You may choose to submit your Works for promotional consideration using the promotions tab via the KWL dashboard. The terms of each promotion vary by the type of promotion selected, and the submission guidelines and eligibility criteria for each promotion are set out in the KWL dashboard. By agreeing to submit your Work for inclusion in any given promotion, you agree to the terms of that promotion as set out in the KWL dashboard.
By submitting to these promotions, you are agreeing to a flat fee or a reduction to your standard payment as outlined in the KWL Terms of Service.
The Participation Cost: How it works
In the “dates and cost” section of the promo page for a particular promotion, you will see the dates during which the promotion will take place, as well as the participation cost. There are two participation cost options: An additional percentage of your standard payment, or a flat fee.
Flat Fee
For a flat fee, we send you a link which you can follow to pay for your feature spot.
Additional Percentage
For the additional percentage fee, Kobo takes a percentage of the money you earn during the sale. Our most common percentage fee is 10%. A good thing about this option is that if your title doesn't happen to sell during the promo, you don't have to pay a thing.
In some cases where we do not want to charge a participation cost at all, we will make this percentage 0%.
Different types of Promotions:
The most common promotions you will find on the Promotions tab are percentage sales by promo code, price drop sales, and buy more save more sales (e.g. Buy 2 Get 1 Free, 3 for $5, Buy 1 Get 1 Half-Price).
Percentage Sale by Promo Code
If you choose to submit your title to this type of sale, Kobo customers will be able to purchase your title at a discount by using a publisher-supported promo code. You as the publisher are supporting this sale, and you will be paying for this discount – but you won’t pay for it up front. During the month following the promotion you will receive an invoice for your monthly sales as usual, and those titles that were purchased through the sale will have a reduced rate.
For example, if your book is listed at $10, and the sale is for 30% off: ($10 - 30%) x 70% = $4.90
Please the promotion code reduction will NOT be reflected live in your dashboard earnings. As noted above, you will see the cost of the promotion calculated in your monthly sales reports only.
Please note if a VIP customer purchases your book with a promo code, your earnings will be calculated after the VIP discount of 10%. For example, if your list price is $10.00, your selling price will be $9.
In this example, the calculation would look like ($10.00 x 60%) - (30% x $9.00) = $3.30
Buy More Save More Sale
There are a number of Buy More Save More sales that you might participate in.
In this example, we are outlining the payment process for a Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale (3 eBooks for the price of 2). When a customer buys 3 books in this sale (let’s pretend one of these books is yours), the cheapest title is discounted by 100%. As you are supporting this sale you will be paying for this discount, but you won't pay for it up front. During the month following the promotion you will receive your monthly sales report, and those titles that were purchased during the sale will have a reduced payment rate. The discount is divided amongst all eBooks purchased at one time, so no one eBook takes the penalty as a "free" book. In this case, because the offer is Buy 2 get 1 Free, each eBook purchased will have their COGS reduced by 33%.
For a bundle sale, a “Buy 2 for $20” sale for example, the COGS earned will be divided between the titles based on the percentage that each title's list price contributes to the overall bundle.
Price Drop Sale
This type of sale is straight forward. You must enter a promotional price when submitting to the sale. If you are accepted into the sale, this price will be put in place for the promotion. The customer will purchase your book at this lower price, and your standard payment rate will be calculated based on this price.