How to Upload Your Own Audiobook to Google Books

Google is the globe's leading search engine, every bit y'all probably already know. A lesser-known office of Google is its very own online bookstore — Google Play Books — which is integrated within the broader Google Play store.

If y'all're 1 of the two.v billion people who own an Android device, y'all'll know what we're talking well-nigh. Google Play is the place to download or purchase apps, games, music, movies, and, well, books to use on your Android devices.

And that'southward exactly why Google Play Books is such an important place for any author to exist nowadays: it allows you to easily accomplish those billions of people in the world who own Android devices.

A brief history of Google Play Books

That said, Google Play wasn't e'er a slap-up place for indie authors. Up until early on 2020, you couldn't really go your books into the Google Play Books shop without outset going through an "approval menstruation" and (sometimes) a waiting listing.

More than that, the lucky authors who did manage to get into the store would often see their titles get automatically discounted by Google Play, without prior warning. This movement would trigger price-matching from Amazon (and other retailers), oftentimes without the writer realizing it in the first place.

Of grade, many indie authors found workarounds to avoid any such discount. They used complicated formulas to figure out how that automobile-discounting worked and priced their book higher on Google Play to make upwardly for it. Overall, though, the clunkiness of the system outweighed its benefits for virtually authors.

Enter 2020. The year will probably be remembered for other somber things, but information technology likewise marks the moment that Google Play Books finally opened its doors, in a large way, to indie authors.

Now, it's easier than e'er to create a new publisher account. No approving periods anymore: you can merely create your account, ready your book, and upload it to the store — with merely a few easy clicks.

Gone are the times of the widespread auto-discounting likewise. Equally of October 2020, Google Play Books volition "unilaterally follow the list price that you provide for an ebook on sales to customers in the U.s.a. and Canada," no matter the price of the ebook.

Note: Google Play plain still reserves the right to "price-match" your book if they encounter a lower cost available elsewhere, just like nearly other retailers.

All in all, this means that (unless yous're exclusive to Amazon through KDP Select) in that location is no reason anymore not to accept your books on Google Play. On the contrary, yous have everything to gain: Google Play fifty-fifty offers better royalties than Amazon (lxx% vs 35%), and charges no delivery fees, on books priced below $ii.99 or above $nine.99!

And so permit'due south meet exactly how yous can accomplish that!

How to publish your book on Google Play in 7 easy steps

As we mentioned, Google Play has removed their indeterminate "approval periods" and waiting lists for creating new publisher accounts. But here'south what you lot tin can also get excited about: they've also redesigned their whole publishing organisation, and made it easier than ever to publish on Google Play Books.

As with any other publishing platform, information technology all starts with:

Step 1: Create your Google Play Partner business relationship

Google Play at present has a simple landing folio for authors looking to publish their books on the platform: chiliad.co/play/publish. Merely click on "Get Started" and fill in your details to create your account.

Annotation that you lot'll need an associated Google account. If you use Gmail, you're gilded. If not, you'll have to create a Google account.

Step 2: Enter your fiscal information

Simple: you'll want Google Play to be able to pay y'all your royalties. Then the first affair you'll need to do is enter your payment and tax information, and link your bank account.

Note: information technology can take up to 12 days for Google to review and activate your account. To avoid disappointment, be sure to ready upwardly your book at to the lowest degree two weeks in advance.

Step 3: Create your first book

Next, click on "Add together your first book" in the dashboard. The decision that you'll face at present is:

Whether you want to really publish your ebook and make it available for auction on Google Play, or
Whether you just want to offer a preview of it on Google Books.

It's worth noting this distinction because Google Books is oftentimes confused with Google Play — and they are really pretty different. Google Play is, as we mentioned, an online store, while Google Books is not. Instead, information technology'southward i of the world's biggest online index of full-text books, equally Google has digitized millions of print and electronic books to brand them "searchable" and indexable on search engines. More about that initiative here.

If you lot publish on Google Play, your volume will automatically get a page with a preview on Google Books, so you should only select "Offering a preview on Google Books merely" if you do not desire to publish and sell your book on the Google Play store. (For case, if yous're in KDP Select but still want your book to be indexed in the Google Books library, picking that choice wouldn't interruption KDP Select's terms.)

Once you click on "Sell ebook on Google Play," yous'll exist prompted to select your book'southward "ID," i.e. ISBN number. If you accept an ISBN, yous can enter information technology. If you don't, just select the "Get a Google Book ID" pick — it's free.

Step 4: Fill in your books' metadata

The metadata procedure on Google Play Books is divided into four steps:

Nigh the book
Genres
Contributors
Settings

Let's go through them in lodge.

About the book
If yous've already published your volume elsewhere, and then this part should exist pretty quick! Y'all can simply paste in your championship, subtitle, book clarification, series title, etc.

If it's the first time that y'all're publishing the volume and you haven't written the description (or blurb) yet, then make sure you read our post on how to write a book blurb. As you'll soon run into, the search on the Google Play store works in a style that gives particular importance to titles, subtitles, and descriptions — then you might want to optimize those specifically for Google Play.

