7 Ways Audiobooks Benefit You and Your Health

“Why listen to audiobooks when I can read an actual book?” A question I asked myself all the time when first hearing about the existence of audiobooks. I ended up doing some research on it to see if it was really for me and found out why people do listen to audiobooks instead of actually reading books. Here’s 7 reasons why audiobooks can greatly benefit you and your health for the better. 

1. Improve Listening Skills in Children

Developing something as important as listening skills in young children is crucial, given their age. This is where the majority of their learning skills are developed which makes it so that they are able to learn and adapt to things quicker - like a sponge. 

2. Build and Improve Your Own Literacy Skills

Who says we stop learning and bettering ourselves once we become adults? There is always room to grow and improve ourselves and it can start with the skills that we learned from young. Listening to audiobooks can help build up your literacy skills, particularly in those with learning disabilities or when it comes to learning a new language like English.

3. Positively Affect Your Sleep

Our screens have a blue light that impacts our eyes and brains in not a really great way. It can affect your sleep in drastic ways, making it hard for you to even get to the act of falling asleep. Steering away from the screen and occupying yourself with an audiobook can allow for a sooner and better night’s sleep. 

4. Reduce Negativity In Your Head

In place of unwanted thoughts, listening to something else can allow for a much more positive mood, disrupting any negative thought processes that may occur.

It also makes any menial, everyday tasks more enjoyable when listening to an audiobook while performing them and can assist in helping manage your time. 

5. Just Like Reading A Book

Minus the physical act of holding the book and reading it with your own two eyes, listening to an audiobook does cause the same activity in the brain as it would when having the physical copy in front of you.

6. Relax Your Eyes

On a daily, many people are staring at their screens for most of their waking hours. This can lead to many negative health issues such as poor eyesight, and blurred vision. Putting the phone down and listening to an audiobook can definitely help give your eyes a much-needed break.

7. Immerse Yourself Into Another World

Lay back, relax and fully immerse yourself into the world of the story. Many readers (like myself) visualize the words written across the page, or in this case, the sounds being delivered through our headphones. Through audiobooks, it can make this visualization much more real without the need to focus on what’s in front of us, but rather what we hear. 

Conclusion

There are many benefits to transitioning into audiobooks such as improved literacy skills in children and adults, time management skills, mood (diverting negative thoughts into positive ones), which can also lead to better sleep. It also helps with completely immersing yourself into another world within the pages without the distraction of hundreds of words laid out in front of you. Do you listen to audiobooks? If so, which ones are your favorites and why? Let us know!

Written by Tina Phong

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

Learn more here and listen to some of our audiobook samples.

5 Tips For Narrating Audiobooks

Have a book you want to turn into an audiobook? If not, then you should seriously consider looking into it as audiobooks are becoming very popular with book lovers!

If so, then consider writing your book, from the very start to sound appealing, rather than visually. This is definitely a change in one’s mindset especially if you’ve been a writer for a while now, but if you’re choosing to go into the audiobook market, then you’ll need to cater to its audience.

Keep on reading for tips and tricks on how to be a better narrator for your audiobook and keep your listeners engaged and interested as your story unravels.

1. Clear Audio Writing

The typical audiobook listener will have their focus split between the audio and whatever it is they’ve decided to do that day: driving, walking, and doing the dishes. Even if they were to give it the full attention, they only have that one chance to hear what you’re saying as the story continues with its flow, making it very different from physically reading the book as you can always backtrack and reread what it is you didn’t quite understand.

How to keep the reader engaged and still know what you’re saying is to include connecting words such as finally, therefore, then, while, and so as it draws attention to the contrast in what you’re saying. And don’t forget, repetition such as names is important as well.

So keep these in mind when recording that your words need to be clear and easy to understand. 

2. Audiobooks Are Performance Scripts

Write your story as a performance script from the beginning to make it easier to narrate for the audiobook. This way you can easily connect with your audience as the tones, rhythm, pace and any other audio signals throughout your story would’ve already been thought about - leaving you with little editing.

3. Repetition and Rhythm

Writing an audiobook based on how it sounds is similar to that of oral storytelling and slam poetry. Each writing performance has its own structures to it, but one aspect to note in particular is that of repetition and rhythm, and to land the nouns. So that even if your words aren’t super clear, the listener will still be able to understand what is going on. Basically, place more emphasis on nouns as opposed to other words.

However, make sure to change up your rhythm every now and then as it can get repetitive and boring and you don’t want to lose a reader.

