Personally, I am a HUGE fan of audiobooks. I listen to stories while I drive, when I exercise, as I get ready in the morning, even while I clean. If I’m doing a mundane and nearly automatic task, you can bet that my audible app is open and I’m actively engaged in a story. To be perfectly honest, it’s how I ingest most of my “reading” material these days. I still LOVE handheld books, but usually if I have time to sit down, I’m writing or working on some other authorpreneur task. But audiobooks let me “read” while tackling the many tasks in my life. I just plain stinking love audiobooks. So when my friend (and fellow Wisconsin writer) Valerie Biel asked if she could share a post about audiobooks, specifically the process in recording and selling them as a profitable authorpreneur revenue stream, I was ALL EARS!

Get comfy and get ready to take some notes, because Valerie is going to give us all the word nerd goodness when it comes to audiobook creation and sales.

Take it away, Val!

First of all, thanks to Amanda for letting me visit today and talk to you about audiobook production!! I’m so excited to share this insight with you. It’s the kind of information I wish I would have had awhile ago, because the making of an audiobook was something of a mystery to me before I jumped into this market two years ago. The audiobook listening audience is growing—quickly! In 2020 listeners in the United States spent $1.5 billion on audiobook purchases. Worldwide this figure was $3.5 billion. In true authorpreneurship form, this is the perfect way authors can use content they’ve already created to gain another revenue stream.

I highly recommend it – but I know the process can be confusing! There are a lot of decisions to make, and the wrong one can be costly.

That’s why I am so pleased today to debut the online course I’ve created to help authors navigate this tricky task!

Listen Up: How to Create Another Revenue Stream with Audiobooks dives into the pros and cons of the two most popular audiobook production platforms, ACX and Findaway Voices, along with a discussion about what it takes to tackle the do-it-yourself option.

The course also:

Details the steps of production, including the cost for each method of production.
Teaches you how to prepare your audition script and choose a narrator.
Gives you tips for how to work with your narrator.
Lists the housekeeping tasks you must tend to as your audiobook becomes available.
And finally guides you to the best promotion and marketing options specific to audiobooks.

This course is presented in a 70-minute video and comes with a Resource Sheet that gives authors the most up-to-date information and links from the audiobook publishing industry in an easy-to-use format.

Intrigued? Well today is your lucky day because I’m going to share a sneak peek portion of the course with you, right here!

You may already know that the two largest and most widely used audiobook producers and distributors are ACX and Findaway Voices. But even within these two companies, there are multiple production path choices that have different price points.

At ACX you can choose Royalty Share, Royalty Share+, or Pay per Finished Hour (PFH)*.

If you’re being very budget minded, then Royalty Share or Royalty Share+ might be your best options. The Royalty Share system allows an author to work with the narrator who produces their audiobook for no upfront cost. Instead, the author and the narrator share the royalty 50/50. Royalty Share+ is the same 50/50 royalty split with the narrator, except there’s a small amount paid for each finished hour of audio when production is completed. (I pay my narrator $50/finished hour, plus we split the royalties 50/50.) This stipend is always less than the full pay for each finished hour that typically runs $250 - $450 (and up). ACX distributes to Amazon, Audible, and iTunes, and you will be in an exclusive seven-year contract with ACX if you choose either of the Royalty Share options.

*Note: To calculate how many finished hours of audio your book will be, use this formula:

Length of book in words / 9400 = finished hours of audio

I use ACX and I’ve been happy with them because those three markets (Audible/Amazon/iTunes) reach 70% of the audiobook buyers in the US.

Why ACX might be the right choice for you: If you’re looking to minimize production costs, ACX offers the most reasonable cost and the lowest financial risk for making your audiobook a reality.

BUT . . . I’d be remiss in not talking about Findaway Voices. This company is the main competitor to ACX. Typically, you will find that using this company is more expensive than ACX because they don’t have the Royalty Share option. Instead, they have something similar that’s called Voices Share, where the author pays 50% of the production costs (based on PFH) and then the narrator receives a 20% share of royalties with a 10-year contract. Findaway Voices also offers authors the ability to pay for the full project cost and the exclusive distribution contract does not apply.

Why Findaway Voices might be the right choice for you: If you’re looking to distribute your audiobook widely to many markets including libraries, Findaway Voices gives you that option.

The course will give a more in-depth look at the pros and cons and specific examples of the financial considerations with each path!

Another topic I spend a lot of time on in the course is choosing the right narrator. I remember back to when my first book was open for auditions, and I realized that there were very few narrators who could handle the many Irish accents in my series. Thank goodness for narrator/producer Paige Jensen, who saved the day. I am fascinated by the narration process, and Paige graciously agreed give us a glimpse into the production of an audiobook from a narrator’s perspective. (If you click through to that article, you can listen to Paige’s wonderful Irish narration.)

If you’ve been waiting for the right time to jump into the audiobook market, this is it – jump away!! I think you’ll be happy you did!

Valerie Biel is a public relations professional as well as the author of the award-winning Circle of Nine series, stories of magic steeped in the Celtic mythology of Ireland’s ancient stone circles. She primarily writes for the young adult and middle grade genres and is represented by Tina Schwartz of the Purcell Agency. You can learn more about her writing adventures at www.ValerieBiel.com. She holds a degree in Journalism (Public Relations/Broadcast News) and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin and has spent more than 25 years working in the public relations field. She edits manuscripts, develops marketing materials, implements publicity plans and more for other authors via her agency Lost Lake Press www.LostLakePress.com. Her popular publishing resource blog was honored as one of the top 50 Writing Blogs of 2018.

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