I'm not sure where the "pays every six months" thing came from. I've been on KOBO for years, and they pay every month, just like the rest of the outlets.
Here's my justification for going direct everywhere:
1. I don't want to give someone a cut of my royalties. This may not seem like much to some folks who anticipate selling a modest number of books, but if your title did take off... if a future release resonates with readers, then seeing a percentage of your royalties going to someone else would hurt.
2. When I run ads or do promotional campaigns, I want to track the results. Going direct allows me the most up-to-the-minute sales reporting information. I'm constantly seeing threads on this forum about SW and D2D experiencing delays in reporting. This would be maddening if I had a big promo going on.
3. As mentioned above, you have more direct control over keywords, updates, and metadata in general. I've read numerous threads on this forum complaining about the time it takes to change a cover, or category, or other item via these middlemen. In fairness, it's not always perfect when you go direct, but why muddy the waters further?
4. If there's a problem, I don't have to deal with another entity.
The bottom line is that all of these outlets have made great strides in their user interfaces. It is very easy to upload a book on any of them, with Apple's iTunes probably being the most fussy. If I were you, I'd reverse the question - why go through a middleman?
