How to Sell Audiobooks on Amazon

Woohoo. Audiobooks are selling like crazy now. It's a pretty exciting time to be an author with an audiobook. The reality for North American authors is that your primary place to sell audiobooks is on Audible. We've gone wide and we've tested wide with many books and Audible is still where most of the sales are happening for the majority of our nonfiction authors. That doesn't mean you don't go wide, but it does mean if you have an audiobook, you should understand how to sell that book on Amazon via Audible. If you're wondering how to sell audiobooks on Amazon, then you're in luck. This video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of a fabulous self publishing company called Book Launchers. In past videos we've talked about Authors Republic and Findaway Voices as ways to distribute audiobooks. I've used both Authors Republic in Findaway Voices for my books and the majority of sales have still come from Audible. So for many authors, going exclusive with ACX to distribute to Audible and Apple makes a lot of sense. You make more money and you reach a big chunk of the nonfiction market. You aren't reaching libraries or Google Play or some of the other platforms though, so know where your listeners are and be mindful of your choice. But today we're talking Audible selling. So first you need to know about uploading to acx, so make sure you meet their criteria. Originally I had to go with Authors Republic because they didn't accept me as a publisher in Canada. They have since expanded to us, uk, Canada and Ireland and and they say more is coming. So check acx.com to see if you are eligible to upload. If you're in a country where you're not eligible to upload, that's where Findaway Voices or Authors Republic comes in. If you already have an Amazon account, you'll likely use those credentials on ACX to fill in your registration and start your audiobook. If not, you'll have to create an account. When you register and start an audiobook, you're going to have to have banking info and tax numbers handy. Once you're in acx, you you now have to find your book on Amazon and claim it. If it's not on Amazon, you'll have to do that first. At this point, I assume you've created your audiobook and you have the files to upload and there's other videos on this channel to decide between exclusive and non exclusive. Today, let's focus in on some of the other factors that are going to impact your audiobook sales. Like first of all, your audiobook description. If you have a digital description written then you would put that here, but you can also edit it for audiobook listeners so that it's specific to listening to the book. Regardless, you have a little bit more space than the short book description that goes on the back of your book, so you can take a little more room to sell the book here. Your max character limit is 2000 next and my YouTube besties already know this, but as the metadata of the book, you need to select a category. Do your best to choose the absolute best categories for your book from the list. From ACX's website, we recommend that you pick the category that seems like the best fit for your audiobook using your print or ebooks category on Amazon as your guide. Whether you think a book is romance, a thriller, or falls into another genre, you must choose the category for your book because this information will determine where your book is listed on the Audible website. The information you include here will flow directly to your detail page when the audiobook is complete and available for sale. I'll put a video at the end about category selection because being in the wrong category is a big issue for some books, so you want to take the time to get this right. You'll also be asked for audiobook details. This is where you put your narrator's name, which if you've narrated the book, is your name and your publishing imprint or your name as publisher. If you don't have an imprint, then there's a final section where you can add some details to help sell the book. If you've had a compelling review from Kirkus or indie book reviews or any third party, or you've won an award, use the last section they have there to sell. Why your audiobook is awesome if you're an avid book launchers, TV watcher, or you've read, self publish and succeed, you already know about creating great chapter titles and you're probably feeling pretty happy that you got those tips before now, don't you? Right? Also, you will need audiobook cover art. You can do a totally different design for your audiobook than you have for your ebook and print book, but I wouldn't actually recommend you differ too much. Have your cover designer take the specs from your ebook and print book and play with them because it does have to be a square, but ultimately consistency of brand is important here. Now there's one more important thing to think about. You need a retail audio sample. This is the sample that potential buyers will click on to listen to decide if they want to read your book. This can be your introduction and if you've done a great job of writing a captivating introduction, but often we select a different section of a book. If you aren't sure what part of your book is going to create curiosity, make people want to listen more, and where you've put on a particularly good performance, you can ask your audiobook editor where you've really shined. If you didn't have an editor, you can ask someone which part of your book was the best. That would create curiosity. It has somebody wanting to hear your whole book and and then listen to see if that section will sell your book. From the ACX website About the Retail Sample this sample should start with narration, not opening credits or music. The sample must not include explicit material. This sample is used by customers to preview your audiobook. You do need opening and closing credits, which we've talked about before in the preparing to narrate your audiobook video, which is another video you really must watch. Now, once your book is approved, the trick of selling your book begins. This is something we continue to test and work on at Book Launchers. So if you want more audiobook selling and marketing tips, absolutely subscribe to the channel and turn the notifications on. But for now, here are the three best ways to sell that audiobook once you've got it on Audible. Number one get reviews on Audible Specifically, Audible's website is where the Audible app users will land, and when they're looking to download an audiobook for their credit or to buy, they will see the reviews that only apply to Audible there. It's an area I need some help with. So if you listen to Self Publish and Succeed, I'd be so grateful if you would post a review on Audible to help my book find more listeners who need that content to help them write a book that's set up to sell. We're selling more audiobooks now, but it was slower than expected with Self Publish and Succeed for a while, and I believe it's because there weren't any Audible specific reviews. Number two Run Amazon ads. It doesn't direct people to the audiobook specifically. At least you can't control that part. But driving traffic to your book page will sell audiobooks if your book is already selling. Number three make sure people know your book is available in Audiobook on Audible. I was at a dinner with a bunch of fellow entrepreneurs and as soon as they found out a book was recommended was on Audible, the phones came out and the downloads happened. Not only did I sell audiobooks that night, but a few other books that were recommended got downloads, but only after someone said oh, it's on Audible. I listened to the audiobook, so make sure you're promoting that format specifically now. If you have more tips for selling audiobooks with Audible, let's share them below because sharing is caring. Oh, and I have a ton of videos that you should watch after this. Not just because I want to hang out more, but I do, but because there's so much good stuff stuff to help you with this. Like this one on creating compelling chapter titles on this one on preparing to narrate your audiobook, this one on Findaway Voices versus Author Republic and yes, this one on writing a great book description I don't think I've ever sent you to four videos before, but this is a big subject with lots to share. Enjoy my friend. See you soon.