Non-exclusive distribution – you still distribute your book to Audible and iTunes but have the freedom to distribute it elsewhere as well in exchange for 25% of sales.

Exclusive distribution – you give ACX exclusive rights and can’t sell your audiobook on other platforms for 7 years in exchange for 40% of sales.

This is time-consuming and requires you to read all the fine print about royalties and rights with each platform.Īnd that can be dangerous if you aren’t familiar with this language already.įor instance, they have two types of distribution–one of which means you give them the rights to your work: Register with each individual platform (including ACX). Since so many people use platforms like Audible, iTunes, and Spotify, that just doesn’t make any business sense.Īnd the fact that you need your book on platforms like Audible in order to get meaningful, consistent sales means you need to either:ġ. You won’t have access to a huge audience of potential buyers and will have to convince people to download directly from you.

Yes, you can try to sell audiobooks on your own, but that’s like selling a song outside of iTunes. These (especially Audible) are the kingpins in the audiobook industry and that won’t change anytime soon. In order to sell audiobooks, you ABSOLUTELY have to be on popular platforms like Audible and iTunes. How to Sell Audiobooks: 2 Ways of Getting Listed on Big Platforms My goal is to help you consider all your options so you can make the best long-term business decision. That’s what I’m going to help you navigate in this post.

Most authors don’t realize there are many other ways to sell their audiobooks.Īnd that you can actually get your book on Audible without signing away your soul to Amazon. Most authors simply upload to ACX (Amazon’s distribution platform) and call it a day.ĪCX publishes your audiobooks to several different libraries and gives you access to large audiences (most notably Audible and iTunes).

Amazon audible acx