Indie romance makes the 2026 Speakies shortlist
Sasha Cottman’s A Wild English Rose, released through Spotify Audiobooks, is up for Best Audiobook: Romance. Winners are due 23 November in London.
Audio & translation
4 briefs in this drawer.
Spotify’s podcast Partner Program is opening in 35 more markets
Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Poland, and Colombia are on the fall list. This is podcast and video money, not a change to audiobook royalties.
Spotify opens free AI audiobook narration to US self-publishers
English-language titles, ElevenLabs voices, no exclusivity. Five audiobooks free; a validated payment profile is required, and the files are labelled as digital narration.
SPS looks at the Italian market after Indieverse Milan
English-language indies are being told there is room in Italy — if they treat it as a market, not a translation experiment.