To the Leadership Team at Amazon Audible,
As a publisher and content creator, I write to you today with growing concern about Audible’s restrictive geographic limitations on professionally narrated audiobook submissions. Your current policy, which limits professional narration uploads to publishers based solely in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Ireland, represents a significant barrier to global literary participation and undermines the very diversity that makes audiobooks such a powerful medium.
The Current Inequality
While Audible dominates the global audiobook market, your platform currently offers publishers outside the ”Big Four” countries only one option: converting our carefully crafted written works into AI-generated narrations. This technological band-aid solution fails to capture the nuance, emotion, and cultural authenticity that professional human narrators bring to literary works. More importantly, it creates a two-tiered system where geography, rather than quality or market demand, determines the caliber of content creators can offer their audiences.
This policy effectively tells talented authors, publishers, and narrators from countries like Australia, Germany, France, India, Brazil, South Africa, and dozens of other nations that our voices—literally and figuratively—are less valuable in the global audiobook marketplace. It’s a stance that feels increasingly out of step with today’s interconnected world and Amazon’s own stated commitment to customer obsession and global reach.
The Competitive Landscape is Shifting
While Audible maintains these geographic restrictions, competitors are seizing the opportunity to welcome international creators with open arms. Spotify’s aggressive expansion into audiobooks, coupled with their already-global podcast infrastructure, presents a compelling alternative for international publishers seeking to reach worldwide audiences. Similarly, platforms like Storytel are building strong footholds in markets that Audible is effectively abandoning through policy rather than market forces.
These platforms understand what Audible seems to have forgotten: great stories and exceptional narration talent exist everywhere, not just in four English-speaking countries. By limiting access to professional narration tools, Audible is inadvertently training international publishers to build their audiences elsewhere—audiences that may never return to your platform once they’ve found quality alternatives.
The Missed Opportunity
Consider the wealth of content Audible is failing to access:
- Literary diversity: Stories that reflect different cultures, perspectives, and experiences that could enrich your catalog
- Language expertise: Native speakers who can deliver authentic performances in multiple languages
- Cost efficiencies: Access to talented narrators and production teams in markets with different economic structures
- Market expansion: The opportunity to build stronger relationships with publishers in emerging audiobook markets
Your current policy doesn’t just limit international publishers—it limits Audible’s own growth potential and ability to serve your global customer base with the richest possible selection of content.
A Call for Change
I urge you to reconsider this geographic gatekeeping and implement a more inclusive approach to audiobook publishing on your platform. Specifically, I propose:
- Immediate expansion of professional narration privileges to publishers worldwide, with appropriate quality and technical standards that focus on content quality rather than geographic location
- Investment in global infrastructure to support international publishers with the same tools and resources currently available to your preferred markets
- Transparent roadmap for how Audible plans to become truly global in its publishing approach, not just its sales reach
- Recognition programs that highlight exceptional international content, helping to build bridges between global creators and worldwide audiences
The Bottom Line
Amazon built its empire on the principle of being ”Earth’s most customer-centric company.” Yet your current audiobook publishing policy serves neither creators nor customers well. It artificially limits the diversity and quality of content available to your listeners while pushing talented international creators toward your competitors.
The global audiobook market is at a pivotal moment. Platforms that embrace global talent and stories will thrive, while those that maintain arbitrary geographic barriers will find themselves increasingly irrelevant in a world where listeners crave authentic, diverse content regardless of where it originates.
I believe Audible can choose to lead this change rather than be forced into it by competitive pressure. The question is: will you act now to tear down these barriers, or will you wait until your competitors have already won over the international creators and audiences you’re currently turning away?
The global publishing community is watching, and I’m ready to bring my best work to the platform that recognizes talent has no borders.
I look forward to your response and, more importantly, to concrete actions that demonstrate Audible’s commitment to truly global publishing partnerships.
Sincerely,
Mats Ingelborn
Owner, Yabot AB
Publishing in English, Swedish, and Italian
This letter represents my experience as an international publisher and echoes the concerns of countless publishers, authors, narrators, and industry professionals worldwide who believe in the power of diverse storytelling and equitable access to global audiences.
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