Apple Books—Jane K Lee

My role

Partnership Strategy
Audience Insight
Creative Development
Integrated Marketing
Editorial

The Opportunity

When I first met the Apple team, we weren’t talking about audiobooks—we were talking about book-to-screen marketing. Afterward, I did what I usually do: I found the book people in the room. They shared that Apple Books had an awareness problem. Almost everyone had an iPhone, but not everyone realized there was already a Books app sitting on it. That stayed with me.

At the same time, I’d been watching audiobooks grow across publishing—and I’d started experiencing that shift myself. Daisy Jones & The Six was the first audiobook I listened to all the way through, and the narration made it feel less like another format and more like a performance. That changed the question from How do we convince people to try another reading format? to Where could reading already fit into their lives?

An audiobook playing through Apple Books on an Apple Watch — Reading can begin wherever life is already happening.

The Idea

Instead of asking readers to create a new habit, we built around the routines they already had. Audiobooks could fit into a commute, a walk, dinner prep, laundry, or the moments when you wanted a story but didn’t necessarily have a book in your hands.

That became the creative direction for the pilot: show reading as something flexible enough to move with you. The campaign celebrated listening as reading—not as a replacement for physical books or ebooks, but as another way into the same reading life.

An Apple Books audiobook playing during a drive — Stories for the commute.

A reader listening to Apple Books while relaxing at home — Stories for the quieter moments at home.

What We Built

I developed the pilot around audiobooks, with Apple Books positioned as a natural extension of the reader’s everyday life. We built original social content, community storytelling, and Reese’s Book Club integration around moments when listening could naturally fit.

The pilot gave us room to test a simple idea: if we made the experience feel relevant to readers’ lives, would they engage differently with Apple Books? They did. As the partnership grew, so did the ambition—expanding beyond audiobooks into ebooks, creator collaborations, editorial storytelling, and real-world experiences.

A reader browsing Apple Books while wearing headphones — Apple Books as a natural extension of a reader’s day.

What Happened

The response exceeded expectations. One of the initial campaign posts became one of Apple Books’ strongest-performing posts that month and one of Reese’s Book Club’s strongest-performing partnership campaigns.

What started as a pilot evolved into a multi-year, multi-million-dollar, year-round partnership. Apple Books first became Reese’s Book Club’s official audiobook partner, then expanded into ebooks as we continued building around reader behavior and discovery.

Highlights

Multi-yearPartnership expanded beyond the pilot
OfficialApple Books became RBC’s official audiobook partner
ExpandedAudiobooks → audiobooks + ebooks
Top-performingStrong engagement across Apple and RBC channels
Year-roundOngoing investment built around audience behavior

What Stayed With Me

I never saw audiobooks as competing with physical books or ebooks. To me, they were all part of the same reading life. The opportunity was helping readers notice the moments they already had: the commute, the walk, the laundry, the puzzle, the quiet ten minutes between everything else.

The biggest lesson was simple: the best audience strategy often starts by paying attention to what people are already doing—and finding a natural way to belong there.

Partnership expansion

The partnership kept growing.

Partnership announcementReese’s Book Club Names Apple Books Their “Official Audiobook Home”↗ Creator collectionRiley Keough Curates Exclusive Audiobook Recommendations↗ Creator collectionEmily Henry Curates Her Favorite Audio Love Stories↗ Editorial conversationReese Witherspoon and Clare Leslie Hall on Broken Country↗ Story WalkReese’s Book Club and Apple Books Announce Story Walk Events Across the U.S.↗

Reading rituals for a life already in motion.