Findaway Voices is the multi-platform audiobook distributor: Audible + Apple Books + Spotify + Google Play + Kobo + libraries via OverDrive. Findaway takes 20% platform fee, leaving 80% to author/narrator (split if using royalty share or pay-for-production deals).
How Findaway differs from ACX
| Feature | ACX (Audible direct) | Findaway |
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Audible only (exclusive) or multi (non-exclusive) | Audible + Apple + Spotify + Google + libraries |
| Author royalty (exclusive) | 40% × list price | n/a |
| Author royalty (non-exclusive) | 25% × list price | 80% × (list - retailer cut) |
| Library distribution | No | Yes (OverDrive, ~30k libraries) |
| Spotify distribution | Manual setup separately | Included |
| Apple Books distribution | Manual setup separately | Included |
End-to-end royalty maths
Findaway is a wholesaler, not a retailer. The chain:
- Customer pays $12 retail price to Audible/Apple/Spotify/etc.
- Retailer takes their cut (~25-50% typical)
- Findaway receives ~$8 wholesale price (varies by retailer)
- Findaway takes 20% = $1.60
- Author receives $6.40 (53% of original retail)
Compare to ACX exclusive: $12 × 40% = $4.80 to author. ACX wins if your sales are heavily Audible-skewed. Findaway wins if you’re cross-platform.
When Findaway makes sense
- Cross-platform discovery (don’t want to lock to Audible)
- Library lending desired (OverDrive integration)
- Spotify audiobook strategy (launched 2022, growing fast)
- Apple/Google ecosystem (Findaway covers all three with one upload)
- Avoid Audible exclusivity lock (ACX exclusive is 7 years)
When ACX exclusive makes sense
- 80%+ of your listeners use Audible
- Audible Bounty programme (refer new members for cash bonuses)
- Genre fiction with strong Audible audience
- Long-term commitment to Amazon ecosystem
What this calculator shows
Findaway’s 20% platform take only — the cut Findaway takes from the wholesale price they receive from retailers. Actual end-to-end author royalty depends on:
- Mix of platforms (Audible vs Apple vs Spotify vs etc.)
- Each platform’s wholesale rate to Findaway
- Library lending volume
- Discount/promotion participation
For combined audiobook + ebook + paperback view, run Amazon KDP royalty calculator alongside this. For Audible-direct comparison, run ACX/Audible royalty calculator.
What this calculator doesn’t include
- Per-retailer splits on top of Findaway’s 20% (Audible, Apple, Spotify each have different wholesale rates)
- Library lending royalties (additional ~10-20% revenue stream)
- Narrator splits (royalty share or pay-for-production)
- US self-employment tax (see side hustle tax calculator)
Royalty share vs pay-for-production — the narrator split
Authors who don't narrate their own audiobook typically hire a narrator under one of two arrangements, each of which changes how the 80% author-side royalty gets divided. Pay-for-production means the author pays the narrator a flat per-finished-hour rate upfront (commonly cited in the $200-400 per finished hour range for experienced narrators) and keeps 100% of the ongoing royalty stream — higher risk and cost upfront, but full ownership of future earnings. Royalty share means no upfront payment, but the narrator receives a percentage of the ongoing royalty (frequently a 50/50 split, sometimes negotiated differently) for the life of the audiobook's sales — lower upfront risk for the author, but a permanent reduction in the royalty they keep. The right choice depends on confidence in the book's sales potential: a title expected to sell well over years favors pay-for-production (the upfront cost is recouped and then the author keeps everything), while an unproven title or a first-time author with limited upfront budget often makes more sense as royalty share.
Why library lending is worth tracking separately
OverDrive library distribution (included in Findaway's platform reach) pays through a different mechanism than retail sales — libraries typically purchase a license (either one-copy-one-user or a metered-access model) rather than paying per-listen, and the per-license revenue to the author is usually lower than a retail sale but represents genuinely incremental reach that a retail-only strategy misses entirely. For authors focused purely on maximizing royalty-per-unit, library lending can look unattractive next to retail; but library placement also drives discovery — a reader who borrows a library copy and enjoys it becomes a plausible buyer of the author's next book, a benefit that doesn't show up in the direct royalty math this calculator produces.