Composing an audiobook for your book is more difficult than it may initially come across, for if it should be compared to any other process, I would most certainly have to say that it’s like filming a movie.
The various stages in which must be completed in order to completely and successfully compose a single audiobook require immense amounts of time and patience. Most self-published authors typically don’t have audiobooks produced for their published works, especially since most of them don’t even know where to begin.
I remember a while back when someone had suggested to me that audiobooks should be my next target in the self-publishing industry and stupidly enough I rejected the proposal, but eventually thought about it and agreed. The first major step was trying to find a platform in which I could produce my audiobooks and prepare them for retail, but the thing was that I had no knowledge on recording or editing software that could allow for such a project to begin. I constantly looked all over the internet for a solution and disappointingly couldn’t find a virtual platform that would permit me to properly formulate my audiobook projects, but that was before I discovered ACX. During the recent heights of Amazon’s fortune and immense growth, the apparently obtained ownership of an internet-based company called ACX that held only one purpose and one purpose alone, to produce and distribute audiobooks digitally.
Comparing ACX to any ordinary publishing website would be an insult to its status, for it is more like the Facebook of audiobook production, simply because it connects producers to authors and authors to producers. Basically, I posted a listing for each one of my published titles at the time and gave ACX permission to index them into their vast database so that producers could take an interest in my titles and agree to produce them. Creating proposal after proposal was a real pain and eventually dulled my drive to find someone time record my work, but with all luck and after twenty proposals submitted to others, I at last received an audition from a narrator that would eventually and still currently stands as both my business partner and my friend.
The sample piece of audio that my current audiobook narrator sent to me was absolutely phenomenal and truly exceeded the expectations that I had originally set when I first joined the platform. I quickly got on the phone with him and sealed a deal for him to produce each title that I had already published as well as all other titles that I would publish in the near future, though based upon a legally contracted compromise. You see, there are two ways in which an author and a producer can sign a deal, specifically through ACX, which is by either having the author pay the producer thousands of dollars for every recorded hour of audio or share the net royalties for each audiobook sold through the public markets. Not having massive amounts of disposable capital at hand, I negotiated a royalty share with my producer, which officially bound us both to the projects that would soon begin.
It seemed to be all fun and games until we actually got down to business and began to set goals and specific time periods in which each audiobook was to be entirely completed and prepared for retail, but that almost immediately caught up with us both. Like I said, audiobooks are just the same as movies, for you have to record, edit, re-edit, master and eventually distribute the production with pristine accuracy and efficiency. I think it took a total of a month and a half for both my producer and I to finish the first audiobook and actually have it reach stores around the world and another two to complete three more. Presently, my producer and I are still composing the remaining audiobooks and triggering them for global distribution, but at this point it has become quite easy since we are within the final stage of production.
Generally speaking, if you are not a patient writer then you should try to figure out other ways to promote and release your published work, for producing audiobooks takes time and a lot of thought. Besides actually writing each one of my published titles, finding a professional producer to develop each of my audiobooks and release them worldwide has been by far one of the most difficult aspects of my career, but the most well-planned and executed. My main intention was not to embark upon a road full of risk and pressure, but to expand upon myself as both an author and a businessman, directly so that I could dip into other supporting markets to reach larger audiences. Audible, iTunes and Amazon are three of the largest retailers and distributors of audiobooks in the world and are excellent sources of useful tools that will enhance your book’s image.
Self-published authors can compete against those whom of which are traditionally published and have all the benefits of elite publishing companies standing alongside their products, but now you can too. If you diversify your reach in the book publishing industry by expanding your product line into free and publicly accessible markets, especially ones that sell audiobooks, you will definitely save both money and time. The main objective is to approach as many readers as you possibly can and when you do precisely that, nothing and I mean nothing within the digitized world in which we have come to know can stop you from accomplishing anything you set your sights upon.
Article is Copr. © 2013 by Aaron Ozee and originally published on PublishersNewswire.com (a publication of Neotrope) – all commercial and reprint rights reserved. Reproduction or republication in whole or in part without express permission is prohibited except under fair use provisions of international copyright law. Article cover illustration is Copr. © 2013 Christopher Simmons.
