Kobo Audiobooks are now available in France and customers can now subscribe for €9.99 per month and get access to a single audio title. There is currently only 5,000 French audiobooks on the platform, but more should be coming soon. In order to promote the Kobo platform, their primary distribution partner FNAC has … [Read more...]
UK Audiobook Sales Have Doubled in the Past 5 Years
Audiobook sales have doubled in the United Kingdom in the past five years. In 2017 audiobook sales rose by 12% in volume and 15% in value and digital audio now accounts for 5% of consumer book spending. “Audiobook growth is an encouraging sign that the book consumer in 2017 had a good appetite for content in many … [Read more...]
Good e-Reader Launches Audio Reader for Android
Good e-Reader would like to introduce our first major Android app for smartphones and tablets. It is called Audio Reader and it turns any ebook into an audiobook. It reads aloud all of your sideloaded content using Amazon Polly, which is what Alexa is built on. We support 28 different languages and 12 different voices … [Read more...]
Audible will Launch in India this June
Audible has been bullish about the Indian market for a few years, but have finally announced they will open their store in June. They will be trying to make their mark against other companies who recently opened up shop, such as Google Audiobooks, Storytel and StoryWalker 365. Not to mention homegrown startups such as … [Read more...]
How to Self-Publish an Audiobook – The Best PC Apps
Audiobooks are the fastest growing segment in digital publishing and are a billion dollar industry. There are no shortage of services that allow authors to outsource the production and narration to other companies such as the Audiobook Creation Exchange, Findaway Voices, ListenUp Audiobooks but it will cost almost … [Read more...]
Google Audiobooks Unveils a Slew of New Features
Google Audiobooks launched a few months ago to compete against Apple and Audible. Today Google has implemented a few updates to make it even easier to enjoy a great book, whether you like to listen on the go with your phone or at home with the Google Assistant on Google Home. Never lose your place with Smart … [Read more...]
Scammers are Selling Audible Accounts with Tons of Credits
There is a new scam that has popped up on Ebay in the last several months, which takes advantage of Audible audiobook credits. Users are selling individual accounts ranging from 2 credits for a few dollars to 36 credits for $38. Last year Audible closed a loophole that prevented users from buying accounts with lots … [Read more...]
The New Smashwords Audiobook Platform is a Joke
Smashwords has garnered at tremendous amount of media attention with the announcement that self-published authors can have audiobooks generated for them via Findaway Voices. This is not really newsworthy because all Smashwords does is redirect authors to the Findaway platform and Smashwords merely earns a commission … [Read more...]
Audible Lowers Price of Membership and Throws in Free Echo Dot
Typically if you want to sign up for a one year subscription to Audible you will be paying a one time fee of $149.50. You will receive 12 credits that you can use to redeem for audiobooks, although some of the bigger name titles cost two credits. Audible is running a promotion in the United States until March 24th and … [Read more...]
Here are the Audiobook of the Year Finalists
The Audiobook Publishers Association runs the Audie Awards, which are dispensed to a number of notable titles in different categories. The most important one is Audiobook of the Year because every single one of them is a solid listen for people looking to discover new authors and narrators. Each nominated title is … [Read more...]
Hachette is betting that people will listen to audiobooks on Vinyl
Hachette is getting really bullish on vinyl and they intend on launching dozens of titles in 2018. The first titles announced are Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter’s 2016 book Hamilton: The Revolution, Miranda and McCarter; Amanda Palmer’s 2015 effort The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let … [Read more...]
Amazon Echo Speaker will now play your first Audible Audiobook for Free
The Amazon Echo line of smart speakers have just gained the ability to read aloud your first free audiobook from Audible. There are over 400,000 titles to choose from and you do not need a Prime account or a subscription to Audible. To get started, just say, "Alexa, read me ..." and the title you want to … [Read more...]