Audible is the behemoth of audiobook providers, mainly because it's owned by Amazon, the behemoth of eBook retailers. But it's definitely not the only option if you love to listen to your books.
But, Elise, why would I want to consider an alternative?
Cheaper prices
Authors have no control over prices on Audible. Zero. Zip. Nada. While the price of a monthly credit is pretty reasonable (around £7.99/$9.99), purchasing a book a la carte is decidedly more expensive (unless it's very short). And there's absolutely nothing authors can do about it. As an aside, authors also have no say in whether a book is Whispersynced with Amazon either. Sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn't. On the other retailers, we have input into our own prices – not complete control, but we set a list price, which they sometimes decide to discount or increase. We can also run promotions at the other retailers.
Get new books faster
Right now (Nov 2020), Audible has a huge backlog of books to approve. I know of authors whose books have been sitting in the review queue since February. That's right – ten months. Black is My Heart has been waiting for three months with no indication of when it might go on sale, and Gray is My Heart is in the queue too. Meanwhile, they're already live on most of the other retailers. So if you want to hear that new book first, you may want to look elsewhere.
Support authors
Okay, I might be a little biased on this one. Several (not all) of the other retailers pay higher royalties than Audible. This means that because authors get a bit more from each book sale, they can afford to produce more audiobooks faster.
Plus other sites don't have the same outrageous returns policy as Audible. Audible allows members to exchange any book for a new one, even if they've finished it and loved it. Sounds great, right? Free books? But guess who ends up eating the cost? That's right, authors and narrators. Every time a listener returns a book, Audible takes the royalty back, up to a year after purchase. And if we're not getting paid, then we can't afford to produce any more audiobooks. Ever wondered why the third book in that awesome series you absolutely loved never made it into audio? Well, that's why.
So, what are the other options?
This isn't an exhaustive list by any means, but here are a few of my favourites…
Kobo – Credit model + subscription model
Offers an audible-style subscription starting from £6.99 / $9.99 for 1 credit per month. Currently the cheapest plan of its type available, with a selection of over 100,000 audiobooks to choose from. Plus you earn Kobo Super Points on every purchase, and points mean prizes 🙂
There's also a new Kobo Plus option that allows you to borrow unlimited audiobooks and eBooks for a monthly fee, but currently this is only available in Canada, Belgium, and The Netherlands.
Audiobooks.com – Credit model
$14.95/£7.99 per month for two credits. Available internationally, and you get a bunch of free podcasts too, plus you can get extra free audiobooks through the VIP rewards program. I've heard the app is pretty user-friendly as you can buy top-up credits without leaving it via the InstaCredit system.
Libro.fm – Credit model
At $14.99 per credit, Libro.fm is a little more expensive than some services, but I've included it here because it does have a few additional benefits. Firstly, you can nominate a local independent bookstore who will benefit from your purchases. Secondly, you can gift audiobooks. Thirdly, they're reputed to have excellent customer service. Fourthly, members get 30% off purchases. And fifthly, the biggie, the audiobooks are DRM free. This means you actually own the book. With Audible you're effectively renting. If you close your Audible (or Kindle) account, or if Amazon closes it for you for, say, returning too many products (which isn't unheard of), you no longer have access to your books. Currently, Libro.fm is available in the US and Canada only.
Apple – Pay-as-you-go model
Apple discounts my audiobooks, so they're a little cheaper than a credit on Audible. Sometimes, you may see two listings for a book on Apple, one cheap and one more expensive. The more expensive one tends to be put there by Audible (we can't stop them). Just buy the cheap one. Apple is international but iOS only.
Google Play – Pay-as-you-go model
Available internationally and great for Android devices. My prices at Google Play tend to be the same as a credit on Audible.
Nook – Pay-as-you-go model.
Dedicated audio site separate from the eBook store. Often has discounted offers on the homepage. They've discounted my audiobooks by 25% at the moment. I've heard rumours that the app may be a little glitchy, but I haven't tried it myself as it's only available to US listeners.
Scribd – Unlimited listening
Pay one monthly subscription fee and access an unlimited* number of full-length eBooks, audiobooks, and magazines. I looked at the T&Cs to find out what that little asterisk meant and found the following: Some Subscription Content may not be immediately available to the small percentage of users that consume an unusually high volume of Subscription Content.
