Industry specialists overwhelmingly agree that podcasting has become a premier marketing channel. To effectively reach an audience today, individuals are encouraged to either launch their own series or appear as a recurring guest on established shows. However, successfully navigating a guest appearance—ensuring the experience is engaging for the audience while meeting your personal promotional goals—requires more than just showing up.

Drawing from eighteen months of experience and several guest appearances, veteran web publisher Nate Hoffelder shares the following insights on how to avoid common pitfalls and excel in the podcasting space.

### Content Preparation
The most significant factor in a successful guest spot is preparing your material in advance. While podcasting often feels conversational, it is actually a form of spontaneous public speaking. Sounding natural and authoritative requires significant groundwork.

If you have experience speaking at professional conferences, you have a head start. Most presentations can be converted into talking points for a digital interview. If you are starting from scratch, consider these steps:
* **The Pitch:** Research the podcast to understand its format and target demographic. Your proposal to the host should clearly explain how your presence will provide value to their listeners.
* **The Script:** A useful strategy borrowed from traditional broadcast media is to provide the host with a list of potential questions and your prepared answers. This helps guide the conversation and forces you to synthesize your knowledge into accessible segments.

### Technical Requirements
Investing in the right hardware is essential to ensure a professional broadcast. While requirements vary, a high-quality headset with a noise-canceling microphone is the most critical purchase. Relying on built-in laptop microphones or lapel mics can lead to audio interference and echo issues.

Furthermore, because many podcasts now record video for social media or live streaming, a high-definition webcam is necessary. Standard integrated laptop cameras often lack the clarity needed for professional-grade video.

### Testing and Strategy
Technical difficulties are common and often take longer than ten minutes to resolve. To mitigate this, guests should advocate for a "dry run" with the host at least one week before the actual recording. This rehearsal ensures that the software, audio levels, and internet connection are all functioning correctly.

In addition to technical checks, guests should study previous episodes to understand the show’s dynamic. It is vital to know if the host expects a formal interview, a casual chat, or a deep-dive educational session. Communicating directly with the host about their expectations and their level of familiarity with your topic will help you tailor your responses effectively.

### Final Considerations
In the podcasting world, you rarely get a second chance to record an episode. Production schedules are tight, and hosts are unlikely to re-record a segment if the guest was underprepared or the audio was poor. Because of this, the preparation phase is the most critical part of the process. Investing time in your equipment and content strategy is the only way to ensure the final product serves both the host and your own professional brand.

Many people, including in this blog’s comments, on MobileRead, and on other blogs, have been remarking over the past few months that the Kobo Aura One is rarely in stock. Kobo’s largest ereader might show up on the website for a few hours, but then it quickly sells out.

While we still don’t know why this 8″ ereader is out of stock, there is some light on the horizon. A little bird has tipped me to the news that Kobo’s next ereader was mentioned in the latest update.

The v.4.3.8871 firmware update includes a reference to the "Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2" ereader, a device which does not yet exist – not even on the FCC website.

The Aura H2O Edition 2 is the replacement for the Aura H2O, the 6.8″ ereader Kobo launched in August 2014. We do not yet know the screen size, but it is safe to assume from the name that Kobo’s next ereader will be water- and dust-proof just like its predecessor.

And based on Kobo’s history of launch events, it is also safe to predict that we’re going to see the new device in either April or August.

So if you are planning to get a Kobo ereader in the next couple months, pay attention to the rumors for the chance to be one of the first to get the new model.

An early look at the upcoming Mirasol e-reader has surfaced online, following a previous leak regarding a partnership with PocketBook in late 2010. While specific updates on the PocketBook device were anticipated at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), a newly discovered promotional video has provided the first visual evidence of the technology in action.

The footage, which appears to have been released by Qualcomm in preparation for a formal announcement, showcases a device featuring an approximately 5.7-inch display. Based on the video, the unit operates on the Android platform and includes several modern hardware features, such as an integrated camera, an accelerometer for screen rotation, and a capacitive touchscreen that supports multi-touch gestures like pinch-to-zoom.

From a design perspective, the hardware bears a strong resemblance to the existing PocketBook IQ. The presence of wide bezels and four physical navigation buttons at the base of the unit suggests that the manufacturer may be utilizing a modified version of an established chassis to house the new Mirasol display technology.

