NetGalley Adds Send to Kobo Button to Deliver Books to Kobos

Earlier this year NetGalley switched their ebooks over to a new type of DRM (LCP) that isn’t compatible with Kobo ereaders, and some folks that use NetGalley were disappointed they could no longer use Kobo ereaders to read NetGalley ebooks.

Fortunately the two companies worked together to provide a solution, and that solution is now in effect in the form of a “Send to Kobo” option.

NetGalley provides a service for authors and publishers that allows “influential” readers to get copies of ebooks before they’re published to provide feedback and post reviews and such.

Now members have the option to get ebooks via a new Send to Kobo button. You just have to sign into your Kobo account from your NetGalley Profile, and then you can start sending ebooks to Kobo devices and apps.

Here’s the page on the NetGalley website with the full list of directions on how to load review copies onto Kobo devices using the new process.

One interesting detail, it says that it can take up to an hour for books to show up in your Kobo library, so don’t worry if it takes a while.

Books in PDF format still aren’t compatible with Kobos so they won’t show a Send to Kobo button, but Kobo is expected to add support for PDFs later this year. Also, NetGalley audiobooks aren’t supported; you have to use their app to listen to audiobooks.

Now that Kobo has done this, maybe they’ll add a Send to Kobo option to their website at some point down the line to allow customers to upload non-Kobo ebooks to their account. That’s seems to be the number one most requested feature from Kobo users, especially people that have switched from Kindles. Being able to upload and sync books obtained from sources other than Kobo would be a big win for Kobo users. Frankly, it’s kind of surprising Kobo worked to add this Send to Kobo option for NetGalley since they aren’t getting paid anything when readers download those books.