One Email That Isn’t a Scam
When you receive an email from a Nigerian prince, you probably think, “This so-called prince is just somebody who wants to take my money.”
Other types of emails may cause the same reaction. Authors are inundated every week with solicitations from marketing and web site gurus, proofers, webinar hosts, and more. It could be easy to become jaded to the constant barrage of offers.
However, one email that isn’t a scam is the one from an audiobook narrator who wants to collaborate with you on producing your audiobook. The reaction to that kind of email should be one of giddy excitement, such as, “This is somebody who wants to MAKE me money! What a prince!”
Although narrators routinely work with audio publishers, we are independent, freelance business owners just like you are. We don’t have agents who deal in audiobook work. Each narrator is on her own for ensuring she has a steady workload.
Until recent years, only about 5% of all books were made into audiobooks. Even though audiobooks are the fastest growing segment of publishing and have had double digit growth for the past 3 years, the overall number of audiobooks is still a relatively low percentage of the number of available books.
Consequently, the majority of authors do not have audiobooks of their titles and may not know how to create one. Narrators frequently do outreach with authors to help them learn about the production process. We speak at authors’ conferences and workshops. Some of us (ahem) write articles to share our knowledge and love of this medium.
We also prospect to line up projects on our own. We look for authors who are prolific in writing and releasing their books and treat their writing as a business. Once we find an author of interest, we research her work to find a book that:
isn’t already available as an audiobook
is a good fit for our voice, skills, and interests
contains content suitable for an audiobook in a genre that is successful in audio
could be expected to sell well in audio
With the research complete, the narrator will contact the author — usually through email — to inquire about the possibility of creating the audiobook.
If you’re on the receiving end of an unexpected query email from an audiobook narrator, you might initially think it’s a scam. What should you do?
1. Research the narrator.
You already know that you can learn a lot about a person by Googling them to find their web site and social media accounts. I would advise you to look at the narrator’s web site for testimonials from previous clients and professional reviews.
In addition to those sites, you’ll also want to look at the narrator’s credits on Audible.com. You can easily see the number and type of audiobooks they have recorded, as well as listener ratings and comments about their performances.
While looking at the narrator’s audio portfolio on Audible from your desktop computer, I’d suggest that you also look at the length of the recordings, which is shown on the left side of the screen. Someone who has only recorded short books that last 1 hour or less may not have the experience to produce on time and within budget a full novel that would have a run time of 6, 8, or more hours.
2. Educate yourself about the audiobook production process using my Audiobook Resources for Authors page.
Once you start thinking about creating an audiobook, my curated list of articles and resources will help you quickly learn the language and landscape of audiobook production. Don’t worry — you don’t have to learn how to actually DO it! 
