How To Make An Audiobook - Everything You Need To Know

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Question: Which of the following book formats has the highest growth year over year in the last three years?

audiobooks
paperbacks
e-books

if you chose one, you’re absolutely right. Unless she’s been living in a cave for the past few years, she’s experienced the “advent of audio.”

You are reading: Mp3 audio books amazon

Think about it: We listen to podcasts in our cars and at the gym, high-quality portable bluetooth speakers abound, and everyone listens to audiobooks. in fact, nearly half of all Americans listened to an audiobook last year, and the audiobook market is nearly $3.5 billion!

As a whole, the audiobook market is growing at a rate of 30% per year, which is almost four times the growth rate of e-books. this is a wave you have to catch!

the problem is this: how does a self-published author get his book published on audible or itunes? what steps does it involve and how complicated is it to publish an audiobook? The barrier to entry to Kindle publishing is low: write a book, get a cover, enter some metadata, and you’re good to go. Audiobooks have a higher barrier to entry because you need high-quality recorded audio, but the revenue stream can be huge. so how to start?

why make an audiobook?

The answer to this is quite simple: if you’re not creating audiobooks, you’re leaving money on the table and not reaching all of your potential readers. With millions of audiobook listeners around the world consuming audiobooks at a fairly rapid rate, the business case for audiobooks just makes sense.

The incredible aspect of this growth is that there seems to be no end in sight. Formats for listening to audio change (remember mix tapes or 8-track players?), but the combination of smartphones, mp3s, and busy lives have produced fertile ground for the growth of audiobooks. in fact, many readers now prefer audiobooks to any other format for book consumption.

Here are some impressive statistics on the growth and evolution of the audiobook market:

books that are not good audiobooks

It is essential to note here that some types of books do not make good audiobooks. in fact, audible even specifically recommends against recording any of these types of books as audiobooks.

These types of books include:

reference books
quotation books
home and garden or interior design books (picture heavy books)
any type of picture book
cookbooks
travel guides

books that are great audiobooks

In contrast, various types of book genres tend to sell very well on audible. individual results obviously vary, but generally these genres of books sell well:

self-help/spirituality
story/biography
mystery/thriller
sci-fi/fantasy
health and fitness
romance
business

what are the audiobook formats?

as with kindle ebooks, you can have multiple file formats for audiobooks; this can be quite confusing. With kindle, you have mobi files, epub files, and more, and with audiobooks, you have mp3 files, m4b files, wav files, and even aiff files for cd. Let’s explain what these files are and where they are used.

1. wav files

wav files originated way back in 1991 and you may remember them from the early days of microsoft. Remember those “ping” error sounds in the “sounds” section of your control panel? all those very short sounds were wav files. that worked great for very short sounds, because wav files are huge. these days they are used as the uncompressed file that stores all the nuances of the recording which is then used by the audio engineer during mastering of the file. it’s easier to understand all this knowing what happens when you save a file. let’s say you record in garageband. that source file is a “.band” file, which is then used by the engineer to extract all the individual wav file tracks for each chapter of the book. those files are mastered and then the mastered wav files are exported as mp3 files (for audiobook authoring interchange (acx)) or m4b files.

2. mp3 files

As we just learned, mp3 is the final audio file format for most audio, including acx audio. they are much smaller and compressed files compared to wav so they are portable. that’s huge: the mp3 format has allowed us to put thousands of audio files on our smartphones, so that file format has been instrumental in the growth of audiobooks.

3. m4b files

m4b files are similar to mp3 files in that they are much smaller than wav files and m4b files are used by itunes. So when you download an iTunes audiobook, you are actually downloading m4b files, while they are mp3 files with audio. The main advantage of m4b files is that they can be bookmarked, while mp3 cannot; this process, however, is very difficult for someone who does it by himself.

The main point here is that if you’re using acx to publish your audiobook, the mp3 files you upload to acx will go to both itunes and audible and you won’t have to do any conversion to m4b files to get your audiobook on itunes.

If for some reason you want to record your audiobook and then publish it only in m4b format, there are programs available to export the wav files as m4b once they have been mastered as wav files. one such program to make m4b audiobook can be found here.

ways to create an audiobook

well, if the audiobook market is in the midst of a growth spurt, why aren’t more people making an audiobook?