It seems a little like “unlimited” broadband – use as much as you like, but if you abuse the privilege and stream Netflix all day, every day, we'll slow you down a bit. But at £9.99 a month, Scribd seems like a pretty good deal for the average user.
Plus you'll probably find a better selection on Scribd than you did in Audible Escape because many authors tended to avoid AE due to the poor royalties. And Scribd is available globally.
Chirp – BookBub, but for audiobooks
Have you heard of BookBub? In case you haven't, it's the biggest daily newsletter offering free and discounted eBooks. Chirp is their new audiobook offering. It's similar to BookBub in that they have a daily newsletter, although there are no freebies, just discounts. They also have their own store for regular-priced audiobooks. At the moment, Chirp is only available in the US and Canada.
Buy direct from the author – Audiobooks at eBook prices
More and more authors are starting to sell audiobooks through their websites. Options such as Authors Direct and BookFunnel allow us to offer books to readers at cheaper prices, while both services provide user-friendly apps and customer support in case of any problems.
And the library services…
Authors do get paid for books you borrow through the library, although the amount is a lot less than if you buy the book from a retailer.
Hoopla – Library
Public library service for the US and Canada. Great selection, and has apps available for iOS and Android.
Overdrive aka Libby – Library
Global library service. I use this myself, and it's super easy to sign up – just download the app, select your library, and enter your membership number. You can also request that your library orders titles if they don't already have them. Use the Libby app to read through iOS and Android.
If you'd like to check out my audiobooks, you can find all the links HERE.
Some of the information in this post isn’t quite right.
1. Authors CAN get out of Audible Escape. I campaigned with a bunch of authors and narrators to get ACX to release us from the Romance Package. Authors who want out should write to ACX and request that their titles are released from the 7-year contract.
2. “Several (not all) of the other retailers pay higher royalties than Audible” This is incorrect. You are forgetting that the distributors (Findaway/Author’s Republic etc) may state say, for example, 80% royalties, but before you get that 80% the site where the sale took place – Kobo or Google etc, takes their cut, THEN the distributor takes their cut. The author gets 80% of what is left. So the author is paying two sites before they get their royalty, instead of just one with Audible. That royalty isn’t necessarily higher than you’d get from Audible. Money from smaller sites trickles down, and while in the long run, an author can possibly make more from distributing audios among lots of sites, this isn’t a quick process by any means.
3. While the list of alternative audiobook sites is great there is no mention of HOW authors who want to go wide with audiobooks get their audiobooks onto these sites. They need to join an aggregator site who will… for a piece of their royalty pie, distribute their audiobooks to all of the sites you mentioned.
Audible is less than perfect, and ACX’s issues are huge, but apart from the worldwide distribution and the household name brand, the one thing that Audible has going for it that the other sites don’t, is that Amazon is so huge and so rich it won’t go bust. These are troubling times and businesses are going down quickly, publishers are suffering and personally, I’d currently rather have my audiobooks on a site that I know won’t run out of money and will pay me.
Thanks for your comments – it’s always interesting to hear different perspectives. If authors are able to get out of Audible Escape now, then that’s great (I’ve updated the post accordingly), but I doubt they’re publicising that. And the fact that it took a fight to get there shows how little Audible thinks of the people who provide their content.
No, the second point is correct. Some, but not all, retailers do pay higher royalties than Audible, even after the distributor’s cut is taken into account. 80% of 50% from Findaway is still 40%. Kobo pays 45% direct. And Audible pays 25% if you’re wide. Sure, you can stay exclusive and get 40%, but Audible encourages its users to treat the store like a library which for me is worse than having to pay a share to a distributor. Those losses have to be taken into account. Possibly I could have made more money by staying exclusive with Audible, but I don’t trust Amazon enough to put all my eggs in their basket. I’ve heard of too many people who have had accounts closed down with no explanation. And they change the rules on a whim (the removal of paid codes with no notice is a prime example).
Anyhow, I digress, because this article is aimed at listeners, not authors. This’s the reason it doesn’t cover how authors go wide. That’s not why I wrote it. It’s to give listeners who are looking for cheaper alternative to Audible, or who live in regions where Audible is unavailable, or who want more variety in their audiobooks, or who simply don’t like Amazon, a list of the alternatives.