Audio

[MineOwnKing]

Oi,

From my time on Goodreads I came to realize that many modern consumers enjoy the option of buying an audio version of a book.

I'm curious about this community of scribes' experience with publishing audio versions of their work.

Example: Pros, Cons, How hands-on is it, cost, # of sales, etc?

 

[Ophiucha]

I've never published a novel, so I can't speak for that, but I've had a couple of fanfics turned into 'podfics' and one of my best friends does a podcast where they do 'audiobooks' for short stories. Not in fantasy, so I can't say if the process is identical, but he's told me he "ask the publisher for the rights and the author for their blessing", which to me means 'we do ask the author, as a courtesy, but strictly speaking they have no say in it'. This is different if you are self-published, obviously.

Neil Gaiaman: "Audibooks: A Cautionary Tale" talks about the difficulties an author friend of his had, but also about ACX making it easier (and cheaper) to publish audiobooks for authors who still have the rights to their work. Here's an article about ACX, incidentally, which cites $200-$400 as the average cost per hour of audiobook (although ACX also offers a royalties system as an alternative to paying the narrator up-front). Based on my experience with 'reading' audiobooks and having podfics published of my work, a well-paced audiobook is going to be about 8-10k per hour.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is about 75,000 words and a bit over 8 hours -- for you to publish a similar-length book, you're looking at $2,000. And for an extreme example, Atlas Shrugged is apparently 63 hours long. That would run you close to $20,000.

edit to add: You could also produce your own audiobook, if you could afford to either rent out a studio or purchase some high quality audio equipment (the standards are a bit stricter, from what I hear, for ACX than just Amazon's self-publishing market, so good audio quality is a necessity). However, I personally would never pursue that, because I have a terrible New Yorker-London accent hybrid, and I doubt I could go more than 20 minutes reading something without tripping over my tongue.

 

[MineOwnKing]

I've never published a novel

Thanks Ophiucha!

The silence in the Chit Chat room can be deafening. Love to hear from Scribe veterans.

Wow, those are some high numbers.

I would have thought that with the rising popularity it might be a little cheaper than that.

Some parts of a recent self-published work of mine contains dramatic scenes busting with rich dialogue.

I really wish I could find some experienced Shakespearean actors to read a few pages.

Maybe a podcast is a good way to experiment.

The only problem I see from a podcast is....who would ever know to watch it?

 

[Ophiucha]

In terms of SFF, I know Clarkesworld Magazine does an audiobook podcast release along with their eZine. Here's a link, if you're interested. Since it's tied to the magazine where the story was published, I imagine it gets a few more listeners than just indie podcasts that pick their stories from different sources. I usually just read the stories on their website, but I've definitely downloaded a few when I was going to be commuting a lot or taking a plane somewhere.

 

[MineOwnKing]

Thanks for the link!

Wow, I'm just getting into the site and the cover gallery is phenomenal.

Really cool stuff, I love it.

Kate Baker has the voice of a siren.

Good thing I'm not sailing, I'd crash on the rocks for sure.