Industry reactions to the footage have been mixed. While some observers believe this serves as a preview for a specific PocketBook product, others suggest the video might be a conceptual demonstration from Qualcomm rather than a finalized consumer device. Additionally, some critics have questioned whether the video uses computer-generated imagery to simulate the display’s performance.

Further details regarding the device’s specifications, price, and release date are expected as more information is shared during the ongoing CES event. The Mirasol screen technology is highly anticipated for its ability to offer color and motion while maintaining the high energy efficiency typically associated with traditional e-ink displays.

When it comes to pirate ebook sites there are far more fake sites than real ones, but this next site is the exception to the rule.

A reader has tipped me to a new pirate site which focuses on audiobooks. From what I can tell, it was developed by the same guy who brought us TUEBL (which is now known as eBook.bike).

The new site is Audiobook.cafe, and it lets you both stream and download pirated audiobooks.

Both sites were developed by Travis McCrea (unless this is a fake identity created to hide the actual site operators). The sites claim to be protected by the DMCA, which is a ridiculous assertion given that one, the sites claim to be in Canada, and two, they don’t comply with the requirements of the DMCA.

There’s no obvious way to send a DMCA notice to either site, so if you find your work posted there then I’d recommend you send notices to Travis’s Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.

While you’re at it, you might also want to tell all your friends exactly who is pirating your work so they can help you yell at him.

If he can’t take the public criticism then he shouldn’t run a pirate site, IMO.

Hanvon is preparing to showcase its latest Android-powered e-reading device at the upcoming CeBIT trade show. This rollout includes the introduction of the Hanvon HPad A112, a 7-inch tablet running on the Android Froyo operating system, which is slated for release in the European market.

The anticipated cost of the device has already generated significant discussion. Current reports suggest a retail price of approximately €399 (or $399). While some sources indicate this valuation applies specifically to the 3G-compatible version, others believe the price point may actually refer to the standard Wi-Fi model.

Industry observers have reacted with skepticism regarding this pricing strategy. Critics argue that the cost is prohibitively high compared to existing market alternatives. For example, some point out that for the same investment, a consumer could purchase both a 10-inch Archos 101 internet tablet and a dedicated Archos 70b LCD e-reader. This comparison highlights the competitive pressure Hanvon faces as it attempts to position its new hardware in a crowded digital reading and tablet market.

Len Riggio’s college bookstore operator just acquired Len Riggio’s textbook distributor:

B&N Education today announced that it has acquired MBS Textbook Exchange (“MBS”) for $174.2 million in cash. Together, MBS and BNED will operate over 1,490 physical and virtual bookstores and serve more than 6 million students enrolled in higher education institutions.

MBS is the largest contract operator of virtual bookstores for the institutional client market and one of the largest used textbook wholesalers in the U.S. Through its MBS Direct business, MBS services more than 700 virtual bookstores with a comprehensive e-commerce experience and a broad suite of affordable new, used and digital course materials. MBS sources and sells new and used textbooks to over 3,700 physical college bookstores, including BNED’s 770 campus bookstores, and provides inventory management, hardware and point-of-sale software to approximately 485 college bookstores. It also operates textbooks.com?, an e-commerce site for new and used textbooks.

Riggio no longer owns as much of B&N Edu as he used to, but he does still control MBS (and he is the Chairman of its Board). So in many ways, this is one of his companies buying another.

That said, this is a smart merger. The two companies were in some ways competitors while also business partners (MBS is a supplier to B&N Edu). In addition to gaining MBS’s expertise in digital curriculum, B&N Edu is also a player in the hot new segment of the college bookstore industry – virtual bookstores.

B&N Edu already runs college bookstores and college gift shops, and now it will also run virtual bookstores.

image by Brad Clinesmith

The browser developers at Mozilla just acquired Pocket, a read/watch it later service:

We are excited to announce that the Mozilla Corporation has completed the acquisition of Read It Later, Inc. the developers of Pocket.

Mozilla is growing, experimenting more, and doubling down on our mission to keep the internet healthy, as a global public resource that’s open and accessible to all. As our first strategic acquisition, Pocket contributes to our strategy by growing our mobile presence and providing people everywhere with powerful tools to discover and access high quality web content, on their terms, independent of platform or content silo.

