The way to Make an Audiobook: 10 Steps to Listeners

The audiobook market is forecast to be valued at $35 billion or extra by 2030 (Supply: Grand View Analysis). Studying how one can make an audiobook whereas the market is much less saturated than print is sensible. Learn ten steps to make an audiobook that meets skilled requirements and platform necessities:

The way to create an audiobook

1. Prep for audiobook recording
2. Weigh professional narration vs DIY execs and cons
3. Get to know the primary audiobook platforms
4. Price range manufacturing prices (royalty share, upfront or hybrid)
5. Rent a narrator whose voice suits your e-book
6. Report your audiobook with professional sound
7. Get an audio engineer to wash audio (if going DIY)
8. Create your cowl artwork within the right format
9. Add your audiobook to your chosen platform(s)
10. Write descriptions, choose classes and promote

Prep for audiobook recording

As soon as your manuscript is full and has been edited, additional prep for recording will guarantee a energetic, partaking audio model.

Methods you possibly can mark up your manuscript embody:

• Including notation to point breaths or pauses (e.g. a ahead slash for every pause or breath)
• Inserting phonetic pronunciation subsequent to tough phrases in sq. brackets (for simpler mid-flow pronunciation)
• Rising font dimension to make sure whole legibility
• Marginal or different notes about emphasis, tonal adjustments or different voice performing notes
• Creating a quick checklist of characters noting any particular consideration for audio reminiscent of accents, age, kind of voice

This final suggestion will not be mandatory if working with an skilled, professional audiobook narrator. A professional narrator ought to have the ability to glean vital particulars from studying via your story.

Additional wonderful assets on prepping your manuscript for audiobook creation:

Weigh professional narration vs DIY execs and cons

When you’ve ready your manuscript for recording an audiobook, determine whether or not you’ll rent a narrator or narrate it your self.

We interviewed creator and Now Novel member Kate Baucherel about her cybercrime thriller SimCavalier quartet.

Kate talked about that she was within the technique of recording her audiobooks herself. The professionals counting in Kate’s favor for a DIY strategy have been:

• She is an skilled public speaker (being a keynote speaker on blockchain, cryptocurrency and rising tech). This implies she is aware of how one can use and mission her voice properly
• She had arrange gear for good sound (reminiscent of a DIY vocal sales space to scale back undesirable reflections that muddy sound)

So it’s helpful to weigh the professionals and cons of hiring a narrator versus recording your individual audiobooks.

DIY audiobook recording vs outsourcing

The professionals and cons of recording your individual tales:

Professionals of recording your audiobooks your self

• Potential value financial savings (if in case you have or can borrow a few of the mandatory gear or discover gear secondhand extra affordably)
• You all the time get to maintain royalties (although minus audiobook platforms’ reduce)
• Further editorial insights (it’s possible you’ll discover in the middle of recording your ear picks up what the eyes skip over)
• Connection to your fanbase – followers get to listen to (not solely learn) your voice

Cons of constructing your individual recordings

• If you happen to don’t know a lot about audio manufacturing, it may be exhausting to realize a balanced, skilled sound
• Your recording won’t have the voice-acting finesse or breadth of character an expert voice artist would have
• The value of buying or renting audio gear might negate DIY financial savings (although pay for itself in the long run)

Briefly, the professionals and cons of working with a professional voice artist:

Professionals of working with skilled audiobook narrators

• You may audition/preview artists’ work to search out an ideal match in vocal timbre (sound high quality), tone and magnificence in your story
• Take away the stress of getting to supply pro-grade audio your self
• There are completely different cost fashions (reminiscent of proportion cut up between upfront cost and royalties). This makes skilled audio narration prices extra manageable/versatile

Cons of hiring a professional e-book narrator

• Could also be costlier than DIY (relying in your gear and/or software program prices). Skilled audiobook recording specialists sometimes cost PFH – per completed hour (together with audio cleanup)
• Relying in your cost alternative, you’ll have to share royalties together with your audiobook narrator for a contractual interval
• You may’t preserve re-recording and tweaking the ultimate product the way in which which you could with a DIY strategy (although this could be a downside if you happen to’re an excessive perfectionist!)

The place to discover a narrator to document your story

If you’re contemplating working with an expert audiobook narrator, yow will discover a voice artist through:

• ACX – the audiobook manufacturing platform by Audible, which is a subsidiary of Amazon. There’s a giant, well-indexed library of audiobook narrators’ samples on the platform.
• Freelancer platforms reminiscent of Fiverr. The ‘voice overs’ class consists of business voiceover artists. Seek for ‘audiobook’ or ‘audiobook narrator’ to search out execs who specialise in longer codecs.
• Skilled voice artists’ web sites. You could choose to work with somebody native or an expert who has their very own non-public web site and portfolio. Google phrases reminiscent of ‘audiobook narrator in [area]’ or broader associated phrases (keep in mind to learn testimonials)

Get to know the primary audiobook platforms

What are the primary platforms for audiobook manufacturing?

