audiobook marketing
guide for authors
christa lewis · voice actor · audiobook narrator · coach
10 AudioFile Earphones Awards · SOVAS Voice Arts Award · 2× Audie nominee
Audiobook Marketing for (frazzled) Authors
👣A guide to take you from whaaaaaaat? to ... it's selling!
— start here —
Audio is the fastest-growing corner of publishing.
In 2025, U.S. audiobook sales reached roughly $2.43 billion — up about 9% on the year — with more than 750,000 titles available and a majority of American adults having listened to at least one title in audio.
It’s a growing audience and an exploding format, which means audiobook discoverability is now part of the publishing journey.
In today’s landscape, every great book faces two challenges: being found, and giving a new listener enough confidence to take a chance on it.
That’s the “social proof gap” — reviews, recommendations and other signs that tell us other people have already been here.
Books find listeners in lots of ways — through newsletters, reader communities, podcasts, author cross-promotion, libraries, social media, search, word of mouth, and ads.
The good news is that both findability and social proof are doable.
That’s what this guide is for: to help you get found and get heard, written by an audiobook narrator and voice actor with three decades of experience building and marketing a professional audio brand.
*Note: You don’t have to do all the things.
You decide what & how much to invest on each part of the journey.
Keep it simple and give yourself small, incremental goals - protect your well-being as fiercely as you would any budget. It's ok to be stingy.
If an offered solution feels cumbersome, skip it and try something else; the important thing is that your book has a path to reach your listeners.
🧘🏼 Your Guide 🧘🏼
Table of Contents
→ 1. Lay the foundation
→ 2. Seed early reviews
→ 3. Pull the discount lever
→ 4. Make clips
→ 5. Ebook-to-audio ripple
→ 6. Ads
→ 7. Grow your audience
→ 8. Reviews & awards
📈 WHAT WILL IT COST ME
⏳ TIME — little or no cash; you do the work.
💵 MONEY — you're mainly buying access, reach or execution.
⏳💵 BOTH — you pay and there is setup/management involved.
Where are you right now?
Pick the moment that fits your situation.
Click the button on the card to start your journey.
🌱 You're headed into audio — great!
You've decided to produce your book in audio — so let's give the audiobook the best possible shot at finding its listeners.
Most of what makes an audiobook succeed is the same work that underlies the success of any print book — a story people enjoy, and readers who know it exists.
The audio-specific pieces sit on top of that, and they're eminently doable.
This guide walks you through it, one step at a time.
Two things worth dialing in early, and then we'll get into the marketing:
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Choose a voice that's an asset, not an afterthought. Whoever gives your book its voice, that performance is one of the things that's uniquely yours to market later: clips, samples, a listen that feels like an experience. You'll use it in Step 4, and it's worth ensuring it is something you're excited to share.
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Decide whether you'll distribute exclusively through Audible or distribute more widely.
*Curious what your book could sound like?
🧭 Distribution
This guide covers how to market an audiobook. For where it sells, what royalties you keep, and which contracts you sign — some pointers:
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For information to help you choose, visit the Alliance of Independent Authors' Self-Publishing Advice Center — a nonprofit, author-first resource to guide distribution choices.
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For current terms and actual earning percentages, always check the distribution platform directly: ACX, Spotify for Authors, Kobo Writing Life, Author's Republic, Google Play Books, and INAudio set their own terms and keep their own numbers up to date.
⚙️ Step 1 — Lay the foundation
Before you spend a dollar or a promo code, make sure the page a listener lands on is doing its job. This is vital and determines the return on everything that follows.
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Website - your author website. Give readers an interesting, informative place to find you and explore your work. Start with a clear page with professional cover art, a short description, an audio sample or a link to one, and current purchase links. If you don’t have a website yet, Tertulia for Authors can build one from your ISBN in minutes. Wix is another flexible, easy-to-use option.
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Title - Metadata & categories (genre descriptions). Choose the most accurate, specific categories available to you, and write a description that gives listeners a clear sense of the book. Strong, accurate metadata helps the right listeners find it.
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Cover - The cover in all shapes and sizes - especially thumbnail size. Most people first see your cover the size of a (large-ish) stamp or even smaller when viewed on a phone. If the title and author's name aren't legible at that size or the graphics are distorted, correct that before you drive any traffic to it.
🛫 Need a quick win?
Here's a short checklist to ensure you're ready to market
*If that's enough for now, bookmark this Guide for later
Desktop: Tap ⌘D / Ctrl+D to save the Guide for next time
Mobile: use your browser menu to save this page 🌱
🎙️ Production
This guide covers how to market an audiobook.
