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Publishing · head to head

Kindle Direct Publishing vs Kobo Writing Life

Kindle Direct Publishing logo

Kindle Direct Publishing

Publishing

Amazon self-publishing platform that is free to use, earning Amazon a royalty cut instead of a fee, with a hard price band and per-megabyte delivery cost governing the 70% rate

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Kobo Writing Life logo

Kobo Writing Life

Publishing

Rakuten Kobo self-publishing platform paying a 70% royalty with no delivery fee deduction and no upper price cap, a materially different structure from Amazon KDP

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Kindle Direct Publishing the 70% royalty band has hard edges: pricing even one cent outside $2.99-$12.99 drops the royalty to 35%, which is a cliff, not a gradual scale, and easy to trigger by accident when adjusting price for a promotion.; Kobo Writing Life kobo overall market share is smaller than Amazon Kindle in the US specifically, so an author relying only on Kobo reaches a smaller US audience than KDP alone would.
  • They diverge on capability: Kindle Direct Publishing covers 70%/35% royalty tiers, Kobo Writing Life covers 70% royalty, no price ceiling.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Kindle Direct Publishing and Kobo Writing Life actually diverge.

Attributes where Kindle Direct Publishing and Kobo Writing Life differ
AttributeKindle Direct PublishingKobo Writing Life
Pricing modelFree to publish; Amazon earns a royalty share rather than a feeFree to publish; Kobo earns a royalty share rather than a fee

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), platforms (Web), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Publishing).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Kindle Direct Publishing

  • 70%/35% royalty tiers
  • Print-on-demand
  • KDP Select
  • Delivery fee deduction
  • Pre-order and release tools

Only in Kobo Writing Life

  • 70% royalty, no price ceiling
  • No delivery fee
  • Automatic price matching
  • International reach
  • Direct payment threshold

Both cover

  • Free publishing

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Kindle Direct Publishing

  • A self-published author wanting free, no-fee distribution to the largest single ebook and print-on-demand marketnot Kobo Writing Life
  • An author pricing a book between $2.99 and $12.99 to qualify for the 70% royalty tier rather than 35%not Kobo Writing Life
  • A publisher considering KDP Select exclusivity to earn Kindle Unlimited page-read royalties, trading away distribution on other retailers for the enrollment periodnot Kobo Writing Life
  • An author with a large, image-heavy ebook file who needs to understand the per-megabyte delivery fee before setting a pricenot Kobo Writing Life

Kobo Writing Life

  • An author with a long or image-heavy ebook wanting to avoid the delivery fee that would apply on KDP at the same pricenot Kindle Direct Publishing
  • An author pricing a book above $9.99 who wants the 70% royalty without hitting the price ceiling that would apply on Amazon before its July 2026 expansionnot Kindle Direct Publishing
  • A wide-distribution author targeting Canadian, UK or other international markets where Kobo has stronger relative reach than in the USnot Kindle Direct Publishing
  • An author who wants to understand that price-matching to other retailers may automatically change their Kobo price without a manual updatenot Kindle Direct Publishing

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Kindle Direct Publishing

  • The 70% royalty band has hard edges: pricing even one cent outside $2.99-$12.99 drops the royalty to 35%, which is a cliff, not a gradual scale, and easy to trigger by accident when adjusting price for a promotion.
  • The delivery fee, roughly $0.15 per megabyte, is deducted on every sale under the 70% tier, so image-heavy or long ebooks lose meaningfully more revenue per sale than a plain-text book at the same list price.
  • KDP Select exclusivity, while optional, is the only route to Kindle Unlimited page-read royalties, so authors face a real trade-off between Amazon-only reach with page-read income and wider distribution without it.
  • Public domain or primarily public-domain content is capped at the 35% royalty regardless of price, so that category of publisher cannot access the higher rate at all.
  • As a single-retailer platform, an author relying solely on KDP is concentrated in one sales channel controlled entirely by Amazon policy, which has changed royalty terms before (the July 2026 price band expansion is itself an example) and can do so again.

