t see the promotions tab, email writinglife@kobo.com and ask them to enable the promotions tab in your KWL dashboard. They’re prompt and polite.
As you can see, there are several ways to promote your ebook with Kobo. However, another option is to offer a sales price and let your readers know directly. Scheduling a price change is as easy as going back to the “Set the price” tab and setting a price change.