If you want your book to exist published immediately, leave the "On-sale appointment" field blank. If you're publishing a pre-order, so make sure to make full it in with the date on which your book will launch.

Ane last thing on the "About the book" page: Google gives y'all the opportunity to "add a related volume" at the bottom. This is a great risk to link your book with other ones, fifty-fifty if they're not in the series (i.east. an anthology, a box set, or another series in the same universe).

Genres
This is where Google Play is very unlike from other stores. First, information technology doesn't limit yous in the number of genre categories you can select. Moreover, it lets you select any category from the BISAC (North America) or BIC (Britain and Australia) systems:

And so yous should spend a good amount of time to make sure you find and select all the categories that are relevant to your book. Categories play an important office in Google's search algorithms, then this will exist time well-spent.

Contributors
The next page is pretty straightforward: this is where you can put in your writer name and author bio. Yous can also add in other contributors to your book, such as editors, illustrators, translators, ghostwriters, etc.

Preview settings
Here'due south another place where Google gives you more control than its peers. You tin can select how much of the volume readers will be able to preview using Google Play's "Look Within" feature (note, though, that xx% is the minimum):

You lot tin also choose the amount of text that they can copy-paste (or set it to 0%), too as opt in/out of DRM encryption.

If one of your goals is to optimize your book's presence on Google Books' search (the index we mentioned in stride 3), then brand sure to click on "Testify advanced settings" and fill those fields in.

Step v: Upload your book and cover files

This part should be pretty straightforward. Y'all'll just need to have your files on manus, specifically:

Your front cover prototype
Your EPUB or PDF
Your dorsum cover image (optional)

To learn more about Google Play'southward expected file types and specs, read this support commodity.

Now, a really cool thing virtually Google Play is that, once your files have been processed and accepted, you can add together in "Content Reviewers" simply by inbound their email addresses. Doing this will basically grant early on admission to your book for free, which makes this a great fashion to share ARC copies with beta readers or reviewers.

This is something you can do even after you've finished this setup, and while there are some requirements for Content Reviewers (east.g. they must have a Google account), most people should meet them. You tin can learn more almost this handy feature here.

Step half dozen: Gear up your book's toll

Google Play Books gives you lot the opportunity to ready different prices for different regions — and in different currencies. To make sure your volume is attractively priced in each currency, you should definitely accept advantage of this feature.

For instance, the below setup will price your volume at £0.99 in the Uk & Republic of ireland, at €0.99 in the Eurozone, and at $0.99 everywhere else.

Note that the "additional settings" permit you to make these prices temporary — which tin can be handy if yous desire to offer promotional pricing at launch.

Step seven: Review and publish

Yous're nearly there! The only matter left to do is to make sure you've entered everything correctly, swallow that fright and anticipation, and hit that magical "Publish" button.

This is also a good moment to go back to step 5 — your files should be processed by now — and add in your "Content Reviewers" merely before you lot publish.

Vi tips to heave your Google Play sales

Of course, publishing the book is the easy fleck. Getting it to sell — now, that'due south another story. And so nosotros decided to attain out to the Google Play Books team itself, besides as 2 high-selling authors on the Google Play shop, to get some marketing tips directly from them.

Annotation that well-nigh of these tips are exclusive to the Google Play platform, so they don't plant a proper, cantankerous-retailer marketing plan.

Instead, our aim is to help you understand how the Google Play store and its algorithms work, and then that you can leverage their specificities to boost your sales on that platform.

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1. Don't jump in and out of exclusivity

This is the very start thing that both the Google Play Books team and the authors we consulted told u.s.a. (and this tip can actually be practical to pretty much any not-Amazon retailer). If you're constantly opting in and out of KDP Select — and taking your books in and out from broad retailers — you seriously harm your chances of getting whatever sales on these wide retailers.

Note: if you don't know what we hateful by "exclusivity" and "wide," you lot demand to read this commodity on KDP Select.

But information technology goes even deeper in the case of Google Play. In the words of the Google Play Books team:

"Nearly all of Google Play Books' merchandising is driven past an algorithm. As a result, every reader sees a different personalized bookstore. If books are removed from the store, it disrupts the algorithm's learning about those titles and eliminates the opportunity for those titles to exist recommended. More than time in the store and more lifetime sales translates to higher discoverability."

2. Leverage metadata intelligently

If you're familiar with other publishing platforms, you'll probably have spotted the ane matter that seems to be missing from Google Play's procedure: keywords.

At no indicate does Google Play enquire yous for meta keywords to draw your book. On the other paw, Google Play lets yous select as many categories as you want. And so you need to leverage the categories to supervene upon the keywords you would utilize on other stores.

For case, let's say you use the keywords "vampire," "19th century," and "gaslamp" on Amazon. You tin get your book to show upwards for these keywords on Google Play by selecting the following BISAC categories:

Young Developed Fiction / Vampires
Young Developed Fiction / Historical / United States / 19th Century
Fiction / Fantasy / Gaslamp

Of course, this isn't always going to be possible, equally some niche keywords won't have an associated category. Every bit an example, "weird west" (or "western fantasy") is a reasonably popular keyword that doesn't have a dedicated BISAC category.

