Ready to publish your audiobooks with Kobo Writing Life? Read this

Interest in audiobooks has not slowed down anytime soon, and there has never been a better time to get those audiobooks produced!  

If you’re curious about publishing your audiobooks with Kobo Writing Life but want more info, or if you’re ready to start publishing but looking for some guidance, read on – or check out our audiobook guide and audiobook FAQs.  

Listen in to our conversation with audiobook narrator, author, and founder of Home Cooked Books, an audiobook publishing and marketing consulting agency, Karen White (aka Karen Grey to her readers)! Karen had tons of helpful advice for publishing audiobooks generally, and we chatted about publishing through Kobo specifically as well.  

But, as promised, here is a brief overview of what you need to know to get your audiobooks successfully uploaded and ready for your eager readers via Kobo Writing Life:    

1. Get access to the audiobook tab – The first step you need to take to publish audiobooks with Kobo is request the audiobook tab from us at writinglife@kobo.com
   
   Our team will get the tab set up for you as soon as possible!
   
   
2. Have all of your files in order before starting the upload process – check and double check that you have all of your files ready to go before you begin your upload. At KWL, your audiobook can be a maximum of 2GB total, and single files can be a maximum of 200MB each. For more information, check out our audiobook publishing guide.
   
   
3. Make sure you credit your audiobook narrators – this part is key! Always credit your narrators – multiple times, if and when possible, in both the contributor field (you can do this by selecting “Add another contributor” once you have inputted the first contributor of your title, which is you, the author) and section for the summary of your audiobook.
   
   This ensures that your readers know who exactly is narrating your title, whether multiple narrators are involved, or even if your work is narrated by an AI narration program. This gives readers the ability to follow not only your work with the narrator, but the narrators work in general – some audiobook fans will listen to everything a certain narrator has been involved in!
   
   
4. Link your audiobooks to their corresponding eBooks – make sure your audiobooks are linked to the eBook version! Some readers are passionate enough to actual purchase both, or, if your titles are opted into Kobo Plus, to read and listen to both. This also helps your readers know that there are more audiobooks to come, especially if you are linking a series wherein the eBooks might all be published, but the audiobook versions are on the way.
   
   
5. Link your audiobook series – as mentioned, if you have a series, make sure that is linked, too. Again, check out our metadata guide to ensure everything is in order – literally!
   
   
6. Submit to audiobook promos – if your audiobooks are uploaded directly with Kobo Writing Life, you can submit them to our regular audiobook promotions. You can sign up for our audiobook promo newsletter here.
   
   This newsletter is key for keeping track of audiobook promo submissions. You can stay ahead of submissions deadlines and learn how and where to submit to promos by signing up for this newsletter.

What else can you do to boost your audiobooks on Kobo? Tell us about them! Fill out our new release form for the opportunity to have your titles added to our audiobooks new release lists.  

And tell your readers, too, using these great assets.  

Also, opt them into Kobo Plus to reach even more readers and listeners. Read more about Kobo Plus here.  

You can also use these assets to share the news that your audiobook is available via Kobo Plus.  

Happy listening, producing, and publishing from the KWL team!