How To Make Money With Audiobooks (Multiple Ways) -

Audiobooks are a good way to learn, especially if you’re someone who’s always on the move. You can play them in your car, during workouts and basically whenever you want.

Many people don’t realize that they can actually make income through an audio book. If you have a great voice this is definitely possible. In this blog post we will go over everything you need to know when it comes to making money with audiobooks.

The audiobook market is expanding.

The convenience of audibooks is showing as more and more people are choosing the format over traditional books. The audiobook market will continue to expand which is why now is the right time to get into this industry.

We will now dive into all the ways you can make money using audiobooks.

How Audiobook Listeners Can Make Money

They say knowledge is power. You can read different books about different side hustles or income producing skills. For example blogging. If you listen to a good audiobook about blogging and then put it into practice you can make money utlizing the new skills you learned.

Being an Audiobook Narrator For Someone Elses E-book

There are people who would love to have their e-books narrated. If you have a decent voice and can put passion into your words, you can earn money by doing audiobook narration.

The way the contracts work are 1. Get paid by the hour until you complete the e-book and 2. Get royalties for the e-book you narrate.

The royalty route is a bit more risky than getting paid hourly.

This is because if the e-book you narrate becomes a best seller you can make way more money with royalties, but if the e-book you narrate fails you can make close to nothing.

Make sure you think hard about which one you want to do.

Writing Audiobooks Yourself

You can also make money selling your own audiobooks.

If you have expertise in a certain field and are good at writing, then why not try to write your own book and turn it into an audio book? You can even sell it on Amazon.

It’s a great way to add a new stream of income in your life.

Marketing audiobooks is also an essential skill if you want to make money from doing this. We recommend learning how to do it yourself or hiring someone else to do the marketing for you.

What Platforms Do You Use To Get Noticed Offering Your Voice Over Services?

If you want to be narrate for other people the best place to go is places like Fiverr.com where you can post a gig and let other people know what kind of audiobooks your voice is right for.

You can leave an example of your work so people can see what kind of style you have.

What Platforms Can You Use To Make Your Own Audiobook?

There are two options you can choose from if you want to make your own audiobook. The first one is recording it on a good microphone and saving it as a WAV or MP3 format of some sort.

The second option is using a tool like ACX or Awesound which will help you professionally narrate the e-book and then publish it on Amazon.

ACX.com which stands for Audiobook Creation Exchange is the biggest platform out there for this kind of service, but it’s also very expensive to have your e-book narrated by a professional voice actor through ACX. It might be more affordable to narrate the audiobook yourself if you already have a decent microphone and can do it in an efficient manner.

Awesound .com. Is a free tool and you can also earn money by charging other people to use your voice over service on this site. If you want to make money offering your voice as a service, these are two great options for doing so.

What Are Some Things To Keep In Mind When It Comes To Making Money With Audiobooks?

It’s not easy money:

The money you get from doing this kind of side hustle is a nice boost, but it shouldn’t be your main source of income.

Be patient:

Once you start getting customers and clients it could take months before the snowball really starts to roll.

There’s Plenty Of Competition For Being a Narrator:

If you want to narrate an e-book you will have to compete with hundreds of other people who also want the job. The good news is that it’s a very specific kind of voice over work so your chances are better than most side hustles.

Is The Audibook Business Scalable?

It can be scalable. If it happens that you decide you want to go the royalty route for all of your contracts this can easily add up to be great passive income over time.

By going the hourly rate route, then it obviously isn’t that scalable being your working strictly on an hourly basis.

If you choose to do only your own audiobooks, you can definitely scale because every sale you pretty much get 100% of the profit. As long as you have it marketed the correct way , you should be able to keep scaling.

Is It Worth Your Time?

If you have have a specific expertise in an industry, then it might be worth your time to write the e-book yourself and narrate it.

If you don’t feel comfortable narrating your own audiobook or if it’s not your area of expertise, then hiring someone else to do the job would definitely be worth your time.

How Much Do Narrators Make?

It really depends on how good you are. You can charge as low as $100 per finished hour but the people who are the very best can charge up to $500 per finished hour.

if a book takes 8 hours that can mean anywhere between $800-$4000.

Narrating an Audiobook Yourself: Pros And Cons Of Each Approach

Pros and Cons Of Making Your Own Audiobook

Making your own audiobook definitely has a lot of benefits. The main one being you have full control of the content and what’s being said in the audiobook. You can also be a little more creative with your writing style which is something a narrator might not be able to do.

On the downside, you don’t have any experience narrating audiobooks from past experiences so it could be more challenging for you to make this happen.

Pros And Cons Of Hiring Someone Else To Narrate Your E-Book

Hiring someone else to narrate an audiobook for you on the other hand would add credibility plus you’d know how long it will take for them to finish the project based their previous work experience.

On the downside, you might not be a good judge on a voice actor’s quality and skill levels. You could end up with an e-book that doesn’t sound as good as it could have been.

What equipment do you need to get started with Audiobooks?

A good computer headset with a solid mic will be enough to start recording an audiobook using a WAV or MP3 format of some sort.

What is the Risk Of Narrating Audiobooks?

If you get paid via royalties the risk is that the person you narrate for won’t be able to sell anybooks and you’ll be caught narrating for free.

When you do it on an hourly basis, there’s a chance the book could take off and you’ll be stuck making a couple hundred dollars when you could’ve made thousands.

When you make your own book the risks are that you have to market it which is no easy feat. There’s also the risk of having people not like your content and leaving bad reviews, etc.

What Other Ways Can You Make Money With Your Voice?

Youtube Video Voice Overs:

Thereare plenty of people who make a living off doing video voice overs and narration on Youtube videos.

You can do it as a side hustle, but like we already mentioned earlier the more you work the better your chances for success will be.

Telephony:

You can make money by recording messages for companies or selling your voicemail recordings to other people. This takes some marketing skills and recording an e-book is easier than getting into this business especially since there’s not many home studios available that specialize in audiobook recordings.

Commercials:

This is one of the most common ways to get into the voice over industry.

You record yourself selling a product then submit it to different advertising agencies that they’ll review your demo and hopefully pick you up.

How Can Audiobook Narrators Improve Their Voice?

Staying Hydrated:

Your vocal chords work twice as hard when you’re dehydrated which makes staying hydrated very important.

Limit your caffeine intake:

Limiting you caffeine can help by relaxing your vocal chords and lowering the amount of time it takes for them to warm up.

Stay well rested:

Getting enough sleep will improve your overall health, energy levels and your voice quality.

Exercise:

Exercising can help you manage stress and lower blood pressure which in turn will make you more relaxed while speaking.

Limit or No Smoking at all:

If you manage to quit smoking then that’s always a plus because of how destructive smoking is for your vocal chords.

Diet:

Just like with anything else in life the more healthy options you eat then the better your voice will be and healthier you’ll be overall. Watermelon also helps maintain moisture in the throat which will lead to less strain on them when doing long projects.itations

Conclusion:

Now that you know a lot more about narrating audio books and the audiobook industry in general you can now make a decision to see if it’s for you or not.

If you think it’s a good idea, go get started on your first audiobook or narrate for this first time. The only way you can get better is by starting. Your first time you might not have the most successful book but over time you can get better.

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How To Make Money With Audiobooks (Multiple Ways)