In such cases, yous take 2 options:

If yous absolutely want your volume to exist amongst the very first to testify upwards for that keyword, try working it into your subtitle: e.thousand. "A Weird Westward Fantasy Adventure"; or
If you want the book to show upwards in the search, but don't desire to involve your subtitle, yous tin can include information technology in the volume description.

If you do work in keywords into your book description, make sure to exercise then in a natural fashion. In other words, don't keyword-dump! This might injure the conversion of your book page more than than it will augment its visibility.

3. Run a disbelieve promotion

This is naturally a tip that will work for whatsoever book on whatsoever store. Only information technology tends to exist fifty-fifty more effective on Google Play (a less crowded store than Amazon).

Offset, Google makes it extra easy to schedule a toll promotion in advance via the "Promotions" section of the Partner Middle. If yous take advantage of that — instead of merely manually lowering a book's list price in the metadata — information technology will trigger a strikethrough of your championship'south listing prices in the store.

More importantly, discounted books tend to go extra visibility on the Google Play store, every bit the shop homepage (customized to every reader based on their previous activity) tends to feature several sections specifically for discounted books. Here'south an example:

In the words of the Google Play squad:

"When a publisher discounts their book on Google Play Books, the book becomes eligible for boosted in-store merchandising and customer notifications. This doesn't mean that every volume volition receive every promotion, but this disbelieve significantly increases the book's likelihood of receiving more than promotion in the storefront.

These discount promotions are driven past our algorithm and can include:

Appearance in a drove highlighting discounted titles, including relevant genre collections

Targeted in-app notifications and emails to customers that have wishlisted or sampled that title"

4. Leverage Google Play promo codes

On top of running a disbelieve promotion, you lot can also use Google Play's "promo codes" feature to offer anexclusive special deal to some of your readers.

There are three types of promo codes you can generate for Google Play:

Costless allows customers to redeem the book at no cost.
Percentage off (ebooks only) allows customers to receive a percentage discount off the volume's list cost.
Stock-still cost promotion allows customers to purchase the book for a lower fixed price.

At present, the free codes will obviously non make you lot any money if they're redeemed. Only for the percentage off and fixed price promotion codes, the author will earn the usual 70% royalty on the final toll of the ebook (later on discount). So if y'all run a stock-still cost promo lawmaking entrada where readers can take hold of the ebook at $0.50, you lot'd earn $0.35 past promo lawmaking redeem.

More importantly, promo lawmaking redeems on Google Play have a direct affect on rank algorithms. Every bit confirmed to me by the Google Play squad via email:

"Percentage and fixed cost promo lawmaking redemptions are sales as the customer purchases the book. They are treated similar whatsoever other book auction in our store, which always impacts our algorithm. Free promo code redemptions are treated the same every bit free downloads in our store. They have a small impact on our algorithm."

This makes Google Play promo codes extremely attractive, and a smashing tool to heave your sales on the store.

five. Use a free series starter

Speaking of sections that tend to be prominently featured on homepages, hither'due south 1 that yous won't find on any other store:

Spoiler alert: it presents a huge opportunity for series authors. In the words of Charlotte Byrd, one of the authors nosotros consulted for this post:

"The one matter that I recently did that I take never done before was take 3 of my first-in-series free. I got a Bookbub, which I never got before, I decided to make 2 others series starters free forth with it during this hard time. I take seen my sales increase significantly as a result (not just as a effect of the Bookbub, even before that promotion went through). I take very strong read through and with having the first book free, I am seeing a number of my books in the catalog appear on Google Play charts and stay there. That's another thing that I really like nearly Google Play: the books have a lot more stickability on the charts than on other platforms."

Some other bonus of using free books every bit "loss leaders" for a series? Free downloads actually count towards the Google Play charts and algorithms — granting them a lot more visibility than on Amazon.

6. Sign up for the Google Play affiliate program

Want to make an boosted 7% committee on ebooks and audiobooks sold on Google Play? Merely sign up for the Google Play Books affiliate programme. It's complimentary to join and currently available for active partners. If your Google Play Books partner account is eligible, you'll find a link to the affiliate sign-up form on the homepage of your Partner Center.

This is non but a way to make a few actress bucks, it's likewise great for advertising! If y'all run Facebook ads targeting Google Play readers (yeah, that'south possible), you lot tin can use affiliate links to your books and know exactly how many sales your ads are generating.

If you follow all the steps in this postal service and have advantage of these Google Play-specific marketing tips, you should be well on your way to turning your Google Play sales into a solid income stream. The redesign of Google Play Books shows that Google is finally placing some real importance on book sales, which means that it might be set up to grow enough to exist a real challenger to Amazon. Getting in early (right now!) might be a smart move for your writing career!

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Source: https://blog.reedsy.com/how-to-publish-a-book-on-google-play/