Lindsay - May 27, 2021For all of you with audiobooks, or thinking about creating audiobooks, you’ll enjoy hearing from this week’s guest: Victoria Gerken, Publisher and Head of Acquisitions at Podium Audio.
We asked her about trends in audiobooks, the differences between the ebook/print market and the audiobook market, whether it’s better to be wide (in many bookstores) or exclusive with Audible/Amazon, and what authors can do to better market their audiobooks and sell more copies.
Here are the specific questions we asked:
- Can you tell us about your background and Podium Audio?
- What do you do as head of acquisitions? What types of books does Podium take on?
- How is the audiobook market different than ebooks or print?
- Do you ever have authors take off in audio who were selling more modestly in ebook?
- What are your thoughts on AI narrators and where that is going in the future?
- Did you see any impact on audiobook sales during CoVid? Has the last year changed how you do business?
- Are you seeing any trends in science fiction, fantasy, and the other genres you cover?
- Do you see any trends that work well in ebooks or print but don’t work well in audio?
- Amazon is a fairly dominant force in print and ebooks, just as they are in virtually every other facet of sales. As such, there’s the strong tendency for folks to want to double down and have their books exclusive to ACX/Audible. How large is the audiobook market beyond Audible? Is it worth expanding the distribution of one’s audiobooks as widely as possible?
- What are some things your most successful authors are doing when it comes to marketing?
- A great deal of the marketing techniques for ebooks are focused on pricing, either permanently or in the form of promotional discounts. Do you see much in the way of price promos for audio books? Has there been any experimentation with free series starters and the like?
- For those who want to try free audiobooks, do you recommend taking the permafree approach, or would it be better to keep it as an occasional promotion?
- I know my best selling series with you guys have been the ones where we did Books 1-3 bundles to start off the series. Is that something all authors should consider doing if their books are short and may not be considered “credit worthy,” by Audible subscribers who like a long listen for their credit?
- What are basic marketing things authors should consider doing to spread the word about their audiobooks?
For more information, please check out the Podium Audio website. You can also find them on Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms.
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