Pocket will join Mozilla’s product portfolio as a new product line alongside the Firefox web browsers with a focus on promoting the discovery and accessibility of high quality web content. Pocket’s core team and technology will also accelerate Mozilla’s broader Context Graph initiative.

Pocket founder Nate Weiner will continue to run the company. Founded in 2007, Pocket has more than 10 million monthly active users (according to a spokesperson). This is a great tool, but the limited uptake suggests that it’s still a fairly niche service with fierce competition. One one side, casual suers are satisfied by the simple “reading list” features Facebook, Apple, etc have built into their platforms, and on the other side is Pinboard, a paid service which is bound to be more appealing to heavy duty users.

The fierce competition might explain why last August Pinterest bought Pocket rival Instapaper from Betaworks, which had bought the startup from its founder, Marco Arment. Instapaper had more value to Pinterest, a save for later type service, than it did to Betaworks.

Amazon decided this week that they don’t need their affiliates to drive sales anymore.

The retailer sent out an email to web publishers who belonged to the Amazon Associate program this week. You can find the email at the end of the post, but the short version is that Amazon is cutting the commissions it is paying on sales generated by the affiliates.

Under the old system, well, it was complicated.

Certain product categories paid specific commissions – Kindles and Fire tablets earned 4%, for example – while the bulk of the merchandise had a variable commission which increased as an associate sold more items (your first commission on a sale was 4%, the seventh as 6%, and the 631st was 8%, etc – more details here).

Under the new system Amazon is doing away with the variable commissions. Instead, all products will earn a flat commission based on its category. An Amazon affiliate will still earn 4% from Kindles and Fire tablets, while gift cards earn nothing and paper books will earn 4.5%.

The new rules will take effect on 1 March, and you can read about the new program here.

O O O

When Amazon changed the affiliate program in the past, it was usually easy to see why. In 2013, for example, Amazon took steps to discourage sites from promoting free ebook downloads. And last year Amazon brought the hammer down on free ebook newsletters shortly before launching its competing service.

Now Amazon has removed the incentive for affiliates to be as active as possible in promoting goods sold on Amazon. Instead, the retailer is now paying a flat commission.

Amazon is saying that they don’t want to pay as much they used to; they no longer value the more active affiliates. That is their right; Amazon is in business to make money, and I can understand why they made this decision.

But I can also foresee that this change in policy will impact sites which depended on Amazon’s affiliate program for income.

I have been crunching my numbers, and I expect to lose about a fifth of my Amazon affiliate income. That’s going to hurt, and I won’t be the only one to feel the pinch.

There’s going to be a winnowing of book review blogs on par with the demise of book industry blogs last year. Book bloggers are going to look at their falling income, consider how much time it takes to read and review books, and decide that it is no longer worth keeping up the blog.

The smarter bloggers will find new sources of income (perhaps charging fees to authors) but many will decide their blog is no longer worth the effort.

And that is something authors will need to keep in mind as they plan their book launches for 2017.

That blogger you had planned to work with in June, September, or November might have thrown in the towel by the time that your book launch rolls around.

It would be a good idea to plan for backups.

Email:

Dear Amazon Associate,

We are writing to notify you of some changes to the Amazon Associates Program effective March 1, 2017. Changes include, but are not limited to: promotional rate changes, revisions to program policies, and updates to the Fee Statement. For more information about the Fee Statement changes, please find additional context below.

– What are the Fee Statement changes?
We will be updating the Fee Statement. The new plan simplifies our fee structure, removes all earnings caps on PC products and eliminates volume tiers.

– Why are we applying those changes?
We have received feedback from associates that the advertising fee structure could be made clearer, especially with respect to understanding which products are in fixed-fee categories and which products are in tiered-fee categories. These changes simplify the fee structure, clearly defining the advertising fees you can earn by referring traffic to Amazon. By offering higher advertising fees in certain categories, we want to reward associates that can refer sales across those categories.

– What’s on the horizon?
In addition to earning advertising fees for referring product sales, remember that you can also earn bounties for referring your visitors to a range of other Amazon services, including Prime Video, Prime Music and Kindle Unlimited. We will be adding additional bounty opportunities this year, as well special promotions throughout the year. Please visit https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/home/bounties to learn more about the Amazon bounty program.

