Direct-sales guide
Sell audiobooks on your website: why go direct
To sell audiobooks on your website is to skip two things at once: the store's cut and the store's approval. As of October 2026, Spotify for Authors pays 50% of your list price on à la carte sales and Kobo Writing Life 45% at 2.99 USD or more. Sold direct, you keep the price minus payment and delivery fees. And whether a store accepts AI narration doesn't matter: the decision is yours, as long as you tell buyers.
Authors who sell audiobooks directly usually do it next to stores, not instead of them. Stores bring strangers; your website turns readers you already have into listeners, and gives you their email for the next book. Which stores take AI narration is covered in where to sell AI audiobooks.
Delivery options: BookFunnel, Payhip, Shopify, Gumroad, Patreon
BookFunnel is the delivery layer many authors put behind their shop. After a sale on Shopify, Payhip, WooCommerce, Gumroad, Stripe or several other platforms, it sends the buyer a private download link; listeners use the BookFunnel app, which is built for audiobooks with speed control, bookmarks and a sleep timer, or a browser player, and you can allow DRM-free MP3 downloads. The BookFunnel audiobook plan is an add-on to a Mid List Author plan or higher, and it takes chapter-length MP3s at 192 kbps or more, starting with opening credits and ending with closing credits.
If you'd rather have one tool, Payhip is a store and delivery in one: any file type, up to 5 GB per file, with a 5% transaction fee on the free plan and less on paid plans. Shopify's free Digital Downloads app attaches up to 50 files, 5 GB combined, to a product. Gumroad charges 10% plus 50 cents per sale through your profile or links, with no monthly fee. Patreon suits serialized releases: post chapters as audio for members, who can follow them in a private RSS feed.
Which files to deliver: one M4B plus a ZIP of chapter MP3s
Send both. The M4B is one file with a chapter list that audiobook apps understand; the ZIP of chapter MP3s plays on anything, from a car stereo to an old MP3 player. FullCastBook exports both from one project, the MP3s at 192 kbps constant bitrate, so the same files meet BookFunnel's 192 kbps minimum. Note the exceptions: BookFunnel's audiobook delivery takes MP3 only, and Patreon's audio uploads list MP3 and M4A but not M4B. If buyers ask which to use, point them to M4B vs MP3.
A worked example of the "what's in the download" box: "The Keeper of Gull Rock, unabridged, 9 hours 40 minutes. One M4B with 24 chapter markers for audiobook apps, plus a ZIP of 26 MP3 files: opening credits, 24 chapters, closing credits. Narrated by AI Voice: a narrator and a distinct voice for each character." Buyers know exactly what they're getting.
Pricing a direct audiobook
Start from what you'd net elsewhere. By our arithmetic, at a list price of 14.99 USD you'd earn about 7.50 from a Spotify à la carte sale, about 6.75 from Kobo, about 14.24 through Payhip's free plan before payment processing, and about 12.99 through Gumroad. Direct can sell for less than the store price and still earn you more per copy.
Length sets expectations: a 10-hour novel and a 90-minute novella shouldn't cost the same. Use the audiobook length calculator for the running time, and the audiobook cost calculator for what producing it costs on FullCastBook's current plans. On your own site, launch discounts and bundle prices are entirely up to you.
Labelling AI narration honestly
Say it on the product page, in the opening credits and in the file tags. The Audio Publishers Association and the UK's Audio Publishers Group recommend "AI Voice" for synthesized narration, in non-binding guidelines published December 19, 2024. Stores enforce their own versions: Spotify has a digital voice checkbox, Kobo wants the narrator listed as a synthesized voice. On your own site, no form makes you do it, which is exactly why buyers trust a seller who does.
Bundles with the ebook and series
Bundles are where direct sales shine. BookFunnel can combine a book and its companion audiobook in a single delivery, and on your own shop a series bundle can be priced however you like. Keep the same cast across the series in FullCastBook, so returning characters sound the same in book two, and release each new audiobook to your list first. Writing the book from scratch? Manuscript to audiobook covers going from draft to finished files.
Taxes, refunds and piracy basics
Digital sales can carry sales tax or VAT depending on where the buyer lives, and platforms differ in whether they collect it for you, so check your plan's tax settings before launch. Write a short refund policy and put it on the product page.
On piracy, set expectations rather than walls. Payhip limits each buyer to three downloads per file by default, Shopify lets you set access limits per download link, and BookFunnel listeners use its app or browser player unless you also allow MP3 downloads. Any file a buyer can download can be shared, so price fairly and make the legitimate copy the easiest one to get.
