How to do Audible books

[Graeme]

Hi All,

Looking for advice - what are the best platforms, methods, etc for turning your book into an audible book and marketing it.

I know nothing about this and would like to see if authors here have direct experiences they can share on this topic.

[Marie Silk]

I went through ACX to list my book and find a narrator/producer. It was a great overall experience but I'm still a bit clueless on how to market to the audiobook audience. I now have the first three books from my series on Audible. The ACX site seems like it could be more user friendly. I still have trouble navigating it.

I listed my book on ACX to be open for auditions. No one auditioned in the first couple weeks, so I went through the different narrators (they upload samples of their work) that I thought could be compatible for my story and payment plan. I sent a message to a narrator and she responded that she would like to take on the project. After that, I had an audition come in from a different narrator, but I had already chosen the first.

You can decide to pay an amount per "finished" hour once the book is done, or you can split future royalties 50/50 with your narrator and pay nothing upfront. Some narrators are okay with royalty share, but others not. When paying per finished hour, how much you end up paying will depend on how long your book is. ACX will give you an estimate on how much your book will cost when complete based on word count and the pay rate you select. Some narrators will accept $50/finished hour, while others might require $250/finished hour.

[Philip]

Hi

I have one Audible via ACX - as Marie says you load a sample in word format and wait for auditions from Narrators which was my route. I went the split royalty route but very few sales even with offers on Goodreads fro free vouchers for lucky applicants!

Marketing is as usual hit and miss

The experience was excellent. I had two auditions and chose my preferred voice. Then you send the MS to the site and they upload sections in MP3 format for you to approve. It's like detailed editing getting your voice right. You can then ask for re-reads or changes for each section before moving onto the next recording. Lots of to and fro but a good experience. I would love to repeat but I think I will have to pay next time.

Of course you can narrate and upload your own recordings. You need a good microphone and quiet background then just read aloud. Only as the narrator's show its not as simple as that.

I found few pronunciation problems or other issues other than my own sentence structure. It shows up when someone else reads aloud

[Graeme]

Hi Marie, and Philip,

Thanks for that.