Kobo Plus for Authors: The Non-Exclusive Subscription Option

Kobo Plus is Kobo's subscription reading service — available in the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Australia, and other markets — where readers pay a monthly fee for unlimited reading access to the Kobo Plus catalog. For wide authors, Kobo Plus has one critically important characteristic that distinguishes it from every other subscription service covered in this series: enrollment is completely non-exclusive.

Unlike Kindle Unlimited, which requires ebook exclusivity across your entire distribution, Kobo Plus lets you enroll any title while simultaneously keeping it live on Amazon, Apple Books, Google Play, and every other retail and subscription platform. The trade-off is lower per-read royalties than you'd earn from retail sales — but those royalties come without giving up any other income stream.

What Kobo Plus Is

Kobo Plus is available to Kobo subscribers in participating markets. Subscribers pay a monthly fee (the exact amount varies by market and changes periodically) and access the Kobo Plus catalog — including any of your enrolled titles — without additional per-title payment. Kobo pays enrolled authors a per-read royalty from a subscription revenue pool, similar in concept to how Kindle Unlimited pays page reads.

Kobo Plus is separate from Kobo's retail storefront. A book can be enrolled in Kobo Plus for subscription access and simultaneously available for retail purchase on Kobo's store — subscribers borrow it for free, non-subscribers buy it at retail price.

Kobo Plus Markets

The Netherlands is often cited by wide authors as the strongest Kobo Plus market. Dutch readers have high English-language proficiency and Kobo has a particularly strong market position there relative to Amazon. Authors who see meaningful Kobo retail income from Dutch readers often see proportionally strong Kobo Plus reads as well.

How to Enroll a Title in Kobo Plus

Kobo Plus enrollment is managed per-title through Kobo Writing Life. There is no account-level enrollment setting — each title is enrolled or not enrolled individually, which means you can have different titles in different enrollment states simultaneously.

• Log into Kobo Writing Life at kobowritinglife.com

• From your bookshelf, click the title you want to enroll

• Navigate to the title's settings or details page

• Find the Kobo Plus section — it appears as a toggle or enrollment option in the title's details

• Enable Kobo Plus enrollment for this title

• Save changes

Changes take effect within 24–48 hours. Once enrolled, your title appears in Kobo Plus subscribers' catalog and is available for subscription borrowing in active Kobo Plus markets.

How Kobo Plus Royalties Work

Kobo Plus pays authors a royalty based on how much of their enrolled title is read by subscribers. The exact calculation methodology is not fully public — Kobo does not publish a specific per-page or per-chapter rate the way Amazon publishes its monthly KENP rate — but the general model is a subscription revenue pool distribution based on reading engagement.

What is publicly known:

• Authors receive royalties based on subscriber reading activity on enrolled titles

• The royalty rate is lower per read than the retail royalty on a purchased copy

• Royalties are paid monthly through your normal Kobo Writing Life payment schedule

• Kobo Plus reading activity appears separately in your KWL earnings reports from retail sales

The practical evaluation question: does Kobo Plus reading income for an enrolled title exceed what that title would have earned from incremental retail sales to readers who might have purchased but instead borrowed? This is difficult to measure precisely, but most wide authors who report on the topic find Kobo Plus adds meaningful incremental income without cannibalizing retail sales significantly — particularly for series starters where the subscription borrow leads readers to purchase subsequent series books at retail.

Which Titles to Enroll: The Strategic Framework

Strong Candidates for Kobo Plus Enrollment

Series starters — Book 1 of any series — are the most compelling Kobo Plus enrollment candidates. A subscriber who borrows and reads Book 1 for free through Kobo Plus, loves it, and then purchases Books 2, 3, and 4 at full retail price generates more total income per reader than selling Book 1 at retail price to a reader who doesn't continue the series. Kobo Plus subscription access to series starters is a reader acquisition tool, not just an income stream.

Backlist titles with declining retail sales are also strong candidates. A book that earns minimal retail royalties and sits largely undiscovered can generate new readership through subscription discovery — readers who find it in the Kobo Plus catalog and wouldn't have otherwise paid full retail price.

Titles to Evaluate Carefully

Current bestsellers and recently launched titles deserve evaluation before enrollment. A book actively generating strong retail sales is already reaching its audience through paid channels. Enrolling it in Kobo Plus may substitute subscription reads for retail purchases rather than adding incremental readers. Monitor this carefully — if Kobo retail sales decline significantly after Kobo Plus enrollment, that's a signal that the subscription is cannibalizing rather than augmenting retail.

Titles to Exclude

There are no Kobo Plus exclusivity requirements, so no title is categorically wrong to try — but deeply personalized or niche titles that would only appeal to a very specific reader who would seek them out and pay retail for them may generate little subscription traffic since subscription readers browse more broadly rather than seeking specific titles.

Evaluating Your Kobo Plus Performance

Kobo Writing Life's earnings reports separate Kobo Plus income from retail sales. Review this data monthly. Look at:

• Total Kobo Plus royalty income per enrolled title

• Whether Kobo retail sales for the same title changed after enrollment

• For series starters: whether series read-through on Books 2+ increased after enrolling Book 1

• Which markets the Kobo Plus reads are coming from — Netherlands, Canada, Belgium, or others

Give each enrolled title at least three months of data before evaluating. Subscription catalog discovery happens gradually — a title that generates minimal Kobo Plus reads in its first month often builds as it becomes established in the catalog.

Kobo Plus vs. Kindle Unlimited: The Key Differences

For wide authors who have chosen not to use Kindle Unlimited, Kobo Plus is the closest analog that fits within a wide distribution strategy. It's not a replacement for KU income (the subscriber base and per-read rates are lower), but it is a legitimate incremental income layer that costs nothing in distribution opportunity.

Audiobook Enrollment in Kobo Plus

Kobo Plus also supports audiobook subscription access in some markets. If you have audiobooks distributed through Kobo or through an aggregator that enables Kobo audiobook distribution, you may have the option to enroll those audiobooks in Kobo Plus separately from your ebook enrollment. Audiobook Kobo Plus income is tracked separately from ebook Kobo Plus income in KWL's reporting.

Common Kobo Plus Mistakes

• Not enrolling series starters — the highest-value Kobo Plus enrollment decision and the most commonly skipped

• Enrolling titles and never reviewing whether the subscription income justifies enrollment — passive enrollment without evaluation

• Expecting immediate results — subscription catalog discovery builds over months, not days

• Not connecting KWL to ScribeCount — losing the ability to compare Kobo Plus income to Kobo retail income for the same titles

• Confusing Kobo Plus non-exclusivity with Kindle Unlimited exclusivity — Kobo Plus has no exclusivity requirements, full stop

Kobo Plus is the simplest incremental income decision available to wide authors. Non-exclusive, per-title enrollment, reversible at any time, no risk to any other distribution channel. Enroll your series starters, give backlist titles with slow retail a subscription channel to find new readers through, and use ScribeCount to track whether the subscription income is building. The downside risk is minimal; the upside — particularly for series starter read-through — can be meaningful.