Publish on Kobo: Step-by-Step Kobo Writing Life Guide

To publish on Kobo, create a free Kobo Writing Life account, add your tax and payment details, and set up a new ebook with your metadata, EPUB file, cover and prices. You choose where it sells, decide whether to opt into the Kobo Plus subscription, and publish. Your book then appears in the Kobo store and through Kobo's retail partners in many countries.

This guide walks through each step in order. It also covers how Kobo Plus works and where Kobo tends to matter most for sales.

What you need before you publish on Kobo

Gather these before you log in. Having them ready means you can finish the setup in one sitting.

• A finished, edited manuscript. Kobo accepts EPUB, and Kobo Writing Life has also accepted Word documents for conversion. A clean EPUB gives you the most control over how the book looks. Check the upload page for the formats currently accepted.
• A cover image. Kobo's published guidance asks for JPEG or PNG, with at least 1400 px on the short side recommended. A 1600 × 2560 px image works well and matches what most other ebook stores accept.
• Your metadata. You need the title, subtitle, series name and number (if any), author name or pen name, description, categories and keywords. If the term is new to you, read about metadata first. It decides how readers find your book.
• A book description. Write it before you start. Our guide on how to write a book blurb covers the structure.
• An ISBN (optional). Kobo does not require one for ebooks. If you are unsure whether to buy your own, see do I need an ISBN.
• Tax and bank details. Kobo asks for tax information and payment details before it can pay you. Non-US authors may need to complete a tax form for US withholding. Follow the prompts in your account.
• A pricing plan. Decide your list price in your home currency and think about how it will look in other currencies.

If you write in Inkora, you can export an EPUB 3 file, a 1600 × 2560 cover JPG and a publishing kit with a description, keywords and BISAC categories. That covers most of this list. You still upload everything yourself in your own Kobo account.

Step 1: Create a Kobo Writing Life account

1.1 Sign up

Go to the Kobo Writing Life site and create an account. You can use an existing Kobo account or register a new one with an email address. Signing up is free.

1.2 Fill in your profile

Add your name, country and contact details. Your country affects the currency you see by default and how your tax information is handled.

1.3 Add tax and payment information

Open the account settings and complete the tax and payment sections. Kobo needs this before it can pay royalties. Enter your bank details exactly as your bank shows them. Small mismatches are a common cause of delayed payments.

Step 2: Start a new ebook in Kobo Writing Life

From your dashboard, choose the option to create a new ebook. Kobo then takes you through a series of tabs. You can save and come back later, so you do not have to finish in one go.

The tabs cover roughly four areas: describing the book, adding content, setting rights and distribution, and setting prices. The exact labels can change when Kobo updates the dashboard, but the order below follows the usual flow.

Step 3: Describe your book on Kobo

This is where your metadata goes. Take your time here, because it is what readers and Kobo's search see.

3.1 Title, subtitle and series

Enter the title exactly as it appears on your cover. If the book is part of a series, add the series name and number. Kobo uses this to link books in a series on the store page.

3.2 Contributors

Add yourself as author, under your real name or a pen name. Add any co-authors, editors, translators or illustrators who should be credited.

3.3 Description

Paste your book description. Keep paragraphs short so it reads well on a phone. Check the preview to make sure line breaks survive.

3.4 Categories

Kobo lets you choose categories based on standard subject codes. Pick the most specific category that honestly fits the book. A narrow category usually puts you in front of more interested readers than a broad one. If you already have BISAC codes from another store, they are a good starting point.

3.5 Keywords, language and publisher

Add keywords that describe what the book is about, such as subgenre, setting, tropes or problems solved. Set the language of the text. In the publisher field, enter your imprint name if you have one or your author name if you don't.

3.6 ISBN (optional)

If you have your own ISBN for the ebook, enter it here. If not, leave it blank. Kobo will still list your book.

Step 4: Upload your manuscript and cover

4.1 Upload the cover

Upload your JPEG or PNG cover. Check the thumbnail. Your title should still be readable at small sizes, since that is how most shoppers first see it.

4.2 Upload the manuscript

Upload your EPUB or other accepted file. Kobo processes it and flags errors it finds. If you upload a Word file, Kobo converts it. Conversion can change spacing, headings and images, so review it carefully.

4.3 Preview the book

Use the preview to check the start, the table of contents, chapter breaks and the end matter. Look for missing chapters, broken links, odd fonts and blank pages. Fix the source file and re-upload rather than accepting a flawed version.

4.4 Choose DRM

Kobo asks whether to apply DRM (digital rights management). DRM restricts copying but can make the book harder for some readers to open in other apps. Many self-published authors choose no DRM. Either choice is valid, but check whether the setting can be changed after publishing before you commit.

Step 5: Set rights, territories and preorders

5.1 Territories

Tell Kobo where you hold the rights to sell the book. If you wrote it and haven't sold rights to anyone, you usually hold worldwide rights. Select all territories unless you have a reason to limit them.

5.2 Release date and preorders

You can publish right away or set a future release date. Kobo supports preorders, which let readers buy before launch. A preorder gives you a fixed date to point readers to. Check the dashboard for current preorder rules, including how late you can upload the final file.

Step 6: Price your book on Kobo

6.1 Set your list price

Enter a price in your main currency. Kobo can suggest converted prices for other currencies, or you can set each one yourself. Manual prices let you use local price endings (such as 4.99 rather than 4.73), which often look more natural to readers.

6.2 Understand the royalty bands

Kobo's published terms describe a royalty of 70% for list prices of $2.99 or more and 45% below that. Treat these as a guide and confirm the current rates, and the equivalents in other currencies, in your Kobo Writing Life dashboard before you set prices.

