by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I’ve always struggled a little with audiobook promotion, never really sure what I was supposed to be doing with the free codes I was getting from ACX, the platform and distributor I use. The fact that I had so many free codes always made me feel a bit guilty that I wasn’t using them to find new audiobook readers. I did use them for newsletter giveaways and felt good about that since it was a special perk for my subscribers.
One of my narrators contacted me in June and said she’d heard from another author about her success with the site Free Audiobook Codes. Free, that is, for the readers who get them. For authors, known as “advertisers” on the site, it’s not free, but it’s reasonable. $12 a title or, for folks with a large catalog, $55 for 5 titles. You can upload multiple sets of codes per title. There are more price tiers on their FAQ.
I’ve used other audiobook giveaway sites before, including Audiobook Boom. I also had success with that site and the price was comparable. The difference is that, with Audiobook Boom, you have more to keep up with. You must send the codes to each person individually. With Free Audiobook Codes, they handle the entire process for you. You can list it and forget about it.
I’ll give my usual caution here that your mileage may vary. This worked out well for me and my genre and might be worth a go for you. But to make sure you don’t waste money, I’d try it out with one book first. In fact, that’s exactly what I did.
The listing process is easy….your name, book title, audiobook cover, narrator, description, genre, and the link on Amazon.
Here’s an important ACX policy to know that may affect what you choose to list:
Fortunately, I do have a good number of audiobooks published before that date so I was eligible to earn royalties on promo codes. If you don’t, just weigh whether you want to participate as a way of gaining possible reviews or visibility for your book or series in the long-term.
If your codes are gone in an hour…don’t be surprised. That’s about as long as it took for mine to be taken.
Once a certain number of your codes are redeemed on ACX, you can request more. Click the button to request them, even though it always looks as if the button is grayed out and can’t be clicked. It can be, if you have enough redemptions:
After doing this, I promptly proceeded to forget about the listing after updating the codes with new codes several times.
I forgot, that is, until I received my June statement and found myself pleasantly surprised. You can see below the royalties I gained in the US for my Southern Quilting Mystery, Patch of Trouble. I didn’t keep up with my UK codes quite as well in June and that’s reflected here:
At any rate, it was definitely worth the $12 I paid.
Again, your mileage may vary and, as with any promo opportunity, be sure to proceed with caution.
Do you have any new promo tips? Do you have audiobooks to promote? How do you promote them?
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The codes are free to you but you can still get royalties on them? Nice.
It’s a nice set-up, isn’t it?
Audiobooks are becoming more and more popular. While I love the feel of a book in my hands, I enjoy audiobooks just as much. They are a great way to “read” while you’re busy and they do wonders for me driving. This new site sounds like a great way to let readers know about your audiobooks. Wishing you great success with it.
Thanks, Mason! I’m not an audiobook listener myself (I would listen on the treadmill, but I have trouble making out what the narrator is saying over the noise of the machine), but they’re incredibly popular with readers.
Wow, wow, wow! Yes, I will try that site. However, we’ve had issues after giving out the first 10 codes that the remainder are no good and we had to get more. I wonder if they have an expiration date on them?
I haven’t noticed an expiration date, but it’s ACX, ha. They’ve been pretty good in the last month about speedily replacing codes when I’ve asked (and once I realized that the ‘request more codes’ button was *always* grayed out).
Very cool. I haven’t ventured into audio books as of yet (2020 has been enough of a learning curve for me so far!) but this sounds like a great way to reach out to new readers!
I think your romance series would do very well in audio!
This is a great piece. I did not go exclusive with ACX, so I don’t have any free codes from them. I did do a Chirp deal with Findaway Voices which was fantastic (in the sense that I sold a lot of audiobooks, although deeply discounted). Do you have any other promo ideas for audiobooks that might work for those of us not with ACX exclusively? Thanks!
I’ve heard a *lot* of good things about Findaway Voices and Chirp…enough, actually, that I’m planning on launching my most recent series through them instead of ACX. Unfortunately, I don’t know of any other promo approaches for the service aside from Chirp. I did a quick search online and didn’t come up with anything. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open, though!
I haven’t tried it yet. Guess it’s time. Thanks for the information.
Hope it works well for you, Beverly!