Just like Amazon’s KDP Select program, which offers authors the opportunity to make their ebooks available for lending in the Kindle Owners Lending Library for far more profit than they would earn in sales alone, Amazon’s spoken entertainment division, Audible, announced its own incentive program. In addition to a full suite of tools for authors to use, Audible will pay enrolled authors one dollar over and above the royalty they would have already earned through Audible.com, Audible.co.uk, or iTunes.
“Before I founded Audible.com, I made a living as an author and journalist for 20 years. But the economics of being a professional writer have profoundly changed. For new authors and for the majority of experienced authors as well, the days of sustaining the writing life by ‘just writing’ are over,” said Audible.com founder and CEO Donald Katz in a press release, referring to statements he made while speaking during a keynote speech at the London Book Fair’s Digital Minds Conference. “The good news is that in the digital era, authors have numerous ways to reach audiences and communicate more directly with them. We want to reward authors who are or want to become personally involved in growing their audience. At Audible.com, we have had great success working directly with authors to increase awareness of their audiobooks, and Audible Author Services will help us build on these accomplishments. Audible has achieved global growth by turning literate listening into a mainstream media format. This means that today, any book worth writing or reading ought to be available in audio. We hope this new program also helps us achieve this mission.”
The aforementioned tools are designed to help authors promote their works through various social media platforms. The program only applies to authors who already have titles available as audiobooks through Audible or its channels, but authors who do not already have an audiobook for sale can work through Audible’s Author Services division to develop an audiobook.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
