Kobo Writing Life

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

As of 1 September 2026, Kobo Writing Life is free to use. Kobo self-publishing service, free to use like KDP but with a royalty structure that differs from Amazon in ways that matter for pricing strategy: no delivery fee, no price ceiling on the 70% rate, and a requirement that the ebook be priced at least 20% below any physical edition. Softwr lists it under Publishing. Kobo Writing Life is made by Rakuten Kobo, available on Web.

Visit siteVisit Kobo Writing Life

Overview

What Kobo Writing Life does

Kobo Writing Life lets authors publish ebooks directly to the Kobo store, which has meaningful reach outside the US, particularly in Canada, the UK and international markets where Kobo competes more directly with Amazon than it does domestically. Like KDP, there is no fee to publish; Kobo earns its share through the royalty structure on each sale. The royalty mechanics are where it genuinely differs from Amazon and are the reason to evaluate it on its own terms rather than assume it mirrors KDP. Kobo pays 70% on ebooks priced between $2.99 and $12.99 USD (with equivalent thresholds in other currencies, £1.99 GBP, €1.99 EUR, and so on), and unlike KDP there is no upper price cap on the 70% rate at all, only the same lower threshold. Kobo also does not deduct a delivery fee, so an author keeps the full 70% regardless of file size, which is a direct structural advantage over KDP for image-heavy or long ebooks. Below the threshold, royalty drops to 45%, not 35% as with KDP. Buyers are the same broad self-published author population as KDP, often the same authors publishing to both platforms simultaneously as part of a wide-distribution strategy. One condition is easy to miss: Kobo requires the ebook be priced at least 20% below the list price of any physical edition to qualify for the 70% rate, and Kobo automatically price-matches to other retailers, so an author discounting elsewhere may see their Kobo price adjusted without a separate manual change.

What people use it for

An author with a long or image-heavy ebook wanting to avoid the delivery fee that would apply on KDP at the same price
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 expansion
A wide-distribution author targeting Canadian, UK or other international markets where Kobo has stronger relative reach than in the US
An author who wants to understand that price-matching to other retailers may automatically change their Kobo price without a manual update

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about 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.

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of Kobo Writing Life

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

Kobo Writing Lifevs
Kindle Direct Publishing
Kindle Direct Publishing: The dominant comparison platform, with a materially different royalty structure including a price ceiling and delivery fee
Kobo Writing Lifevs
Draft2Digital
Draft2Digital: A wide-distribution aggregator that includes Kobo among its retail channels, useful for authors not wanting to manage each retailer relationship separately
Kobo Writing Lifevs
PublishDrive
PublishDrive: A subscription-based wide-distribution alternative also covering Kobo among its channels

Pricing

What Kobo Writing Life costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

70% royalty tier

Free

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 tier

Free

Applies below the $2.99 threshold
No delivery fee deducted

Capabilities

Features

Free publishing
No fee to list or publish ebooks through Kobo Writing Life
70% royalty, no price ceiling
70% rate applies from $2.99 up with no upper price limit, unlike KDP
No delivery fee
Full royalty percentage kept regardless of file size
Automatic price matching
Kobo price-matches to other retailers, which can adjust an author price without manual action
International reach
Strong distribution outside the US, notably Canada, UK and other international Kobo markets
Direct payment threshold
Payment issued 45 days after each monthly period once a $50 USD minimum is met

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

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.

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.

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.

Keep looking

Where to go from Kobo Writing Life

Best Publishing software for

Compare Kobo Writing Life with

Other Publishing software

Kindle Direct 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
Free plan11 researched notes
PublishDrive
Ebook distribution aggregator that moved from a royalty-share model to flat-fee subscription pricing, so authors now keep 100% of the store royalty rather than splitting it with the platform
Free plan11 researched notes
Draft2Digital
Ebook and print distribution aggregator that takes a percentage instead of a fee
Free plan10 researched notes
IngramSpark
Print-on-demand and distribution into the wholesale catalogue that bookshops order from
10 researched notes
BookBaby
Pay-per-book self-publishing service for ebook conversion, print on demand and distribution
11 researched notes
Reedsy
Vetted marketplace of publishing freelancers with free writing and formatting tools attached
Free plan10 researched notes
Atticus
One-time-purchase writing and book formatting that runs on Windows and Linux, not just Mac
From $147/one-time11 researched notes
Scrivener
Long-form writing and manuscript organisation software sold as a one-time purchase per platform, with no subscription at any tier
11 researched notes
Kindle
Amazon's consumer e-book reading app, distinct from Kindle Direct Publishing, the author-facing service
Free plan9 researched notes
Blurb
Visual storytelling through print-on-demand books and wall art
From $3.99/unit10 researched notes
Lulu
Quality book printing at a reasonable price
9 researched notes
Wattpad
User-generated fiction publishing and reading app, owned by Naver alongside Webtoon
Free plan9 researched notes
Kotobee
Interactive EPUB authoring that also exports native mobile apps and hosted libraries
Free plan10 researched notes
Moon Reader
Android ebook reader app with a one-time purchase, deep format support and no subscription or store lock-in
Free, then $4.99/one-time10 researched notes
Pressbooks
Open source book production built on WordPress, and the default tool for open textbooks
Open source10 researched notes
Reedsy
Vetted marketplace of publishing freelancers with free writing and formatting tools attached
Free plan10 researched notes
Scrivener
Long-form writing and manuscript organisation software sold as a one-time purchase per platform, with no subscription at any tier
11 researched notes
Kindle
Amazon's consumer e-book reading app, distinct from Kindle Direct Publishing, the author-facing service
Free plan9 researched notes

Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Kobo Writing Life, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

Best Publishing software alternatives

View all Publishing software