Spotify Audiobooks is celebrating the world’s biggest music together in a winning collaboration with the iconic 33 1/3 series from Bloomsbury—a collection of pocket-sized books about popular music, with each book focused on an individual, genre-defining album by a top musical act, from James Brown and Celine Dion to Radiohead.
Calling all authors! Spotify wants to hear from you. Spotify Audiobooks is giving authors a platform to tell their unique stories—and monetize their work. Earlier this year, Spotify Audiobook Selects put out an open call to authors—both budding and established—to submit their short-form work, and recently released its first collection of 16 short audiobook titles, in genres including romance, mystery and thriller, and sci-fi and fantasy.
Spotify Audiobook Selects’ next submission window is now open through April 2026, and this time, the publisher is looking for romance stories (the theme is “swoon-worthy tropes”). Authors are welcome to submit “novelette-length stories,” from 10,000 to 40,000 words, that “creatively explore romance tropes like ‘friends to lovers,’and ‘grumpy/sunshine. ”
Spotify Audiobook Selects is a global program, which means that any author with an English-language short-form story who controls their own audio rights can submit their work. If a story is selected, Spotify will produce and distribute the audiobook, and pay an advance and royalties.
The inaugural collection of 16 audiobooks from Spotify Audiobook Selects includes the rom com Falling for Finley by Sophie Beckett; mystery titles No Time for Doubt by Regan Black and Murder at the Magic Academy by Alicia Rades; and the intergalactic adventure Strak’s Bad Day by Stephanie Y. Yang.
“I’ve never published an audiobook before, so having this team really championing it has been absolutely amazing,” said Stephanie Y. Yang.
Spotify says it wants to widen the scope and possibilities of audio storytelling, and hopes that its new program will give indie authors a chance to connect with listeners around the world.
