Frequently asked questions
Short, factual, and checkable — the same answers we give anyone who asks.
How much does it cost to publish on Book Factory Café?
$99, once per book, ever. That one payment produces both a finished ebook (EPUB) and a fully narrated audiobook with your choice of 50+ voices, including per-character casting. There is no annual fee and no charge for updates. For comparison: hiring a human narrator on Upwork or ACX runs $200–$400 per finished hour — $1,000–$4,000 for a typical book, after weeks of auditions, contracts, and revision rounds — and Books.by charges $299 every year while selling no audiobooks at all.
What royalty do authors keep?
Authors keep 80% of every sale, and the rate is locked for life at signup. Payouts run weekly — every Friday — through Stripe, directly to your bank. Amazon KDP pays 35–70% roughly 60 days after the end of the month; ACX pays 25–40% for audiobooks.
Does Book Factory Café require exclusivity?
Never. You can sell the same book everywhere else on the same day, and we will never ask you to delist anything. ACX, by contrast, pays its higher royalty only if you grant 7 years of exclusivity.
Can I publish an AI-narrated audiobook?
Yes — that is a specialty. ACX/Audible and Amazon reject AI-narrated audiobooks outright. Book Factory Café generates the narration (50+ voices, character-by-character casting you control), distributes the audiobook, and provides the web and mobile players it plays in. Every AI-narrated edition is labelled honestly so listeners know what they are buying.
Do authors get their readers’ contact information?
Yes. Your reader list — names and emails of followers and buyers on your list — is visible to you and exportable at any time. Built-in tools email your followers automatically on release day, and a newsletter tool lets you write to them weekly. On Amazon and ACX, the customer relationship belongs to the platform and authors never see it.
Do readers need an account or app?
No. The entire first chapter of every book is free to read with no signup. Purchases arrive by email as a permanent link — DRM-free EPUB plus the audiobook — readable and listenable on any device, in the browser or the optional installable app, which includes a read-along mode that follows the narration through the text.
Do readers actually own the books they buy?
Yes. Every purchase is a DRM-free file the reader keeps forever, on any device. Nothing expires or disappears if a company changes its terms.
What happens if an author wants to leave?
Leaving is free and immediate: one click exports your books, chapters, sales records, and full reader list, and you owe nothing. There is no contract to cancel and no notice period.
How is Book Factory Café different from Curios and other “sell direct” storefronts?
Storefronts like Curios sell what you bring — you must already have a finished audiobook, which typically costs $500–$5,000 to produce elsewhere. Book Factory Café manufactures it: upload a manuscript once and we generate the audiobook (50+ voices, per-character casting), the ebook, the store page, and the players it lives in. Pricing differs structurally too: Curios charges an annual subscription (about $99 the first year, $240/year list price after) against “100%” royalties, so you pay every year whether you sell or not. Here it is $99 once per book, ever, with 80% royalties paid weekly. And where storefronts bring no readers — authors supply all their own traffic — every book here offers its whole first chapter free on a shared shelf, which is a discovery engine. Both of us give you your reader emails and require no exclusivity; only one of us makes the audiobook and brings readers.
How fast is publishing?
Upload a manuscript (DOCX, EPUB, and more) and the ebook is ready in minutes; the narrated audiobook typically renders the same afternoon. Amazon KDP review takes up to 72 hours; ACX audiobook production takes weeks to months.