How To Make Your Book into an Audiobook

I've been working in audio for around 15 years, in one form or another.  If there was one thing I never thought I would work on, it was audiobooks.  That sounds bad, but it's really not exciting work.

Audiobooks, or audio books (both are acceptable), are becoming increasingly popular and more and more necessary.  People are traveling an hour plus to and from work, they're busing cleaning / working out, and so on.  We have made our lives so busy that many of us simply can't find the time to sit down and read a book anymore.  Not to mention people with disabilities who physically can't read books.

I've now been working on audiobooks for some time, and that all started with a single author approaching me.  She was getting quotes form local studios and was shocked at how expensive they all were.  I did some research into how long it should take and what all went into the process.  I even found out that there is a normal price range throughout the US.  So I quoted her dead center of that range.  My quote ended up being just under $1,900, where all of the other local studios were quoting her $6,000 plus!  It was insane, but companies overbid work they don't want.  This one audiobook changed my business completely, and now audiobook production is one of the main things I do at my studio.  Don't get me wrong, I work on plenty of music, podcasts, voice over, and other things - but audiobooks is a staple of mine.

I say all of this to qualify what I'm about to say - there are basically 3 ways to turn your book into a professional audiobook:
  1. Have it done by a professional narrator / voice actor.
  2. Go into a professional studio and self narrate (I highly suggest this for most books).
  3. Record it yourself (not recommended unless you are an audio professional already).
Every book is different, so there is no one right way to do this.  For most books, I recommend recording your (the author's) voice at a professional studio.  People love hearing the author.  They don't care if you have a weird voice, they want to hear your passion come through the recording.  I really don't suggest doing it yourself.  It's much harder work than most people assume.  You have to take care of your room and outside noise, get the right microphone, computer, software, headphones, cables, interface, and so on.  You have to do everything by yourself, without having an engineer check your levels and help you make sure you read everything right (which is harder than you might think, especially since most books aren't written to be read out loud).

I'm happy to answer your questions, so feel free to contact me through my CONTACT page.

I also wrote about each of these options in great detail in my book "Audiobooks: The Definitive How To Guide - What every author needs to know."  You can find this on Amazon.  Be sure to leave a 5 star review if you find it helpful.