If you're still looking to take your title into audio, my audiobook production process is → here.
Briefly, it looks like this:
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We talk.
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You hear your story in my voice.
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There's prep.
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I narrate.
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It's done along with short promo clips you can use to market the finished audiobook.
Planning to narrate it yourself?
I also offer consulting and performance direction for authors.
⭐ Step 2 — Seed early listener reviews (codes are currency)
Early reviews are a credibility booster. A handful of honest reviews in the first weeks give a new listener the confidence to try a new-to-them book — and they build momentum.
Your main tool here is the promo code: promotional copy codes are available through some platforms and distributors.
First, check your distributor or audiobook dashboard to see whether you were issued promotional codes. If you weren't, skip the code-specific ideas below or — use a review-copy service that accepts your audio file, and then approach reviewers who accept direct copies.
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Give out codes through a giveaway, not a giveaway-away. Codes handed out as something exclusive are a snazzier commodity. Scarcity does the work.
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Build a small review team, the way you'd build an ARC group for an ebook — keeping in mind audiobook reviewers aren’t always the same audience as your print/ebook readers.
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Place codes where audio reviewers already gather: audiobook promo-code platforms like Audiobooks Unleashed, active communities like Goodreads Audiobook Addicts (with a regular code-exchange thread), or genre pages on Facebook such as Aural Fixation for romance. You can also post in r/audiobooks and relevant Goodreads groups. If you want to search more widely for individual reviewers who accept audiobooks, BookSirens has a searchable reviewer directory.
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If you have some available budget, NetGalley is worth understanding. Unlike a promo-code site or reviewer directory, NetGalley is a professional discovery network used by major publishers to put books and audiobooks in front of reviewers, librarians, booksellers, media and other book professionals. More than 304,000 NetGalley members have expressed interest in audiobooks, and members submit more than 20,000 audiobook reviews and feedback reports there each month. *Note Indie authors can access that same network through IBPA’s NetGalley program. You are not paying for reviews — you are paying to place your audiobook where people who actively review, recommend, stock and cover books are already looking.
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Consider searching BookTube (YouTube book reviewers) for your genre. Some channels reach a lot of subscribers, and a video review lands like a recommendation from a friend rather than an ad. It skews to YA, fantasy, and romance; also, you approach each reviewer through their agent or as stated in their review policy.
One practical limit to plan around: Codes are finite — spend them where reviews are likeliest.
*If you'd like a simple number to watch
Aim for 10 honest reviews in the first few months. If you’re moving toward that slowly but steadily, you’re doing enough.
🎧 Find Listeners for early Reviews ⤵
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Audiobooks Unleashed Cost: ⏳ TIME What to Do: Upload promo codes
Cost: ⏳ TIME What to Do: Choose reviewers
How it works → List your audiobook and upload your promo codes; listeners claim them, listen, and may leave an honest review. Their vetted Verified Reviewers section gives selected reviewers access to titles specifically offered for review.
How it works → Filter BookSirens for audiobook reviewers who match your genre and are currently accepting submissions, then approach the best-fit reviewers using their listed submission/contact method.
How it works → Add your audiobook and download codes; Booksprout distributes copies to reviewers, sends reminders, tracks claims, and collects reviews.
How it works → Join IBPA as an Author Publisher — currently $155/year. Buy an audiobook NetGalley listing through IBPA — currently $149 for 1 month or $299 for 3 months. NetGalley does not currently offer pay-per-title audiobook listings directly to authors. Send IBPA your audiobook files and metadata. IBPA handles the NetGalley listing and administration. Your audiobook appears on NetGalley in places including Recently Added, Listen Now, its category, and the IBPA collection. IBPA audiobook listings are automatically available for NetGalley members to download. Reviewers, librarians, media and other NetGalley members discover and listen. NetGalley/IBPA currently describes the network as 770,000+ members. Check the results. IBPA can provide reports showing downloads and listener feedback. Stop there for the first test. You do not need to buy the extra featured placements or newsletters unless the basic listing proves useful. For a first-time indie author starting from scratch, the minimum test is therefore: $155 IBPA membership + $149 one-month audiobook listing = $304.
Good – Offer codes to a small circle of independent listeners and ask for honest reviews when they have time.
Better – Build a tiny review team or ALC (advance listening copy) group and send codes there first.
Best – Try review platforms (like Audiobooks Unleashed or StoryOrigin) and review communities if you enjoy that kind of outreach. If you don’t, you can happily stay at Good or Better.
