Woot for Authors … Listeners Await YOU

Did you know that more than half the people in the United States have listened to a podcast, and nearly one out of three listens to at least one podcast a month? In a recent survey by Edison Research and Triton Digital, it’s the 55-plus listeners who are edging into the lead of listenership.

For the AuthorU-Your Guide to Book Publishing podcast, April delivered 163,700 listeners to our various podcasts, up from March where 108,406 episodes were downloaded. The first four days of May indicate that in excess of 20,000 shows have been tapped into. Most come directly from our show podcast page that we push out via social media along with a weekly eblast. People are looking for information and for entertainment. Are your material and expertise available in a listening format?

For authors with audiobooks, this is huge news. Podcast listeners are a ripe audience for audiobook listening. As the listening audience grows, having your book available as an audiobook has now moved into the “must-do” arena. Last weekend, Audiobook Wizard Richard Rieman (Replay HERE) delivered an excellent webinar on Audiobooks 2020 for AuthorYOU. All who were registered got a free copy of his Author’s Guide to Audiobook Creation as a surprise bonus. Nice.

One of the services that I mentioned was Mara Purl’s new radio drama adaptation of her Milford-Haven book series featuring a small California Central Coast town now available. Mara has a “cast” where the richness of voices, nuances, even quirks shine, inviting the listeners’ imagination to take hold.

Years ago, before Mara became a “bestselling, award-winning author”, she was a “best-listened radio serial” creator for BBC Radio. Her Milford-Haven weekly series created a listener base exceeding 4.5 million individuals for her American radio serial.

I brought it up during the webinar when one of the registered participants asked, “How are the voices of different characters created by a narrator for a fiction book?” Richard talked about the subtleties of voice that a single narrator uses to have several narrators involved in a production.

Glad it was asked. I promised all that I would do a blog within a week and give them “a listen” to the first episode of her new series that can be found on The Authors Show newly created The Store platform where you can get 100% of all sales for audiobooks and eBooks and radio dramas. You can listen to the first episode FREE here —you will note that this is a paid series forward, discounts for the entire series bundle. Marketing tip: offer a freebie to lure your audience in! See how Mara has highlighted her first episode on her own website here. 

As Danielle Hampson shared, “Why sacrifice 40-50 % of your profits, or even more when you don’t have to? The Store on TheAuthorsShow.com is about selling your work while keeping 100% of the sales revenues and collecting the money immediately. It is that simple!”

I like simple … and I bet you do as well.

To discover what The Store is all about, how you can open other channels in addition to Amazon for your eBooks and Audiobooks, details can be found through The Authors Show platform. Click on The Store tab. To celebrate its creation, you can post up to THREE audio or eBooks for the price of one ($29 vs $73) for a full year.

I did a recent podcast on The Store here and what it can do for you. 

And remember, wherever you post any of your products outside of Amazon, your original retail price cannot be less than what Amazon shows. If Amazon does discount, that’s within their system and you can’t control it. Just make sure what you post as “retail” is not more than others sell it at retail.

Lots here today to noodle over. Listen. Learn. Do it. Its what separates the successful author from the limp along with one. My two bits.

Dr. Judith Briles is a book publishing expert and author of 37 multi-award books. She’s guided over 1,000 authors in creating their books, earned in excess of $3,000,000 in speaking fees based on her books and gathered over $2,000,000 in onsite book sales at her speaking gigs. Her book, How to Create a $1,000,000 Speech flips a difficult topic into a simple and easily comprehensible plan. If you want to get into speaking, this is the guide that will be the game-changer to success. And, if you want to know more about Judith’s life, her book of “hope” is When God Says NO-Revealing the YES When Adversity and Loss Are Present. You can get it HERE. 

Listen to The Book Shepherd’s weekly podcast: AuthorU-Your Guide to Book Publishing.

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