Audible’s ACX

At time of writing, Audible’s ACX has 2123 titles open for audiobook narrators to audition. There are over 900,000 audiobook producers to select from and 291,319 audiobooks on sale (August 2022).

The way to produce and distribute audiobooks through ACX

ACX provides a easy ten-step course of to get going with the platform. To summarize:

1. Verify you may have the audio rights in your manuscript (you’ll by default in case your e-book just isn’t but revealed/signed).
2. Create a free profile on ACX as an creator. This consists of posting a one- to two-page extract for potential narrators to audition in your gig.
3. Publish your e-book for narrators to audition or evaluation samples and invite choose narrators to audition for you.
4. Evaluate the samples potential narrators submit.
5. Ship your most popular voice artist a manufacturing provide web page. A part of the deal will specify cost mannequin. Whether or not you’ll cut up royalties together with your narrator, pay them upfront (so that you simply preserve all royalties), or have a hybrid mannequin. Extra on this in Week 9 of our five-month indie publishing course, ‘All About Audiobooks’.
6. Get began, together with your chosen narrator. They’ll present a pattern of the primary fifteen minutes so that you can evaluation and approve or request adjustments.
7. Approve the ultimate product as soon as it’s delivered and also you’re happy.
8. Distribute your audiobook through Amazon, Audible and iTunes, both through ACX’s unique distribution settlement or non-exclusively (the latter if you wish to promote on different platforms reminiscent of Kobo).
9. Promote your audiobook (see concepts for constructing your creator model right here).
10. Use ACX’s dashboard to trace month-to-month gross sales and preserve monitor of how your audiobook promo efforts impression gross sales. What works and what doesn’t?

Different common audiobook distribution companies:

• Findaway Voices
• Kobo Writing Life
• Authors Republic

Scribe Media put collectively this helpful graphic evaluating royalty charges and platform options. Examine every service your self when deciding, as worth is one characteristic that’s all the time certain to alter.

Price range manufacturing prices (royalty share, upfront, or hybrid)

Step 5 above in ACX’s ten-step course of for getting an expert audiobook recording refers to agreements with narrators.

Your settlement will embody the way you construction cost. Every possibility has execs and cons.

Royalty share: Offsetting upfront audio manufacturing prices

A royalty share mannequin sometimes shares the interval for which you can be contractually certain to separate royalties.

As soon as your time-limited contract expires, additional, you’ll preserve all subsequent royalties (much less your distributor or audiobook service provider’s reduce). It’s a helpful strategy to offset a few of the manufacturing prices. You gained’t must pay for your entire narrator’s labor upfront.

Upfront cost for audiobook manufacturing

The professionals of paying per completed hour in your audiobook’s creation upfront are easy. In case your e-book is common and sells properly, you make more cash in the long run. You gained’t be sharing royalties together with your narrator.

The hybrid cost mannequin

If you happen to choose, you possibly can pay a few of the value of manufacturing upfront, and a few through royalties.

That is one other manner to make sure it’s neither value prohibitive to you to get going, nor a scenario the place you’ll must share a bigger portion of your royalties, for longer.

To price range for audiobook manufacturing:

1. Work out what the full mission would value at common PFH narration costs.
2. Hold a spreadsheet of auditioned voice artists’ PFH charges
3. Do some calculations measuring anticipated gross sales and their royalties, and the way a lot you would wish to share together with your narrator over X years – which cost mannequin makes probably the most monetary sense by way of attainable ROI (return of funding)?

Rent a narrator whose voice suits your e-book

The earlier steps are useful for constructing your information of audiobook manufacturing as a subject. We explored fashions for paying voice artists, methods to offset preliminary prices and extra.

But a sensible and vital step is selecting a narrator whose voice and magnificence of supply fit your e-book.

Within the self-help style, you’ll usually discover, for instance, narrators whose voices sound calming, measured (consider the fashion of narrator within the meditation app Headspace or the College of Life YouTube channel).

Make an inventory of points of your e-book that may have an effect on your alternative of narrator by way of tone. For instance:

1. Accents: Is there a strongly regional facet? Will you require a voice artist capable of seize voices from a selected place or time?
2. Style: Hire or purchase and take heed to audiobooks in your style. What sorts of voices are generally used? Are they male, feminine, or androgynous/gender-neutral? What may audiobook listeners in your style count on by way of tone and magnificence of supply?

Listening to the most recent and/or bestselling audiobooks in your style is an easy strategy to get a way of what works.

