The American Booksellers Association has partnered with an online seller of audiobooks to give its independent bookstore members another way to compete with retail giant Amazon.

Amazon owns Audible.com, which sells downloadable audiobooks, often at sharply reduced prices. ABA has entered into an agreement with audiobook provider Libro.fm to give its members the ability to do the same through an ecommerce platform developed by the association.

"The continued growth in sales of digital audiobooks has been very good news for writers and readers," ABA CEO Oren Teicher said. "And the integration of Libro.fm with IndieCommerce now means that these online sales can be very good news for independent bookstores as well."

Libro.fm is an existing platform that independent booksellers can use to sell audiobooks. More than 160 ABA members are currently selling audiobooks through the site. The association expects more to sign up now the partnership has been announced.

"We created Libro.fm because independent stores were getting left behind in the soaring growth of digital audiobooks, the fastest growing category in publishing," Libro.fm CEO Mark Pearson said. "The IndieCommerce integration makes it seamless for a bookstore to sell both print and audio editions through their website as well as their Libro.fm co-branded storefront." http://bit.ly/2fhcpyM

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