Author’s Republic is a distribution platform for self-published audiobooks. RBmedia says in the acquisition announcement that the two companies will provide audiobook creation tools, a narrator marketplace, and other functionality to enable self-published authors to produce and distribute their audiobooks. That puts them in direct competition with Findaway Voices, which is now owned by Spotify.
Note that RBmedia just sold the US-based retailer Audiobooks.com to Storytel. RBmedia is the corporate parent of multiple publishers of audiobooks, including Recorded Books, HighBridge, W.F. Howes Ltd, Tantor Media, and Christian Audio.
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.
