Okay, so I got super excited about Audiobooks and jumped in with both feet, as I am wont to do. I now have four Audiobooks available on Audible, and it’s been an absolutely wonderful experience. But is it worth it? Read on for my in-depth assessment, including my financial results, because honestly, I couldn’t find this information anywhere and it might help someone else:
Accessibility factors: In my previous blog post, I addressed the accessibility factor, and how much I personally value sharing my content with as many readers as possible. You can read more about that here, but the short version is: making your content accessible, brings your content to a wider audience, so it’s definitely worth considering.
Motivational & Emotional factors: There is nothing quite like hearing your writing brought to life through a talented narrator (or team of narrators). I can tell you that I felt extremely honored by the seriousness with which my work was treated. As a self-published author, sometimes I feel a touch of imposter syndrome, like maybe because I haven’t sought traditional publishing yet, I’m not a “serious” writer. (If you feel the same, by the way, check out this awesome article/video about managing imposter syndrome by self-publishing guru Joanna Penn.) I can tell you that listening to your work read by professionals is incredibly validating! I lost myself in the stories because I was no longer reading the work critically: I was enjoying the performance. And I tell you what, if I could afford it, I would seriously consider hiring voice actors to read my entire book before publishing, because hearing the words performed tells you the places where it could be strengthened!
Financial & Opportunity factors: This is why you’re here, right? Because no one else is telling you how much they’re actually making with their Audiobooks? Well, let’s get real for a minute (and yes, I will share my numbers with you in this post if you keep reading, and as of now, I am extremely average, so don’t get excited). So is it worth it financially? The short answer is always going to be it depends.
It depends on a million things, including the quality of your content, your current Amazon sales, your voice talent, the length of the book, your genre, your cover design, your blurb… all of it is going to impact your individualized results. But here’s my situation, and here’s how it’s panning out so far: before my audiobooks, I was selling 1-2 paid copies a day.
Now that’s pretty abysmal, for some of my readers, or pretty decent for others. But here are some of my factors: I barely spend anything on advertising, I have less than 40 customer reviews on my content (as of today’s posting), and I’ve done mostly my own covers and blurbs (except for The Boat’s latest cover which was updated in the last few days, which I will talk about IN-DEPTH in my next blog posting).
To lower your expectations even further, my content doesn’t have much of a marketable audience, according to industry experts. My books to date are short stories/novellas in the post-apocalyptic sci-fi genre. People want full-length novels. (You’ll start getting them by December, alright? I’m working up to it!) And they want at least 8 of them in a series, so the experts say (and I believe them). And my author platform, thus far, is very, very limited. Like, to this blog, pretty much. And my Twitter account, which I don’t post on enough.
So knowing that I make 1-2 sales per day on KDP with a tiny author platform with very little, self-created advertising (which I SUCK AT)… my sales on ACX have been around 1-2 per day. Yes. They’re pretty much the same. BUT LISTEN. Since publishing on ACX, my KDP sales have doubled to 2-4 sales per day.
That may not sound super exciting, especially if you’re looking at an up-front cost of $200ish per finished hour (that translates to about 10,000 words, by the way), and I was very fortunate to find incredibly talented folks in that price range. But consider this: if you have a short book that sells for $2.99 on KDP (at a 70% royalty) and the same Audiobook sells for $6.99 on Audible (at a 40% royalty), if you sell just one of each per day, you will pay back your $200 investment (earning approximately $4.89 per day) in about 40 days.
So I’m sorry if that doesn’t blow your hair back, but the truth is, I’m excited about it. Because that means that 3-6 people are reading/listening to my content every day. And I have “no marketable books”, right? So maybe, just maybe, it will transform your own reach. Or maybe double of nothing is still nothing. Take your pick. Either way, I think it’s a great way to connect with new readers.
Honestly, I have so much more to say and share about my experience with ACX, including tips and some basic how-tos, but it’s late… so please, enter some questions in the comments! I’ll gladly share what I know.