Audiobook Promotion Tip

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Audiobook Promotion Tip

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: