Why no Kobo?
I’ve had a few emails from readers asking when the Kobo (or Nook, or IBooks) version of my next book is out, so I wanted to put something on my website about this, in the hope that some will find it and have the chance of a fuller explanation than I’m able to give by email each time.
Put simply, all authors who are not published by the big-name publishers have to make a decision whether to make their work exclusive to Amazon, or publish on all platforms – including Kobo, Nook, iBooks etc….
On the face of it, it’s an easy decision. It’s far better to publish everywhere, and let anyone and everyone have access to your work. Unfortunately things aren’t that simple. Amazon now offers a subscription reading service called Kindle Unlimited, which has roughly the same number of readers on it as Kobo, Nook and IBooks do combined. And the only way self-published authors can make their work available to Kindle Unlimited readers, is to make their books exclusive to Amazon.
So whether I decide to be exclusive to Amazon, or to publish on the other platforms, either way there is going to be some readers who aren’t able to get my books. It’s very frustrating that this is the case.
At the moment I’ve decided to go down the route of being exclusive to Amazon as I have more Amazon readers than on the other platforms. Maybe I’ll change this in the future, I’m not sure at the moment.
It may not be much consolation, but it is possible to read Kindle books on almost all devices, tablets, phones etc… using the Kindle App (including iPads). But obviously I do understand how frustrating it is for Kobo and Nook owners.
So a big apology to all Kobo, Nook, IBooks readers, and lets hope Amazon changes its policy on this at some point.
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