Kobo and OverDrive are companies with a combined passion for readers and reading. Working together, we have developed a way to make it easy for KWL authors to opt their titles directly into OverDrive’s library marketplace with terms that are comparable to working directly with OverDrive rather than through a third-party company. This means that you get paid 50% of the library price you set, and you don't have to pay an aggregator fee.
- You have the option to opt-in eBooks to OverDrive’s library system on a title-by-title basis
- You will be able to set a unique USD library price (that can and should be different from your USD retail price). We recommend that you increase prices - they should be a few dollars higher than your normal USD retail price
- OverDrive does not accept anything less than $0.99 and will reject Public Domain content
- You will be paid 50% of the USD library price for every sale to an OverDrive-enabled library
- Library sales will be included in your monthly sales reports.
- Payment will be aggregated with your regular KWL payments.
KWL USER VIEW
Users with OverDrive Distribution will see the opportunity to opt their titles in via the Rights and Distribution tab in Kobo.
By default, when you go to that screen, this is what you will see:
The USD library price field opens up:
Here is the help text you will see when you click into that field. (A notice that your price must be at least $0.99)
Once you have entered a price, this is what your view will look like:
Please note that it may take up to a week for your book to be made available on OverDrive.
OVERDRIVE’S EBOOK REQUIREMENTS
Before opting your book in toOverDrive, please make sure that your eBook file contains no validation errors. This is very important, as OverDrive will not accept any titles with validation errors into their catalogue.
To learn more about what validation errors are and how to troubleshoot them, take a look at our Help Desk article, Validating and Testing Your eBooks.
Please note that OverDrive’s public-facing catalogue does not necessarily reflect what’s available for libraries to purchase. If you can’t find your book on their public-facing site, don’t panic! It’s likely your book is listed internally for libraries to purchase. If you believe your book hasn’t made it to OverDrive successfully, feel free to email us at writinglife@kobo.com and we will be happy to check for you.
OVERDRIVE LIBRARIES
A listing of locations for OD empowered libraries and schools appears here:
https://www.overdrive.com/libraries
REPORTS
Library sales will appear in your regular Kobo sales reports (available for download on your dashboard under My account Payment information) and will indicate the library branch name and State/Province and County – example of how it would appear:
