Spotify Just Changed the Game for Indie Authors

THE NEXT CHAPTER: 

Weekly Tips for Writing & Publishing Your Bestselling Book

Spotify recently announced that it has partnered with Bookshop.org to sell physical books directly through its app. 

I sat with the announcement for a good long while, trying to comprehend what this news means for those of us who are publishing books outside the traditional Big 5 NY Publishing House system. 

According to Spotify's official announcement, Spotify users in the U.S. and U.K. can now tap a button on any audiobook page within the app and order a print copy of the book, with the sale routed through Bookshop.org. I’ve long admired that company, because it has distributed more than $30M to independent bookstores since it launched in 2020 as a deliberate alternative to Amazon. 

With 751 million monthly active Spotify users worldwide, this is not a small experiment. It opens a doorway into physical book sales right at the moment when so many of my clients are finishing their manuscripts and wondering how on earth to get them into readers' hands.

BUT… in order for your book to show up on Spotify, it has to show up in the Bookshop.org catalog. And in order for this to happen, you absolutely must have your book listed on IngramSpark. IngramSpark is the publishing platform that independent bookstores and libraries rely on. They do not order from Amazon.

In short, Amazon alone will not get you there. 

If you have uploaded your book only to Amazon KDP, which is what many first-time self-published authors do because it feels like the simplest path, then you are invisible to this entire new stream of readers – the ones discovering books through their earbuds, and then wanting to buy the paperback to hold in their hands. You are also invisible to the network of roughly 2,500 independent bookstores that Bookshop.org supports, along with the library systems that order through Ingram as a matter of standard practice.

I have been talking about going wide with your distribution for years now, because I have watched too many authors put all their eggs in one Amazon-shaped basket and then panic when a server goes down (as it did just 2 months ago!) or an algorithm shifts or a category gets recategorized overnight, destroying your discoverability. The Spotify news is simply the most recent, and perhaps the most dramatic, argument for building your book a proper home that extends beyond the walls of a single platform. 

The book world is changing faster than I have seen it change in my nearly three decades in this industry, and the writers who thrive are the ones who stay ready. Get your book listed everywhere it can possibly be listed, so that when the next Spotify-sized announcement drops, you are already in the catalog.

Hit Reply and tell me where your book currently lives. Are you wide, or are you Amazon-only? I read every response, and I would love to hear from you.

Aloha, MeiMei

TIP OF THE WEEK: 

Check Your Distribution Today

Take ten minutes this week and do an honest audit of where your book is actually available. 

Log into your publishing dashboards and make a list. If your book exists only on Amazon, reach out to a hybrid publisher like The Story Cure Press, or set up your own IngramSpark account and upload your files there, as well. 

Ingram is the gateway to independent bookstores, libraries, Bookshop.org, and now Spotify's new physical book feature. Getting your book into that catalog is one of the single most valuable moves you can make as a self-published or hybrid-published author. It will pay dividends for years.  

Want to know more about the next cohort of my 8-week online program and other offerings from Your Bestselling Book? 

Learn More Here!

Quote of the Week

"By meeting readers where they are and linking to Bookshop.org, Spotify is financially supporting indie booksellers with each purchase." 

~ Andy Hunter, Founder and CEO of Bookshop.org