What international authors need to know about their new audiobook publishing options.
Recently some new audiobook publishing options have come available for international authors that I'm very excited about. Since the time I decided to launch the nonfiction audiobook production and publishing arm of my company, I knew I had to include options for international authors. After 20 years of building businesses with people from all over the world, if I was going to serve my community right, it simply had to be that way. So imagine my surprise when I found a complete lack of options for international authors who wanted to create and publish an audiobook.
We created a system whereby international authors fully benefit from the self publishing royalties and benefits offered by Audible and Amazon, without sacrificing their intellectual property rights – plus they maintain full creative control. Authors can narrate their own books or have a fabulous narrator and be fully supported in their audiobook strategy, production, and publishing. In essence, I created the services that I wanted for myself, my clients and my colleagues.
With the exponential growth of audiobooks over the last 6 years or so, I’m surprised it’s taken as long as it has for more options to open up for international authors, and there’s still room for growth. Publishers Weekly reported that 2016 was yet again another double digit year for audiobook sales growth over the previous year.
Good News for Irish & Canadian Authors
ACX.com is the self publishing platform for Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. For many long years, only authors based in the US or the UK had access to publishing their audiobooks through this channel. However, on June 1, 2017, ACX announced that now Canadian and Irish authors now have access to this platform. Excellent news for authors in those countries, although that's still a lot of room on the globe left without access.
But Wait…There’s More!
That brings me to another option for international authors to get their audiobooks published, which is Authors Republic. Some of my audiobook clients want to distribute their audiobooks beyond Audible, Amazon and iTunes. They want a wider reach to libraries, Barnes & Noble, and additional outlets like Audiobooks.com and Scribd. Authors Republic makes that distribution possible. Although they don't advertise outright that they work with international authors, in truth anyone who has a PayPal account and who has produced an audiobook to the correct audio standards can upload their audiobook to Authors Republic to be considered by these additional outlets for distribution and sale. The potential disadvantage is a reduced royalty rate, which is why having a solid audiobook launch, distribution, and marketing strategy is so important.
Here are 5 ways you can make the most of having an Audiobook and learn more about best practices, production, and marketing.
Would you like to listen in on some of our audiobooks?
