Kobo/Kobo Plus

I first began selling books on Kobo back in 2021, when I learned about the platform via an author friend of mine. At the time, it wasn’t big in the US; Kobo is a Canadian company, but has a fairly large readership in the UK and Australia too. But over the years, Kobo has been expanding.

In 2023, they launched a new feature called Kobo Plus, and after some research, I decided to enroll my books in that program.

What is Kobo Plus?

For those more familiar with Amazon’s Kindle, Kobo Plus is the equivalent to Kindle Unlimited. It’s a monthly subscription service through Kobo that allows you to read as many books as you’d like that are enrolled in the program.

It’s a great deal, and is also more friendly toward authors than Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited is.

Why is Kobo Plus more author-friendly?

First, Kobo doesn’t have an exclusivity clause.

For those not in the know, Amazon forces authors in Kindle Unlimited to promise they won’t sell/give away their ebooks on any other platform. And they have been known to take down books that they believe violate their exclusivity clause…even if those books were pirated. (When I first started publishing, I knew right away KU was not an option. I don’t like the idea of being limited to one platform, but it works for many authors. It’s just not for me.)

Second, Kobo Plus pays the author when users re-read their books. Kindle Unlimited only pays out on the first read through. And after all the blood, sweat, and tears authors put into their books, it only makes sense that a subscription plan would try to uplift the authors a bit, while simultaneously catering to readers.

The final reason why I like Kobo (in general) is that they offer numerous monthly promos for books in their system, whether they’re enrolled in Kobo Plus or not. Amazon limits their promos to books in Kindle Unlimited.

My experience with Kobo Plus so far

In the beginning, they didn’t have much in their fantasy catalogue. It was hard to get readers, but I stuck with it for a while. Some months I’d have a small spike in reads (usually coinciding with BookBub deals), then it would taper off to nothingness.

I got frustrated, and in the fall of 2024, I pulled my books out. I planned to wait until more fantasy and sci-fi books were in their system, then I’d consider re-enrolling.

That got pushed back farther than I anticipated. If you’ve been following my blog for more than a year, you know that my work situation in 2025 was pretty stressful. I had to deal with that, and put a lot of my book-related activities aside. Anyway, long story short, I re-enrolled my books earlier this year once life had settled down.

It’s still slow, but I haven’t given up hope that it will get better.

There is now a dedicated group, whose leadership works directly with Kobo, to help promote fantasy and sci-fi books enrolled in Kobo Plus. They organize biannual promotions, and this month, I’m participating in my first one.

If you’re a Kobo reader (or interested in becoming one), please consider checking out this month’s promo!

The group has a Facebook page and a Discord server (the Discord is by-invite only, and unfortunately only admins can invite. Otherwise, I’d link it here.)

It’s still early days in my second Kobo Plus experiment, but I still think it’s a great alternative to Kindle Unlimited. I’m planning to keep my books in for the foreseeable future.