If you’re an author looking to expand your market, publishing audiobooks might be right for you. You already have the written material, so converting it to an audio format is the easy part.

If you’re unsure how to start creating and selling your audiobook, keep reading, I’ll be breaking it down below

Why You Should Sell Your Audiobooks

The global audiobook market is valued at around 3 billion dollars and is constantly expanding. Audiobooks are considered the fastest-growing segment in publishing and they generate more income than ebooks. They offer authors another way to make money from their books.

Is self-publishing right for you?

Self-publishing is not for everyone so it’s important to know if it’s right for you and your audiobook.

You can learn more about self-publishing vs. traditional publishing in this article from Jony Studios.

Here are some traits that will help you be successful with self-publishing

Your audiobook delivers content the audience wants to hear
You have an understanding of your audience, budget, and marketing
You are willing to put in the work to get your book published.

Different genres of audiobooks do better than others. For example, mystery, thriller, and suspense audiobooks have the biggest audience, while sci-fi and fantasy have more engagement than any other genre. There is a clear market for shorter audiobooks, and non-fiction authors tend to have more success with online marketing than fiction authors do.

Many factors could make your audiobook successful, so it is easy for anyone to publish an audiobook in any genre.

Self-publishing can also be costly depending on how you decide to record your audiobook. Narrating, editing, and publishing your audiobook can cost anywhere between $150.00 - $700.00 to purchase the equipment and it will require a laptop/computer that can handle recording software.

Here is a list of the basic equipment you’ll need to record your audiobook from home:

Microphone
Audio interface
Microphone stand
Headphones
Audacity or Garageband, free recording software

If you decide to work with a narrator and audio production company, it can cost $3000.00-$6000.00 for an average length audiobook which is about 10 hours. Renting a studio can cost $50 - $200 an hour and narrators can cost $100.00-$400.00 per finished hour.

The most expensive but easiest option is to hire a production agency as they handle recording, editing, and narration for you.

Another option which is becoming very popular is to record your own audiobook at home using your voice but hire a professional recording studio to handle the editing, mixing, mastering for Audible standards, and walk you through the entire upload process, which will save you a lot of time, money, and hassle.

Learn more about our remote audiobook production services here and request a free estimate!

Creating your Audiobook

The first step in creating an audiobook is to write a script. Scripts are important because they will ensure the content you are recording will be comprehensible in an audio format.

If you are recording an online article, make sure you leave the following out of your script.

Hyperlinks
Captions and footnotes as they can be written into the spoken text
Visuals
Call to action or ‘click here’ buttons

If you are hiring a narrator, do research and hold auditions to make sure you are finding one that suits your audiobook.

You can find narrators using freelance websites like Fiverr.

If you decide to narrate the audiobook yourself, there are some things to consider.

Do you have an engaging voice?
Do you have voiceover skills to effectively tell your story?
If you listen back to the audio you have narrated, are you distracted by the way your voice sounds?

Keep in mind that a bad narration is a turn-off for many listeners.

When you are recording at home make sure you do the following

Turn off all equipment that makes noise. A mic will pick up any small sounds that a person might not think of
Record in a carpeted room to avoid reverb and reflections
Don't move while you’re recording
Keep your voice at a consistent volume and don't hold your breath
Read from an electronic device so the sound of turning pages is not picked up.
Schedule multiple recording sessions and re-record if necessary.

When you edit your audiobook, eliminate any mouth sounds, harsh ‘s’ sounds and make each chapter its own file, if you need help with this we have you covered with our remote audiobook editing services.

The final package should include a sample audio track, engaging book description, and cover art/image.

Audiobook Platforms

There are multiple different platforms you can choose to put your audiobook on. You can stick to one or upload it to a couple of different ones.

ACX

ACX is owned by Amazon and is a full-service audiobook/distribution arm. Through ACX you can distribute to Amazon, iTunes, and Audible.

There are a couple of different options if you chose to work with ACX.

Exclusive with ACX. You receive 40% of the royalties. If you worked with a narrator and don’t pay them upfront, they receive half of the royalties. This is a seven-year contract
Non-exclusive with ACX. You receive 25% of the royalties. You are unable to split the royalties with a narrator in a non-exclusive deal so they need to be paid upfront. This option allows you to work with other distribution platforms.

If you choose to publish with ACX you will not have control over the price of your audiobook. Click here to view the pricing guidelines from ACX.

Findaway Voices

Findaway Voices allows you to choose where you sell your audiobooks as well as how you price them. They have a distribution market that reaches over 170 countries and they work with library, retail, and school markets.

To learn more about ACX and Findaway voices, click here.

Soundwise

Soundwise allows authors to easily build an audience, Pro and Platinum plans that offer 100% of profits, and a place for listeners to leave comments. It is very easy to use and Authors have full control over their pricing strategy.

Click here to learn more about Soundwise.

