Kobo Writing Life vs Apple Books vs Barnes & Noble Press vs Google Play Books
A fair look at four direct retailer accounts for indie authors who want to go wide without an aggregator taking a cut. This is a different decision from KDP vs Draft2Digital vs PublishDrive vs IngramSpark: Amazon, aggregators, and trade print sit on that page. Here the question is which storefront portals are worth a login of your own. Royalty bands, file rules, and country lists change — confirm on each official site before you publish.
| Kobo Writing Life | Apple Books | Barnes & Noble Press | Google Play Books | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Authors who want Kobo’s own ebook and audiobook stores, especially outside Amazon | Authors who want Apple Books readers and are happy supplying a clean EPUB | Authors who want BN.com and NOOK, including print-on-demand in the US Barnes & Noble channel | Authors who want Google Play discovery, and a Google Books preview, without an aggregator |
| What you reach | Kobo storefronts. Kobo also mentions partner distribution in its reporting help — check the current list rather than assuming every wide store | Apple Books. Apple documents a self-serve ebook path; audiobooks are mainly via partners Apple lists | Barnes & Noble online and NOOK. Not UK bookshops, and not a substitute for IngramSpark’s trade network | Google Play in territories you enable, plus a Google Books preview (required to sell the ebook) |
| Pricing model | Free to publish; Kobo keeps a share of list price | Free to publish direct; Apple keeps a share of the sale | Free platform. Print cost is deducted from the print royalty | No listing fee. Revenue share of the list price you set |
| Royalty snapshot | Help centre: 70% of list price excluding tax when an original ebook meets published thresholds (including £1.99 in the UK); 45% below that. Public-domain titles are lower | Apple’s public comparison: 70% on ebooks regardless of price, and no file-delivery fee | Payment terms: 70% of ebook list price; print is 55% of list price minus printing cost. Print listings need at least $14.99 retail (in effect since 22 April 2026) | Help centre: 70% of ebook list price in most supported countries after you accept the updated terms; 52% if you have not, or in certain countries |
| Formats | Ebook and audiobook. Kobo’s FAQ also describes free conversion of a manuscript to EPUB | Ebook via EPUB (or the Pages / Word paths Apple documents). Not a print-on-demand service | Ebook and print-on-demand (paperback and hardcover options on the platform) | Ebook as EPUB or PDF. UK seller accounts can also sell audiobooks. An auto-narrated option exists in some countries — that is a machine voice, not a produced audiobook |
| UK authors | Open to UK authors, with GBP price thresholds published in the help centre | UK is a normal Apple Books territory. You choose where the book is for sale after upload | UK and Ireland are on the published account list. The shop is still US Barnes & Noble, and author copies ship only inside the United States | United Kingdom is an open seller sign-up for ebooks and audiobooks, paid in GBP. You still need a payment profile, bank details, and tax information |
| Exclusivity | Not required | Not marketed as exclusive. Read the agreement you accept | Not required. You can publish the same book elsewhere, but a B&N ISBN cannot already have been used at another retailer | Not required. Google states it does not ask for exclusive digital rights |
Who should choose what?
- Choose Kobo Writing Life if Kobo readers (and Kobo’s audiobook store) are worth a direct account, and you are comfortable pricing inside the published bands so the higher royalty applies. It is the most author-familiar of these four for UK writers who already go wide.
- Choose Apple Books if you can produce a valid EPUB and care about Apple’s device audience. Apple’s published comparison is attractive on paper — 70% with no delivery fee, at any price — but you are formatting and validating files yourself, and this does not give you print.
- Choose Barnes & Noble Press if the US Nook and BN.com audience, or B&N print-on-demand, matters. Treat it as a US storefront even if you live in the UK. Budget for the print-cost maths, the $14.99 print floor, and a fresh ISBN. It is not how you reach Waterstones or library wholesalers — that is closer to IngramSpark.
- Choose Google Play Books if you want Play Store search and a Google Books preview, and you will finish the payment and tax setup. Accept the updated terms if you want the 70% split where it applies. Skip it if your country is not on the seller sign-up list.
Direct accounts or an aggregator?
Draft2Digital and PublishDrive can push ebooks to several of these stores for you. Direct accounts keep more of each sale and let you change price or metadata without waiting on an aggregator, at the cost of more logins and more report downloads. Many authors mix them: KDP for Amazon, one or two direct portals they actually check, and an aggregator for the rest. KDP Select exclusivity, if you opt in, blocks all of these wide stores for the ebook enrolment period.
ISBNs, briefly
Barnes & Noble Press is the strict one in this set: it wants an ISBN that has not been used at another retailer. Its free print ISBN lists Barnes & Noble Press as publisher and only covers B&N distribution. UK authors who want their imprint on the record should buy from the Nielsen ISBN Agency rather than relying on a free platform ISBN. Do not assume Apple or Google will use that same ISBN everywhere — check each upload form.
Related compares: Draft2Digital vs PublishDrive vs KDP vs IngramSpark · Atticus vs Vellum vs Reedsy vs FormatReady · BookFunnel vs StoryOrigin vs Prolific Works
Tool pages: Kobo Writing Life · Apple Books · Barnes & Noble Press · Google Play Books · Draft2Digital · PublishDrive