Kobo Writing Life

  • Kobo overall market share is smaller than Amazon Kindle in the US specifically, so an author relying only on Kobo reaches a smaller US audience than KDP alone would.
  • Automatic price matching to other retailers means an author discounting on one platform can see their Kobo price change without a deliberate action, which requires active monitoring to avoid unintended royalty impact.
  • The requirement to price at least 20% below any physical edition to qualify for 70% is easy to overlook and can silently drop an author into the 45% tier if a print edition price changes without an ebook price adjustment.
  • Below the qualifying threshold, the fallback royalty is 45%, not the 35% floor on KDP, which sounds better but is a smaller total addressable audience given lower Kobo market share, so gross revenue comparison still favours evaluating both platforms together.
  • As with any single-retailer self-publishing tool, relying solely on Kobo concentrates risk in one platform policy and market position rather than spreading across a wide-distribution strategy.

Pricing, plan by plan

Kindle Direct Publishing

Free
  • 70% royalty tierFree
    • Applies to ebooks priced $2.99-$12.99 (expanded from $9.99 ceiling in July 2026)
    • In-copyright works only
    • Delivery fee of roughly $0.15/MB deducted per sale
  • 35% royalty tierFree
    • Applies below $2.99, above $12.99, or for public domain content
    • No delivery fee deducted
    • Applies automatically outside eligible territories for the 70% tier

Kobo Writing Life

Free
  • 70% royalty tierFree
    • Applies from $2.99 USD (or currency equivalent) with no upper price cap
    • No delivery fee deducted, full 70% kept
    • Ebook must be priced at least 20% below any physical edition list price
  • 45% royalty tierFree
    • Applies below the $2.99 threshold
    • No delivery fee deducted

Which should you pick?

Choose Kindle Direct Publishing if

  • You need 70%/35% royalty tiers.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want print-on-demand.
Kindle Direct Publishing review

Choose Kobo Writing Life if

  • You need 70% royalty, no price ceiling.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want no delivery fee.
Kobo Writing Life review

Questions people ask

Is Kindle Direct Publishing or Kobo Writing Life better?
Neither clearly leads. Kindle Direct Publishing starts at Free and Kobo Writing Life at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Kindle Direct Publishing or Kobo Writing Life?
Kindle Direct Publishing starts at Free and Kobo Writing Life at Free.
Does Kindle Direct Publishing or Kobo Writing Life run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Kindle Direct Publishing for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Kindle Direct Publishing best used for?
Kindle Direct Publishing is most often used for a self-published author wanting free, no-fee distribution to the largest single ebook and print-on-demand market, an author pricing a book between $2.99 and $12.99 to qualify for the 70% royalty tier rather than 35%, a publisher considering kdp select exclusivity to earn kindle unlimited page-read royalties, trading away distribution on other retailers for the enrollment period, an author with a large, image-heavy ebook file who needs to understand the per-megabyte delivery fee before setting a price. Of those, a self-published author wanting free, no-fee distribution to the largest single ebook and print-on-demand market and an author pricing a book between $2.99 and $12.99 to qualify for the 70% royalty tier rather than 35% are not what Kobo Writing Life is typically brought in for.
What can Kindle Direct Publishing do that Kobo Writing Life cannot?
Kindle Direct Publishing covers 70%/35% royalty tiers, Print-on-demand, KDP Select, Delivery fee deduction. Kobo Writing Life covers 70% royalty, no price ceiling, No delivery fee, Automatic price matching, International reach. Both handle Free publishing.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Kindle Direct Publishing: Does KDP cost anything to use?

No signup or listing fee. Amazon earns revenue through the royalty share (65% or 30% of the list price after territory and delivery-fee adjustments) rather than a subscription or fee.

Kobo Writing Life: Does Kobo Writing Life charge a fee?

No. Like KDP, it is free to publish; Kobo earns its share through the royalty percentage on each sale.

Kindle Direct Publishing: What is the current 70% royalty price band?

As of July 2026, $2.99 to $12.99, expanded from the previous $2.99 to $9.99 ceiling that had been unchanged since 2007.

Kobo Writing Life: Is there a price ceiling on the 70% royalty?

No. Unlike KDP, which caps the 70% band at $12.99 as of July 2026, Kobo 70% rate has no upper price limit, only the $2.99 lower threshold.

Kindle Direct Publishing: What is the delivery fee?

Roughly $0.15 per megabyte of file size, deducted per sale only on the 70% royalty tier, calculated from the delivered file size.

Kobo Writing Life: Does Kobo deduct a delivery fee like Amazon?

No. Authors keep the full 70% regardless of file size; there is no per-megabyte delivery deduction.

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