Audiobooks: are they worth it in terms of sales?

Erato

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I've written and self-published a book which is available in the usual ebook and paperback combo. I am noticing even my friends don't want to read it, but when I mention the possibility of an audiobook they get excited and act as if they'd be interested in that. I too have been finding myself to listen to more and more audiobooks lately.

Now, I cannot record the book myself (the main character who narrates the story is an English prince, and for me to read it being female with my American So Cal accent would be perfectly ludicrous.) It's going to run about $2,000 to hire an actor and get it recorded, it looks like. That's a big investment, akin to old-style self-publishing where you used to have to buy a whole print run at once.

So, I'm wondering -- has anyone here done audiobooks? (I believe others have.) Did you see a big boost in sales? Do they outsell the other books?
 

cool pop

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Some say they make good money with audiobooks while others say they make hardly anything. It depends on so many things and probably only something you can tell if you try it yourself. Every author, book, and genre is different. I might would try audio books if I could but it's waaaay beyond my budget. LOL! With all that money, I'd have to test with one book to see if it was worth it. No way would I spend money on a bunch of audio books before I saw the type of ROI I'd receive.
 

davidjgalloway

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The way Amazon's ACX works, you might be able to find a starting narrator who will do it for royalties. It's not ideal, because unless the book sells really well, it's not worth it (I did four books back in the day and get about $20 a month in royalties, most of it just from one title, the others are nothing). Yes, the top narrators will charge much more, and that up front. But if you find a sweet spot where there's someone serious who will do it for royalty share, it might work out. Worth looking, in any case. The other thing you could do, though I get your point about accents, is to narrate it yourself without doing any voices, and either give it away for free on your webpage or sell it for a few bucks there. It might not generate a lot, but you won't be out anything but some time to lay down/edit the audio and I'd bet some people would like to hear the author read it--and that might generate more interest.

Alternatively, find a British friend or convincing fake who would be willing to do it for $600 :).
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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Audible.com is a publisher, and you can query them, although I don't know if they take non-agented queries. They pay advances and will absorb the production costs. Essentially just like a book publisher, except for audio.

Or you can produce an ACX, hire a narrator, etc. You get a bigger slice of the pie in the latter case, but it may be a smaller pie.

Also, to answer the original question, my audio sales are 80% of my total sales by unit count, and about 66% by dollars.
 

M. H. Lee

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For most people the better you're selling in print or ebook, the more audio sales you'll get. So if you don't have huge ebook sales, you probably won't see huge audio sales. I have one non-fiction title where that's not the case and I sell far more in audio than any other format. But all my other titles audio is a fraction of ebook and print. I paid up front and have my titles wide through Authors Republic and I see steady sales every single month likely due to library "sales". But most of my titles have not paid for themselves yet.
 

BenPanced

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Audible.com is a publisher, and you can query them, although I don't know if they take non-agented queries. They pay advances and will absorb the production costs. Essentially just like a book publisher, except for audio.

I'd hold off on Audible for the time being. Apparently, there are some serious questions regarding their romance novel package, payouts, questions on contract lengths, and mislabeling categories. A friend is going to speak directly to them tomorrow.

ETA: Also found out there are questions on royalty payments for some narrators.
 
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davidjgalloway

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I'm surprised there is not an automated way to produce an audiobook. I can open the PDF version of my paperback on Acrobat, and it will read it to me.

You're presumably referring to a machine-read file with a synthetic voice. Audible and other companies specifically forbid this. The desire is for a human narrator. That requires much more work, thus it is more expensive proposition.
 

Polenth

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I'm surprised there is not an automated way to produce an audiobook. I can open the PDF version of my paperback on Acrobat, and it will read it to me.

If people want an automated voice reading it, they can do that by using screen readers. You'll note on Amazon there's a screen reader section in the product details ("supported" means people can have the book read to them). So there's not a demand for recording those automated readings, because anyone can set that up if they want.
 

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I'd hold off on Audible for the time being. Apparently, there are some serious questions regarding their romance novel package, payouts, questions on contract lengths, and mislabeling categories. A friend is going to speak directly to them tomorrow.

ETA: Also found out there are questions on royalty payments for some narrators.

I believe their romance package is optional like Select/KU so an author has the choice of opting into it or not. And yes it's no surprise that it sucks. Amazon will do anything to squeeze pennies from authors. Kindle Unlimited is a mess so I am not surprised this romance package deal is as well. The "pay" they offer is pathetic just like in KU.
 
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alvin123

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An Audiobook from ACX is just not worth it right now, unless you're a big-time author. Even they don't make the investment back for a few reasons: Amazon sucks. They will do whatever it takes to shake money from authors, whether it's Kindle Unlimited or that garbage romance package which should be illegal.
I'm not a bitter person, but if you go for the audiobook, just keep in mind that you're chucking 1-2k down the drain. I love audiobooks and sadly have an audible subscription(because no one's daring enough to compete. And well, I've seen the reviews on Playster, so I'm staying away.)

I sold a few books on ACX BUT Amazon takes so much of the profit.
 

Sydneyd

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While I might back off from getting an audiobook out there quickly right now, I think you should definitely start thinking about how you would get one produced. Royalty share isn't so bad, otherwise, if you hire one for cost, you'll spend some money getting it finished (depending on length). I've heard prices anywhere from 1k to a few thousand.
 

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Apparently, many authors who've chosen the Romance package with Audible are going to be or have been released from their contracts based on many conversations they've had with authors and narrators during this last RT Booklovers Convention.