Kobo's Writing Life program, still in beta, is going head-to-head with Amazon's KDP and Barnes & Noble's PubIt programs in the battle for the self-publishing market.
What is Kobo's competitive advantage? Granting that Writing Life could open up new foreign markets to the North American writer, why should we take the time to publish on yet another platform?
Here's why: because Kobo allows self publishers to set the price of their books to free anytime they like and for as long as they like.
Contrast this with Amazon's KDP Select program which only allows writers to set their book to free for a maximum of five days every three months. With the recent changes to Amazon's ranking algorithm keeping ones book free for a longer period of time has become even more desirable.
Kobo's announcement of their Writing Life program comes at a good time. Their ebook downloads are up 400% from last year and ereader sales are up 280%.
It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. It would be great if Amazon responds by offering more free days for books enrolled in their KDP Select program.
For more on this story click here: Kobo launches e-book self-publishing platform, “Writing Life”
Further Reading:
- An Indie Writer Shares His Experience With KDP Select
- More on Amazon Select: Is exclusivity worth it?
- Changes in Amazon's Algorithm: An Update
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