In an expansion of its existing audiobooks efforts, Spotify on Thursday announced the launch of a new publishing program for authors that allows them to submit short-form stories they’d like to see turned into audiobooks. When Spotify selects a story for audiobook publishing, it will handle the production and distribution of the work to other major audiobook retailers, the company says. Meanwhile, it will pay the author both an advance and royalties.
Specifically, the company says it’s looking for stories across three genres, including romance, mystery or thriller, and sci-fi or fantasy. Having already seen the success of titles like fantasy romance “A Court of Thorns & Roses,” which was 2024’s top audiobook on the service, Spotify says authors are encouraged to submit cross-genre works like “romantasy, dark romance thriller, mystery sci-fi, or psychological thriller,” a newsroom post instructs.
However, Spotify says it’s not looking for any submissions of erotica or children’s content.
The stories themselves should be novelettes of approximately 10,000 to 20,000 words and in the English language. Authors should have their own audio rights for the stories they submit for consideration.
The submissions chosen for production will be selected on a rolling basis, Spotify notes.
The expansion will allow Spotify to more directly compete with the audiobooks giant Audible, which offers its subscribers access to Audible Originals and exclusives, which tend to be shorter books and stories.
Spotify first expanded from music and podcasts into audiobooks with the acquisition of digital audiobook distributor Findaway in 2021. The company operated a number of services in the audiobooks space, including those focused on production, distribution, connecting authors with voice actors, bringing audiobooks to schools and more.
It later rolled out free audiobook listening to Spotify Premium subscribers in 2023. From a catalog of some 200,000 titles, customers can access 15 hours of monthly audiobook listening for free, and can optionally buy additional hours if they need more listening time.
Since the comapny’s move into this market, it’s been working to expand its catalog, including by the addition of audiobooks narrated by ElevenLabs’ AI voice technology.
