CALLING AN AUDIBLE

By Cindy Layton

From everything I read about publishing, audiobooks are increasingly popular with readers. Smart speakers (Alexa, Google Home, and the like) plus wearables and smartphone apps, make audiobooks ever more convenient for readers.

But what about authors? Does it make sense for them to offer an audio version of their book?

Despite the increased popularity with readers, authors will need to invest more and reap less from an audio version of their book due to production costs and disadvantages in distribution revenue sharing.

And, if you’re an indie-author, the burden of the production and revenue downside falls squarely on you. It’s another one of many things to consider and to quickly become an expert in, if you decide it’s worth the effort. Where mainstream publishing has departments to handle this, you have yourself and Google-at-the-ready to research and implement these solutions, large and small.

Here’s an article from WrittenWord Media that does a good job of breaking down the components of creating and distributing an audiobook into rational pieces. And, while this gives a dispassionate rendering of the step by step process, authors are faced with yet another skill to be undertaken at a professional level, learned on the fly, and implemented with flair and accomplishment.  Let’s pause lest the burden of those demands gives you visions of hurling your laptop over the nearest bridge (knowing that files are recoverable and destroying hardware accomplishes nothing) to consider a few things:

Is it economically worthwhile to offer an audiobook? Much of the information needed to answer this question depends on the author’s production and distribution choices. Read this Forbes article about the various players and an explanation of the inverted revenue sharing before deciding.

How will your audiobook be produced? Is it a do-it-yourself project or strictly handled by the pros? Like everything in indie publishing, this dilemma is hotly debated, and the responses run the gamut. It’s only answered, truly, on a case by case basis. Do you have money to invest in talent? Voice editing? Recording equipment? Thirty to forty hours to spend reading and recording your own voice? Many with experience here discourage authors from reading their own work. And yet, YouTube is crammed with amateur artists, not scared off by their own amateur status. So who’s to say that’s not just the old school talking?

At what point does the market demand an audiobook? If you decide not to produce one will your market go elsewhere?

Finally, is this a one-off or will you be able to spread the investments made over several audiobooks? Creating a network of talent and producers, plus investing in equipment will create efficiencies if costs can be shared by other books.

I’d love to know how other authors have fared and what choices worked for them. Reach us here at Acts of Revision.