Successful book marketing requires a heavy investment of time, money, and energy. That goes double for indie authors splitting those resources across multiple formats. When award-winning audiobook narrator Christa Lewis noticed how many authors struggled to market their audiobooks while juggling other responsibilities, she built a guide set on making the process manageable. Audiobook Marketing for (frazzled) Authors offers a range of strategies and suggestions for authors to try, one at a time, in order to grow their audience. This week, she shares eight tips from her guide to help you sell your audio edition without stretching yourself too thin. 

Everyone is listening to something. Why not your audiobook? 

Happy reading,

Nicole Schroeder, Editor in Chief

Article by Christa Lewis

As an audiobook narrator, I have it pretty easy. I am sent a manuscript and maybe some notes about character accents. I narrate, get the edit done, upload my files, and I’m out. 

The work of publishing and marketing the audiobook is left to the author.  

Sadly, over the years, I’ve watched some of the coolest books in my catalog languish on Audible, unreviewed and unnoticed. 

I always take it just a little bit personally—not only because a piece of my soul is involved but also because a wonderful author invested a piece of themselves in bringing their book to print and then to audio, only to find that their audience never quite arrives.

Yet according to an APA survey published in June of this year, audiobooks continue trending. In 2025, the industry saw $2.43 billion in US audiobook sales, up 9 percent from the previous year. This year, the APA consumer survey found that 58 percent of American adults have listened to at least one audiobook, and 26 percent have listened to four or more in the past year. 

I am immersed in many aspects of the world of audiobooks, and I know people love to listen to all kinds of things: Clubhouse talks, serialized podcasts, news, and audiobooks. So I found myself wondering over and over again: Why was no one listening to these great audiobooks?

I actually even asked my authors, “How can the people who would love this book not know it exists?” I know, I know. It’s amazing to me that we are still friends.

From their answers, I began to see that the issue was visibility—or lack thereof. Authors are often overwhelmed by all the responsibilities already on their plates and don’t quite know how to introduce their audiobook to people who might want it. They had vague ideas about “doing social media,” but after that, things got fuzzy.

So I went down a lot of rabbit holes and learned things.

I learned that authors don’t have to become full-time marketers. I learned that they can help listeners find their audiobooks in a number of ways, but I learned that these things do take time and attention and sometimes money. And I learned that we are all completely barraged with a bazillion things screaming for our time and attention and money, and it occurred to me that no one has the extra bandwidth to do all these things.

Still, these authors’ audiobooks are live in the world, and somewhere, there are listeners who would be delighted to hear them. So I wondered: Is there a practical and gentle way to ease into marketing an audiobook that doesn’t overwhelm an already busy creative who has more than enough on their plates?

That question led me to building a marketing guide for authors that frames the process in a manageable way, in the hopes that it would give them a concrete path to bringing their books to listeners who are already looking for their stories.

Yes, an audiobook may be a new format, but that doesn’t mean you have to build its audience from scratch. It also doesn’t mean you have to hop on teen trends and start baking cookies on TikTok while you read us an excerpt. 

The people most likely to want to listen may already be your readers, your subscribers, your followers, or people discovering the print or ebook edition. Audiobook marketing is largely about making the audio edition visible first to those people—and giving new listeners enough ways to hear it to decide whether it is for them. 

Making Audiobook Marketing Manageable

Marketing is expensive. It costs time and money and focus, yet there are ways to make it less punishing, the most important being: Do not do all the things all at the same time. 

There are various instruments authors can use to find and grow their audiences for audiobooks. Some will work better than others. The idea is to try them one at a time. Choose one strategy, pursue it, see what happens, then decide whether the next thing is worth the time or the money to try as well.

You may decide that not every strategy is right for your book, and that’s OK, too. Making audiobook marketing manageable means only tackling what you have the energy to do. If a task feels too stressful, skip it for now, and try something else. 

There are several marketing strategies authors can use to find the right audience for their audiobook. In Audiobook Marketing for (frazzled) Authors, I use the following structure to organize them. Find the one that feels the most approachable to start, then decide where to go from there. 

1. Lay a solid foundation.

Before you promote your audiobook, invest in the page where you’re sending people. First impressions matter, so ensure your website has professional cover art, a short description, an audio sample or a link to one, and current purchase links.