The first reason is that most people think it’s incredibly difficult to do. the second is that they are scared by a high perceived cost.

However, recording your own audiobook, while a fair amount of work, can be done even by beginners, and the cost of production is not as astronomical as you might think.

Let’s look at these two methods of producing an audiobook: paying for the production (have someone record it) versus recording it yourself, and also discuss the pros and cons of each.

option 1: payment for production

Paying to have a speaker record your audiobook is the path most people take to record their book.

With this process, you:

1. find an audiobook narrator

2. they record the book and an audio engineer masters the audio files

3. and you get the finished audiobook files with all rights to the audio

The vast majority of audiobooks are published on the Audiobook Authoring Exchange (acx), more on that later, and that’s one place to find narrators.

many companies also specialize in the production of audiobooks. the advantage for a private company is that they will usually do books of any length (even very short books of about 5000 words) and they are open to paying production contracts. Rather, they typically employ fewer voice actors than the thousands you might find at acx. acx offers more options for audiobook narration, but many of them are unwilling to make shorter audiobooks and many insist on a royalty-sharing model where they receive 7 years of royalty payments from their audiobook.

When it comes to costs, a good rule of thumb is that a high-quality audiobook can usually be recorded at a rate of around $300 per 10,000 words. As with anything, costs can vary widely, and you can certainly find cheaper (and much more expensive) narrators, but $300 for 10,000 words is a good benchmark.

option 2: record your own audiobook + publish to acx

This is a route many authors take, especially if they only have one or two books to record. With the right recording equipment and setup, anyone can record their own audiobooks, but there are several key factors to consider before launching into this type of project.

1) You must have quality gear.I’ve compiled a list of recommended gear we use and have recorded over 600 audiobooks for authors around the world, so we know what we’re doing! you can get that pdf here.

2) you must be familiar with the recording specifications that acx insists on (if you are recording for acx) we have had numerous authors approach us about mastering their self-recorded audio. In most cases, we can master the audio, but sometimes, we’ve had entire books recorded with poor audio or wrong specs for acx, and the author has had to record the entire book again. the lesson here is to be very familiar with the specs and if you’re unsure about the settings, be sure to contact your audio engineer before you start recording!

3) Know that this project will take a long time.Mastering voice acting, like any skill, takes time and practice. Most people can talk at a rate of 8,000 to 9,000 words per hour, and it’s hard to talk for an hour unless you’re a voice actor! voice actors can simply go into their studio, sit down and spend hours recording non-stop. Like any technical skill, if you’re doing it for the first time, it will take a long time.

the important thing is quality

The most important thing to remember with the pay-per-produce or DIY option is that you’ll need high-quality audio files. acx puts all audio files through a two-step quality control check to ensure the audio sounds good to your listeners. We have a perfect track record: every book we’ve recorded has been accepted by ACX, but if you have poor quality files, whether from an ACX narrator or your own recorded files, you have a chance of having your entire book rejected by ACX.

how to make your own audiobook

Below, I’ll give you the main steps involved and some initial guidelines. now, let’s go inside.

step 1: get the right gear

When you record an audiobook, you just can’t start recording with your iPhone or your computer’s built-in microphone. why? well, most computers (and iphones) use very low-quality recording and audio processing equipment simply because you don’t need high-quality audio to make simple phone calls and run itunes. recording audio? is very different and you will need to spend some money to get the following items:

good mic. my current favorite is a blue yeti, but make sure you have it on a sturdy table and in a quiet room, as it picks up background noise easily. expect to spend $50-$100
pop-up screen. minimize plosives (the “p” sound in “pop” or “pickle”). expect to spend $5
garageband or audacity; you will actually record to these programs and they are either free (audacity) or already installed on your computer (garageband)

step 2: team & space setup

Set up your gear in a space that’s suitable for a recording studio (read: quiet) and make sure all your gear is working properly. you’ll need to wet hard surfaces, concentrating on covering the areas both in front of you and behind you. essentially, the more soft coverings (blankets, comforters, curtains) you can put around your recording space, the better. Also be sure to keep pets out of the room, turn off air conditioning vents, and stop the washer, dryer, and dishwasher before you start recording.

step 3: record your audio. simple, not easy, but here are a couple of key tips:

fries. eat a couple before you start filming to keep lips moist.
shea butter lip balm. trust me.
have drinking water handy.
if you are recording for several days, re-read the last few paragraphs you recorded the day before. then, listen to your recording of that same section as well. doing this will help set the tone for your recording and help ensure your audio sounds more even.
If possible, record at the same time of day. your voice changes throughout the day, so if you can record around the same time every day, that will also keep your audio more consistent.

Step 4: Send your audio to an audio engineer for editing.

this is something we can help you with and you can also find good engineers on sites like upwork or fiverr.

step 5: modify your cover for acx standards

acx requires a different size cover (square instead of a kindle rectangle) and you can’t just stretch your cover to square size. this is pretty easy – many fiverr contractors can do it for $5.

step 6: create your acx account

Be sure to enter your bank account and tax information for royalty payments! see the “all about acx” section below for a guide to doing this, including a video.

step 7: upload your audiobook & cover

You’ll upload your book description, choose a category for your audiobook, upload your audio and cover, and submit it to acx for review. this is covered in the “all about acx” section below.

step 8: add/update your categories and keywords

If you are using acx, you have the opportunity to add or change up to 3 categories and 3 keywords for your book. To do so, you can:

check out the hundreds of categories and subcategories here
analyze the sales of the top 10 books in that category to get an idea of how much it would take to rank high in that category
make sure that even if you rank in the top 10, you’ll still sell a lot of books (some categories are so obscure that even top titles don’t sell much)
enter potential keywords to see what results search results appear for those keywords
repeat steps 2 and 3 for your keyword search results to see if they have a lot of sales but little competition
select all three categories and three keywords that best fit your audiobook
email acx at support@acx.com and ask them to add or update your categories and keywords

audiobook markets: where to publish your audiobook

As with most of the global economy these days (including grocery stores!), Amazon is the 800-pound gorilla in the book publishing room. Audible is owned by Amazon and ACX is owned by Audible. acx is to audible audiobooks what kindle direct publishing is to kindle ebooks.

acx hosts the audio files, book cover, and audiobook metadata, just as kindle direct publishing does for kindle ebooks.

interestingly, acx also distributes to itunes. When I found out about this fact years ago, I was just as amazed as you are now, but this is an example of apple-amazon collaboration, which is pretty amazing for these tough competitors.

There are other options for publishing audiobooks, but none as great as acx. It’s worth mentioning the other options here to make sure we cover all options for audiobook publishing, but it’s also worth noting that you’ll need to choose a non-exclusive publishing agreement with acx to continue either of these platforms. this means you will receive significantly lower acx royalties.

some of the big players are:

overdrive
audiobooks.com
downpour
screeching

However, it’s probably the search voices (recently acquired by spotify) that you’ve heard the most, and we’ll talk about that later.

overdrive is distributed to libraries, which could be a good opportunity for your audiobook to be distributed even more widely. however, overdrive is very selective in choosing which authors to accept, and you’ll typically need at least a dozen or more recorded audiobooks to get your foot in the door.

audiobooks.com is second only to acx in terms of audiobook sales, but acx is very in the lead!

downpour is another platform that is just behind audiobooks.com in sales. however, both platforms will require you to negotiate a deal to get published on them, while on acx you can simply upload your book and start selling audiobooks.

chirp is a platform that takes your finished audio and sees if it’s eligible for deals. chirp is a sales platform with its own audiobook app, but it’s run by the same team behind bookbub, which means it’s primarily geared towards bargain seekers. but its reach is vast, and if you manage to land a standout deal, it can be very lucrative for you. to be in chirp, you have to be with search voices.

all about acx

let’s take a deeper dive into acx, as it’s currently the best place to publish your audiobook.

Setting up your ACX account is pretty simple – you need your Amazon login and tax information to get started, and you’ll be directed to this registration page below to enter your details. very simple and easy to do.

