Situation Nowhere is now available on audiobook everywhere. PS. You’ll save $$$ not supporting Audible! Links at the bottom of this page. (Or click here.)

Earlier this year, I decided I would self-produce the audiobook for Situation Nowhere. My day job is voice directing for Rockstar Games, and before that I edited countless audio and video pieces. Considering I have 100% ownership over the audiobook, I figured, why not self-produce? I got the skills!

I had no idea how much work it would be.

And in a way, I’m glad I didn’t. Instead of going into the technical weeds on how I produced it, I wanted to offer a clear-eyed view of what your options are once you get the damn thing done.

Subscribe now

Okay.

I know this.

You know this.

The main player is Audible.

The most direct way to get your book on that platform is to visit ACX.com.

You can get your stuff on Audible through other distributors. But they collect an additional fee. After reviewing the revenue split, I decided to go direct. Because, spoiler alert: the revenue split sucks.

ACX.com will get you on Audible/Apple Books.
They set the price. You have no control over it.

Insane.

Another crazy thing? Audible and Apple are linked at the hip. If you want to upload to Audible, then it automatically sends it to Apple.

I succumbed to Audible/Apple because…well, they have a monopoly on the audiobook thing.

Speaking of…

REVENUE SPLITS

If you go exclusively with Audible for seven years, you get 40%.
If you go non-exclusively and sell elsewhere, you get 25%.

Audible set my book for $19.95, which meant I got $7.98.

BUT NO SO FAST!

Audible has a popular subscription plan. For $14.95, customers receive a credit to purchase a new audiobook. If someone buys Situation Nowhere with a credit, we’re no longer taking 40% of $19.95. In that world, It’s more like $5 to $6.23 per book.

Let me remind you that this is what happens when you give Audible COMPLETE OWNERSHIP of your audiobook. For Seven Years.

But, there is a way to opt out—

THE 90 DAY WINDOW CLAUSE

After 90 days of Audible exclusivity, you have the option to switch from exclusive to non-exclusive.

I decided to grant Audible this “exclusive 90 day window” and see how it goes.

It went…fine?

And because of it’s…fineness…I decided to hit eject and go non-exclusive.

THE OTHER PLAYERS

As of today, you can get my audiobook at several new spots.

Because these places aren’t insane, I get to set the price this time.

GOOGLE PLAY

They offer a 52% split.
As a result, I’ve priced my audiobook at $14.95.

The way I see it? If Audible only shares 25% with authors, then consumers have to pay full price there.

They discounted the audiobook to $13.95 as soon as I hit publish. I emailed support, and they said any discounts would not be reflected in the revenue split. I would get the full amount. “The discount is there to attract customers.”

KOBO

I own a Kobo and love it! The Instapaper integration is a real game-changer.

Like Audible, Kobo also has a subscription plan, and the split varies from 32% to 45%. Because of this, I’ve priced it at $17.95 there.

NOTE: Kobo requires an additional step for audiobooks. Basically, once you create an author account, you have to email someone details about your audiobook. It took a couple of days. Fairly painless.

WEEBLY

Weebly is straightforward. They charge 2.9% plus a 35-cent processing fee.

Because of this, I’m able to offer the audiobook at its cheapest price:

$9.95.

The only con is that unlike the above options, Weebly doesn’t offer a way to stream these files from an app. At Weebly, you’ll get an email with a link to a zip file containing the MP3 chapters and the cover art.

Getting the Mp3s onto a phone or what have you is up to you. But if you are down for that sort of thing, you can buy this thing for half the price of Audible.

WHAT ABOUT SPOTIFY?

Spotify offers a 50% split.

IN THEORY!

Unfortunately, they also offer 15 hours of free audiobook listening to anyone with a Spotify Premium account.

I’d probably make 50 cents if someone listened to my book there.

In other words, Spotify is trying to do to authors what it did to musicians. Devalue the fuck out of us.

And that is why my book is not on Spotify.

DOES ANY OF THIS MATTER FOR AN INDIE BOOK?
Guys, I don’t know.

Did you ever think that maybe I have some sort of sick fetish for figuring this sort of thing out?

Can we not kink shame?

:::LINKS BELOW:::

$BUYMYAUDIOBOOK$

$9.95 - MP3 Download
$14.95 - Google Play (currently on sale for $13.95)
$17.95 - Kobo
$19.95 - Audible

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