rev. September 2020
(Note: This FAQ has been provided by Kobo.)
Rakuten Kobo Inc. is one of the world’s biggest digital booksellers. Owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten and headquartered in Toronto, Rakuten Kobo enables more than 38 million readers worldwide to read anytime, anywhere, and on any device. With a mission to make reading lives better for all, Rakuten Kobo connects readers to stories using thoughtful and personalized curation of eBooks, and the best dedicated devices and apps for reading. With the singular focus of making reading lives the best they can be, Kobo’s open platform allows people to fit reading into more moments in their busy lives.
In partnership with the ABA, Kobo has developed a unique program designed for independent booksellers and their customers. Booksellers can offer eBooks from Kobo’s industry-leading catalogue of more than 6 million titles including Kobo Originals.
Why should independent bookstores sell eBooks?
- Opportunity to carry all books for your customers without having the physical inventory in your stores. For customers looking for a physical book and if you don’t have it in stock in store, you can provide it instantly to your customers by searching for the eBook on kobo.com
- Many customers read a combination of print and eBooks. By partnering with Kobo you can offer your customers the chance to support an independent bookstore no matter how they read.
- Kobo offers a variety of daily deals and discounted eBooks, eBooks in a variety of languages such as Spanish, French and , Kobo Originals for customers to take advantage of.
- Exclusive Digital Only content that can be promoted in eBook format to your customers in weekly eNewsletters for instant downloads.
- Kobo.com is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week earning your store money for every new customer or continuing customer sales.
- Kobo offers customer support via a dedicated web form, and bookseller support through members-only telephone and email access.
- Kobo offers online training and rewards for your staff at www.discoverkobo.com
- Promote Digital Staff Picks and encourage customers to shop digitally.
- Kobo Super Points: your customers will receive 10 Kobo Super Points for every $1.00 they spend on a book. They can then redeem their Kobo Super Points from a catalog of 1.5M titles.
Why Kobo?
- By signing up as a Kobo affiliate, you can integrate our extensive library into your store’s website and offer a robust eReading experience to your customers. Here’s what you’ll get:
- Catalog Feed: The Kobo feed contains the complete product listing of eBook content available in your geographic region. (Note: Kobo eBooks are integrated into book data feed for IndieCommerce stores only.)
- Co-Branding: Every user that logs into Kobo will see co-branded logo branding for the bookstore with which they are affiliated. Whenever they log-in to browse or shop, they’ll see your logo!
- Reporting /Tracking: Kobo supplies reports of all relevant customer activity to offer you a full 360 degree view of your digital reading performance.
- Revenue Share: ABA members will share in the revenue on every sale. This includes 50% share of net revenue of all eBook content purchases made by customers whom you introduce to Kobo.
- ABA-member participating stores will decide whether to offer Kobo eBooks from Kobo through their IndieCommerce website; or offer Kobo eBooks through a link to the Kobo website.
- Kobo provides all marketing materials to promote eBook offers on your stores website.
- Your customers will purchase Kobo eContent from a webpage co-branded with your store name on Kobo's website, via an IndieCommerce website, via a Kobo link from your website, or via an enewsletter link.
- Kobo will respond to all your customers' questions and issues regarding and eBooks via a dedicated customer web form. Otherwise customers can visit. www.kobo.com/help
- ABA's agreement with Kobo is non-exclusive, and stores may discontinue selling eBooks at any time, on minimal notice.
- This arrangement with Kobo is available only to ABA members.
- You will receive a 50% share of net revenue of all ebook content purchases made by customers whom you introduce to Kobo. Click here for a detailed analysis of revenue share.
- Customers can be introduced by setting up a new device bought from the store, through referral from a store's website, or via the Kobo app. (Customers must create a new account with Kobo.)
- IndieCommerce users can participate in the Kobo program at no additional cost.
- ABA members selling Kobo content who are not using IndieCommerce will pay ABA an initial set-up fee of $100. A monthly processing fee of up to $25 may be assessed for non-IndieCommerce stores at some point over the course of the ABA/Kobo partnership.
