Podium Audio is now helping successful indie authors not just with audiobook publishing, but with ebooks
One of the most successful audiobook publishers today is likely a company you haven’t heard of: Podium Audio. Founded in 2012, their acquisitions at first centered on identifying self-published bestsellers at Amazon and determining which ones held sufficient potential to succeed in digital audio. Podium would then reach out to the author with a licensing deal. The company works closely with Audible on promotion, and its catalog is predominantly exclusive to them. (We last wrote about Podium in this August 2020 issue.)
Podium is now expanding into ebook publishing. It will start with more than 50 of their current audiobook authors (from their stable of 750) and take over ebook publication. Nicole Passage, formerly an executive managing editor at Open Road Integrated Media (known for ebook publishing and digital marketing), has been hired to lead the effort. We spoke with Podium CEO Scott Dickey to learn more about this development.
While terms were not disclosed for these arrangements, Dickey said the deal necessarily has to be very attractive to get any indie author to consider handing over their ebook rights, because KDP and KU payments are so favorable to authors. “But I think the key is the collaboration around the marketing efforts to ensure you’re maximizing the potential of these new stories and these new series inside of Amazon. Audible is one piece, Kindle is another. It’s the power of the combination that can really greatly influence the success of a new series.” Podium wants to maximize that opportunity. “There’s a lot of tricks to the trade and a lot of ways in which we can shed light on a new product and see how much traction it gains. That is an ever-moving and complex issue.”
Podium’s author support is holistic and strategic. Dickey told us, “As we’ve gotten more and more into developing our business and the service model for high-performing authors that just want to write, we found the need to get more deeply involved in helping them.” Sometimes that might involve editing and proofreading in the final stages, but more importantly it’s about determining overall strategy, the cadence of releases, the development of the fan base, the relationship with readers. “It made sense naturally to swim back upstream and help them with the entirety” of the process, Dickey said. Plus there are ever-evolving publishing options and strategies—staggered releases, simultaneous releases, and other methods to “maximize the algorithmic benefit inside Amazon,” Dickey said.
Dickey considers publishing ebooks and audiobooks to be a different art form. While Podium recognizes the benefits of the print format and knows it’s the lion’s share of the market (for traditional publishers, anyway), the digital publishing world of Podium deals more with serialized, episodic storytelling. “It’s really through the lens of digital consumer behavior, in digesting that content in a more rapid cadence, that really speaks to our expertise,” Dickey said. “These are not simply other formats in our mind. It’s a different art form.” Moreover, Podium has recognized that each genre and subgenre operates a bit differently in terms of reader expectations and the cadence of the storytelling—and Podium publishes accordingly to serve that distinctive fanbase. “That’s the difference between being a traditional publisher and being a digital-only, audio-first publisher.” In other words, Podium has highly valued expertise that authors seek in working the Amazon system and understanding consumer behavior in the digital publishing environment.
Podium’s growth and success has led to more varied acquisition models. While Podium’s core business remains focused on self-published, independent authors, they also work with agented authors and seek out new talent through Discord, Reddit, Substack, Patreon, Royal Road, Tapas, Wattpad, Radish, and Webtoon. Dickey said they currently have about 30 to 35 Royal Road authors under contract. They’re also doing a lot of work in the anime and manga space. “We’ve built up our acquisitions team substantially, and we’re going to continue to do so next year. Storytelling has never been more powerful, and it’s all around the creator economy. We’re looking for opportunities to partner with those storytellers and help put them on the map.”
Bottom line: When asked if Podium was putting in place “quality control” as it becomes more involved with authors—serving as a traditional publisher, essentially—Dickey said he would never use that term. “I don’t think that’s fair. These are talented people who are hugely successful. We’re helping with the finishing touches, then strategically, directionally, with how they’re thinking about the [story] arc. We’re not in the creative process. I think there’s a line of segmentation there. We’re helping them get it ready for prime time. In many cases, when there is a speed-to-market issue, we’re creating efficiencies in the model on behalf of those authors, just like any boutique publisher. Nothing earth shattering whatsoever.”
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
