Kobo's new 'Writing Life' Platform is Open for Business!

Just now I received the email to alert me, along with numerous other indie authors and publishers, that the new 'Writing Life' platform  from Kobo is open for business! This platform has been heralded as the next big competitor to Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon) so I was keen to jump on board.

The first thing I did was register (a quick process) and then I went and removed all my books from the Kobo Smashwords channel. I've seen a few sales come through this channel, but Smashwords are so slow with upload and sales reporting, I'd much rather see the sales come in real time directly via Kobo.

Kobo are paying 70% royalties on higher priced books, so are a good competitor as far as comparing them to the other big publishers (Amazon pays 70%, but Barnes & Noble Pubit, only 60%). I believe they're also saying (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that they're happy for you to take their ePub conversions for you to sell and use as you wish. For me this is a big draw. I struggle with getting ePub files properly converted, and Smashwords doesn't allow you to use their conversions anywhere else.

Well it's ten-thirty at night here in the UK, so I don't intend on starting any uploads tonight. However, tomorrow I'm going to be getting right on it. I'll be sure to report back if their upload and conversion processes are as easy as I've heard from the hype!