Open Road Media has just partnered with audiobook company Audible for new content due out this December. For the first time, Open Road will be offering customers the ability to pick up titles from their Author Brand, E-riginals, and Publishing Partners.
The partnership will kick-off with a broad range of titles from writers in Open Road’s Author Brand Program, including Lawrence Block, Iris Murdoch, and Jonathan Carroll; E-riginals by Mary Glickman, Nicola Barker, and James Jones; and from Open Road’s Publishing Partners, Mysteriouspress.com and Philosophical Library.
Jane Friedman, CEO of Open Road said: “I have been an Audio devotee since 1985 when I founded and was named President of Random House Audio Publishing. We are excited to expand our publishing program into the audio arena with this partnership with Audible, and we look forward to adding hundreds of additional titles on a continuous basis.”
Beth Anderson, Audible EVP and Publisher of Audible said: “Jane Friedman has been a pioneer in audio publishing and digital distribution for years. We are excited to be working with her to make Open Road eBooks into high quality audio performances. Our avid AudibleListener members will enjoy hearing old favorites and discovering new works.”
We have petitioned Open Road for clarification on royalty rates for authors and how much these books will cost. The company currently offers very competitive royalty rates based on the sale of digital books, but audiobooks are different beasts entirely. There is also the question of a broader marketing strategy and how will Open Road promote its first audiobooks, to ensure they are not lost in the shuffle. Audible is trying very hard to solidify relationships with both indie authors and publishing companies. They recently launched Audible Author Solutions, which makes submitting content easier than ever. Good e-Reader will be publishing a story next week that will hopefully bring to light some of the semantics surrounding this new deal that customers and authors alike are wondering about.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
