This is the third in a series of posts on how to publish your book on Amazon. The first and second posts are here and here.
If you have a self-published book on Amazon, or are working on one, you’re leaving money on the table if you’re not selling an audiobook version. Depending on your genre, an audiobook will make up as much as 60% of your sales.
Here’s how to make an audiobook:
Staff up and choose a platform
If you’re a performer, narrate your own audiobook. If you’re not a performer, you can get someone to narrate your book for you, but they’ll cost you.
To hire someone to read your audiobook, you’re best off finding someone on Fiverr. Depending on the length of your book, you’ll drop hundreds, perhaps thousands, for this service.
An even more expensive route, but one that delays payment, is using the Audiobook Creators Exchange, where you have the option of finding narrators who will make a deal with you for a percentage of your audiobook sales. You can also hire someone to produce your audiobook here. They’ll provide upload-ready files for a similar share-of-profits deal.
You’ll make a lot more money going exclusive with Audible for the same reasons you’ll make more money going exclusive with Amazon for your paperback and eBook. ACX.com is the place where you’ll upload your audiobook files for Audible.
Alternatively, you can use Findaway Voices, the best of the non-Audible platforms. You upload to them, and they upload to all the audiobook platforms for you.
For the purposes of this post, I’ll assume you’re going with Audible and narrating your own audiobook, which is my recommendation.
Recording
To record an audiobook, you just need a semi-decent microphone and a quiet place to record. I use my closet.
For mics, a Yeti USB mic will do the trick. If you want to upgrade to a better sound for an audiobook, get a Sure SM7B. If you want to go the Cadillac route, the best voice mic you can get for an audiobook is the Neumann TLM103.
For any mic with an XLR connector, you’ll need two XLR cables and an audio interface to get the sound in your computer. I recommend the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. It’s the best you can get for the price, and it will do the job.
You’ll also need a pre-amp or mixer with 48 volts of phantom power if you go with the Newmann TLM103. I recommend the Presonus TubePre.
You can record your audio directly into your computer, or you can record it onto a digital recorder like the Tascam DR-40X and transfer the recording to your computer from an SD card.
Post-Production
To record and edit audio files on your computer, you’ll need a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Audacity is free and will work fine.
ACX gives you the proper delivery specs for audio files here.
When you’ve recorded all your audiobook files, go to ACX and create an account with the same email you used for your Amazon KDP account.
Before you start uploading your audiobook, visit ACX’s test page where you can upload your files ahead of time to make sure they meet Audible’s technical requirements.
Testing your files on this test page is a good idea. Without that step, you’ll wait three weeks for ACX to test your files to make sure they’re up to snuff. If they’re not, you’ll have to fix the errors in your files, re-upload the new files, and wait another three weeks for another quality check. You’ll save all this time by using ACX’s test page in advance.
Uploading
Now you’re ready to upload:
Log in to ACX.com and click “Claim your title.”
Locate your book and click “This is my book.”
Be sure to select “English.” It may not be the default selection.
On the next page, enter your chapter titles.
On the next page, upload the cover of your audiobook. If you took my advice and hired a professional cover designer, you’ll have this already.
Follow the steps for uploading your files.
That’s it!
For what it's worth, I saw a tweet (https://twitter.com/charliehoehn/status/1771280638118613260) recently about a new Amazon feature called Virtual Voice that will generate an audiobook for you. The linked tweet is Charlie Hoehn, who has published a few books and has a background in helping authors publish dozens of others, and he seems very impressed by the quality of it. I haven't tested it myself but could be something for folks to look into, especially as I'm sure it will improve in the next few years.
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