Indie News: Sony Out, Kobo In...What Does It Mean for Indies?

Next month, the Sony ebook store will no longer exist. Sony's Reader Store titles will be automatically transferred to Kobo. Well, most of them. Some of them. When it comes to self-published ebooks...the issue gets a little muddy. How will this switch affect your books and your readers?


Ch-ch-ch-changes

Through the new deal, some smartphones and Sony's entire line of tablets will now carry the Kobo app instead of the Reader Store app. The books in reader libraries are supposed to switch over. But what about self-published authors who have opted into Sony and/or Kobo through Smashwords?

According to a Sony representative's comments to Good e-Reader, ebooks purchased through Sony's Reader Store will transfer right to Kobo. Magazines and periodicals won't transfer, but Kobo already as a large library of these available to readers. Customers who transfer their libraries to Kobo will receive info about which titles didn't transfer, and why.

Self-published Smashwords books won't transfer automatically. The ePub files themselves won't be transferred, but Sony says that the digital identifiers for ebooks will still be available. This allows readers to find their self-published books in the Kobo library. Books distributed from Smashwords to Sony but not to Kobo will not transfer.

To make your books more readily available, opt in to Kobo through Smashwords. This will allow your books to be listed and accessible to Sony readers.

[+/-] Show Full Post...

0 comments:

Post a Comment