To Do Audiobooks or Not, That's The Question
Ugh . . . audiobooks. There is usually someone who occasionally asks me if I have audiobooks available. Truth be told, it has not been in my budget, which has been extremely slim. This market is ginormous. Sales are hard to come by unless you work your butt off, and even then . . . Hey, I'm a reader. I know how expensive books are. I totally get it! But audiobooks are another expense and I'll tell you why.
Voice Actors
I can hire a voice actor to do an audiobook, hence the expense. Obviously, like editing, I would want the audio done right. To do so, I'd need to shell out some serious dollars to hire someone to do the voicing. Then, I'd have to consider my characters. My second book, The Duke's Daughter, is based in England and has several characters who would have accents. That may cost more than The Gangster's Daughter or The Gangster's Mistake. And this is part of the reason I do not have my books available on audio yet.
DIY (Do It Yourself)
Doing it myself is a viable, and much cheaper, option. You need the computer program, okay-easy enough. You need headphones and a microphone, okay-cool. You need a room that has buffers, hmmmm could do it in my closet. My office is much too open and it would cause an echo. BUT . . . my voice is not what you'd call audio worthy. Yes, I know there are many of you who have not heard my voice. Trust me in this! You do not want me to voice my own book, although many authors do so. I most definitely could not voice The Duke's Daughter. For this reason, I did not go down this path in doing an audiobook myself.
Sounded
Recently, I've been made aware (thank you, Ingram) of an audiobook production platform called Sounded. I looked into this and although Sounded is not among those popular places to get your audiobooks; they have affordable options for the little people like me depending on my book and how much I want. Meh, could be an option when my budget opens up a little more. Of the lowest two pricing options, the audiobook would only be available on their platform for a certain amount of time (the lowest option is 3 years, the middle option is 1 year). The highest priced option, I could have my audiobook available wherever the heck I want. The good thing about this program is that I control every single sentence and how it sounds. Is the voice excited? Sad? Fast? Slow? High pitched? Deep? British? Russian? Still considering it . . . I know people want my books in audio format, I just have to afford it and if my paperback and ebook sales are struggling, will audio struggle, too?
These are all things I need to consider carefully before I delve into audiobooks, but I can assure those who want my books available in audio form, I am looking into it!
Happy reading (or listening, eventually)!