Kobo Plus Question Time!

A reader asked if I made more money from sales on the Kobo platform or through Kobo Plus, which is Kobo’s subscription service.

Well, it depends.

My primary answer is always that readers should read my books on whatever platform they prefer and which is most convenient for them, with the exception of piracy.

As for the details, it gets a bit more complicated.

I suspect at this point more Kobo readers use Kobo Plus than actually buy ebooks off Kobo. Like, in September alone, 75% of my Kobo revenue came from Kobo Plus. So very clearly not having my books in Kobo Plus is a nonstarter of an idea.

That said, Kobo Plus, unlike Kindle Unlimited, runs off “minutes read” rather than “pages read” that KU uses, which makes it harder to game the way some people do with KU because the system is more opaque. So, obviously, longer books do a lot better with Kobo Plus, and I have a LOT of longer books in the form of my various omnibus edition books. Even a fast reader is going to take a while to get through FROSTBORN OMNIBUS ONE. So those do quite well on Kobo Plus.

So I suspect with individual novels, I make less with Kobo Plus than I do with ebook sales, but for the omnibus editions, I make more from Kobo Plus than I do with the individual sales.

Overall, I would say if you’re a Kobo user and you want to read a book just once, Kobo Plus is probably the economical choice. But if you want to reread the book many times, you’re better off buying it outright.

Here are my ten most-read Kobo Plus books for 2025 so far. Thanks for reading, everyone!

1.) Shield of Deception

2.) Cloak Mage Omnibus One

3.) Shield of Battle

4.) Ghost in the Assembly.

5.) Cloak of Illusion

6.) Ghost in the Corruption

7.) Cloak of Embers

8.) Dragontiarna Omnibus One

9.) Dragonskull Omnibus One

10.) Cloak of Masks

-JM