- Kobo will be solely responsible for pricing the digital content available through participating stores.
- Please download the Kobo Participation Agreement and return via fax to 914-417-4013, or via email to [email protected].
- Please read the Kobo Brand Guidelines and Retail MAPP Policy.
- Please email a web-ready logo, following these guidelines, to [email protected].
- Stores may begin to sell eBooks upon confirmation from [email protected] of successful technical set-up.
Q: Does Kobo allow sharing of books between Kobo devices, like Kindle and Nook do?
A: At this time, it is not possible for a Kobo customer to lend or share eBooks from their Library with another person. The eBooks in your Library are tied directly to your account and password.
Q: If a customer buys a device in my store and travels overseas, and purchases an eBook there, will my store still participate in the revenue share?
A: Yes. Each customer sets up a customer account with Kobo, and if they sign in with that account, wherever they are, your store will participate in any purchases they make. It is important to keep in mind that, although Kobo sells eBooks and magazines all over the world, publishers' and authors' contracts differ with regards to territorial rights, so that many titles which are available to purchase from Kobo in the US may not be available to your customer to purchase when they travel abroad--from Kobo, or from any other vendor.
Q: How many titles are in the Kobo database? And how many titles are available for purchase in the US?
A: Kobo's entire library is available to all customers. They currently have over 6M eBook titles including Indie Picks, Kobo Originals and are constantly updating their title list and adding new releases.
Q: Can my store receive commission sales for Kobo Audiobooks?
A: Unfortunately, at this time ABA members only receive commission for Kobo eBooks sales.
Q: How can my customers read Kobo eBooks on their non-Kobo devices?
A: Free apps for reading Kobo books on devices using iOS, Android, are available at Kobo.com. Customers just visit https://www.kobo.com/us/en/p/apps for more information. Note: it is important that all your customers create their Kobo account through your store link before they download the Kobo App.
Q: What about customers that already have a Kobo eReader? How can they shop for eBooks through my store?
A: The customer would establish a new Kobo account by following the link to Kobo on your website. Then, when they next use their device, they would sign out of the old account and sign in using the new account name. They can then search and buy eBooks either through their device or through the web, and your store will receive a revenue share.
Q: Once purchased, if a book is DRM protected, is there a limit to the number of downloads?
A: If a file is DRM protected it may be downloaded 6 times in total. This restriction is set forth by the publisher and is the same for all DRM files.
Q: What about Kobo gift cards?
A: Regrettably, at this time, Kobo gift cards are not available to indie partners.
Q: What size logo should I supply to ABA?
A: Please supply your art no larger than 117 pixels wide and 68 pixels high for inclusion in your Kobo co-branded site.
The banner will also include your store name and the phrase "Your Local Independent Bookstore". Logos supplied that do not fit within the given dimensions may suffer detrimental effects when scaled down (or up) to fit the space. In preparing art for your co-branded site, keep the following design concepts and options in mind.
Simple is best - Minimize the amount of fine detail
Will it stack? - Break lengthy phrases across multiple lines
Symbolize - Your store name is already included in the banner, so do you use an icon or symbol that could stand alone?
If you cannot or do not wish to tailor your logo for this purpose, it will be scaled to fit the space (though this may yield less than optimal results). We will include a generic "An Independent Bookstore" logo for stores that haven't provided or cannot provide a logo.
Preferred filetypes are JPG or TIFF images with no compression. Please do not send images embedded in Word files. Please contact [email protected] and ask any questions.
Q: Where in the Kobo eReading service will my store branding appear for my customers?
A: Your store branding (see logo question above) will appear on a landing page and on certain product pages on the Kobo site, kobobooks.com.
For more information, please email [email protected]
Based on sales for 1Q12, average of all agency and non-agency sales.
Net Sales
$10.00
Cost of Goods
$7.60
DRM fee
4¢
CC processing fee
20¢
Customer Care
47¢
Net Profit
$1.69
Store Share (50%)
84¢ (8%)
Update September 2020: The average net margin experienced by participating stores is slightly greater than 11%.