How the Lex Publisher Package Works: Done-For-You Audiobook Distribution

Publisher combines production with optional done-for-you publishing everywhere listeners buy and borrow books. The price is custom per book. Lex prepares, submits, and manages store review across major retail and library channels, including fixes and resubmissions when a platform needs changes. This post explains the account models, payout flow, and the honest store caveats. Lex takes no royalties. On Spotify you keep the full author share under the current arrangement; on applicable other stores the distribution partner keeps 20% of net.

Two setups, your pick

Concierge (the default). Lex publishes under its own retailer accounts and you never create an account anywhere. Your entire setup is one payment link: bank and tax details via Stripe, about five minutes, works on a phone. Stores pay Lex. Lex takes no royalties. On Spotify you keep the full author share. On every other store the distribution partner keeps 20% of net, deducted before remittance; we forward the rest every month with a per-store statement. Nothing is exclusive and nothing is a hostage: you can pull the book from any store with 30 days' notice, and the files and rights stay yours either way.

Accounts in your name. Prefer to hold the keys yourself? We set up the other way around:

• You create the store accounts in your name, with your email, your tax info, your bank details. About 15 minutes per store, once.
• You invite us in. Spotify supports a team member, so you invite our publishing address as a collaborator. The remaining stores go out under one wide submission; where a portal has no invite, we do a single screen-share session: we drive the upload, you type your own credentials and payout details.
• Stores pay you directly. No pass-through, no forwarding, no statements to reconcile.

On both paths we do everything else: files, cover, metadata, categories, pricing entry, AI-narration disclosure flags, and submission on every store. Everything is non-exclusive, and the commercial license to the audio is included with production.

Where the book goes

We submit to Spotify directly (Spotify for Authors). The digital-voice flag is set at upload and Spotify adds its own disclosure line to the listing.

Everything else goes through the wide publishing path, with Audible/Amazon and other major retail or library channels. Lex prepares, submits, and manages store review, including fixes and resubmissions when a platform needs changes. We do not publish a fixed channel count or claim that every store automatically accepts every title. Each store still applies its own policy and metadata review.

The honest caveats

• Audible is included. Publisher titles go to Audible/Amazon under Lex's publisher agreement, same pack, no extra charge.
• Apple Books may decline third-party AI audio on a per-title basis. We submit it and report the outcome either way.
• Disclosure is not optional, and that is good. Every store that accepts AI narration asks for a metadata flag, and we set it correctly everywhere. Hiding AI narration is the only way to actually get in trouble in this market.

What the process looks like end to end

1. Production finishes. You have approved the narrator, the sample, and the final master. You own the files either way.
2. We prepare the retail package. Square cover at 2400x2400 or better, chapterized MP3s, opening and closing credit tracks, a retail sample clip, a store-ready description, categories, and pricing suggestions. You confirm or correct by email.
3. You do the one-time setup. Concierge: click one payment link and add your bank and tax details, about five minutes. Accounts in your name: create the store accounts, add payout details, send the two invites, and book one 30-minute screen-share for the two stores without invites, roughly an hour total, with a plain-English checklist that walks through every click.
4. We upload everywhere within one business day.
5. Stores review on each retailer's timeline, and we send you a live-links summary with every store URL when the listings clear.

Questions authors actually ask

Why not just do this myself? You can, and we published the full DIY playbook. The Publisher package exists because the details are fiddly: disclosure flags, opening and closing credit tracks some stores require, cover dimension rules, category taxonomies, sample-clip specs, and a review process that bounces submissions for small metadata mistakes. We have made every one of those mistakes already so you do not have to.

What do you keep from my royalties? Lex takes no royalties on either path. On Spotify you keep the full author share. On every other store the distribution partner keeps 20% of net. On Concierge we forward the rest monthly with a per-store statement. On your-name accounts the stores pay you directly.

What if I already have some store accounts? Even better. Invite us in (or book the session) and we use what you have.

Do I have to list on the Lex Premium catalog? No. It is an opt-in bonus listing in our subscriber catalog, non-exclusive, removable on 30 days' notice, and it costs nothing either way.

What happens if we part ways later? Your book is safe on both paths. On your-name accounts the listings are already yours, nothing to unwind. On Concierge everything is non-exclusive with a 30-day pull right, and we will take listings down or help you republish under your own accounts on request; the files and rights are yours from day one.

Start with the free chapter

Every production starts the same way: send your manuscript and hear the first chapter performed free, no card required, at lex.audio/first-chapter. If you like what you hear, request a Publisher quote and review the publishing plan. You keep the files and the rights. Lex takes no royalties.