Kobo, a Rakuten company, has partnered with the American Booksellers Association (ABA) to introduce a new program that encourages digital reading on a local level.
The program is called eRead Local and is designed to get ABA members to sell eBooks via Kobo and compensates booksellers for doing so. Participating ABA members will receive $5 USD for every reader they sign up for a Kobo account. In addition, these customers that create Kobo accounts through an affiliate ABA member will receive a $5 USD credit toward their first purchase of a Kobo eBook. Here is more from the press release:
ABA members who acquire 100 new customers will be entered for a chance to win an in-store event with a bestselling author, and those who acquire 50 new customers will be eligible for a chance to win Kobo eReaders for in-store customer contests to help generate further in-store foot traffic.
The program will run for 100 days beginning this summer, with the exact timing still to be decided.