Did you know that if you add the daily web traffic of BarnesAndNoble.com, Borders.com, Lulu.com, Smashwords.com, Published.com and eBooks.com together - you still have less than 5% of the daily web traffic of Amazon.com, iTunes and Audible.com? Two of these last three sites ONLY sell audio files!
The world has changed. As much as you might love the smell and feel of books (I know I do) more and more people are consuming information through their Kindles, iPods, MP3 players and mobile phones. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this picture of Amazon founder Jeff Bazos speaking earlier this year about the growth of Kindle sales. The uptick started in February 2009:
Kindle sales now account for 35% of Amazons books sales. People ARE going digital through eBooks and audio books for many reasons including:
• Wanting to be environmentally friendly
• Lack of time - audio books allow you to multi-task
• Aging population that are losing their vision
• Desire for efficiency
There’s probably other reasons too but the reasons don’t really matter. What matters is that it’s happening and it’s happening fast. Are you going to adapt and profit from this change or are you going to cling to old ideas and watch it pass you by?
So what exactly is involved in turning my book into an audio book?
Many of our clients self-produce their work using simple low cost (or free) software and their home computer. You can read more about how to do this by reading this blog post. If you can produce the audio file yourself then there is no cost, only a little time to convert your book to an audio book.
Hudson Audio Publishing can also arrange the reading and production for you. To begin this process we require a simple brief from you in respect to what kind of voice you would like - older, younger, male, female etc. In all cases we recommend North American accent as most buying activity on these platforms is from within the United States - although we will sell the books through many other countries as well such as England, Australia, Canada, Germany and more.
Once we have the brief and a PDF copy of the book we will tender the job out to our network of readers. These people are independent contractors so their prices vary.
After a few days we will present you with a short list of potential readers including a sample of their voice reading an excerpt from your book together with their price. You can then select the one you like based on their voice and their fee. The prices quoted include everything to be 'sale ready'. The audio book will be fully produced with all ownership and creative control of your material being retained 100% by you at all times.
Once you have chosen a reader that you like and you wish to proceed, we will invoice you and once paid we will instruct the talent to begin. Payment is made through PayPal. Prices vary widely depending on the length of your work and who you choose. As a guide, for a 100,000 word book you should expect to pay between $1,500 (on the low side) up to $2,500 (on the high side). To put this in perspective, a good title should return that outlay to the you within one or two royalty payments.
In regard to timing, we can tender the job out within a day of receiving your simple brief and script and will have a short list within 3-4 business days. Once appointed it usually takes between 14 and 21 days to produce the entire audio book.
There has never been a better time to sell your book in audio format...
Right now, Amazon stock over 8 million printed books but only 60,000 audio books. That is 0.75% of their catalogue - yet their digital sales are spiking! Another way to say it is that 99.25% of Amazon's books are not yet available in audio. With sales of audio books in the US alone surpassing $1 Billion for the first time last year the race is on to meet demand.
As a content creator, there has never been more opportunity than there is right now. Our job is to serve you and our team are standing to by to help.
Thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing of your success! Contact us now so we can get started today. |
