Publishing My Audiobooks Through Author's Republic - Early Stages
I've learned a lot since that first experience. Adrianne and I are in the studio again, working with the engineer of Howling Sow and a cast of actors to record Dinner Invitation and Escape From New Orleans. Like last time, I will be publishing a series of posts about the experience, including the process of renewing my contract with +SAG-AFTRA Foundation, my experience at both the Audiobook Publishers Association Conference (APAC) and Book Expo America (BEA) in Chicago. But first I'd like to post about looking into the new distribution service for audiobooks called Author's Republic.
Publishing through ACX made my book available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. I looked into sites like Downpour, and platforms like Overdrive, but had a hard time figuring out how to submit my content as an independent author. In fairness, this information isn't any more accessible on Audible's site than it is on other platforms, but because of Amazon's dominance in independent publishing, and because there's no viable alternative for independent authors, finding your way to ACX is fairly easy. Adrianne made the suggestion that we use ACX after our +Kickstarter campaign for publishing The American Fathers as a free podcast did not reach its funding goal. Our supporters were gracious enough to fund the recording of Episode 1, Swept Away, so we went in the studio with our incredible cast. In June of 2015 we published that first episode.
Anyone familiar with self publishing through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) knows how competitive publishing on the Amazon platform can be. One of the things that attracts me to Author's Republic is the ability to publish on over a dozen platforms, including +Audiobooks.com, +Downpour.com, and +Scribd. Author's Republic was started by Sanjay Singhal, CEO of Audiobooks.com.
One of the most interesting things Sanjay said during his interview with the +CBC News show The Exchange, was that 70% of audiobook consumers listen to audiobooks in their cars. As an author, that is a fascinating statistic.
So to my experience so far. First, as an author who already has an ACX account, I needed to know whether I could keep that account and continue publishing through it, in addition to publishing through Author's Republic. The answer appears to be yes, but the key here is switching from an exclusive arrangement with ACX to a non-exclusive arrangement.
That's a big deal. With ACX, switching from exclusive to non-exclusive is possible, but switching from non-exclusive to exclusive is not. So once I make the switch, there's no going back.
This takes me to the next consideration: how accessible are the people at Author's Republic. You'll notice when you log onto their website that there's a info@authorsrepublic.com email address , but there's no telephone number. I did receive a response to my email query within 24 hours, but that response did feel a little canned. The email included a pdf outlining a comparison between ACX and Author's Republic.
+Shari Stauch, the author of the post New Audiobook Distribution Service: Author’s Republic Offers New Options for Authors and Publishers was very helpful in connecting me with someone involved with the service. But given the trade off involved in making this decision, losing the option of an exclusive contract with ACX, I'm still hoping to get more information about Author's Republic when I attend the APAC and BEA conferences in May. I'll post updates regarding this process then.
In the meantime, here are links to the other posts I found about the service:
New Audiobook Option for Authors
Author’s Republic is Audiobooks.com New Distribution Service
Audiobooks.com Debuts New Audiobook Distribution Service: Author’s Republic
New ALLi Partner Author’s Republic Offers Simple New Audiobook Distribution Option
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