The Kobo Super Points program is undergoing some drastic changes in the coming months. Currently, Kobo has two tiers as part of the Kobo Super Points Rewards program: a free tier, and Kobo VIP Membership, which costs $10 a year (£6 in the United Kingdom). As of September 19th, 2022, the company will be unifying the program to the single, exclusive Kobo VIP Membership tier. Kobo customers who don’t become VIP Members will no longer earn Kobo Super Points after September 19th, 2022, but can continue to redeem their points for eBooks and audiobooks until August 17, 2023, provided they have at least 2,400 points. After August 17, 2023, any remaining points will be permanently removed from your account, unless you become a VIP Member before then.
Kobo Super Points launched in 2015 and was a great way for casual readers to earn points to get free audiobooks or ebooks. The free tier is what the vast majority of users employed to earn rewards. Sadly, Kobo is no longer going to support the free tier and you will only be able to accrue points if you pay the yearly fee. Paying does make sense if you exclusively do business with Kobo. However, not all publishers are participating with the points scheme. This makes finding titles you actually want to get for free is quite challenging. There is no dedicated section in the bookstore for points enabled books. Most of the books that are available are royalty free books that are normally free anyways, and also books that are self-published by indie authors who use the Kobo Writing Life system. j=
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.