Marketing Your Audiobook

As a self-published author, you will have full control over your marketing strategies. This can seem like a lot, especially if you have no idea how to go about marketing your audiobooks.

Here are some marketing tips to help you when you first get started

Pitch your audiobooks to booktubers, blogs, and book-related podcasts
Be active on social media and audiobook related Facebook groups
Submit for awards
Share your audiobooks with journalists

Check out this video for some more tips on how to market your audiobook.

Written By: Leah Gerber

Conclusion: Making your audiobook successful

You are now equipped to self-publish your own successful audiobook!

Before you get started, here are some important things the remember:

Self-publish if it’s right for you
Create content that listeners want
Choose platforms that will work for your needs
Engage with your listeners through social media

Have you ever self-published an audiobook before? What was your experience like? Which platform did you find most helpful? Let us know in the comments below.

If you need help turning your book into an audiobook, we offer remote audiobook production and editing services that will help you reach a wider audience and increase your book sales.

Listen to some of our audiobook samples here to get started.

Knowing where to start when it comes to publishing a book and making money as an author can be difficult. It can be hard to decide whether to go with traditional, self, or hybrid publishing methods.

If this sounds like you, keep reading. I’ll be breaking everything you need to know about making money as an author below.

TRADITIONAL

A blog from Reedsy describes traditional publishing as working with a third-party publisher to publish your book. If you decide to go with the traditional route, your publisher will take care of the cover design, marketing, editing, etc. When the book is released, the publisher will then pay you, the author, a small percentage of the royalties.

Traditional publishing means that you will give up full ownership of your book, but you don’t have to worry about paying for extra expenses out of your own pocket.

Literary Agents

Before we get into making money with traditional publishing, it’s important to understand the role of an agent in getting money for your work.

Agents represent authors and help them secure deals with publishing companies. When the author makes money from their book, their agent also receives a commission.

Book Advancement

A Book advance is an amount of money that a publisher offers an author in exchange for the publishing rights to their work. An author keeps the advance no matter how many copies of their book may or may not sell.

The terms of the publishing contracts must be fulfilled for authors to receive their advance.

Authors typically receive pieces of their advancements after things such as signing, delivery and acceptance of the final manuscripts, hardcover publication, and softcover publication, are complete.

Advances are paid to the author's agent, the agent takes their portion of their commission, and then the rest is paid to the author.

Royalties

Royalties are revenue from book sales. Royalties are either based on the list price of the book or the net amount received from the publisher.

Let's break that down:

List price royalties are 10% of whatever the list price of the book is. If a hardcover book is listed at $20.00 then the royalty will always be $2.00, no matter how much the book is purchased for.

The net amount received is when the royalty is based on the amount of money the publisher receives from the retailer for the copy sold. This still may not relate to the actual price the book is purchased for. It’s usually based on whatever split the publisher has agreed upon with the retailer. For example, if the publisher receives 30% of the list price for every copy sold by the retailer, the net amount received is based on the publisher’s 30%.

First royalties pay off the advance. If the author is given a $20,000 advancement, their book has to earn more than $20,000 in royalties for the author to start receiving them.

Subrights Through a Publisher

Royalties are put in place when the publisher publishes an author’s work themselves. If the publisher decides to sell the rights to a third party to publish, subrights are put into place.

A subright is the right to publish the material in a different format than the original work. For example, adapting a book to become a movie.

When a subright deal is made, the author will still receive royalties from it.

Subrights include things like:

Television
Movies
Foreign Publication/Translation
Merchandise

Subrights Retained by the Author

Agents will try to hold onto as many rights as possible so the author does not have to split the proceeds with a publishing company. This also allows the author to sell subrights directly to third parties on their behalf. After the agent receives their commission, the author will receive the rest of the money.

SELF-PUBLISHING

Self-publishing is when you, the author, take on all the responsibilities of publishing a book yourself. Well you won’t have the industry connections that come with working with a publisher, you will have complete control over what happens with your book, and therefore, keep a larger percentage of the money from your book sales.

There are two ways to self-publish: Direct distribution and self-publishing via a distributor. Let’s break those down.

Self-Publishing Direct Distribution

Self-published receive a percentage of every book sold when they go directly to the platforms that publish their books. Each platform has a different percentage that the author receives. You can find an extensive list here.

Here are some examples:

Barnes and Noble Press
- Paperback: 55% of sales
- Ebook: 40-65% of sales
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
- Paperback: 60% of sales
- Ebook: 35-70% of sales

Self Publishing via a Distributor

Working with distributors will make it easier for an author to get their work in places that would be difficult for them by themselves.

Check out this video to learn more about traditional versus self-publishing.

HYBRID PUBLISHING

Hybrid publishing is a term to cover all new models of publishing that are joining the industry. Hybrid publishing can include elements from both traditional and self-publishing. You can read more about it here.

Authors make money from hybrid publishing with royalties.