I continued to sign exclusive contracts with ACX through 2017, even though I stopped using the royalty share option, because a non-exclusive contract would cut my royalties from 40% to 25%, and I had no reason to believe I would make up the loss of that revenue by selling my books elsewhere. That option was the best way for me to minimize the time and expense it would take to produce an audiobook while maximizing its availability and potential revenue since ACX distributed to Amazon, Audible and Apple Books, the dominant audiobook markets at that time. Exclusivity was the only way I could use ACX’s royalty share option (splitting royalties 50/50 with a narrator so that I didn’t have to pay money upfront). In 2012, using the above criteria, I didn’t hesitate to go exclusive with ACX for the distribution of the audiobook version of Maids of Misfortune, the first book in my Victorian mystery series. Currently my Victorian San Francisco Mystery series is wide while my Paradisi Chronicles science fiction series is exclusive to KDP Select. For my ebooks, sometimes this has meant going wide, sometimes going exclusive.

I hope that by sharing my reasons for making that shift, I will help other authors consider whether or not this strategy might hold promise for their own audiobooks.Īs a pragmatist, I’ve always tried to determine what strategy will maximize the availability and visibility of my books, minimize the amount of time and money spent on production and marketing, and maintain the greatest flexibility so I can respond to changes in the industry. In my own case, I recently shifted from publishing my audiobooks exclusively with ACX, the audiobook production and distribution arm of Amazon, so that I could “go wide” by distributing through Findaway Voices, a division of the audiobook distributor, Findaway.

Given that audiobooks are the most rapidly expanding sector of the publishing industry, I believe it’s time for the discussion over wide or exclusive to begin in earnest. I have found little discussion of these competing strategies when it comes to audiobooks.

Acx for audible