This is the second of Isobel Starling’s two-part guest series on creating and marketing audiobooks. If you missed part one, “Using ACX: Audiobook Creation for Indie Authors,” check it out here.
Now that you know how to get your audiobook published, you’re ready to promote it. Sit back and learn! —Dale
Marketing Your Audiobook
by Isobel Starling
Marketing for audiobooks can be tricky at the best of times, because reviewers need to hear the production before they can review. There are a handful of blogs in my genre who will review audiobooks, but it is not as simple to use blogs to market/review as it is with e-books.
The Best Way to Market: Give Away Review Copies
I publish through ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange), which you can read more about in this post. Authors working with ACX can ask for 25 promotional codes, which can be used as a marketing tool to get those first vital reviews for their audiobook.
Authors receive a sale royalty for each code used, so it is worth making use of the promotional codes. You can use them for blog reviews, giveaways and reader reviews.
My priority was to get as many reviews on Audible as I could, because although review blogs are useful, Audible listeners judge a book by reviews on the site, and many blogs don’t repost their reviews on Audible.
I always ask for primarily US codes and a few UK codes. UK reviewers are hard to come by, so grab any you can find. US audio reviewers are abundant. Each author has to decide how to distribute their codes to get as much marketing bang for their buck!
Promotional sites for Audiobooks
There are a few promotional sites for audiobooks. I found Audiobook Boom and The Audiobook Worm.
Audiobook Boom
Audiobook Boom costs only $10. They list your book, and members who want to review apply for a code. A list of possible reviewers is supplied, and the author can check out the Audible page to ensure the reviewer is right for their book and supply a code to them in exchange for a review.
I have used Audiobook Boom three times and had great success. I like being able to choose reviewers. They have been friendly and communicative, sending me links to their reviews on time. So for me, getting the royalties from the codes, and a handful of reviews for only $10 made great business sense.
You can find out more about advertising with Audiobook Boom here.
Audiobook Worm
Audiobook Worm arranges blog and review tours. The author has to decide on the number of blog stops and then send Audiobook Worm the codes to give out to blog reviewers. They charge $3.35–$4.15 per stop, which is more than an author would usually make from the royalty on the promo code. So, for example, 25 blog stops would cost around $90, which is a bit nuts.
You can find out more about Audiobook Worm’s tour services here.
Blog reviews
Blog reviews are good for visibility. However there are few blogs in the LGBTQI genres, and we are a tight-knit community. I saw little value in having random romance blogs reviewing my audiobook because it was a waste of a promo code! Some blogs won’t even post on Audible, which is where we want the reviews.
My Marketing Results
My first audiobook has broken even after only four months on sale. The others will take a while longer. But I am very happy with how my adventure into audiobooks is proceeding. I am convinced that the huge initial outlay for the cost of production will be worth it. The audiobooks will offer me another stream of income for years to come and continue to bring new readers to my work. I’d say that’s a win/win.
Born in Germany, Isobel Starling spent most of her twenty-year professional career making art in Ireland. She relocated to the UK and, faced with the dreaded artist’s creative block, Isobel started to write and found she loved writing more than making art. The Shatterproof Bond series is an Amazon gay romance bestseller and is being translated into French, German, and Italian. The series is also available as audiobooks, narrated by Gary Furlong. Isobel’s BDSM/cross-dressing romance Silken is also in audio, narrated by Gomez Pugh.
Catch up with Isobel at: