Featured Listing: Kindle / Audible Publishing Business

About the business

Tell us a little about yourself. What’s your background? How did you start the business?

The business was started as a means to attempt to make passive income using Online Self-Publishing. Eventually, I realized there was more of a gap in audiobooks, and since I didn’t have 24/7 to dedicate to this business I went that route, and I guess the rest is history!

As an eCommerce business, where are your products made?

All of my books are written using ghostwriters, the covers are made by professional graphic designers, then of course edited & formatted professionally and then narrated on the ACX platform. The process is very straightforward once you get used to it!

What can you tell us about your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

To be honest, the majority of sales come through the ACX / Audible algorithm, one of the weak points of the business is that we never acquired customer information, so this is certainly a growth area for the buyer!

How have you marketed the product and where are your customers originating from?

These days, I run very minimal Amazon Ads to one book (another growth area a buyer could explore is running more ads to the catalogue of books!) so most customers/revenue is coming from sales of the audiobook, which originate on Audible when customers type in certain keywords and find the book. So, I guess you could say most originate through SEO.

Is the asset on your listing owner-operated, how much time does it take to run the business, who else is needed on the team, and what is automated?

In the last 12 months, I have not uploaded any new books, so the only time spent was occasionally checking the Amazon Ads, maybe an hour a month, and then checking sales. Very minimal time. If someone wanted to expand/grow the business that would of course involve more time, but to be honest, maintenance doesn’t take much.

What does someone need to do to continue operating the business in its current form?

Check the small amount of Amazon Ads, but aside from that nothing.

The work will come if the buyer wants to expand the business & try to increase its monthly earnings through publishing more books, running more ads etc.

Growing the business

Can you list a few opportunities for a potential new owner to continue growing the business?

Optimizing all current books- Amazon Ad Campaigns on KDP, making sure the listings are up to scratch, maybe new covers, A+ content, updating descriptions etc

Making more books in the most successful niches- Whether it’s more audiobooks or more print books for KDP, this is a great way to grow the business.

Getting more reviews for books you want to run ads for, and then kind of ‘re-launching’ the books with a marketing campaign for whichever books the buyer believes has the most potential.

As I said, this has very much been passive for me in the last 12 months, so plenty could be done to grow it.

What has been the evolution of this asset since its launch?

Originally, it was publishing more books, now it is how consistent the income has remained & how passive it has been. I believe the right buyer could easily take it to the next level.

How does this business make money? What are the current revenue streams?

From ACX, Ingram Spark & KDP royalties.

What marketing channels are most profitable for the business?

Amazon Ads are the only marketing channel used, and these are far from optimized and only run for 1/2 out of the huge catalogue of books.

How does the business currently acquire customers and what is your breakdown for marketing costs?

Mainly through the ACX / Audible algorithm, so there are no costs. On KDP we use Amazon Ads (PPC) so there is that cost.

How big is your current team? How many people does it take to run this business?

There is no team, the creation of new books would involve freelancers, and if the buyer wanted to take Amazon Ads as seriously as possible, potentially outsourcing this would be a good idea.

What’s the reason for selling your business on Flippa?

The upfront capital is more valuable to me than the passive income as it will be used for my new project, and I cannot give this the attention it needs to grow to the next level, whereas, I feel the right buyer would be able to do exactly that.