In the first of an occasional series of posts about ALLi's valued Partner Members, we're profiling the newest of them, Author's Republic, to welcome them aboard ALLi and spread the word about the many benefits they offer our members. Over to Meaghan Sansom, responsible for author outreach at Author's Republic, to tell us more …
Author‘s Republic‘s audiobook distribution portal can get an author‘s work on EVERY major audio book platform through just one submission. Our focus is to increase exposure and market presence for authors by making their work available through all major audiobook distributors, including Audible/iTunes/Amazon, Audiobooks.com, Barnes & Noble, Scribd, Downpour, OverDrive, Hoopla, and more. We offer fair, competitive royalty rates and handle distribution and payments to rights holders.
How did our service come about?
We come from 12 years in the audiobook industry on the retail side of things, so we've been deep in the market for a long time and have seen a lot of things come and go.
In 2015 we really started taking notice that while the audiobook industry itself is exploding, and there seemed to be more and more tools and services every week for independently publishing ebooks, the options for independently publishing an audiobook were very scarce.
We decided to change that. There are so many great books out there written by authors who feel that the existing options for audiobook distribution can’t meet their needs. We're the service that fills those gaps and gets those books in front of more potential listeners than ever before.
What are our aims?
Author’s Republic is an aggregate audiobook publisher and distribution platform for indie authors& small publishing houses. We’ll get your book listed on all the major retailers, library providers, and some distributors that you may have never heard of, but sell a whole lot of books.
We provide an avenue for authors and publishers from all over the world to access the very large and rapidly growing North American audiobook market, and also reduce administrative burden by streamlining title submission, reports and payments from over a dozen individual retailers and distributors into one single account.
What are our plans?
We increase exposure and market presence for independentauthors and small publishers by getting their work onto all the major audiobook distributors, not just the Big Three. We do all the heavy administrative lifting, leaving you to focus on what you love: writing books.
What is the cost to the author?
Commission Rates:
We split our distributors into two different groups based on the royalties that our authors will receive. Group A consists of Amazon, iTunes and Audible. Group B consists of our preferred royalty rate distributors. The breakdown is below:
- Group A (Amazon, Audible, iTunes)
For any content that is sold in this group, they pay out 25% of what it sold for. We pass on this in-full to the rights holder, 100% of the earnings. - Group B (Audiobooks.com (+ $50/user bounty program, similar to Audible’s), Scribd, Barnes and Noble, Nook, Downpour, Hoopla (libraries), Overdrive (libraries), Findaway (libraries and retail), Playster, TuneIn)
For any content that is sold on our preferred royalty partner channels (all others), it varies what the distributor will pay us. We pass on 70% of our earnings to the rights holder, which usually works out to be 35% of what it sold for on that channel to the rights holder.
MSRP
We accept global submissions, and allow authors to set their own MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) i.e. rights holders can set their own price. Although the retail price is ultimately decided on by the retailer, especially in subscription services, most of our partners take this suggested price very seriously.
What About Exclusivity?
Author‘s Republic‘s audiobook distribution portal can get an author‘s work on EVERY major audio book platform through just one submission. Our focus is to increase exposure and market presence for authors by making their work available through all major audiobook distributors, including Audible/iTunes/Amazon, Audiobooks.com, Barnes & Noble, Scribd, Downpour, OverDrive, Hoopla, and more. We offer fair, competitive royalty rates and handle distribution and payments to rights holders.
>We also allow users who have their own ACX account already to maintain that account independently, where we handle distribution to everywhere else (if their book on ACX is non-exclusive).
Other Relevant Information
- Earn 25% of what your book is sold for on Audible, iTunes and Amazon, and up to 35% of what it's sold for on all other channels.
- Get your book listed on major retailers, library providers and distributors you may have never heard of, but sell a whole lot of books.
- Instead of using a blanket pricing system, Author‘s Republic gives you the option to set your own MSRP (disclaimer: we can't promise every distributor will use it, though).
- Already selling your books through ACX? No problem! You can keep your current ACX account, and we'll handle selling them everywhere else.
- We give every audiobook a shiny, new ISBN at no charge to the author.
- We keep it convenient & eco-friendly by sending your royalty payments directly to your PayPal account.
For more information about Author's Republic, please visit their website: www.authorsrepublic.com.
New #ALLi partner member offers #selfpub authors audiobook opportunities Share on X
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I have been reading the whole blog post from yours. It made me clear what audiobook really stands for. I never wonder how it works until I made myself read your blog post. Your link must be posted on my twitter so my followers would connect fast.
[…] Alli Partner Author’s Republic Offers Simple New Audiobook Distribution Option […]
Hi Leena. I used Author’s Republic for my book Murphy’s Law, which is currently in review. You have two options for narration: You can narrate yourself, which is what I did, or you can find a narrator and have them create the audio files for you. If you go with a narrator, you can either pay them up front for the service (typically app $3000 for an average length book) or you can split the royalties with them (typically 50-50). If you live in the U.S., you could also try ACX. They will find a narrator for you.
[…] our post in December introducing Author’s Republic as an alternative and relatively affordable way to create audio books, New Zealand author Katherine […]
I wanted to know too, Leena. I found the answer on the Author’s Republic site; Q&A under “Logistics”. As you suggested, the author needs to handle. Here is the specific answer if interested in pursuing further, and if you haven’t already gone to the site yourself (btw, Recordio and Audiobook Creation have links to connect directly):
“You can record it yourself using our free recording tool Recordio, ask a friend, or pay a narrator to do it for you. Check our “Audiobook Creation” section for more details.”
It would be extremely beneficial to have a quality narrator (s) for hire available from Aurhor’s Republic. Scouting for a good resource can be so time consuming in an Indi world where we aren’t only the writers, but where we wear several hats in our business.
How interesting – I do suppose, though, that the actual narration work for the audio book has to be handled by the author? Or does Author’s Republic have this service as well?
[…] Debbie Young In the first of an occasional series of posts about ALLi’s valued Partner Members, […]