In June, National Audiobook Appreciation Month takes place. As the name suggests, it’s a time to celebrate audiobooks. Indeed, every month is a good month to celebrate audiobooks, and there are plenty of reasons for this. More people than ever are listening to audiobooks. This ever-expanding audience is good news for writers, otherwise known as Rights Holders, who make their stories available as audiobooks.
My audiobook backlist includes twenty-two titles, all produced by a brilliant award-winning narrator, Pearl Hewitt. Until recently, the audiobooks were distributed exclusively by ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange) to Audible, Amazon, and Apple. Earlier this year, I decided to distribute all my titles worldwide via Findaway Voices. What a wealth of opportunity that move has afforded me. The chart below shows all the places my audiobooks are now available.
In mere months, my sales volume through Findaway Voices has surpassed ten percent of my ACX sales volume over the past nine years.
This is not an advertisement for Findaway Voices. I’m just stating a fact. I’ve regularly praised ACX, too. I credit my early interest in audiobook production to ACX. I started publishing my fiction on its platform because it offered a generous stipend program. ACX also featured enticing royalty share options, a rewarding bounty program, and an ample supply of promotional codes for free audiobooks. I distributed an abundance of promo codes via social media, blog posts, and newsletter mailings at no financial cost to me. ACX even compensated me for my efforts. This truly represented ‘ease of entry’ at its finest. I will always be grateful to ACX for providing me with such an advantageous start.
I have been a staunch advocate of audiobooks as a Rights Holder and an ardent listener for nearly a decade. Now that I have taken advantage of the growing opportunities in the industry to expand my catalog’s reach around the world, my passion for them will surely grow.
This marks the first of a planned series of June posts about audiobooks in general as well as my catalog. Here’s a ‘blast from the past’ promo picture commemorating this month.
Happy listening!
