Kobo Enters the Publishing Arena to Compete with Amazon

The eBook market offers a host of new opportunities for many companies and publishers to reposition themselves in the book industry. Amazon is considered the prime example here, as the mail-order company has become one of the most important players in the book market within a few years, thanks to the eBook boom in the USA, and is now even operating as a publisher.

It seems Kobo wants to follow this path as well. As reported by CBC News, the Canadian eBook reader manufacturer intends to establish its own publishing house to work directly with book authors in the future. According to Kobo CEO Michael Serbinis, this will be possible as early as next year. Kobo plans to offer authors a complete publishing service – including book editing and publishing.

“It’s part of the new market, and if you want to be at the forefront globally, you simply have to offer it,” Serbinis tells CBC News.

The move by Kobo, while relatively late compared to Amazon, is aptly summed up by the saying: Better late than never. Amazon scores specifically by providing direct access for authors to the book market. With the infrastructure Kobo has built up in recent months, where users have increasingly been the focus, they might offer authors a similarly attractive – or even better – package.

For us customers, this development should be viewed positively. However, for traditional publishing, it’s not exactly a cause for celebration, as the emancipation of eBook distribution removes the middleman between publishing and author. Nevertheless, publishers are still rather reserved in commenting on this threat. “For authors, it will be good to have more options,” says Louise Dennys from Random House. “I’m simply confident that we will continue doing what we do best; the more, the better.”