Julie Broad explains Chirp Audiobooks, a BookBub-run platform that emails time-limited audiobook deals to readers. Authors keep price control unlike Audible, but it only works in the U.S. and Canada and requires Findaway Voices distribution.
Do you love a good deal? I love a good deal. And when it comes to audiobook listening habits, your listeners love a good deal too. So if you're looking to expand your audiobook audience as an author, stick around because this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers, your fabulous self publishing services team. Chirp is an up and coming sales platform developed by BookBubble, and it brings the best audiobook deals right to the reader's inboxes. Sorry, I got a floaty, an ifloaty. It's simple. You sign up and then they email you with audiobook deals of the day or the week, along with featured deals curated by BookBub. If you're on the hunt for something in particular, you can specify your favorite genres, authors or books, and Chirp will match recommended deals to your interests. The deals are time sensitive, but you can also shop the rest of their audiobook library and buy directly from the site now. Or although Chirp focuses on helping readers score hot deals, you can find most traditionally published and a ton of self published audiobooks available for their regular retail price. So what does that mean for you, dear author friend? Well, if you're looking for an alternative to Audible to sell your audiobook, Chirp just might be the way to go. I'm going to lay out the pros and cons of Chirp, and you can decide for yourself. So here are the plus sides. Here are the pros. Chirp's unique distribution model relies on deals. The a credit or subscription model with a bunch of fees. A reader doesn't have to sign up for a service they may or may not use or commit to a pricey monthly plan just to get their hands on one book they want. This is of course, unlike some audiobook services out there, right? Like Audible. If your book catches a reader's eye, they simply just purchase the book in the app and start listening. The whole process is so easy that I'm pretty sure Jackson could hop on the Chirp app and download a new dinosaur book for himself in just a couple of clicks. Oh, I think he just did that. By joining Chirp Library, you can potentially reach a whole new audience ready to take advantage of a great deal without all the hassle. And you're giving your book's discoverability a big boost. Even better, you're not giving up control of your price. With Audible, you don't get to choose the price of your audiobook, but on Chirp you do, since you're the one setting the price. You don't have to rely solely on their featured deal option to offer readers a discount. You can lower your price in the library whenever you want and run your own promotion outside of Chirp as well. Now this leads me to the not so plus sides. You know the cons of working with Chirp. One disadvantage is availability. Chirp right now is only available for us and Canada. It's a relatively new service, so I suspect that's going to change in the future. But for now, your book can't be a globetrotter on Chirp. The other thing is, you must be partnered with Findaway Voices to sell your audiobook on Chirp and take advantage of Chirp deals as an author. Fortunately, Findaway Voices does allow you to control your pricing. Like I mentioned, again, that's just something Audible doesn't let you do because they set the price for you. Can you tell that bugs me a little? Yeah, it does. Unfortunately, they do get a small cut of the sale, but that's for the service that they're offering. For some people though, that might be a deal breaker and there's no way to sell direct on Chirp. To keep all your royalties, you have to go through Findaway Voices. But if that's not a deal breaker and you don't mind the limited availability, the process to submit your audiobook to Chirp is very simple. And submitting and listing your book as a feature deal is free. Yeah, free. We don't get very many of those, so you gotta take advantage of it. Now here's what you need to do. Step one. If you have not already uploaded your book to Find a Way Voices, you gotta do that and include Chirp in the list of retailers where you'd like to sell your book. Step 2. Sign up for a Bookbug Partners account. Then visit Bookbug Partners Dashboard under my Promotions, click Chirp Audiobook Deals and and then submit audiobook deal. STEP 3. Verify that your audiobook is available through Findaway. Then you'll be asked to fill out some essential information about your book. You know, title, timing of the deal, genre, price, and any additional comments for the editorial team. Step 4. Once you fill out everything Chirp needs to know, just click Submit. Your request gets sent to the Chirp editorial team. Once they review it, you'll be notified as to whether your audiobook has been accepted as a feature deal. And. And that's it. Easy enough, right? Ultimately, as long as you're not exclusive with acx, you don't really have anything to lose by submitting to Chirp and broadening your audiobook audience horizons. And if you're exclusive with ACX right now, but you didn't do a revenue share deal with a narrator as long as you've been exclusive for 90 days or more, they will release you from that exclusivity. All you need to do is send them an email from the email address associated with your ACX account and ask to be released from exclusivity. Once you're released from your exclusivity, your royalty with ACX does drop from 40% to 25%, but now you gain access to the world, including Chirp and other listeners on platforms all over the world with Findaway Voices. I've just gone ahead and submitted my book, so make sure you've subscribed to the channel and turn the notifications on so you can find out how Chirp is working for my audio version of Self Publish and succeed in 2022. I'm pretty excited about the potential for helping authors reach audiobook listeners with its unique model. Powered by the awesome team behind BookBub, Chirp is really setting itself up to take on Audible as a top choice for audiobook listeners, and authors can really benefit as one of Chirp's featured deals. Still behind on the audiobook game and wondering how to get started? Well, this video right here can get you started on recording your audiobook. And if you're wondering about this Findaway Voices thing, well, check this out. I've got you covered with this video right here, so take your pick and I'll meet you there.
Should You Skip Amazon When You Publish Your Book? #digitalmarketing #amazonauthor