4. Long Sentences and Breathing

Watch out for any long and wordy sentences in your story. Not only will it make it harder for the listener to understand what you’re saying, but you may run out of breath by the end of the sentence and ruin the quality of your work.

Read your sentences out loud more than once at any and each stage you progress on with.

5. Listeners Need Attunement Time

Hearing an unfamiliar voice can be a bit strange to people, especially to new audiobook listeners, so they’ll need time to adjust. 

Just as with any radio show host, they’ll have an opening line to ease the listener into their segment, as the words can get lost starting off, so avoid using any keywords in the first sentence. Try starting off the section with its main orientation words and then later on including important plot points of the story.

BONUS: Whispersync

Whispersync is a feature created by Audible as a means to synchronize your audiobooks with Kindle’s ebooks in case you or any of its many users decide to switch audiobook platforms and that way your progress in the story doesn’t get lost. In fact, it’ll start you right where you left at.

Be wary that not all audiobooks are compatible with this feature, but for those who use Amazon as their main platform will have easily granted access to it (except for books with images, that’s where it gets a bit tricky and you may as well not bother). 

CONCLUSION

Narrating your audiobook isn’t as easy as speaking into a microphone. You’ll need to be able to speak clearly, write your story as a script, make use of repetition and rhythm, watch out for long sentences and breath, and allow for listeners to adjust to your voice. Do you have any other tips on how to better narrate your audiobook? Let us know!

Written by Tina Phong

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

Learn more here and listen to some of our audiobook samples.

12 Motivational Audiobooks to Inspire You Towards Success

Many successful people have one thing in common. They read. Not just any book that may interest them but books that inspire them to change for the better. 

Reading isn’t for everyone. If you are a busy person with barely enough time to make dinner, you definitely won’t have time to read a book. This is why audiobooks are a good choice for successful people, because you can listen to them while completing other task

If you don’t know what audiobook to start with, here’s a list with some good ones.

1 -  How to Win Friends & Influence People - Dale Carnegie

How to Win Friends and Influence People contains universal principles of interacting with other people. It explains ways to get others to like you and see your way of thinking. 

You can read a full summary here.

2 - Fanatical Prospecting - Jeb Blunt

Jeb Blunt is an international consultant and speaker, and comes from an extensive sales background. His book focuses on ways to take your prospecting the next level and tips to succeeding in sales.

You can learn more about it here.

3 -  Think and grow rich - Napoleon Hill

Hill did research on 40 millionaires on what made them successful and compiled it into a book. The main idea of Think and Grow is “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”

If you want to read an in-depth summary, click here.

4 -  Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business - Barbara Corcoran

Shark Tank star Barbara Corcoran recounts the story of how she took $1000.00 and turned it into a billion dollar real estate business. 

You can learn more about her book here.

5 - Zero to One - Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel is a successful venture capitalist. His book gives innovative advice to tech start-ups.

You can read a full summary here.

6 - Ego is the Enemy - Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday’s book discusses the idea that our belief that the world revolves around us, is really holding us back from living our lives. He gives tips on how to overcome this and achieve greatness.

You can read more here.

7 - Before Happiness - Shawn Anchor

Before Happiness takes the reader through a 5 step process to change the way you think to be more successful and happy.

You can read a full summary here.

8 - Extreme Ownership - Jocko Willink

Extreme ownership walks the reader through leadership advice from to Navy SEALs. 

You can learn more about Extreme Ownership here.

9 - The One Thing - Gary Keller

The One Thing offers tips on productiving, decluttering, and having more focus, succes and energy.

You can read more about it here.

10 - Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand

Unbroken follows the story of Louie Zamperini as an Olympic hopeful turned WWII bombardier. This story highlights the idea that a man is not defined by his past.

You can read a full summary here

11 - #GIRLBOSS - Sophia Amoruso 

#GIRLBOSS highlights the unconventional methods that can be used to achieve success. Written by Sophia Amoruso, founder of Nasty Gal vintage, one of the fastest growing retailers in the world. 

You can read a more in depth summary here.

12 -  Tribes - Seth Godin

Tribes helps you awaken your inner leader and build a supportive tribe.

You can read more about Tribes here.

Written By: Leah Gerber

Conclusion

If you want to be successful, try listening to one of these audiobooks. They might inspire you to invest, start a business, or think positively, all which will lead to a happy and successful life. 

If you need help turning your book into an audiobook, we offer audiobook production 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.

Have you read one of these books before? What was something that has stuck with you from it? Let us know in the comments below.