I'm sad about the Escape program going away, though, as I did very well in that. That's been the source of a lot of my audio money this year. I didn't have everything in it, but what I had in it made me good money. It's also garnered me thousands of audio reviews, which helps you in audio.

I am also sad about Audible Escape shutting down as my experience mirrors Usedtoposthere. I had two books (plus an Audible Original) in the program and those earned bonuses every quarter from the very start of the program. In addition, I found many new listeners through the Audible Escape who went on to buy the rest of my series. I realize my experience wasn't the norm but, just like with KU, there were plenty of authors who did well in the program.

Honestly, I'm not a big epilogue fan myself. I hate the trend of extended epilogues. I cannot wait until I stop writing them, but they've been good for signups. After reading and writing romance for so long, I do feel like non-romance books end abruptly, but I don't really like an epilogue where everything is settled. It makes me sad to think the characters' adventures are over.

I made the mortal sin of not including an epilogue in my standalone after providing them in my series. I figured, it's a standalone. No one will care. Well, let me tell you, they cared. Every other review mentioned the lack of epilogue. Most deducted a point from my stars because of it. 🤣 This particular story was released as an Audible Original, which means it was exclusively in audiobook format for three months, so when it finally released in ebook and paperback you better believe there was an epilogue in there.

I didn't tell anyone I'd written a book but when my debut novel became a surprise success, I had no choice but to tell my husband (we had a joint checking account and, as a stay-at-home-mom for 20 years, I had no way to explain the money about to start coming in). After the initial shock, my family as well as my extended family have been very supportive. I've never asked any of them to read my books but some have. My mom is the biggest fan of my books and even travels with me to signings as my 'momager.'

And, while my husband and college-age kids are proud of my success, if I tell them I can't do something because I have a deadline or am reviewing my audio files or other things related to my book business, they are not always understanding. Maybe because I work from home or because they grew up with me always being there for them, but my kids definitely don't consider my job as a 'job' like their dad's job. My job is great for financing family vacations but not so great when they want undivided attention. Haha. I just don't think most people realize what an accomplishment it is to be successful in this business. It's so much more than just writing the book, which is hard enough, and I think that is why we often feel so alone in this adventure.

Congratulations on your pregnancy. I can't imagine writing with little ones. I didn't start writing until my youngest was in high school. You are brave.

Like you, I'm a slow writer (I haven't released anything in over a year) and am also dealing with feeling like I've lost my mojo. I wonder if the 4-year mark is when burnout hits a lot of writers. I know several authors who started when I did four year ago who are also struggling with motivation and self-doubt. I wish I could blame my problem on the virus but this started well before that monster ever reared its ugly head. This is a tough business with both an excess of praise and negativity. Its easy to get down on yourself. Maybe take a step back-before the expectations and before the deadlines-and remember what you like about writing.

Hi Javelin, I hope I have understood your question correctly but your English title audiobook should be available in all Audible marketplaces. You do not need a new title for other territories unless you have the audiobook translated. For example, I have all my English language audiobooks in Audible.de but I also have one of my audiobooks translated into German on .de as well.

Pittacus Lore does this with his very popular 'I Am Number Four' series. But I doubt Lorien's ruling elder would be able to write anything outside of this universe. Sounds like a fun idea though. )

https://www.amazon.com/Pittacus-Lore/e/B003KZPGHO?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000

The audiobooks on YouTube have been pirated. The author gets no revenue. Getting the actual pirates off YouTube seems impossible because filling copyright claims against them isn't enough but you can get your individual audiobooks removed by filling out a copyright form with YouTube. The problem is finding them. It used to be easy to find my pirated audiobooks but now the pirates have gotten smarter and they don't use the name of the audiobook or the author name. They list it under narrator and call it 'The Perfect Romance' or something like that. I found several of mine under that type of listing, one with over 40,000 views. 🤦‍♀️

Just like every other aspect of producing a book, if the audio production and narration isn't professional quality sales will suffer for it.  Excellent narration can add to the enjoyment of a story, making a good book even better.  Good narration will at least not detract from it.  Less than good narration can make a good book a bad listen.

There's more to audiobook narration than the ability to read aloud.  You have to have a voice, and the skill in reading a story, that people enjoy listening to.

☝️This is so true.☝️

Listeners have become savvier as production and narration improves on audiobooks. Just because you have a book in audio doesn't mean it will do well. Narration is the number one marketing tool one can have in audio. And it can make or break your book. If you write sarcastic scenes and your narrator has no comedic timing, your audiobook is sunk. If you have steamy scenes and your narrator can't groan realistically, your audiobook is sunk. If you have the dishwasher going in the background while you are recording a pivotal scene, your audiobook is sunk.

There is a reason why good narrators are so expensive. They are worth it.

This happened to me.

I tried to hide the fact that I'd written a book from my husband and family. I wasn't trying to be deceptive. I was a stay-at-home mom for twenty years and had just written the book for fun (after reading a bad rockstar story) while my kids were at school. I never planned to release it but curiosity got the best of me. I wanted to know if anyone else would like the book as much as I did so I quietly released Cake into KU hoping maybe a few people would read and review it. I figured once I received some feedback I'd remove it from Amazon and never to be heard from again.

Well, lucky for me, it didn't go as planned. By the end of its first full month, the book was a KU all-star and earning some fat bonuses. As exciting as it was I was panicking because I hadn't told my husband about my secret book baby and, in two months time, there was going to be a chunk of change in our joint bank account that I couldn't explain.

Six weeks after the book released I finally fessed up to my shocked husband and kids. I swear they all thought I was joking because I'd never written anything in my life and suddenly I've got a bestselling book. Pretty funny now but back then... not so much.

Below is Audible's response to the lawsuit from their site.

Interesting that they are angling it as an educational program. Also, it says they are working with publishers but maybe they are not including the indie publisher. I have a rep at Audible and have been invited into new programs they were rolling out but I was never asked about the Captions program. But then maybe they aren't planning to caption romance if this is aimed more at educational works.

I'm not counting out Captions just yet because I'm a fan of Audible. I've been to their studios and met the people who work there. They are a great, hardworking group of professionals. I do think the idea was probably a good one, just not thought all the way through.


https://www.audible.com/about/newsroom/audible-captions-a-demonstration/
"Audible response to August 23 claims by the AAP regarding the Captions feature
We are surprised and disappointed by this action and any implication that we have not been speaking and working with publishers about this feature, which has not yet launched. Captions was developed because we, like so many leading educators and parents, want to help kids who are not reading engage more through listening. This feature would allow such listeners to follow along with a few lines of machine-generated text as they listen to the audio performance. It is not and was never intended to be a book. We disagree with the claims that this violates any rights and look forward to working with publishers and members of the professional creative community to help them better understand the educational and accessibility benefits of this innovation."

Wow, sorry you are dealing with this. Sometimes audiobooks can be kicked back by the quality control team but as soon as the issue is fixed you can just upload the new file. Of course, you have to wait for it to go through quality control again but eventually, it will be approved. ACX is rightfully picky though and their team picks up the tiniest of recording errors.

But your issue seems bigger than that. How did you produce these audiobooks? Are they self-narrated or did you hire an outside production team? I assume it's not royalty share through acx since I can't imagine them not approving audiobooks coming out of their ecosystem. Did you possibly have forbidden content that was against their rules?

It appears by their response that they had given you some indication why they are holding your audiobooks in 'previous communications' so I'd start there. Good luck. I hope it resolves itself soon.☺️

One more trick. You can look at running facebook ads of some of your favorite dark romance/MC authors to get an idea of what type of ad copy and image they are using.

https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/