Visit: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/operating/compare to see the summary of changes to the Fee Statement and other important updates to the Associates Program.

Sincerely,
The Amazon Associates Team

image by MikeBlogs

The Association of American Publishers reported on Friday that trade publishing revenues rose a fraction of a percent in the first three quarters of 2016, to $4.99 billion.

At the same time, ebook revenues for the 1200 odd publishers submitting data to the AAP were down 20%, continuing the trend we’ve seen since the return of agency pricing in the US market.

Press Release:

Kobo’s new subscription ebook service is currently available only in the low countries, and authors can only put their work into it via Kobo Writing Life.

That is quite limited, but I can now report that at least one of those details is going to change soon.

At the request of several authors, I asked several ebook distributors whether they planned to add Kobo Plus as a distribution option. I am still collating responses, but so far I have gotten one and a half responses from Smashwords and Draft2Digital.

Mark Coker of Smashwords told me that it would not be distributing ebooks to Kobo Plus: "I knew this was coming but it’s not something we’re planning to support with our titles at this time."

Draft2Digital was slightly more positive. I am still waiting for their complete response, but what I was told via twitter DM that "Technical details are being hashed out".

That was not a hard no, so I am going to put it down as a soft yes. (And when I have a statement from D2D, I will update this post.)

Here’s D2D’s statement:

We are still working on some of the technical parts of this, but here’s what we can tell you (and what you can share with your readers):

1. The terms are similar to what KWL is offering for Kobo Plus, and we’ll take our usual percentage of net
2. We’ve already worked with Kobo and authors with Dutch language books to manually add a few hundred books into the program
3. The technical issues are mostly related to how the data will be reported. When these issues are settled, we’ll allow our authors to opt in just as they would any other sales channel

We’re very excited about this program and what it means for authors, and we’re even more excited to be a part of it from the beginning. We have always enjoyed a great relationship with Kobo, and it’s gratifying to see that they have the best interests of the authors at heart.

So if you are an author who wants to get your book into Kobo Plus without the extra work of also putting a title into Kobo Writing Life, you should start looking at Draft2Digital and not Smashwords.

And soon I would expect that authors will have other options as more ebook distributors announce new deals with Kobo.

If any distributor wants to announce your Kobo Plus deal, the comment section is open.

image by nadineheidrich

Wattpad is jumping on the short-short fiction wagon with the launch of a new app, tap.

Tap is a reading app in the style of Amazon Rapids or Hooked. It serves up chat-style stories which are the current fad in digital publishing.

According to TechCrunch:

With Tap, Wattpad is stepping away from the traditional storytelling format to experiment with a unique style of entertainment.

The app lets users discover “chat-style” stories – that is, those that unfold as you tap to reveal the next part. The stories are designed to feel like you’re reading someone else’s chat conversations, the company explains, and they are even visually presented in a text messaging-style format.

At launch, there are hundreds of stories available across categories like horror, romances, drama and more.

Tap will also allow Wattpad users to write stories of their own, though this is initially available only to a subset of writers on the platform. The company says that the writing and publishing functionality will roll out more broadly in the weeks ahead.

In addition to reading the chat-style stories, users can also share the stories to social networks.

When Tap is released to the public you will be able to download the app from Google Play or iTunes, but for now you have to ask for an invite on the Tap website.

If you like what you see, you can subscribe and gain access to more stories. The service costs $2.99 per week, $7.99 per month, or $39.99 per year. Yes, Wattpad is breaking with their policy of always providing free content.

Have you tried it? Do you think it is worth the cost?

Inspired by the recent self-destruction of Youtuber PewDiePie, Polygon published a long editorial yesterday which looked at why Youtube stars keep imploding.

According to the insider who wrote the piece, many of the fallen suffered from two common problems – problems which I think authors could learn from.

The first is that the pro Youtubers have to maintain a grueling daily schedule of shooting and uploading videos in order to not just keep their audience’s attention but also to keep being punished by Youtube’s algorithms.

For example: “subscriber burn,” which is a nefarious little side effect of not uploading a new video for a couple of weeks. The term was popularized by the Game Theory channel in 2014; your subscribers stop getting notified of your videos if they stop watching or you stop uploading. Going on vacation? Let’s hope you got a backlog, because you’ll see a big drop in views if you take a week or two off. And they might not come back.

…

Most uploaders begin to believe they have to flood the site with videos for a chance one goes viral or to reach subscribers who aren’t notified or to make up for losing them. And the numbers do go up when you start to do that, leaving many to believe it’s the only reliable way to keep relevant.

You need ad revenue if you want to make a living talking over video games, which means views and that means uploads. Or at the very least, you need brand deals which means you need clout, which means you need subscribers, which means views, which again means uploads. Most pros create at least one video a day, and it’s a punishing schedule. Some create as many as three videos a day.

Speaking from personal experience, I fully understand that need to get the content out today. It pushes us to go for "good enough" rather than the best work we can do.

And it’s worse for pro Youtubers, who are under more pressure than news bloggers such as myself.  They have to produce content on a daily basis, and what’s even worse is that they have to be photogenic, articulate, personable, and even worse – funny.

That might not sound like a difficult job; after all, it’s what stand up comedians do, but Youtubers don’t have the time to devote to perfecting each joke.

There’s an apparent double standard, right? Comedians tell AIDS jokes, Holocaust jokes, 9/11 jokes and much more. When a popular YouTuber does it, it’s suddenly being reported by the media (and, cough, other YouTubers). Didn’t George Carlin once say no topic is off limits?

Yeah. But like most comedians, he also spent a lot of his time writing those jokes, refining them, trying them in smaller clubs before his big venues, commiserating with his peers, etc. A “secret” of successful comedians is you don’t just spit out jokes that come to you. You develop bits, callbacks, sets, etc. There are legit reasons that Louis CK, Sarah Silverman, and Jim Jefferies get away with questionable jokes and JohnnySephiroth315 doesn’t.

So when PewDiePie tells a joke that goes wrong like using an Israeli company (Fiverr) to promote anti-semitism, it’s not that he is an ass so much as there is a fundamental flaw in the process he uses to produce his videos – he has no easy way to beta-test his work:

You can actually imagine, if you like, PewDiePie doing a stand-up set and having comedian friends tell him at the bar that “man, you’ve been leaning on the Nazi stuff a bit lately.” Or an audience groaning at a smaller venue, which signals to him it’s time to do a rewrite. That’s why there are workshops, writing sessions and smaller venues and drinks with fellow comedians. You have to fail often when the stakes are low to learn how to get the big wins. It’s a process.

And like many Youtubers, PewDiePie has no opportunity to make small mistakes.

That is not to excuse his mistakes, however; my point is that PewDiePie’s failure wasn’t the specific videos but more general; it was the process he used to make the videos.

The general problem is that many Youtubers don’t have a source of feedback which could help catch horrendously bad ideas before he uploads a video.

Which brings me to the second problem shared by many Youtubers.

Like bloggers, the pro Youtubers will often partner with agencies which sell ads and line up brand partnerships. Those agencies are called "Multi-Channel Networks", and according to the insider these agencies are strictly sales agents who do not fill the roles of business managers, image consults, producers, PR flacks, etc.

My MCN is typically pretty nice and in touch, but I’m not managed and if I decide to do an interview — or write this article — a PR person won’t notice or care. I’m completely on my own when it comes to thinking about how my audience views me, for better or worse. I don’t have a manager to call for advice, guidance or media training.

Surprisingly, this is also true of some of the biggest names in the business. I don’t want to make it sound like MCNs do nothing, they are valuable business partners that make it easier to pay the bills, but they definitely don’t curate your content. They don’t tell their big talent to “lay off the political posting,” or “dial it back on the hard stuff for a bit.” It’s all business, no grooming or advice.

I don’t think this is due to apathy or greed. I’m not sure they know how to handle these things either.

There are two lessons to be learned from this.

The first is that authors need to pay as much attention to their process as to their content; it’s not just about publishing a book as it is about the steps authors go through.

How many editors are involved? What about beta readers?  Has anyone gotten a second opinion on the cover?

The second lesson to be learned is that authors need a safety net. The need to surround themselves with people who can catch mistakes before they blow up into huge public fiascos.

