How does one create an audible through Amazon?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Mar 06, 2023 4:55 pm

Has anyone used this? How much did it cost to record the book, on average?

William · Post by **William** » Mon Mar 06, 2023 4:55 pm

If you have the ability to record yourself and a great deal of patience to jump through the ACX hoops you can produce audiobooks without spending money. (I have produced a half dozen myself without spending a dime).

But much like self publishing an e-book or paperback without spending money, unless you have necessary skills, the end result might seem very amateurish and it’s already hard to get anybody to buy your stuff when another book drops on Amazon every 10 seconds.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Mon Mar 06, 2023 4:56 pm

I did my first book through ACX. It's expensive. Plan to spend at least $100 per finished hour (which includes editing and preparation of the final delivered product).

My book was ~95k words and worked out to about 12 finished hours. I had a 'pay for production' contract, so I paid the entire amount once the book was completed, and it was ~$1900.

You can do revenue sharing contracts, where the author and narrator split the income, and the PFH ends up lower... HOWEVER, if you have low sales, the narrator is taking a risk of not recovering their expenses on the book.

Depending on how busy the narrator is, and how much "stuff" is going on in their lives, it can take 3-6 months on a large-ish book before it's completed.

I doubt I will have any more of my books narrated, given the expense.