Kobo Plus Subscription service hits Canada

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The topic while not exactly wrong, is very misleading. It makes one thing Kobo Plus is coming to the USA. Please ask a moderator to fix this to say Canada instead of North America.

Umm... Jon, you might want to look at a map of North America? Notice that large country to the north of the United States? Notice the large country to the south of the United States? Yep, those are also North American countries. Perhaps changing the country name to the United States of the Middle of North America plus a few odds and sods (Hi, Hawaii and Alaska!) would help?

[shalym]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Same here. I suspect even if I could subscribe to the mythical global library that had electric copies of every book every written, I would still buy copies of my favorite authors and books. It would simply mean that I could sample an author first before buying.

Exactly. I tried KU for a while, and it just doesn't work for me. I'm not interested in it as a discovery tool--I don't have time these days to browse through the slush pile. I still ended up using the same techniques that I use now to find books, and they ended up being books I wanted to keep, so I ended up buying them anyway.

I know that a lot of people have it and love it, it's just not something I'm interested in.

Shari

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I think maybe you should fix your thinking to understand that North America factually includes both Canada and the United States. We don't own the whole continent. We just act like we do.

But the key is that North America includes Canada, the United States and Mexico (plus 20 other states). When you say North America is getting Kobo Plus, you're normally going to think North America, not just Canada alone. Besides, whenever anyone uses "Americans" in a pejorative sense, they're not referring to Canadians or Mexicans, they're referring to those who live in the United States. United States' citizens are normally referred to as "Americans," in Canada it's "Canadians," in Mexico it's "Mexicans," etc. I don't think anyone ever says United States-ians. This is the reality of the situation.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by shalym

Exactly. I tried KU for a while, ...

My wife tried (or is still trying) Kindle Unlimited because of some specialized books she needs in her field. But I can't see myself using it for novels. Most of the books I've found on KU are not particularly good, and my life is too short to read books just because they're free. (Besides, that's what the library is for, reading books for free and there you don't have to "settle.") Then again, I'm not a speed reader. Those who can devour books weekly by the armful may be more interested in more volume.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by rcentros

But the key is that North America includes Canada, the United States and Mexico (plus 20 other states). When you say North America is getting Kobo Plus, you're normally going to think North America, not just Canada alone. Besides, whenever anyone uses "Americans" in a pejorative sense, they're not referring to Canadians or Mexicans, they're referring to those who live in the United States. United States' citizens are normally referred to as "Americans," in Canada it's "Canadians," in Mexico it's "Mexicans," etc. I don't think anyone ever says United States-ians. This is the reality of the situation.

I certainly agree with the use of Amerikans in a pejorative sense. As for referring to the inhabitants of Canada referring to themselves as Canadians? Canadians or les Canadiens perhaps given that Canada has two national languages. As for Mexicans? I'm heard mexicano or mexicana when I was in Mexico. Though their favourites for citizens of the USA were not americano or americana or even the estadounidense recommended by the Academies of the Spanish Language but were choices such as yanqui and gringo at the polite end. Though I do find the Aussie term seppo for inhabitants of the United States rather humourous.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I don't think anyone ever says United States-ians. This is the reality of the situation.

Not in English, to my knowledge, but in spanish the US is "Estados Unidos" and it's citizens are "Estadounidenses". It's the official and most polite description.

As for the official geography:

Wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America

Britannica:

https://www.britannica.com/place/North-America

Now, as to Kobo Plus, it'll be interesting to see how big their library gets since for now it's a fraction of KU and KU has been up north for years.

BTW, anybody reading the source will find that Kobo Plus has been rumored to be on it's way south. Some. Day.

Canada is just the start.

[murraypaul]

If they are paying by time spent reading, surely they can only do that when the reading occurs in apps/devices they control? (Edit: Although this would be just as true if measuring my pages read.)
Does that mean that Kobo Plus books won't be available as standard ePub downloads? If they are, how can they track reading time if someone downloads the books and transfers it to a non-Kobo ePub reader?
The publicity material suggests that this is the case: "there’s never been a better time to discover new authors and series on a Kobo eReader or with the free Kobo reading app"
However, you don't need to be online all the time, just once a month.
Also interesting that they don't require exclusivity for books in KoboPlus.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Not in English, to my knowledge, but in spanish the US is "Estados Unidos" and it's citizens are "Estadounidenses". It's the official and most polite description.

As for the official geography:

Wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America

Britannica:

https://www.britannica.com/place/North-America

Do a Google image search for "American flag" and tell me what you see. If you want images of the Canadian flag or Mexican flag, you're going to have to search for them by those names. Say "American president" and do you think of President Obrador? Would anyone?

Americans in Wikipedia...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans

You'll note, especially, the term "Mexican Americans," which specifies Americans (United States citizens) of Mexican descent.

Anti-Americanism in Wikipedia...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Americanism

...does not refer to Canadians and Mexicans (or one of the other 20 states in North America).

Technical definitions don't always match common usage.

[DiapDealer]

Any potential confusion (from the thread title) should have stopped after reading the first sentence of the post.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I just buy my books rather than renting them, even though rental would save me money. So Kobo Plus would be meh for me. But I would like to see Amazon get some competition.

I read a lot of library books. If Kobo Plus comes to the US, I'll consider whether it appears to include books I'd like to read that I might not be able to get from the library.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Any potential confusion (from the thread title) should have stopped after reading the first sentence of the post.

Or the source.

Remember how I told you a couple months ago that Kobo would launch its subscription ebook service in North America?

https://the-digital-reader.com/2020/...us-and-canada/

It has been three years since Kobo launched its subscription ebook service Kobo Plus, and for all that time the service has been limited to Belgium and the Netherlands.

I am told that is about to change.

I am attending The Career Author Summit virtual conference this weekend, and I just heard Tara Cremlin of Kobo say that Kobo Plus will be launching in new territories.

But hey, ebook news are slow and civilization ends at the borders...

(When it really ends at the shore. )

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

I read a lot of library books. If Kobo Plus comes to the US, I'll consider whether it appears to include books I'd like to read that I might not be able to get from the library.

Kobo Plus, like KU, is small press and Indie-heavy. Which means books most libraries won't touch.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by rcentros

...whenever anyone uses "Americans" in a pejorative sense, they're not referring to Canadians or Mexicans, they're referring to those who live in the United States. United States' citizens are normally referred to as "Americans," in Canada it's "Canadians," in Mexico it's "Mexicans," etc. I don't think anyone ever says United States-ians. This is the reality of the situation.

That's because the country's full name is The United States of America. Canada isn't Canada of America and Mexico isn't Mexico of America.

But even so, 'America' and North America are different things.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

That's because the country's full name is The United States of America. Canada isn't Canada of America and Mexico isn't Mexico of America.

But even so, 'America' and North America are different things.

I understand that. But when you say "Kobo Plus has come to 'North America,'" the natural assumption is that this will include the United States (which is part of North America). More accurately, Kobo Plus has come to Canada.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I understand that. But when you say "Kobo Plus has come to 'North America,'" the natural assumption is that this will include the United States (which is part of North America). More accurately, Kobo Plus has come to Canada.