7 Best Audiobook Publishing Platforms for Authors

7 Best Audiobook Publishing Platforms for Authors

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About Dr. Sudipta Kumar Ghosh

Founder & chief at Exceller Books, Ghosh is a perfect blend of deep knowledge, market experience and unflagging academic curiosity. With a master degree in Business Administration, he began his entrepreneurial journey back in 2012 with a view to create a platform where knowledge is free and accessible. A researcher in digital marketing, he has published and presented his research papers in different international conferences. Fixed like a timeless oak tree in his wooden chamber, he is a workaholic determined to mark a new beginning.  He combines his concerns for the environment with his love for digital marketing in the most unique way by introducing e-publishing along with its traditional model. With a superlative talent in art, communication and people-management, he is the vital force that pulsates the Exceller Books team all day round.

Audiobooks are the fastest growing online segments in the publishing platform. Audiobooks are in trend because of their global reach and easy accessibility from any part of the world. Additionally, audiobooks are growing in popularity because you can use them while doing other jobs like typing, driving, eating, cooking or other factory jobs, because audiobooks are not read with eyes, but listened with ears. There are other benefits of audiobooks, hence if you want to publish and print your own book on any genre, selecting the audiobook option is the wisest way to begin, also considering its reasonable production cost.

However, where can you publish your audiobook is an important question. There are several platforms where people access audiobooks these days; they download save and listen to them at their own pace and own time of the day. You need to look out for such platforms, if you want to be successful as a self-publisher of audiobooks; it is the best way to reach masses.

Here are 7 best audiobook platforms for publishing authors:-

  1. Audible– Amazon’s Audible is the largest audiobook store, providing over 200,000 audio content to listeners all over the world. Listeners can enroll in the 30-day free trial. After subscribing, they enjoy one free audiobook per month and 70% off every additional title. To sell on Audible, you must go through Amazon KDP’s Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX). The platform can produce and distribute your title to Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. To get your audiobook produced by ACX, you pay an agreed-upon rate for each finished hour of your title.  You can also find your own narrator and publish for free under the royalty share model. But you’ll have to split royalties for the length of your distribution.
  2. Scribd– Scribd Inc. is an American e-book and audiobook subscription service that includes one million titles. Scribd hosts 60 million documents on its open publishing platform. The company was founded in 2007 by Trip Adler, Jared Friedman, and Tikhon Bernstam, and headquartered in San Francisco, California. Scribd is always looking for great new ebooks and audiobooks to add to their digital content collection. While they don’t allow authors to directly self-publish to their platform, they are partnered up with PublishDrive to expand their digital library. So you have to create a PublishDrive account first and then select Scribd from your sales channels to publish and print your book on Scribd.
  3. PublishDrive– PublishDrive is a self-publishing platform that reaches over 400 stores and 240,000 libraries. With audiobook publishing and distribution, you reach all major channels mentioned on this page and a ton more. It is quite simple to publish your audiobook on PublishDrive. You create a free account by signing up, then select a distribution plan. Upload your cover design and audio files. Switch on the stores you want to sell in. you can also submit everything for a quick review process with industry experts, through their system.
  4. GooglePlay– Google Play is a gigantic digital store, reaching over 40 countries. All Androids come pre-installed with the Google Play app. That’s a reach of over 2.5 billion potential listeners. As the world’s #1 public domain and search engine, set up your title on Google to rank higher in search results. GooglePlay is for great ebooks as well as audiobooks. If you want to publish and print your own book digitally, GooglePlay is one of the best platforms to reach out. Like Scribd, it’s not possible to publish an audiobook directly to Google Play. Instead, you’d have to use an aggregator or distributor like PublishDrive to facilitate the audiobook publishing process. However, by going through a handful of steps, you can place your audiobook on one of the largest selling platforms. Royalty payouts depend on each of GooglePlay’s publishing partners.
  5. Kobo– Kobo audiobook publishing and distribution lands you in Kobo.com, Walmart, Indigo (Canada’s #1 bookstore), and Bol (an e-commerce shop in the U.K.) Walmart is one of the largest chain stores with around 275 million customers visiting its website a week. You definitely want to sell your book in Walmart. The cool thing about Kobo is you’re not required to be exclusive to its network. There are no fees to publish with Kobo either. Another reason you want to distribute to Kobo is because of how fast the service is growing. Kobo’s sales hiked by 60% in 2021, landing in PublishDrive’s top 10 stores with the most growth (out of thousands of stores). Kobo is one of the latest trends in digital publishing, and you want to be a part of it with your audiobook.
  6. Storytel– This Swedish audiobook streaming subscription major also ventured into the Indian markets of Audiobook recording companies in 2018 with a strong focus on vernacular and India-centric titles. It has 120,000 audio and e-books, chat stories, and podcasts in its libraries on offer. With further plans to publish 1000 audio titles in 2021 for the Indian market including books in Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, and other Indian languages. It also has in-house recording and production capabilities to assist authors in the production of their studio titles. It is extensively leveraging its tie-ups with local publishers like HarperCollins India, Karadi Tales Penguin Random House, to customize its offerings for the Indian readers.

7.      Tantor Media– In 2000, Tantor Media was established in California with only three people in the company. Since then, it has moved to Old Saybrook, Connecticut, and develops over 100 fresh audiobooks each month. Likewise, its books have won awards for both the stories within them and their high-quality narration. In particular, one of the widely celebrated books from Tantor Media is Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. It’s a best-selling essay collection on botany and ecology that’s been heralded as one of the best of the 2010s. Consequently, the publisher released Nnedi Okorafor’s Akata Witch for young readers seeking mystery stories.

Located in India, Exceller Books is one of the fast-growing names in the world of digital self-publishing. It believes in giving power to creativity. So, now you not only publish and print your book, but also convert them into audiobooks. Exceller Books offers a high quality audiobook recoding by professional narrators in professional studio environment. If you are looking to publish your audiobook, feel free to get in touch with at publication@excellerbooks.com.

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