Report your audiobook utilizing professional sound

Whether or not you’re outsourcing audiobook recording or doing it your self, it’s vital to realize a degree {of professional} polish. Professional sound is nearly unimaginable to succeed in if you’re utilizing:

• Low high quality recording gear (reminiscent of most cellphone mics or the inline microphone on in-ear headphones)
• A loud recording surroundings
• An acoustically problematic house – ‘silence’ alone doesn’t essentially make a superb recording house. Reflective surfaces reminiscent of tiles and different paneling might make an odd or boxy sound

If you’re going the DIY route for narrating your audiobook, the minimal required consists of

• condenser microphone
• A pop filter in your microphone (this cuts out plosives reminiscent of ‘p’ and ‘t’ that ‘pop’ harshly in newbie recordings)
• An audio interface for recording into your laptop computer or different system
• Some type of soundproofing and dampening to keep away from muddy-sounding acoustic reflections
• Recording software program (Audacity is a free, barebones possibility with some options reminiscent of normalizing and fading audio that could be helpful)

Award-winning podcaster and artistic entrepreneur Joanna Penn gives a step-by-step instance of certainly one of her early residence recording setups.

If you’re new to audio manufacturing, think about outsourcing all the mission until you may have the time to be taught and the price range for some new gear.

Get an audio engineer to wash audio (if going DIY)

You may skip this part if you happen to aren’t planning to create your audiobook DIY. If you’re, you should still need to pay an audio engineer to wash up your audio.

A professional whose ears are skilled to listen to minute variations in a recording is aware of what to tweak to get an expert sound.

There are numerous software program plugins that work with audio manufacturing software program to ‘soothe’ harsh sibilance and different results.

But over-processed/filtered voices sound nearly as distracting as uncooked recordings with interference within the background. What you need to keep away from, too, is squeezed, flattened or muffled sound devoid of all character or tonal variation.

A poster in free audio enhancing software program Audacity’s boards says it greatest:

You continue to must know how one can learn and never sneeze and cough your manner via a e-book. There is no such thing as a “Voice Actor” button, filter or impact (sure, folks do ask for that).

Consumer Koz, Audacity discussion board thread ‘Recommendation on how one can produce clearest voice for audiobook’.

You’ll find somebody who is aware of how one can clear up audio on websites reminiscent of Folks Per Hour or Fiverr. The perfect funding if you happen to plan to document your individual books transferring ahead is to create a correctly soundproofed house.

Create your cowl artwork within the right format

After you have an audiobook sound file in your chosen platform’s most popular format, it’s time to make superior cowl artwork. (Examine your platform’s tips on audio format. ACX requires every audiobook file to be 192kbps or increased in high quality. They require a 44.1kHz MP3 file with a Fixed Bit Charge (CBR).)

ACX’s audiobook cowl artwork necessities embody specs for:

• File format (the platform accepts JPG, PNG, or TIF)
• Minimal dimension (no smaller than 2400 x 2400)
• Decision (no less than 72 DPI)

Look how properly good audiobook covers recommend style. For instance, the audiobook cowl for Brad Meltzer’s crime thriller The Lightning Rod.

On this occasion there’s whole continuity from the print to audiobook covers. Continuity in background artwork, typographical parts and even endorsements. This ensures constant, recognizable branding.

Browse titles in your style and take notes. What share between title, creator, and secondary info works properly on this smaller format?

Add your audiobook to your chosen platform(s)

You might have an arresting narrated model of your e-book. You might have cowl artwork that captures the essence of your story. What subsequent?

In importing your audiobook to a selected platform, examine the necessities.

ACX for instance requires you to add your introduction, chapters/sections, credit, a retail audio pattern, and your cowl picture.

In our webinar on self-publishing, hybrid-published Now Novel coach Romy Sommer talks concerning the significance of specifying key phrases and classes when importing a digital e-book to Amazon.

The identical course of applies for audiobooks. Look via the classes to get an thought of how your chosen platform organizes its content material. Audible has ‘Audible Latino’ for instance which is dedicated to Spanish-language audiobooks.

If you happen to drill down right into a class reminiscent of ‘Motion & Journey’, you’ll get an thought of what subcategories there are.

In case your audiobook falls inside a number of classes, milk this overlap for additional visibility and file it beneath each (for instance, paranormal and romance, or thriller and journey).

As soon as your audiobook is uploaded, your key phrases and classes specified, and your audiobook is stay, advertise in inventive methods.

To advertise the audio model of your story, you may:

1. Share your audiobook’s cowl artwork together with an audio pattern (the sq. format is nice for social).
2. Experiment with audio-focused platforms (reminiscent of SoundCloud, YouTube) – this relies if you happen to’ve gone unique together with your platform or not, and in your distribution rights and their limitations. The place all are you able to share hype-generating teasers?
3. Run contests or different giveaway promos, a lot the identical as you may do for print.
4. Attain out to common e-book podcasts for visitor slots. Podcasts that evaluation books or host chats with authors are nice locations to speak up your audiobook since listeners already get pleasure from audio codecs.

Dave Chesson of Kindlepreneur has many extra wonderful strategies for methods to market your audiobook.

Develop your story to shine with a coach or editor so your manuscript is recording-session-ready.