How does the industry work? Author’s stories are converted to audio books in studios or at home, where they are recorded using professional narrators or the author’s voice. Publishers make audio books available to online retailers and libraries, for purchase or loan directly or via distributors and/or aggregators. Audio book consumers can borrow and/or purchase, from subscription based web outlets that usually require a ‘bespoke’ audio book reader. Authors benefit from royalties paid as a result of sales to libraries, or consumer purchases from online retailers or subscription services.
Mobile multitasking could explain the rising popularity of audio books.
Services – there are four other players that offer fee based production publication and distribution services. EBookIT Must Amplify (Library of Sound) Infinity publishing and Dog Ear publishing. These websites offer combinations of recording narrating publishing and distribution but no direct upload.
Direct upload – there are three players that support the free upload and distribution of completed audio book projects. Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) Authors Republic (AR) and Findaway voices (FV). ACX distribute solely to Audible (paired to Amazon) and iTunes (paired to Apple). AR and FV distribute to a much wider retail and library audience, including Audible and iTunes generally under non exclusive agreements.
Although the audio book market is nothing new, the current technology that supports it and it’s recent growth is new and still evolving. As a consequence there is a diversity of websites offering audio book publication and distribution. author2audio has identified outlets for self-published authors.
Note: make sure you understand the exclusivity agreement between you and your publisher. It may be worth taking a lower royalty in order to publish across a larger number of retailers
Publishing on your own website is always a good idea too. With this in mind we create a single audio book file in M4A format. This format has the added advantage of allowing an individual title image for each chapter, visible when browsing chapters in iTunes on any Apple device.
There are two major players when it comes to publishing your audio book, Author’s Republic and Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX). Both services will require a publishing agreement and a set of files that make up your audio book. That detail includes: cover image opening and closing credit, and separate files for each chapter. Recommended formats are: MP3 for audio and PNG for image files. We create these files for you.
The clarity quality and consistency of your audio files is essential for an enjoyable listener experience. We pride ourselves on our production values and ensure that your audio book recording, is created to industry standards ready for publisher upload or direct sale from your website. There are a variety of ways to upload your audio book for online retailing.