Then, check everything on mobile. On your phone, can you quickly tell what your book is about, see the cover clearly, hear a sample, and find the buy link?

If anything is confusing or hard to find, fix that first.

2. Seed early reviews.

A new audiobook has a “social proof” problem: Listeners often use reviews to decide whether to take a chance on a book, but a new audiobook does not yet have any.

Early review copies can help close that gap.

Depending on your distributor, you may have promotional codes you can give to interested listeners. There are also audiobook review services, book bloggers, genre reviewers, and listener communities that accept review copies in exchange for an honest review. More reviews can also help your book appear earlier in some platforms’ search algorithms, making it easier for new listeners to find it.

Sending a few copies to these listeners can feel low effort, but that effort can make a big difference in helping your audiobook find its audience.

3. Pull the discount lever.

Price promotions can introduce a book to listeners who might not otherwise take a chance on it. How much control you have depends on how your audiobook is distributed, but different platforms offer different opportunities you can explore. Try to aim for two to four promotion periods per year for your audiobook. 

4. Make audio clips.

Audio comes with a marketing bonus other book formats don’t have: You can let people hear the product. 

Choose a fun or interesting moment from your book that works as a mini scene to draw readers into the story without an explanation. Then share the clip where you already communicate with readers: your newsletter, website, or a social platform you enjoy using.

5. Take advantage of the ebook-to-audio ripple.

Connect your ebook and audiobook on Amazon. That way, an ebook promotion can introduce new readers to the audiobook as well.

Your formats do not always have to be marketed separately. Sometimes momentum in one creates discovery for another.

6. Run ads.

I think of ads as lab experiments, and I keep my budget very tight. 

Choose the platform you want to advertise on, one audience, and one message about your book. See what gets attention, then look at whether that attention leads to sales.

If something works, you can build on it. If it doesn’t, you have learned something before spending more.

7. Grow the audience you can reach again.

Your email list is a magic portal to an audience who is already interested in your book and who you can contact directly when another book is released.

Make joining that list easy. 

Put an invitation to join your newsletter on your website, in the back matter of your print and ebook editions, and anywhere else readers naturally encounter you. You can even use the end of the audiobook by including an invitation and your email in the end credits.

8. Submit to reviews and awards.

Professional reviews and audiobook awards can extend a book’s visibility and give an author material for websites, newsletters, retailer descriptions, and future promotions. You don’t need to enter every competition, but consider what works for your book and aligns with your budget. 

A Final Note

Building a dedicated reader and listener base takes time, and there is no single right way to do it except to start by taking small, manageable actions and measuring the result.

Choose something that is realistic with the time, money and energy you have. Keep track of what you spend, what you try, and what, if anything, changes, whether that’s visits to your book page, reviews, audiobook sales, or sales in other formats. Give each effort a fair chance, log the results, decide what’s been useful. Then let the rest go. You and your next book need some energy too. 

There are a variety of educational resources out there for marketing your audiobook. Use the one that makes sense to you and offers enough concrete information that there’s no guesswork involved.

Somewhere out there, there are listeners who would love your audiobook. It is possible to give them a way to find it that won’t drive you insane—or at least one that will leave you feeling a little less frazzled.

For more practical guidance on marketing audiobooks, explore the online guide Audiobook Marketing for (frazzled) Authors.

Christa Lewis is an audiobook narrator, director and coach with more than 350 audiobooks and over thirty years at the microphone. 

Her work has earned ten AudioFile Earphones Awards, including one for directing, a SOVAS Voice Arts Award and two Audie nominations.

A former newsreader for Deutsche Welle television in Berlin, Christa now works full-time in audiobooks and voiceover. Years in the booth have deepened her appreciation for the relationship between a writer’s words, a narrator’s choices and a listener’s imagination. She shares that experience with narrators and authors finding their own way at the microphone.

As wonderful books in her catalog went unheard, she began exploring how audiobooks find their audiences. 

That curiosity became Audiobook Marketing for (frazzled) Authors, a free guide with reviewer and awards resources.

Her approach reflects the article’s premise: There is a way to help listeners find your audiobook, without destroying yourself in the process.