How To Increase Sales on Sites Like Audible

It’s no secret that the digital book market is growing. Electronic book sales have skyrocketed during the pandemic, with a 23% increase from 2019 alone. By neglecting this platform, you could be losing a wide selection of new readers. In this blog, we’ll cover some of the simple ways you can improve your audiobook sales by utilising digital book platforms.  


Make a cover specific for your audiobook 
You need to consider your audiobooks as separate to eBooks or paperback books; audiobooks attract a completely different audience. According to a study conducted by the Publishers' Association, people who normally listen to audiobooks tend not to buy physical. Because of this, you should consider creating a separate cover. This will allow the reader to immediately identify your book in a specific category or genre. If you’re not sure what your book cover should look like, consider scrolling through Audible and searching for a variety of your favourite books. Examine the colours and images used – what stands out? If you’re struggling, we offer a book cover design service where our talented designers will make your book unique. You can see some of our work on our Book Store.  


Hire a narrator 
When it comes to audiobooks, people are often as fond of the narrator as much as the book series itself. Hiring a well-established narrator whose books are listened to by many people can potentially drive a lot of new listeners to your book. This could mean reaching an audience that might not (at first) be attracted to your book. It could also encourage people to return to buy your next book (if you’re curating a series). Well-known narrators might be more expensive, but they have their advantages for new authors.  


Upload some extracts on social media 
There are many techniques to promote your book on social media, and a variety of platforms you can use to do this. You might consider creating your own YouTube channel and uploading samples of your audiobook – this is particularly useful to offer readers small snippets of your work or even a trailer to generate interest. A lot of Rowanvale’s own authors do this and have amassed large followings on sites like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. 
Even if your social media platform isn’t directly related to books, you could drive traffic to these sites by creating small videos and then embedding them on your channel. To do this, we recommend using Headliner. This is a free online tool that allows you to create short videos with a waveform of your audio played over an image. 


Set up an Audible author page 
An Audible author page is your window to shine on Audible. Because of this, it’s important to create an up-to-date page so listeners can connect with you. Make sure your profile is well-edited (it doesn’t look good to have typos in your bio when you’re publishing work!), there is a nice picture of you, and you have included all the links to your social media where your fans can follow you and your work. This page should also list all your books that will be promoted specifically to Audible users. 
​

Link your audiobook to other editions 
It is important that you link your audiobook to other editions published on Amazon when they become available. An easy way to do this is to use the Amazon Audible Matchmaker service where you can find the corresponding audiobook by simply scanning the eBook edition. Another way to consider is to generate a QR code – there are several sites online that allow you to do this for free – and then attach it to the first page of your book, whether it is the print or digital version. QR codes are easily scanned using a phone camera and will immediately take the user to the landing page of your audiobook.