Once you’ve done all of this, you’ll enter your tax information and bank account information, and you’re ready to start uploading your audiobook!

I have introduced this process in this video below to make it easier for you. you will need your audiobook files, your square book cover, and about 5 minutes to complete this task.

Now, you have an important decision to make with acx before submitting your audiobook for review, and that is: do you want an exclusive or non-exclusive publishing agreement with acx?

all about search voices

findaway voices is not a sales platform like all the others we have talked about. rather, it is a channel of production and distribution. helps you create your audiobook recording by helping you select a professional narrator. or take your book that you produced with a different professional voice actor and send it to all the different audiobook distributors.

other than acx, there really is no other audiobook publisher that is a big seller for many authors, but all together they can still make you a lot of money. however, it can be a huge hassle to send your audiobook to all those providers.

And that’s where findaway’s voices come into play. they save you all the time and effort of uploading the audio version of your book to all those different sites. some platforms, like chirp, even require you to be on search voices.

also, it was recently acquired by spotify, which gives it a huge financial backing that no other platform except amazon has. if you’re not exclusive to acx, it’s a good option to consider.

Speaking of exclusivity…

exclusive vs non-exclusive

Just like deciding whether or not to go exclusively on kdp with your kindle book, you have to make the same decision with your audiobook. here are the main pros and cons of each:

exclusive: publish only to acx

Pro: Copyright share will be higher – 40% vs. 25% with non-exclusive publishing. can start selling fast and you don’t need to negotiate a publishing deal.with: exclusive to acx and you can’t publish your audiobook on competing platforms.

non-exclusive: post to multiple places

pro: Publish audiobooks on your own website and in other marketplaces. It’s usually a good option if you have a large email list and a wide distribution base that would love to buy your audiobook.

It is important to note that acx allows you to change your decision from exclusive to non-exclusive only after you have published your book with them for a year and only if you choose to “pay for production” (i.e. you have had your book recorded and you are not sharing royalties with an acx storyteller).

here is a table that helps explain each option:

You can switch between exclusive and non-exclusive, as long as your book has been with acx for at least 90 days.

how much can you earn selling audiobooks?

One question that always seems to come up is royalty payments and how much you can expect to earn from audiobooks. this is pretty confusing, so first let me explain how books are priced in acx.

with acx, they choose the price for you based on the runtime of your audiobook as follows:

less than 1 hour: $3.95 to $7.00
1-3 hours: $7 to $10
3-5 hours: $10 to $20
5-10 hours: $15 to $25
10-20 hours: $20 to $30
more than 20 hours: $25 to $35

Clearly this is somewhat subjective as there is an overlap between the pricing breakdown above, but this is directly off of the acx site and this is how they set prices.

So royalties are based on how the audiobook is sold. Here’s an example of what you’ll see on your monthly pdf of your sales data. the example below is for a short audiobook that sells for $3.95 on audible:

Doesn’t make much sense, does it?

let’s break this up. ACX royalties are based on whether or not the customer is an Audible listener (i.e. has an Audible membership) and whether they purchase it on iTunes or Audible.

“al” sales are audiobook sales in which an audible listener purchases your audiobook with one of their member credits

“alop” sales are sales where an audible listener purchases your audiobook but does not use one of their member credits

“alc” sales are a la carte sales made by people without an audible listener membership or by itunes sales.

You can see from the example above that royalties from audiobook listener credits are much lower than the other categories. but don’t forget the acx reward payment!

how to see how much your competitors earn

publisher rocket screenshot

With Publisher Rocket’s Competition Analyzer, you can see exactly what each book is generating on Audible. To do this, all you have to do is:

open publisher rocket and select the competition analyzer
search for a specific keyword and select “audible only” from the dropdown menu
search for a book you want to analyze

rocket gives you tons of information about each title, in particular, the number of daily and monthly sales. this is based on their rating and given price. but it also gives you information on whether you’re targeting a keyword, its average length, and more.

check it out here!

earn more money with acx reward

The acx reward is a $75 payment made to you when someone signs up as an audible listener member and purchases your audiobook as their first purchase. You can generate referral links in your acx account to distribute to your email list. this can add up fast!

for many months my reward payments have exceeded my royalty payments, and this is the key method by which acx offsets its relatively low royalty payments (20% to 40% vs. 70% on kindle).

