On this episode of the Self-Publishing News Podcast, Dan Holloway explains major changes to Findaway Voices, which is splitting into two platforms: Spotify for Authors, focused on Spotify distribution, and a new platform called In Audio for all other outlets. He also highlights a new £75,000 novel prize open to unpublished writers, and reports on a HarperCollins survey showing a decline in parents reading to their children, with homework—not screen time—cited as the main barrier.
Listen to the Podcast: Findaway Voices Splits Distribution
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About the Host
Dan Holloway is a novelist, poet, and spoken word artist. He is the MC of the performance arts show The New Libertines, He competed at the National Poetry Slam final at the Royal Albert Hall. His latest collection, The Transparency of Sutures, is available on Kindle.
Read the Transcripts
Dan Holloway: Hello and welcome to a brief May Day Self-Publishing News podcast.
I am, as I had expected, utterly exhausted, having spent the morning celebrating the four-minute mile with a mile of my own, far beyond four minutes, but great to be part of the celebrations again here in Oxford. One of our most famous events in history, the four minute mile, which happened 71 years ago. So yes, little bit of history there.
What have we got in the news this week?
Spotify's Changes to Findaway Voices
Dan Holloway: The main news, which many of you will have received an email about already, is the change to Findaway Voices by Spotify.
Findaway Voices is the longstanding audiobook distribution platform that many in the indie scene have been using for many years. It distributes audio books to lots of different platforms. Also, notably distributes to Overdrive, the library audio book catalogue, making indie books available through libraries.
In 2022, its acquisition by Spotify was announced. I think that was back in 2022. In October 2023, it actually became Findaway Voices by Spotify, as Spotify stepped up its move into audio books.
Obviously, things with Spotify have moved on very rapidly since then. We've talked about them a lot on this podcast and.
Recently, for example, they have moved into AI-generated narration. They partnered with Eleven Labs earlier this year, and that has enabled you to upload direct to Spotify through Eleven Labs, for example, without going through the Findaway Voices by Spotify route.
What is happening now is that, as of August the first, essentially there will be two ways to do things. Or rather Findaway Voices by Spotify is splitting in two.
So, Spotify by Authors will be the way of uploading things direct to Spotify and managing your books that are already on Spotify. Everything that you have uploaded to Spotify through Findaway Voices by Spotify will be managed through your Spotify for Authors account, and you can start work on setting up that direct account anytime from now, if you already have a book on Spotify through Findaway Voices.
Books that are uploaded to Spotify will remain not exclusive. So, this isn't moving towards exclusivity. They have said quite clearly, they believe in audio books being available everywhere, at least ostensibly, at least in their press releases and public statements.
Rather, if you want to distribute anywhere other than Spotify, you will now do so through a company called InAudio, which is also owned by Spotify, and it has bought wholesale from Findaway Voices, the right to all of its audiobook distribution.
You need to do nothing for this. So, your books that are currently on Findaway Voices, just wherever they're distributed other than Spotify, which is now managed through Spotify for Authors, they will simply be migrated straight over to a new InAudio account.
The login details for that InAudio account will be exactly the same as your Findaway Voices by Spotify account. So, as I say, you need to do nothing. The migration will happen automatically.
It won't be quite as straightforward as it was because there will now be two places through which you have to do things. There will be a place where you'll manage your books on Spotify. There will be a place where you manage your books that are everywhere other than Spotify, but they are trying, I think, to make it as seamless as possible.
I think what is clear is that Spotify for Authors is where they are putting most of their attention. So, it's not that they want to go exclusive, but clearly, they're developing a lot of tools for there; marketing tools, creative tools, dashboard tools, and obviously this partnership with Eleven Labs. All of those things are where their mind clearly is.
But that doesn't mean that they won't also enable, as they always have done, for you to distribute your books elsewhere.
There is a reasonably extensive FAQ on the Findaway Voices website at the moment, which gives more information than was available in the email, and I'm sure that even more information will become available over time.
So anyway, that's the big news this week.
New Prize for Un-agented Authors
Dan Holloway: We also have some news of a new prize and new prizes are always welcome, especially if they are open to indies, which this one is, or it is open to any authors who are un-agented.
This is a prize that's run by a writer's platform called, The Novelry, and it is noteworthy because it comes with a £75,000 first prize, and that's quite a lot of money. I expect that this won't be available every year. It sounds like quite a big publicity move, but nonetheless, while it is available, it is worth thinking about entering, I'm sure.
The prize is for the first three pages of an unpublished novel, and they're defining the first three pages as 1500 words. You need to submit by the 31st of January. It doesn't really ring many red flags. Entry is £15. I know the ALLi Watchdog, John, is very keen to talk about how high is the entry fee, are there any recognized judges?
Yes, the entry fee is £15, which seems to fall within the perfectly reasonable, especially when there's a prize of that nature, and there is a high profile set of judges. There are some celebs on there, there always are, but there are also high-profile authors. Most high profile of whom is Yann Martel, who is the author of Life of Pi, the Booker Prize winning novel from a decade or so back.
So, as I say, a team will read through all the entries. They will create a shortlist. The shortlist will go to a public vote. That's the only bit that sort of makes me feel a little bit funny about it because public votes can be manipulated, but the actual main judges will nonetheless read all the shortlisted entries and they will be aided by, in the words of the publicity, the public vote. So, they won't be necessarily mandated to follow it, so that reduces the risk.
So yeah, that's a prize that is definitely worth considering entering.
Survey Reveals Fewer Parents Are Reading to Children
Dan Holloway: Finishing with another reading survey, so it seems to be the season of the reading survey.
This time it's a reading survey carried out by Harper Collins, and they were looking at whether or not parents read to their children.
The finding is probably not surprising that fewer parents are reading to their children than a decade ago. The figure, reading to 0 to four-year-olds, has fallen since 2012, from 64% to 41% amongst the survey group.
Interestingly, only 40% of parents found reading to their children fun, and only 44% of them found that it bonded them with their children. So, you might say that's some gloomy figures.
It's interestingly, and probably not surprisingly, the reasons why parents don't read to their children, they're citing homework that their children have to do.
Again, like last week, we looked at the fact that it's not necessarily social media distraction that is stopping people reading in general. Likewise, it's not things like social media and life commitments of adults that is stopping them reading to their children, but actually the other commitments of the children, and specifically cited homework as the main reason why people aren't reading to them.
Interesting, depressing news. I guess we will have to see whether the trend continues, and I'm sure I will still be reporting to you in a decade's time when we find out. But in a much shorter horizon of a week from now, I look forward to speaking to you again. I'm going to go now and probably have an ice bath or something to make my muscles stop shouting at me so much. So, with that, thank you for listening as always, and speak to you soon.
