Our EU Manager, Camille Mofidi, sits down to chat with UK Content Lead, Nick Coveney about the state of indie publishing in Great Britain.

Welcome, Nick!

Could you give our readers a bit of background about yourself, and your experience in digital publishing?

My journey into the world of digital publishing began back in 2009 just as the first eBook platforms (including Kobo) began to launch internationally. I was working on a mixture of eBook and enhanced eBook production, creating mobile apps and conventional audio and physical book editing.

It was a very exciting time but full of unknowns and a lot of authors and publishers were scared of the “digital boogey-man” which would cannibalise their all sales and destroy reading––thankfully, we’ve moved on a lot since!

What’s the state of the book market in the UK at the moment? Do you see any specific trends?

The market’s extremely buoyant at the moment, with the UK industry reporting a 1.8% rise in revenues earned in 2017, and an further 0.6% increase on that figure achieved in 2018 so far––and that’s just for physical sales; we know that digital is performing better than the official stats. It looks like in the UK generally speaking, customers are happier to spend more money on their favorite books. The value per Kobo UK customer has increased, while simultaneously they seem to be becoming slightly more selective, which it’s why it’s so important to empower authors to make sure their books get the visibility they deserve!

What can you tell our authors about self-publishing in the UK?

I think that the market for self-publishing in the UK is continuing to diversify and strengthen its response––I’ve noticed that our trending list increasingly seems to feature more psychological thrillers from self-published authors, indicating that they’re reacting to the change in market demands and not––as some people claim––restricting themselves to one genre.

What could you say about Kobo in the UK to those readers who don’t know yet about our presence in that market?

We have a huge audience of readers who might just love your books, even if they haven’t yet heard about Kobo!

We’re currently working on some extremely exciting partnership opportunities which will really put Kobo in the fore of consumer’s minds.

Also don’t forget that we’re a global company––in some geos we’re market leader for both eReading devices and eBook sales.

Finally, what piece of advice would you have for UK writers interested in self-publishing on Kobo?

As a team, we’re completely committed to empowering our authors to have control over how their titles are published to Kobo and supporting you in ensuring that your titles reach the right audience and are packaged appropriately.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at writinglife@kobo.com with any questions or ideas you have!