In summary, producing an audiobook through acx is still the best option today, especially for emerging authors, but there are other options once you start publishing more audiobooks.

audiobook marketing: how to market your audiobook

once you have created your audiobook and it is available for sale on audible and itunes, you will have a unique opportunity to market your audiobook. About 7-10 days after your book is published, you will receive an email from acx with 25 free promotional codes that you can distribute to anyone you want. This is an excellent opportunity as the perceived value of an audiobook is expensive (and it should be since the shortest audiobook sells for $3.95!).

As such, you should maximize this opportunity to distribute these codes to do things like:

build your email list
gather reviews for your audiobook (obviously the reviewer needs full disclosure as well as compliance with amazon terms of service, but this is one great way to get reviews)
rewards loyal readers and customers

Now, you should know that marketing an audiobook is still in its infancy. And unlike direct publishing on kindle, acx doesn’t really have built-in promotion methods like the kindle countdown offer or free promotional days for your kindle ebook.

so basically you’ll have to put more effort into promoting your audiobook. But with far fewer audiobooks published compared to Kindle eBooks, if you work wisely on the marketing side, you can get ahead of the relatively smaller competitive field.

A key strategy for marketing your book is to collect reviews, as noted above. how can authors get reviews?

Below is a list of websites (both free and paid) where you can publish your audiobook to help promote it and ask for feedback.

audiobook promotion sites that work

goodreads audiobook group → great place to get solid reviews of your audiobook and audiophiles tend to congregate here.

audiothick → audiothcket promotions start at $25 and are a quick and easy way to give your audiobooks a sales post. The site promotes audiobooks that are available on Amazon, Audible. apple, google play. audiobooks.com and kobo audio.

reddit audiobook thread → on the reddit forums you can post your book, but be aware that reddit can get nasty (I’ve seen it happen), so make sure your book is great before posting! That said, I’ve had good results using reddit for my audiobooks, as this is a very busy subreddit.

facebook group for audiobook giveaways → although facebook group marketing sucks a bit for ebooks, this specific group currently has over 6,700 members and you can distribute promo codes here. with this group, however, you cannot post more than three total gifts for a given book.

everything audiobook facebook group → this group is smaller but still has 3000 members and is another place where you can distribute promo codes for your audiobook.

facebook group for audiobook promotions → one more place to post your free promo codes on facebook with 2500 members.

Christian Audio → If you have an audiobook with a Christian theme, you can simply post it as a suggested title for them to host on their site by including the title of the book, the author’s name, and a brief reason why they should include their name. book .

request reviews from professional reviewers

Another strategy for collecting reviews is to ask professional reviewers for one, and fortunately, there are a good number of websites where you can find these reviewers.

here is a list of sites to find reviewers:

audiobook reviewer
audio archive
the audiobook blog
audiobooks today
the bookworm audio

how to make an audiobook summary

If you’re serious about publishing books, you need to make sure you reach as many readers as possible, and the numbers don’t lie: the audiobook market is expanding rapidly with no real end in sight.

There are a number of great options for producing an audiobook ranging from cheap (really just the cost of a good microphone) to expensive if you hire acx narrators for $1,000/hour.

With that, there are very good middle-of-the-road options for self-published authors that allow you to produce an audiobook at a reasonable price. That relatively low cost combined with the burgeoning market makes a solid business case for producing audiobooks at from your e-book or paperback content.

frequently asked questions

how much does it cost to make an audiobook?

The cost of an audiobook depends on many things, for example, whether you are going to record the audio yourself or pay a professional, as well as the length of the recording.

what are the different ways to create an audiobook?

Audiobooks can be created in two ways. You can record your own audiobook or you can pay a professional to do it. acx has different ways to pay a professional, such as a royalty portion or a one-time fee.

can i make my own audiobook?

yes! You can create your own audiobook for use on Amazon’s ACX or other platforms. In this post, we’ll tell you about specific gear, setting up your recording space, recording your audio, editing, and acx standards.