Which Ebook Subscription Services Can Indie Authors Join?

Three matter for most indie authors: Kindle Unlimited, Kobo Plus and Everand. The choice that decides everything is Kindle Unlimited, because joining it means Amazon exclusivity for the ebook. The other two don't require exclusivity, so you can be in both at once, alongside ordinary sales at every store. What you can't do is combine the two routes: a book in Kindle Unlimited can't also be in Kobo Plus or Everand.

---

The longer version

How subscription services pay

Readers pay a monthly fee and read as much as they like. You aren't paid per copy. Each service pools its subscription money and shares it out by how much of your book people read, so the amount per read moves from month to month and nobody can quote it as a fixed price.

Kindle Unlimited

• How you join: enrol the ebook in KDP Select on your KDP Bookshelf.
• What it costs you: exclusivity. Each term lasts 90 days, renewing automatically unless you opt out, and during it there can be no digital distribution of the book anywhere else, including your own website or blog; print is unaffected.
• What it pays: per page read, at roughly $0.0044–$0.0049 a page, set monthly rather than fixed.

The exclusivity trade tends to pay in genres with fast, heavy readers. Whether it pays for your book is covered in should indie authors use KDP Select?

Kobo Plus

• How you join: opt the book in through Kobo Writing Life, or through an aggregator.
• Exclusivity: not required, and Kobo takes no copyright.
• What it pays: published direct, Kobo pays 60% of the per-minute value of subscriber reading time. Through Draft2Digital you receive 51% of your portion of the Kobo Plus subscription pool.

Send the book to Kobo through one route only. Kobo asks that it doesn't arrive through Kobo Writing Life and a distributor at the same time.

Everand (formerly Scribd)

• How you join: through an aggregator. Draft2Digital delivers to Everand, and you opt each title in or out of subscription services when you publish.
• What it pays: through Draft2Digital, 60%, paid when a subscriber reads past 20% of the ebook.

Choosing

The real decision is between two routes:

• Kindle Unlimited only. One store, one subscription, and page-read income from Amazon's readers.
• Wide. Every store plus Kobo Plus and Everand, with no exclusivity anywhere. Slower to build, but no single company controls the income.

The course lesson on KU-first and wide-first loops sets out a 90-day and a six-month test for each.

---

Common exceptions

• Print and audio aren't affected. Kindle Unlimited exclusivity covers the ebook only.
• Enrolment is per title. One series can be in Kindle Unlimited while another is wide.
• Leaving Kindle Unlimited takes planning. Enrolment renews automatically, so turn off renewal before the term ends if you want to go wide.
• Library services are different. OverDrive and similar library platforms lend books to library members rather than selling subscriptions, and pay differently again.

---

Related questions

• Should indie authors use KDP Select?
• Should I publish direct or use an aggregator?
• Can I publish on Amazon and other stores at the same time?

Sources

• Platform terms quoted from the AuthorAZ records for Amazon KDP, Kobo Writing Life and Draft2Digital.
• Draft2Digital's royalty-rates page for the Everand and Kobo Plus rates through Draft2Digital (checked 15 October 2026; the page carries no date).

Verified 15 October 2026.