🏷️ Step 3 — Pull the discount lever (wide distribution and direct sales)
If you distribute wide: use retailer discounts, Chirp submissions, and other time-limited promotions where available.
If you sell direct: use coupons, launch pricing, bundles, and limited-time offers from your own store.
If your audiobook is on Audible you do not directly control the retail price. However, if you published through ACX, you can submit your audiobook for promotional consideration.
→ Open the ACX “Promote your audiobook” help page.
→ Click “Submit your audiobook for consideration here.”
→ Submit the title for consideration.
*Note submitting does not guarantee inclusion
Discounting can be a high-return promotional tool in audio and leaves an opening for authors who can afford to be flexible. If you distribute wide, or sell directly, you can do deep, time-limited price drops that put your book in front of deal-hungry listeners:
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Chirp (from the BookBub team) lets you apply for a featured deal at a steep discount (often 50–80% off) for a limited window. For wide audio titles it's one of the stronger promotions available, and it's especially strong in romance, thriller, and fantasy.
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Strategic discounts (or giveaways) on retailers that permit promotional pricing (Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play) can punch above their weight — heavily discounted titles sometimes crack a store's top ranks as the discount increases visibility.
The move is "use a limited discount as a visibility event," then let the momentum and any series listen-through carry the value back to sales.
*If you’d like a simple number to watch…
Target: Run 2–4 meaningful discount or giveaway promotions per year for your audiobook.
🧭 If you choose to skip Audible
If you choose not to distribute via Audible -
there are options and things to think about.
The consensus is that selling "direct only" rewards authors who already have an established audience — so, it's high-margin, but not easy-mode. Every sale is one you originate by yourself.
Consider:
- You can distribute to other retailers.
Google Play Books, Kobo, and Spotify accept direct audiobook uploads — no exclusivity,
and depending on the retailer, you can set or recommend your audiobook’s list price. Apple Books generally receives audiobooks through approved distribution partners.
- Or you can sell directly to listeners from your own website.:
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The upside: selling from your own store, you keep a greater percentage of every sale and control everything — price, bundles, the customer relationship.
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The tradeoff: you aren't being surfaced on a retailer's website inside your genre category. Every listener you reach is one you personally reached out to.
How this trail shifts for you:
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Your engine is your own clips, your ads, and your list — not a retailer's discovery.
🎬 Step 4 — Make clips (advantage: audio)
This is the step where the audiobook format shines.
A short narration clip is native, shareable content that costs nothing but attention:
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Short clips (15–60 seconds) of a dramatic moment, a plot twist, or lively multi-voice dialogue convert. A single strong clip on TikTok or Reels can reach lots of people organically.
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The hook is everything. Lead with the most gripping few seconds, not context. Curiosity, not explanation.
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Turn clips into audiograms — a clip paired with a moving waveform and captions — using tools like Headliner, Wavve, Canva, or BookBrush. Bonus placement: Place the audiogram on your own book page, in social posts, and anywhere your retailer or author profile permits video content.
*If you'd like a simple number to watch
Choose one or two places to share clips (for example, your newsletter plus one social platform) and aim to share one clip a month. If that’s happening, you’re using this step well.
If you worked directly with a narrator, this is a natural place to collaborate — the performance is the marketing asset here.
If you don't have the finished audio file, download the clip on Audible using a program like audio hijack.
Whether you're Audible-exclusive, distributing wide, or selling direct, Step 4 applies to you.
You may not control every retailer's price, but you do control the audio you share. Clips give every audiobook author something uniquely theirs to market.
If you're Audible-exclusive, this is why Step 3 sent you here: you can't directly control Audible's retail pricing, so your own audio assets become especially useful.
🧭 All paths meet here
Good – Create one strong clip from your audiobook and add it to your website or retailer page.
Better – Share that clip a few times over the next few months in different places (newsletter, social, your author page).
Best – Experiment with different clips or audiograms and notice which ones get the most saves, comments, or clicks—keep doing more of that if it feels fun, and not painful.
🔗 Step 5 — Use the ebook-to-audio ripple
*Kindle + Audible only — skip if your audiobook isn’t available on Audible.
Before you promote your ebook, make sure Amazon has connected it to your audiobook.
Once they’re connected, Kindle readers may be offered the Audible edition at a lower Read & Listen price.
✔ 1. Check the connection
Open your Kindle ebook page on Amazon.
Look for “Add Audible narration” or Read & Listen in the product details. See it? You’re connected. Move on to Nr. 3 (below).
Don’t see it? Move on to Nr. 2 ↓
✔ 2. Ask Audible to check it
If your audiobook has only recently been released, give Audible time to process the connection.
