Kobo Plus is an unlimited e-book subscription service that is only available in the Netherlands and lately they have been able to get a number of exclusives. In the name of the father is a new e-book from by thrillist Linda Jansma and a number of titles by author Willem Asman are both exclusively available on Kobo Plus and this is pissing off local booksellers.
The Paagman bookstore in the Hague said in a recent interview “It is contrary to everything we know in the book business: Digital, physical, borrow, buy. It is the foundation of our existence which is undermined by Kobo for commercial reasons. ”
A number of bookstores in the Triple A collective will actively be cancelling all book orders by Linda Jansma for the foreseeable future. The Triple A partnership consists of Paagman (The Hague), Broese (Utrecht), Broekhuis (Twente), Van der Velde (Northern Netherlands), Scheltema (Amsterdam), De Drvkkery (Middelburg) and Waanders (Zwolle).
These bookstores are trying to force authors in the Netherlands to not go exclusive with Kobo and they are willing to cancel all book orders to try and get their way. Linda Jansmas agent has not commented yet and the author has not posted a statement.
The Kobo Plus subscription program has been doing very well and they plan on adding over 20,000 Dutch-language titles by the end of the year. Since its launch, the catalog has grown from over 40,000 to over 80,000 titles and currently 18,000 of these are in Dutch. Since Plus first launched over 400 new publishers have been added.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.