Libro.fm, the digital audiobook platform that channels its sales through independent bookshops, will add ebooks to its app "soon," the company announced on August 7, 2026, as reported by Publishers Marketplace Lunch and confirmed by the trade outlet Publishing Perspectives.

The move means indie bookstores that already sell audiobooks through Libro.fm — a Seattle-based platform founded to give local shops a cut of digital listening — will be able to sell ebooks through the same app, keeping a share of each sale for their store rather than losing that customer to Amazon's Kindle store or other major retailers.

Libro.fm's co-founder said in the announcement: "Since co-founding Libro, I've always imagined us offering more than audiobooks, and ebooks are a natural next step" (Publishers Marketplace Lunch).

The expansion comes with several features designed to knit the two formats together. Flexible credits will let members spend a monthly allotment on either an ebook or an audiobook, rather than locking each credit to one format. Readers who buy both versions of a single title will get a syncing feature that lets them toggle between reading and listening — or follow the text on screen while the narration plays, a function familiar to users of Amazon's WhisperSync.

The initiative also includes ebook advance reader copies, or ARCs — the digital galleys publishers distribute ahead of publication so booksellers can read and recommend upcoming titles — along with additional member benefits the company has not yet detailed.

Libro.fm currently offers over 600,000 audiobooks, according to its website. Its standard membership runs US$14.99 per month, which includes one audiobook credit and 30% off individual audiobook purchases. The company has not yet announced pricing for ebook credits or whether the existing US$14.99 monthly fee will cover both formats.

The platform's core model is simple: a customer picks a participating independent bookstore at sign-up, and that shop receives a portion of every purchase the customer makes. By adding ebooks, Libro.fm gives those bookstores a foothold in a format that has largely bypassed them. Independent shops have long been shut out of direct ebook sales because most lack the technical infrastructure to host and deliver digital files — a gap that Amazon, Apple and Kobo filled years ago.

No launch date has been set. Libro.fm said only that ebooks are "coming soon" to the app.