6 Questions to Ask Before Recording an Audiobook

Audiobooks are starting to grow in popularity and authors are faced with the decision of making their books available as audiobooks. There are several things that need to be thought about and decided on before giving the go ahead for an audiobook. The first thing that is most important to most authors is the cost of making an audiobook. The most popular way of making an audiobook is using Amazon’s Audiobook Creation Exchange. The cost of each hour of recording is $200 so a finished book can be upwards of $2,000, depending on how long the book is. Aside from the cost of the audiobook here are a few other things to think of when contemplating the audiobook decision.

* Do your readers and target audience listen to audiobooks on a regular basis?

Ask around on social media get a feeling from their responses on how well received an audio version of your book will be.

* What is the genre of your book?

Personal stories such as memoirs and biographies tend to go over better as audio books than fantasy or fiction.

* Is there a performance element to your book?

If your book has special characterizations that can develop a character better in an audio version, it may be something to consider.

* Can you add an extra feature to the audiobook version to make it more of a draw?

Extras could be an Interview with you the author, a soundtrack of songs that inspired your writing or fit the books theme, or other additional audios bits.

* Do you listen to audiobooks yourself?

If the answer is no, then it is probably best to skip an audio version of your book.

* Are you willing to do extra promotion for the audiobook?

Think of what time you have available and is you can fit in more promotional time without feeling overburdened.

There are many more things that may come up as you are working through the process of deciding on making an audiobook but hopefully these questions will help make the decision a little easier for you when it does come up.