Kobo Discounts: Coupon Codes + Discussion

[lkmiller]

I've never had a price match rejected, but I only do it when the difference is small, just in case.

[Catlady]

Kobo is way too much hassle. I only want to use up my remaining credit from the e-book settlements; I'm waiting for one working promo code and them I'm out.

[bgalbrecht]

I have a Kobo ereader and no Kindle, and I prefer to have a viable alternative to Amazon, so I'll keep using Kobo, even though it's more work to get books on sale when either Amazon or the publisher only puts it on sale at Amazon. I've also accumulated enough super points to get several free books at Kobo, which is nice.

[ottdmk]

Originally Posted by issybird

I'm in ranty mode, having just come from the Audiobooks thread; I thought I'd carry over here.

I get it. Large, multi-use coupons and contests that occasioned gross entry abuse to get the big discounts were not tenable long-term. I was only surprised the party lasted as long as it did.

But would it kill Kobo to have the occasional large-ish (and I don't mean 90%) discount that actually worked on any non-agency book? Not only do I not bother trying the supposedly unique coupon codes they send me since I know they won't work, I also can't be bothered to check out the garden-variety promotional codes since the list of books never has anything of interest to me.

I don't think their business model allows for it.

There've been a lot of discussions around here about the sales and discounts at Kobo, and occasionally somebody with useful insider information chimes in. Namely BearMountainBooks.

It seems that when Kobo offers one of these sales/promotions, they send out notices to all the publishers asking them to participate. If a publisher doesn't want to participate, the coupon code doesn't work on their books. Simple.

But it means that there's no such thing as a store-wide non-agency coupon at Kobo. (At least in North America.)

Now, why this is is hard to say. It could be that Kobo doesn't want to eat all the discount themselves (which they would probably have to do without publisher participation.) Perhaps their systems can't do the proper accounting for it. I don't know, I'm simply speculating.

I do know that they do store-wide coupons in other jurisdictions. Taiwan springs to mind. What it is about their contracts with publishers for that jurisdiction that allows them to do it I don't know, and I don't know the economics of that market that encourages them to do that type of promotion.

[sufue]

I haven't price-matched that much, maybe 30-40 times, and have had a problem only once. And within a few hours after sending them the screenshot, I had that price match too. So I'm pretty happy with the price match.

With that said, I ALWAYS take a screenshot of the competitor's price, I just do it as a matter of routine, before even buying the book. But taking the screenshot is so easy that I don't think it's that much hassle. I put the screenshots in a Kobo price match folder on my desktop, and delete them out once I get the refund, so the screenshot would serve as a reminder if I don't get it.

And even filling out the Kobo form doesn't seem bad to me - by the time I have filled out the basic info (name, email, competitor's URL), the email for the purchase is in my Inbox, I cut-and-paste the receipt number, and am good to go.

Unlike some others here, I don't do this for small differences (not worth even the minor hassle), but do do it for big price differences, which is why I always document with screenshot. Also, I'm indifferent between Kindle and Kobo, but hate BN, so I only do it for BN price differences...

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

I've price matched with Kobo about 100 times in the last year or so, and I've only had Kobo deny the price match 3 times for sure, twice within a week back in September, and yesterday. The first two times, I was able to screen print Open Road Media ads showing a price and an end date. I started taking screen prints again recently, but I made sure I took the screen print when it was nearly a $19 difference and over a weekend. Lately, Kobo has been quick to respond to price matches, usually within a business day, but late last year before Christmas, they were really slow, well over a week to respond, and also back in September. Still, I think that if you're price matching at Kobo, it's probably better to be safe rather than sorry, and take a screen print at the competitor's website.

[bgalbrecht]

Don't get me wrong, I like the Kobo price matches too. For most of the last year, I wasn't bothering to get screenshots of the competitor's webpage because Kobo price matching was pretty reliable, but now I've realized that it's worth it to take another 5 seconds and get a screenshot too.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by ottdmk

There've been a lot of discussions around here about the sales and discounts at Kobo, and occasionally somebody with useful insider information chimes in. Namely BearMountainBooks.