If it has been live for more than about 30 business days and still isn’t showing Read & Listen, contact ACX/Audible support and ask them to check whether the title is eligible.
You don’t need to sign up for Matchmaker or activate anything else. Amazon handles the connection and the discounted audio offer.
✔ 3. Give the ebook a push
Now run an ebook promotion — free or discounted, through whatever method makes sense for your book.
Already planning a BookBub promotion, Kindle sale or free ebook promotion? Perfect. You don’t need a separate audiobook campaign for this step.
The idea is: get more copies of the ebook into readers’ hands while the audiobook connection is in place.
✔ 4. Watch what happens to audio
Before the ebook promotion begins, note your usual audiobook sales. Then check them again:
during the promotion + for about a week afterward.
If audiobook sales rise above your normal level, you’ve found an ebook-to-audio ripple worth repeating.
No lift? That’s useful information too. You can move on without pouring more time or money into it.
If this is starting to feel like a lot…
That’s normal. You don’t have to do every step perfectly for readers to find your book.
If you:
– make your book cover arresting
- make your book page clear & inviting,
– gather some early reviews, and
– give listeners a simple way to hear about your next release, you’ve already done the most important work.
You don't have to do everything in this guide. Pick what fits your book, your time and your budget.
🧘🏼 Stressed?
💸 Step 6 — Paid Ads: Start Small
Consider paid ads if they make sense for your budget.
If your book is ready to sell and you have some budget, ads are one of the most direct ways to find out whether more of the right people will respond to it.
Start small. Measure what happens. Don't keep spending just because someone told you advertising is important.
A few principles can help — regardless of which platform happens to be popular at the moment:
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If you want to target audiobook listeners specifically, Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and BookBub Ads offer useful targeting options.
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Know roughly who you’re talking to
→ Start with the book.
What kind of book is it? Who already reads books like this? Think genre, comparable authors/books, tone, themes.
→ Describe that reader in ordinary language.
Something like: Readers who like quirky, funny mysteries with older characters. That's enough to start.
→ Give Meta some clues, then let it help. You can suggest interests or audiences to start with. As the ad runs, Meta learns from who responds and helps find more people like them.
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Start small. Test before you scale. Before putting your budget behind one ad, try a few versions and see what earns attention.
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Track your audiobook sales separately. Tools like ScribeCount can help you see returns by format, so your audiobook results don’t disappear into your overall book sales.
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WWM Reader Reach — If you'd rather hand off this piece, Written Word Media offers managed Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns for eligible books. You still track whether the clicks turn into sales.
*If you’d like a simple number to watch…
Target: ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) tells you how much author revenue comes back for every dollar you spend on advertising. A ROAS of 3.0 means $1 spent generated about $3 in revenue.
As a rough guide, below 1.0 means the ad is costing more than it returns; 2.0–3.0+ is a healthier range to aim for. Consider your margins and what a new reader/listener is worth to you.
*NOTE Ad platforms change quickly. Check current options before starting a campaign.
🏹 Try First
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Choose one thing to test.
An image, headline, or opening message. -
Make 2–3 versions.
Change only that one thing. -
Set a small test budget.
Decide what you’re comfortable spending — and stop there. -
See which one gets the clicks.
More clicks means that version did a better job of getting attention. -
Then check your sales. Did audiobook sales rise compared with what you usually see? The version with the most clicks only proves attention. Sales get the final vote.
📬 Step 7 — Grow your audience
#lists
Your email list is the one audience you host — the people you can tell about every new release without an algorithm in the way.
Make it easy to sign up & sign on wherever a reader or listener meets you: in the back matter of every print and ebook edition, on your website, in your clips, and in the final moments of the audiobook itself.
Someone who finishes an audiobook has already spent hours inside your world. Give them a clear, effortless way to get on your list and hear about what comes next.
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Add a track, add a subscriber …
A brief bonus at the end of the audiobook can turn that moment into an invitation. It might point listeners to a simple page where they can sign up for a free first chapter, a bonus scene, or news about the next book.
Meet them at “The End.” It can be as simple as: Hi, this is Author Name. Thanks for listening. To hear the first chapter of my next book, The Title, visit MyWebsite/audio
Keep the web address short, memorable, and easy to understand when spoken aloud.
You do not need to rewrite the audiobook to do this. It is simply an additional end track, and the best way to create it depends on where you are:
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Use smaller promotions to grow your list and sales
Low-cost promotional networks can help seed newsletter growth as well as early sales.
