Amazon owned Audible is the largest audiobook website on the internet and has thousands of audiobooks available for when you don’t feel like reading a book. Amazon has invested over twenty million dollars for a new project called Audible Author Services. It basically allows authors to self-publish their own audiobooks and earn one dollar for every unit sold. One dollar sounds paltry, but it is in addition to the normal commission you get with every sale.
Amazon is betting on authors being able to promote their works via social media and websites better then they can. When you upload an audiobook to Audible, you can embed portions of it into Facebook or your Blog. This can give your audience a chance to check it out before buying it. Once you download the free copy of your audiobook, you will also receive an email with instructions on how you can post a featured review of your audiobook at Audible, which will receive special promotion on the Audible website. Authors can also get into the habit of mentioning their audiobooks whenever they promote their print or ebooks online.
This new project with Audible is being developed from Amazon to foster greater relationships with authors directly. The company said “We have had great success working directly with authors, and these partnerships have led to audience expansion and greater consumption of audiobooks. We know authors work very hard to promote their books; we want to encourage authors to promote their audio versions at the same time. We want all authors in the Audible store to benefit from working with us. We have had great success working directly with authors, and these partnerships have led to audience expansion and greater consumption of audiobooks. We know authors work very hard to promote their books; we want to encourage authors to promote their audio versions at the same time. We want all authors in the Audible store to benefit from working with us.”
The ability to self-publish audiobooks and gain valuable marketing tools is a boon to any indie author looking for a new project. There is a growing segment of mobile customers that want to listen to their books while they walk the dog or drive the daily commute. It is fairly easy to get bored of commercial radio with the same song being played every ten minutes and your Mp3 playlist can quickly become stale.
via Audible
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.
