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Audiobooks for Authors: Should You Make One?

Reading has progressed far beyond the simple turning of pages. From hardcovers to ebooks to audiobooks, the preferences of the reading community have varied throughout the decades, depending on personal convenience. Hence, publishing your book in different formats has become vital to marketing. 

Since traditionally published authors usually have audiobook production rights arranged by their literary agent or publisher, indie authors need to decide by themselves the importance of producing an audiobook and delve into this on their own.

In this article, we will explore the benefits of publishing your book as an audiobook, especially if you’re an indie author.

01. Reach a New Audience

Audiobooks are not for readers alone. They help you reach out to the non-reading audience—the people who love books but do not particularly enjoy the process of reading. These people love listening to stories rather than reading them by themselves.

By publishing your book as an audiobook, you can reach these people, as well as those with reading disabilities, partial or total vision loss, and others with special needs. Audiobooks have opened a way for them to enjoy stories just as much as anybody else.

02. A Less Competitive but Rapidly Growing Market

The audiobook industry has quickly grown to become a billion-dollar industry with relatively less competitors. In fact, according to statistics, no other publishing format has gained such popularity within a very short period of time as audiobooks. In 2009, the number of audiobook sales in the United States was estimated to have been about $900 million. But by 2017, this figure shot up to reach a whopping $2.5 billion dollars.

And yet, this is still a comparatively new industry, with less competition and more room for new and upcoming authors. From 2014 to 2018, an estimated 750,000 books were published annually in the US, while only 80,000 audiobooks were produced in 2017. By investing in audiobooks, you’re not only increasing your chances of being found by more people, but you’re also entering a rapidly growing market.

03. Cheap and Easy to Make

Compared to other methods of publishing, producing audiobooks has now become relatively cheap. They are also easy to produce since there are now many options and offers for authors who are looking to produce audiobooks.

In fact, some services like Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) let you produce your audiobook for free if you’re willing to split your profits by 50% with the narrator of the book. There are options to even record and create your audiobook by yourself (if you’re good at that sort of thing), which will save you the cost to hire a professional narrator.

04. Increases Sales

Diving into the audiobook industry is a sure way to increase your sales. It will serve as an additional source of income in case the other sources become a little slow. Since the cost of production of audiobooks is low and the rate of consumption is high, the profit margin tends to be higher.

Another aspect of producing audiobooks is that it also creates a high chance for your paperbacks and ebooks to be sold. Readers who fall in love with your audiobook are likely to purchase the physical copy of your book (or the ebook) to highlight their favorite passages and to place it within the shelves of their personal library.

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Sharika Hafeez

Sharika Hafeez is a nerd, and she’s proud of it. Growing up, she fell in love with books and writing, and is currently following her undergraduate degree (for some mysterious reasons) in Physics. She likes procrastinating by watching the stars with a steaming cup of tea, composing poetry in her head.

September 1, 2022

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