Services such as AuthorsXP, created by author and marketer Amy Vansant, offer access to an established reader audience for considerably less than many large-scale features. They can be
useful for giveaways, review campaigns, and introducing new readers to your work.
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Let the series do some of the work
If you already have several books in a series, consider promoting them together or creating a bundle.
One acquired listener can become a listener across the entire backlist; authors track this as read-through. Audio adds another layer of continuity. A listener who follows a story into the next volume may also follow a voice they have come to know.
A consistent narrator across the series can help preserve that connection, and every new release brings attention back to the books that came before.
*If you'd like a simple number to watch
Glance at your email list once a month. If the number of subscribers is slowly going up — even by a few people — you’re doing what you need to do.
Before recording begins — Add the short invitation to the manuscript now, and include the first chapter of the next book in the narrator’s recording materials.
During production — Ask your narrator to record an author-written bonus message and, where appropriate, the first chapter of the next book as part of the existing session.
Already published — If your distributor permits updated audio, create a brief end track that meets its technical requirements. Your narrator or engineer can produce it so that it matches the finished audiobook.
🥳 Creating demand for the book
Anything that helps readers discover your book can ripple across every format — including audio.
And as readers and listeners find you, give them an easy way to stay connected to you.
Need a little help marketing the print book itself? → Here are four simple places to start.
👀 Boost your List
You can build your audience organically or pay to give your email list a push.
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AuthorsXP — Weekly Mailing List Builder
→ $55. Genre-specific giveaways; AuthorsXP says authors can add hundreds of subscribers.
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Written Word Media — Subscriber Surge
→ $75. A 60-day genre giveaway designed to attract new readers; participating authors receive the contact information for readers who opted in to their mailing list.
* NOTE These are list-building tools, not guaranteed book sales. Watch what those new subscribers do next.
Good – Add a short invitation at the end of your audiobook that points listeners to a simple page where they can sign up for news about your next book.
Better – Mention that same sign‑up link in the back of your print and ebook editions, and on your website.
Best – Send a friendly email to your list when you have actual news: a new release, a discount, or a bonus scene. You never have to email on a rigid schedule if that doesn’t suit you.
🏆 Step 8 — Reviews and awards
Once your audiobook is available, some reviews and audiobook awards may improve visibility & reach.
- Want a dedicated audiobook review with industry clout? Explore the Reviews table.
- Want a chance to garner an award? Explore the Awards table.
For either reviews or awards, find 1–3 that fit your genre and your publishing style, check current eligibility and feasibility and then submit.
If you're in a hurry, skip the lists and submit your title into the magical reviewer locator 🪄REVIEWERS
✨ And sometimes, lovely things just ... happen ... along the way
Some audiobook recognition isn’t something you apply for at all. Reviewers, librarians, readers and industry panels may select audiobooks for awards, lists or special honors on their own.
There’s nothing extra you need or can do. But if your audiobook is reviewed, stocked by libraries or gaining attention, keep an eye out — one of these may find its way to you.
If one happens to turn up, celebrate it & add it to your website, retailer pages & marketing materials.
AudioBookReviewer Choice Award · Booklist Editors’ Choice / Top of the List — Audiobook · British Book Awards — Audiobook · Goodreads Choice — Audiobook · Kirkus Earphones Award · Libby Book Awards — Audiobook of the Year · Libro.fm NZ Audiobook of the Year · Los Angeles Times — Achievement in Audiobook Production · YALSA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults
🎧 Tools & resources
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Keeping Track of sales in all formats: ScribeCount
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Straightforward website builder for Authors: Tertulia for Authors
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Distributing wide: Author's Republic, Voices by INAudio
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Discount promotions: Chirp
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Review-copy distribution & reviewer platforms: Audiobooks Unleashed, StoryOrigin
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Clips & audiograms: Headliner, Wavve, Canva, Book Brush
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Ads: Meta Ads, BookBub Ads
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Lists & Book Marketing: Written Word Media
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Lists & promo: AuthorsXP
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Website: wix
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Further reading: Written Word Media's 2025 Indie Author's Survey Reedsy's audiobook marketing guide Karen Commins' Audiobook Marketing Cheat Sheet Audio Publishers Association (industry data)
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Community: by authors for authors - Marketing Audiobooks Wide
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Audiobook industry news & reviews - AudiobookRush
You can do any step in this guide yourself — really, you can.
If you’re not sure where to start, pick one step that feels doable this month. When that’s done, come back here and pick the next one.
There's one piece you don't have to figure out alone — the audiobook itself.
If you're choosing a narrator, planning to narrate it yourself, or looking for a partner in recording and production, I'm happy to help.