Luckily, most authors already have that safety net in the form of writing critique groups, beta readers, online forums like Absolute Write, and local writing clubs.

So authors have all sorts of ways to avoid blowing up their career – if they remember to take advantage of them.

image by iamchad

Kobo still hasn’t announced its ebook subscription service, but that is okay because I have another scoop for you.

Kobo Plus is now listed as a distribution option in Kobo Writing Life, Kobo’s publishing portal, and I have a copy of the Kobo Plus contract addendum T&C.

You’ll find the text at the end of this post, but the tl;dr version is that Kobo is going to pay authors out of a pool funded by subscriber payments.

The math determining the payment is rather complicated, but I can report that the payment will be triggered when a Kobo Plus subscriber has read 20% of the book.

Also, a book has to be in Kobo Plus for at least six months but there is no mention of an exclusivity requirement.

The payment terms are similar to the terms offered by Amazon for Kindle Unlimited (since July 2015), which pays based on the number of pages read and is funded by a finite pool.

And that is good news for the long-term health of Kobo Plus.

As we learned from Oyster and Scribd, companies need to keep their expenses in line with their income.

Oyster failed, sold out to Google, and then shut down. And Scribd had to gut its ebook service. Both companies learned the hard way that charging a flat subscription rate and paying wholesale was a great way to lose a lot of money.

Kobo has apparently learned that lesson from others' mistakes and has crafted a program that has operating expenses which will scale with its income.

The service is going to launch at midnight (I don’t yet know which day) and is described as being live in the Netherlands and Belgium.

O O O

Addendum to the Kobo Writing Life Terms and Conditions

This is an addendum to, and forms part of, the Kobo Writing Life Terms and Conditions as agreed to by You upon registering for the Kobo Writing Life service. Both the Kobo Writing Life Terms and Conditions and this Addendum may be amended by Kobo from time to time.

Subscription Service

1. Definitions

“List Price” means Publisher’s provided price for the purchase of a Subscription eBook in the Service Territory, as established in accordance with the Agreement, minus Sales Tax.

“Price Factor” means the result, in respect of any month, of (A) the aggregate monthly Subscription Service fees collected by Kobo from Users in the Service Territory in respect of that month, minus Sales Tax, divided by (B) the Reading Activity Value.

“Read” means the determination by Kobo using its customary technology that a User has read for the first time at least 20% of a Subscription eBook, excluding its front matter, or such other percentage as may be otherwise agreed in writing on a title-by-title basis.

“Service Territory” means the territories where Kobo may include the Subscription eBooks within the Subscription Service (identified in the check-boxes below).

“Subscription eBook” means those eBooks designated by Publisher for inclusion within the Subscription Service pursuant to Section 2(b) below, which may include eBooks that are not eligible for purchase by Users under the Agreement.

“Subscription Service” means the eBook subscription service offered by Kobo in the Service Territory pursuant to which Users will have the ability to have access to read an unlimited number of eligible eBooks for a monthly subscription fee.

“Reading Activity Value” means the aggregate, for each Subscription eBook that has been Read during the month (other than during permitted introductory trial periods), of the number of times the Subscription eBook was Read multiplied by the List Price of the Subscription eBook.

2. Subscription Service – Publisher Rights and Obligations

1. Grant of Rights. Publisher hereby grants the right to Kobo to include certain eBooks in the Subscription Service in the Service Territory.
2. Adding and Removing eBooks. Publisher shall designate eBooks as Subscription eBooks by indicating as such within the relevant eBook Metadata. Any book made available in this manner shall remain available for a period of not less than six (6) months. Following such minimum time period, Publisher may, on no less than thirty (30) days advance written notice to Kobo, remove Subscription eBooks from the Subscription Service by modifying the eBook Metadata accordingly. Following removal of a Subscription eBook from the Subscription Service, Kobo shall cease to make available the Subscription eBook for Users to check-out; provided, however, that Users who have already checked out the Subscription eBook will remain entitled to access it.