It seems that when Kobo offers one of these sales/promotions, they send out notices to all the publishers asking them to participate. If a publisher doesn't want to participate, the coupon code doesn't work on their books. Simple.

Not so simple, I fear.

As some of you may know, I run a small "ebook services" operation - editing, formatting, proofreading, and sometimes a little cover design. Generally, I return three finished files: an EPUB to be uploaded to Amazon, a DOC file for the Smashwords Meatgrinder (to generate the oddball formats), and an optimized EPUB to replace what the Meatgrinder produces.

Here's the thing: Smashwords distributes to Kobo, and I've never known a Smashwords author to be given the option to participate in a Kobo promotion. I don't know if that means Smashwords negotiates on their behalf, or there's an automatic agreement in place, or what - I just know that no Smashwords author of my acquaintance has been asked whether they want to be part of a promotion for any of the stores Smashwords distributes to. Not Kobo, not Apple... nowhere. By contrast, Smashwords has its own store and offers very granular participation in its sitewide promotions there - not just at the author level, but down to the individual book and participation level, which can be changed at any point during the sale.

That's a pretty big heap of non-agency content that Kobo could, if they wanted to invest the effort, potentially include in its promotions. I'm sure they wouldn't hit that same level of granularity, but I also wouldn't think it would be that hard to give each author a "participate in promotions" option on their Smashwords dashboard that would give Kobo et al. permission to apply coupons to their books.

It'd be an initial challenge to set up, sure - but it's possible, and now I wonder if either side has proposed that.

[orangekiwi]

Kobo currently has 40% of a select list with coupon 40BOX

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/p/40box

Normally I don't find much from these lists but this time it includes The Diving Series Starter Bundle by Kristine Kathryn Rusch $7.99 (before discount) which includes the first three books in the series (Diving into the Wreck, City of Ruins and Boneyards.) The bundle as it stands alone is already a good deal with the discount well worth buying if you haven't already bought them.

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the...starter-bundle

A Ghost of a Chance Starter Bundle by Dean Wesley Smith is a similar deal
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-g...starter-bundle

[datcha]

I read all these post about existing Kobo coupons and how they work.

But how do you get informed about it, about new coupons, or special sales? Does one have to explore regularly the Kobo site to find out (very tedious)?

Is it possible to subscribe to a Kobo information mail ? Or what ?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by datcha

I read all these post about existing Kobo coupons and how they work.

But how do you get informed about it, about new coupons, or special sales? Does one have to explore regularly the Kobo site to find out (very tedious)?

Is it possible to subscribe to a Kobo information mail ? Or what ?

There is a Kobo mailing list. In your account settings "My Account", check the "Yes please" radio button under "EMAIL UPDATES"

Otherwise, subscribe to this thread, and check the first post of this thread. I try to keep it up to date with current discount codes.

I've just added the 40BOX code.

[ATDrake]

Kobo US & Canada actually have a surprisingly good set of markdowns as part of their Black Friday sale event, which is supposed to be rotating every day.

For Monday, Nov 20th bargains @ $1.99 in the US some 21 novels from publisher Bloomsbury's Bloomsbury USA and Bloomsbury Reader imprints (couponable/VIP-discount eligible; we've gotten some nice mystery and literary freebies from them in the past). I spot-checked against Amazon in Canada and the US, where all the titles I looked at were full price, generally $10 or above. Officially only listed on the US page, but if you switch the country code in the URL to Canada, we also enjoy the discount pricing.

Main sale page, with categories: Contemporary Fiction, Historical Fiction

ETA: ahahaha… now that I've actually posted it, I see that Kobo has pulled their fluctuating pricing glitch early and auto-deleted most of the lists. Here's what was on it, which you may still be able to catch on sale before midnight:

Spoiler:

1 Child of the Holocaust By: Elizabeth Kata
2 Kagami By: Elizabeth Kata
3 Mr. Eternity By: Mr. Aaron Thier
4 The Many Selves of Katherine North By: Emma Geen
5 River of Ink By: Paul M.M. Cooper
6 The World Without Us By: Mireille Juchau
7 Thirst By: Benjamin Warner
8 The Forensic Records Society By: Magnus Mills
9 The Bricks that Built the Houses By: Kate Tempest
10 Hide By: Matthew Griffin
11 Our Young Man By: Edmund White
12 The Photographer's Wife By: Ms Suzanne Joinson
13 Willnot By: James Sallis
14 The Drowned Detective By: Neil Jordan
15 The House at Bishopsgate By: Katie Hickman
16 The Horseman By: Tim Pears
17 Before We Sleep By: Jeffrey Lent
18 Weathering By: Lucy Wood
19 The Travelling Hornplayer By: Barbara Trapido
20 The Legend of Jesse Smoke By: Robert Bausch

The two romance titles were Catching Luke by Debra Elise and We Own the Night by Ashley Poston

It's mostly literary fiction (much of it from people with assorted literary prizes listed in their bio-blurbs), but there's a couple of mystery/thriller (by Neil Jordan and James Sallis), historical, LGBT drama, romance, and some sfnal (SF by Emma Geen and post-apocalyptic literary horror by Benjamin Warner.)

They've also got some discount audiobooks listed on this page, and a promo selection at the top for an extra 50% off selected Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Nonfiction, and Thrilling titles using promo code CYBERUS

In Canada, our official Black Friday offerings for Monday are 40% off box sets (indie authors, it looks like; technically the same as the US sale above, but with an added banner claiming it's expiring today) using promo code 40BOX on these lists: Romantic Reads, Mysteries & Thrillers, Sci-Fi & Fantasy and 50% off Non-Fiction Audiobooks using code CYBERCA at checkout. We're also supposed to get 3x VIP points on selected books (mainly HarperCollins discount titles from the ones I've spotted, and some francophone books on the French page), but they haven't bothered putting up the actual page for that yet.

NB: technically, the pricing expires at midnight, but sometimes Kobo has this glitchy fluctuation pricing starting at 8 PM Pacific/11 PM Eastern, where books show full price on page listings, but then discounted on the product page, and when you add them to the cart, sometimes it's full price and sometimes discounted. When this happens, usually if you click through to the checkout pre-purchase confirmation page, you'll see the book go down to the discount price, which is what you'll be charged as long as you finish the purchase before midnight. Though if it still shows full price during checkout, then the offer is definitely over and you might as well jest delete it out.

[ottdmk]

Picked up a couple of gems @ Kobo's Black Friday event for today. First book in Feist's Chaoswar trilogy (which I've always meant to get around to buying, but I'm behind on Feist.) Also Nimona by Noelle Stevenson, which is a great indy graphic novel.

[davidfor]

Kobo AU has "Make a booklover's day with the perfect gift".

Give a $50 dollar eGift card to a friend and get a $10 eGift card by email.

I think I'll be friendly with myself.

[Purple Lady]

I just went to Kobo and clicked on today's deals in the black Friday event and there's only one book! Not much of an event.

[ATDrake]

When I checked earlier this morning, Kobo US had a pretty good sale for today (Nov 23rd) which seems to be mostly just a spotlight of existing publisher sale titles, conveniently located in one place, at $4.99 USD and under (mostly $1.99-$2.99).

A bunch of stuff from major publishers such as HarperCollins and Random Penguin House imprints, plus some Kobo-only discounts from small presses like Dundurn and the Hoover Institute and of course, reprints from Open Road Media. Many, but not all, of the discount prices are also available in Canada if you switch the country codes in the URL.

For some incredibly bizarre and probably inexplicable reason, they took it down while leaving today's spotlight title up, but the categories (and prices) are still live @ Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mystery & Crime, Thriller, Romance, Contemporary Romance, Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror (Orbit and Del Rey titles, and Douglas Adams' The Salmon of Doubt is just $2.99), Biography & Memoir, Nonfiction (some Jewish interest stuff in here, plus a bunch of nice science books), Kids

ETA: Kobo CA also has the same “send a $50 eGift card and receive a $10 for yourself” offer with details here, good through Nov 26th.

And today's Kobo CA BF deal is for 75% off Elin Hildebrant's Winter Street romance-looking series, both ebook and audiobook.