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Audiobooks for Authors: Why Audio is No Longer Optional in Publishing · 🧭 The Ease Equation Podcast

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  Speaker 1: All right, let's dive right into this. Welcome back to
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  the Explainer. Today, we're tackling a massive, sometimes intimidating frontier
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  for independent authors audiobooks. You know, for a long time,
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  putting out an audiobook was kind of seen as this
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  luxury right, like a vanity project if you had some
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  spare cash laying around. But as we're going to see today,
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  stepping into the audio space is actually an absolutely crucial
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  multi format business decision. It's a strategic crossroads that can
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  literally change your entire publishing infrastructure. Okay, right off the bat,
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  here's a core philosophy you've got to adopt immediately. An
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  audiobook is not simply your manuscript read aloud. It is
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  a performance product. Really, let that sink in for a
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  second tone, pacing, vocal stamina, sound engineering, The whole shebang
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  shapes the listener's experience. If you're going into this thinking, hey,
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  I'm just going to read my book into my laptop,
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  mic scratch that, you need an immediate mindset shift. Done well,
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  an audiobook creates this incredibly deep connection with your reader.
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  Done poorly, it can seriously ding your credibility. So here
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  is our roadmap up for today. We're going to cover
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  the audiobook opportunity, look at Path one self narration and
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  Path two hiring a pro. After that we'll dive into
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  distribution strategies and will wrap up with the reality of
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  long tail revenue. All right, Section one the audiobook opportunity,
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  So why even bother with this format? The biggest takeaway
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  here is that expanding your formats isn't about ego. It's
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  strictly about market access. Think about it. So many consumers
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  today exclusively read via audio. They're listening on their commutes
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  at the gym or well folding laundry. If you're not
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  in audio, you are literally invisible to that entire demographic. Plus,
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  audiobooks create a brand new revenue stream. They massively expand
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  accessibility for visually impaired readers, and honestly, they signal to
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  the market that you're a serious, established author. Having an
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  audiobook gives your brand unquestionable legitimacy. Moving on to Section two.
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  Path one self narration. Now, doing it yourself is incredibly popular,
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  especially if you're writing a memoir or nonfiction where your
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  unique voice is actually the selling point. But look, enthusiasm
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  alone isn't going to cut it. The technical requirements for
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  a professional home recording studio are pretty strict. You absolutely
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  need sound treatments to block out the neighbor's dog or traffic,
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  a prograde microphone, a proper audio interface, and dedicated recording
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  and editing software. And it doesn't stop at the gear.
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  You have to prep your manuscript too. Converting your print
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  book to an audiobookscript takes three essential steps, finalizing all
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  your structural edits, stripping out any complex visual formatting or hyperlinks,
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  and running a flawless proofread so you don't stumble over
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  typos while recording, because trust me, platforms will flat out
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  reject your files if your noise floor and delivery aren't
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  absolutely perfect. And speaking of doing it yourself, here's a
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  number that surprises almost every single author. Two point five
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  to three. That is the multiplier for your time. For
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  every one hour of finished audio you produce, you should
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  expect to spend two to three hours of real time
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  work that includes reading, flubbing a lot, doing retakes, and
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  meticulously editing those tracks. So if you've got a ten
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  hour audiobook, you are staring down the barrel of roughly
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  thirty hours of intense, focused labor, which brings us to
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  section three Path two hiring a professional narrator. If that
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  DIY route sounds absolutely exhausting, you'll probably want to tap
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  into the professional marketplace. When you jump on platforms like
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  ACX or Find a Way Voices, you're going to get
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  hit with some industry jargon right away. The most crucial
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  term to wrap your head around is the finished hour.
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  See narrators don't charge by the day or by the word.
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  They charge per finished hour of audio. That means the
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  rate they quote you covers the final, fully edited, mastered
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  product that the listener actually hears. Let's break down how
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  this actually builds your production budget. As a solid rule
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  of thumb, a sixty thousand word manuscript translates to roughly
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  six to seven finished hours of audio. So let's say
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  a pro narrator charges two hundred and fifty bucks per
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  finished hour. You simply multiply that two hundred and fifty
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  dollars by seven to get your baseline production budget. Pretty straightforward, right.
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  This makes the whole abstract idea of audio production completely concrete,
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  so you can lock in your finances before you ever
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  even post auditions. At the end of the day, the
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  decision between self narration and hiring a pro basically boils
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  down to a choice of resources. Ask yourself, are you
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  going to spend your time or you're going to spend
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  your financial capital? Self narration is super high effort and
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  technically demanding. Hiring a pro requires an upfront financial budget
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  for sure, but it guarantees high efficiency, performance, polish, and
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  those strict engineering standards that'll just sail right through platform
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  quality checks. Okay, let's pivot to section four distribution strategies.
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  So how does your audiobook actually find its way to
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  listeners ears. You basically have two main pathways, and they
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  look really similar to the ebook strategies we've talked about before.
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  You can go exclusive, which usually means locking into the
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  Audible and ACX ecosystem. This gets you a higher royalty
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  percentage on Audible sales, but your distribution is totally restricted
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  to their platform. Or you can choose wide dist tribution
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  through an aggregator like find a Way Voices. Going wide
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  means you take a lower royalty rate on Audible, but
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  you unlock access to dozens of other platforms Apple, Cobo
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  and those incredibly important library lending systems. Now, if you
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  do decide to go wide. Remember this golden rule, format
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  equals identity. A wide audiobook requires its own unique ISPN.
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  And here's the absolute best part regarding the financial steps
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  for registering this in Canada, your cost is literally zero dollars.
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  That's the incredible Canadian advantage. You just register your publisher
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  imprint in the Canadian ISPN Service System or CISS through
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  Library and Archives Canada. Bam, you can generate a free
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  dedicated ISPN for your audiobook format. It costs you absolutely
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  nothing but a little administrative discipline. Finally, Section five, the
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  reality of longtail revenue. It's time to ground ourselves in
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  some financial realities here. When you launch an audiobook, you
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  really need to adjust your expectations because pricing is often
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  dictated by platform policies and subscription models, you know, things
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  like audible credits or library digital lending. Audio revenue is
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  rarely this instant overnight windfall. Instead, it generates a slower,
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  much steadier income over the years. It's the definition of
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  long tail revenue. It compounds alongside your print and ebook formats,
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  diversifying your income and basically bulletproofing your business. So let's
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  tie this all together into a simple, actionable workflow you
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  can actually use. Step one, finalize your manuscript so you've
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  got a perfectly clean script ready for narration. Step two,
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  make that strategic choice diy self narration or hiring a pro.
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  Step three calculate your budget based on finished hours. Step
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  four secure your technical environment or hire your talent, and
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  remember to run a thorough review of your final files
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  to check those decibel levels and noise floors before submitting.
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  And step five choose your distribution strategy and assign your
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  unique audiobook ISBN. Check those boxes and you won't miss abeat.
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  I want to leave you with this final kind of
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  provideative thought. Producing an audiobook is a ton of work,
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  But ask yourself, does your multi format strategy signal the
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  seriousness of a long term publishing business, Because honestly, adding
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  an audiobook to your catalog isn't just about chasing a
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  few extra royalties. It's about building compounding visibility, expanding your accessibility,
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  and proving to readers and the whole industry that you
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  aren't just uploading a file online, you are operating a
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  sustainable professional publishing infrastructure. Thanks so much for joining me
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  on this explainer, and I'll catch you on the next
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  one