3. Subscription Service – Kobo Rights and Obligations

1. Operation of Subscription Service. Kobo shall have the right to include the Subscription eBooks within the Subscription Service offered to Users in the Service Territory. Kobo may offer the Subscription Service either directly to Users or indirectly through third parties. Nothing herein shall oblige Kobo to offer or to continue to offer the Subscription Service or include any or all of the Subscription eBooks as part thereof. Kobo shall be solely responsible for administering all aspects of the Subscription Service, including technology operations, reporting, and billing and collections. Kobo shall be solely responsible for all business relationships with Retailers, Users and other third parties in relation to the Subscription Service, including fees and charges applicable thereto.
2. Security System. Kobo shall maintain the Security System in respect of Subscription eBooks made available to Users pursuant to the Subscription Service as described in the Agreement. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Kobo will encrypt all Subscription eBooks using Kobo’s proprietary digital rights management technology and no other method.
3. Trial Period. Kobo may offer potential new Users of the Subscription Service an introductory trial period of not more than thirty (30) days, during which limited time the Users may use the Subscription Service in the same manner as subscribing Users. No amounts will be payable to Publisher in respect of Subscription eBooks Read by a User during a trial period, and all data pertaining to such activity shall be omitted from the fee calculations described below.
4. Monthly Reporting. Following the end of each month of operation of the Subscription Service, Kobo shall deliver to Publisher a report in respect of the preceding month describing:
   1. the number of times each Subscription eBook was reported as Read,
   2. the Price Factor,
   3. the corresponding amounts payable to Publisher by Kobo.

4. Fees and Payments

Kobo shall pay Publisher within 90 days following the end of each month of operation of the Subscription Service an amount equal to, in respect of each Subscription eBook that has been Read during the month, excluding during permitted trial periods, the product of: (A) the List Price multiplied by (B) the number of times each Subscription eBook was reported as Read, multiplied by (C) the Price Factor, multiplied by 60%.

5. Term and Termination

1. Effect of Termination. Upon termination of this Agreement, Kobo shall cease to offer the Subscription eBooks within the Subscription Service. Any Users who have downloaded any Subscription eBooks shall continue to have the right to access and read the eBooks for a period of 120 days following termination of this Agreement; provided, however, that Kobo’s payment obligations described in Section 4 hereof shall not apply in respect of such eBooks.

I have little solid information yet but I have just heard that Kobo is going to launch an ebook subscription service at midnight EST (about 30 minutes from now).

Edit: Kobo hasn’t launched Kobo Plus yet, but the service is very real (I have the T&C).

There’s a blank info page for Kobo Plus on the Kobo Writing Life blog, and a similarly blank page on the (US) Kobo website. The meta description for that page says:

Kobo Plus eBook subscription gives you unlimited access to titles from every genre that can be read on any device. Start a 30-day free trial today.

Further digging has revealed that the Dutch-language page (German?) for Kobo Plus is already live. Bol.com is going to be a partner, and the service will cost 10 euros per month with a 30-day trial.

The matching catalog is also live, and I can see that 37,127 titles are listed.

It’s not clear how Kobo Plus compares to Kindle Unlimited, the subscription service Amazon launched in July 2014, but it is clearly a competing service.

According to my source, Kobo Plus is "better in terms of royalties and there’s no exclusivity involved. And it also benefits readers, as well."

KU paid out $16.8 million in royalties last month, and close to $200 million in 2016 alone. I can’t wait to see how Kobo tops that.

I guess we will have to wait for the official announcement to find out.

Edit: Authors are reporting that there is a new "Kobo Plus" section of their dashboard. The one screenshot I saw on Facebook mentions that this service is live in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Parts of Colson Whitehead’s monotonous award-winning tepid novel The Underground Railroad was released this week by BBC Radio, and is available to stream online.

The book is narrated by The Wire’s Clarke Peters, who told the BBC that he found the book distressing. “I felt my emotions get stuck in my throat and could no longer narrate,” he said in an interview.

“Because I found it hitting things inside of me that I thought might have been dormant but still had not been resolved. And some of those things resonate today. It’s one thing to forgive, but we must never forget. I think that what happened yesterday while reading it and getting so emotional is that I realized I hadn’t forgiven and that’s what hurt because I don’t know who to give that to.”

This is an abridged audiobook about 2 hours long; the version available through Audible is close to eleven hours long.

It is free to stream for the next 29 days.

BBC Radio via BookRiot