6.3 Decide on Kobo Plus

This is also where you choose whether to enroll the title in Kobo Plus. The next section explains how it works.

Step 7: Decide whether to enroll your book in Kobo Plus

Kobo Plus is Kobo's ebook subscription service. Readers pay a monthly fee and can read any title in the program. Authors who opt in are paid from a shared pool based on how much of their books subscribers read, rather than a royalty per sale. Kobo publishes how the payout works in its program terms, so read those for current details.

Points to weigh:

• It is opt-in per title. You choose for each book, and you can usually change your mind later. Check the terms for any minimum enrollment period.
• It does not require Kobo exclusivity. You can enroll in Kobo Plus and still sell the same ebook on Apple Books, Google Play and other stores.
• It can clash with KDP Select. Amazon's KDP Select (which puts your book in Kindle Unlimited) requires your ebook to be exclusive to Amazon. If the book is in KDP Select, you cannot also sell it on Kobo. See what is KDP Select for the details.
• Availability varies by country. Kobo Plus runs in a set list of countries that has grown over time. Check Kobo's current list before you count on subscription readers in a particular market.

Kobo Plus tends to suit authors with longer books or series, where subscribers can read a lot of your work. If you write standalone titles at higher prices, compare your expected income from sales against the subscription pool before you enroll.

Step 8: Publish and track what happens next

Review each tab, then click publish. Kobo checks the book before it goes live, and the time this takes can vary. Once approved, the book appears on Kobo's store and can flow to Kobo's partner retailers in the territories you selected.

After publishing:

• Search for your book on Kobo in a few countries to check the listing, price and cover.
• Watch the dashboard for sales and Kobo Plus reading data.
• Look at the promotions area of your dashboard. Kobo has offered promotional opportunities that eligible authors can apply for. What's available changes, so check regularly.

Where Kobo is strongest

Kobo is owned by Rakuten and started in Canada, where it is one of the main ebook retailers. Beyond Canada, Kobo has a notable presence in several markets outside the US, often through partnerships with local bookstores and retailers. Authors commonly report useful Kobo sales from Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe, including the Netherlands, France and Italy.

In the US, Amazon dominates ebook sales, so Kobo usually makes up a smaller share there. That doesn't make Kobo less useful. Its value is often in reaching readers outside the US whom Amazon reaches less well. Your own results will depend on genre, language and price, so use your dashboard's sales by country to see where your readers actually are.

Here is how Kobo compares with other major ebook stores, based on each store's published terms. Rates can change, so confirm them in each dashboard.

Store	ISBN for ebook	Published ebook royalty	Recommended cover
Kobo Writing Life	Not required	70% at $2.99 or more, 45% below (verify)	JPEG/PNG, 1400 px+ short side; 1600 × 2560 works
Amazon KDP	Not required (free ASIN)	70% at $2.99–$9.99 minus delivery fee, otherwise 35%	JPEG/TIFF, 1600 × 2560 ideal
Apple Books	Not required	70% of list price (verify)	JPEG/PNG, 1400 px+ short side
Google Play Books	Not required (GGKEY assigned)	Usually 70% (verify)	1600 × 2560 recommended
Barnes & Noble Press	Not required for ebooks	About 70% at $2.99–$9.99 (verify)	JPEG/PNG, 1400 px+ short side

Many authors publish on Kobo as part of a wider plan to sell on several stores at once. If that interests you, read what is going wide.

Publishing on Kobo directly or through an aggregator

You can reach Kobo directly through Kobo Writing Life or through an aggregator such as Draft2Digital, which distributes to several stores from one dashboard. Going direct lets you use Kobo-specific tools such as the promotions area and direct Kobo Plus enrollment. An aggregator saves time but takes a fee, which Draft2Digital's published terms describe as about 10% of list price. Our article what is Draft2Digital compares the two approaches.

For a condensed checklist you can keep open while you work, see the Kobo Writing Life publishing page. Inkora's Publishing Hub has a step-by-step Kobo checklist you can tick off as you go.

Common problems and fixes

The EPUB upload fails or shows errors. Run the file through an EPUB validator, fix the flagged issues in your source file, and export again. Common causes are broken internal links, unsupported fonts and malformed table of contents entries.

The preview looks wrong after a Word upload. Conversion can scramble headings and spacing. Use consistent heading styles in your document, remove manual page breaks made with repeated blank lines, or export a proper EPUB instead.

The cover looks blurry or is rejected. Upload a larger image at least 1400 px on the short side, saved as RGB JPEG or PNG. A 1600 × 2560 file is a safe choice.

Your book isn't showing in search. New titles can take time to appear in every store and partner site. Search by exact title or ISBN first. If it is still missing after the review period, check that the book shows as published in your dashboard and that you selected the territory you are searching from.

Prices look strange in other currencies. Automatic conversion can produce awkward numbers. Go back to the pricing tab and set each currency by hand.

Your book is in KDP Select. You'll need to wait until the Select enrollment period ends and turn off auto-renewal before publishing the ebook on Kobo. Publishing early could breach Amazon's exclusivity terms.

Payments haven't arrived. Check that your tax form is complete and your bank details match your bank's records exactly. Kobo also has payment thresholds and schedules, described in your account settings.

Publishing on Kobo comes down to preparing your files and metadata, working through the Kobo Writing Life tabs in order, and deciding on Kobo Plus. Once the book is live, check your sales by country to see where Kobo works for you, and adjust prices and promotions from there.