Kobo E-Reader Owners Get a Break

Bookshop.org, an Amazon competitor that supports local bookshops, will finally integrate with Kobo e-readers later this year, allowing users to buy e-books from their favorite indie stores.

If you're a Kobo e-reader owner, you're probably familiar with the frustration of trying to buy e-books from local bookshops. The current method of signing up for a Kobo account from each bookshop's website is outdated and no longer supported by most indie stores. I've found it impossible to buy e-books for my Kobo from my local bookshops, and I'm not alone.

I want to support these bookshops, and I don't want to own a physical copy of every book I read. I also want to use an e-reader rather than an Android or iOS app on a phone or tablet because e-readers offer long battery life, digital ink, and low-glare screens. These allow me to read comfortably for hours, even outdoors, similar to a physical book.

One solution for Kobo owners was a partnership with Bookshop.org, an Amazon competitor that supports local bookshops with every order. Bookshop.org currently offers e-books through its mobile app for iOS and Android. However, this partnership was originally promised for 2025 and then delayed to 2026, and for a brief time earlier this year, looked like it would be delayed indefinitely.

After Bookshop.org changed the wording on its webpage referencing Kobo support, removing "2026" and replacing it with "sometime in the future," I reached out to get a status update. Bookshop.org's founder and CEO, Andy Hunter, told me in an emailed reply that progress with Kobo has now been made. The webpage has been updated, saying once again that support is expected to roll out "later this year."

"The Kobo integration is something both Kobo and Bookshop.org want to make happen," Hunter said. "The hold-up has been both on the business side and engineering to ensure it is 'done in such a way that respects publisher requirements for digital rights management.' It took us some time to hammer out the business terms and allocate the necessary engineering resources," he explained.

Hunter, whose company also competes with Amazon by selling physical books, says his engineers have been focused on improving the mobile device app, which launched about 15 months ago. Their attention is now being returned to Kobo support, albeit the timing remains vague. "We have recently settled on business terms with Kobo, and we are confident the collaboration is going to happen, but can't promise a specific launch date until the engineering work is further along," Hunter said.

While we wait for Bookshop.org to roll out Kobo support, Kobo users don't have to buy all their books from Japanese-based e-commerce giant Rakuten. Kobo users can read a large selection of digital rights management (DRM)-free books on their readers, and a large selection (though not all) of library books offered through Overdrive. Independent e-book store Books.com also delivers DRM-protected books in a format that Kobo supports.

Another solution, should your goal be to support local bookshops with e-book purchases, is to use a different e-reader. An Android reader like Boox or Meebook that supports the Google Play app store should be able to download Bookshop.org's app.

Still, like countless other Kobo owners, I'm rooting for the Bookshop.org integration to materialize. Supporting local independent bookstores was my main motivation for buying this particular e-reader, misled as I was by my online research (and the confident advice of ChatGPT).

Now that I own a Kobo Libra Colour, I really do love its reading screen, fast response, and long battery life. I also continue to hold onto my six-year-old Kindle for the same reasons. But I also love the local, small-business bookstores with their personalized recommendations, support of local authors, and sheer love of books. Here's hoping that the top e-commerce site that supports local shops, Bookshop.org, will soon actually support the popular Kobo device, which claims 12 million users in 190 countries.

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