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AUDIOBOOKS
Audiobooks in Australia and internationally are dominating the publishing space. They have been building in popularity over recent years and will continue to grow and lead the space of published material this year and beyond.
All publishers will continue to see audiobook sales rise in 2021. 2018 saw significant growth in the audiobook industry, and 2019 and 2020 continued the trend. Early 2019 saw strong audiobook sales and it hasn’t slowed. This is not surprising as readers keep saying they don’t have enough time to read. With audio becoming more and more popular, publishers and authors will continue to invest in them.
We recommend that if you are looking at publishing in 2021, you seriously need to look at the development of your audiobook as a part of that process. Not only for marketing purposes but also to meet the needs of your audience we need to ensure that all three options are available.
OUR AUDIOBOOKS
We recommend that if you are looking at publishing in 2021, you seriously need to look at the development of your audiobook as a part of that process. Not only for marketing purposes but also to meet the needs of your audience we need to ensure that all three options are available.
More people are choosing to listen to audiobooks in Australia and globally. This is often due to when we multitask on other activities. Cooking, cleaning, traveling, even relaxing – all provide opportunities to listen to an audiobook.
Furthermore, a survey carried out recently found that an audiobook consumer listens to 17 books a year. A recent estimate showed the value of the audiobook market was over $800 million dollars. Above all, audiobook sales growth has exploded. This is due to the ability to download audiobooks from sites like Audible.com, iTunes, and Amazon. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that this is the fastest growing medium in publishing. for everyone within the industry.
A large part of the author community globally is making waves in this space. Moreover, retailers and libraries are beginning to realise that audiobooks are worth investing in.
OUR AUDIOBOOKS
WHAT DO WE OFFER WITH AUDIOBOOKS?
Ocean Reeve Publishing offers a mobile engineer who can travel to you for author-narrated audiobooks. Why mobile? First, technology has improved that much we no longer need to put an author in a studio booth to get professional A-grade recordings produced and second, we have discovered that having authors narrate their books in familiar surroundings brings out the best performance. A preparation document is provided to all authors who self-narrate so when recording day comes, you are ready. If you are not confident narrating your own book or just don't have the time, we also offer industry-recognised narrators.
Ocean Reeve Publishing also manages the distribution of your audiobook in Australia and throughout the world. Retailers include Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, and many more. We create your own exclusive distribution account. This ensures your rights and control remain with you and you can check in and track sales.
Marketing your audiobook is different from marketing your physical or eBook. Yet, all need focused and dedicated promotional efforts. All our authors receive five vital strategies to build awareness for their audiobooks in Australia and beyond.
Once produced and distributed, our audiobooks will feature on all the major audiobook sites such as Audible | Amazon | Audiobooks.com | Hoopla | The Audiobook Store | Downpour | Overdrive | Libro.FM | Audiobooks Now | iTunes | Spotify | Google Audiobooks | BookMate | YouTube Music | Nextory | Kobo | Scribd, Inc. | Barnes & Noble | StoryFair | Storytel | 3 Leaf Group | Baker & Taylor, Inc. | Bibliotheca, LLC | Calm Radio | Beek | Follett Library Resources | BookBeat | Mofibo | Mackin | Odilo | Wheelers Book Club Limited | Nook | Odilo | Deezer| Napster | Nextory | Audiobooks NZ | Pocket FM | 24Symbols | Skoobe | Divibib | Audioteka | UBook | YouScribe | Cliq Digital | Radish | Instaread | Speechify | Tribe Media | ListenerU | BeHear | Book Walker | Raamat | Books-A-Million | Sounded | Fonos and WeHear.
OUR AUDIOBOOKS
WHAT DOES IT COST TO PRODUCE AN AUDIOBOOK?
The million-dollar question. Let’s say you have a 50,000-word manuscript. To self-narrate with our mobile engineer or in a professional studio, have the files professionally edited and mastered for distribution, and then made available for sale on global selling channels you would be looking at $2500.00AUD. If you needed a narrator then expect to add approximately $1500.00 to that cost. Obviously, your book may not be 50,000 words so reach out to us directly by completing the form below to enquire about the costs of producing your audiobook.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO PRODUCE AN AUDIOBOOK?
Another good question. Again working with our 60,000-word manuscript, we need to look at this based on what professional standards dictate. A professional narrator is capable of narrating approximately 9000 words an hour. However, authors are not generally professional voice artists so we need to allow time for errors, change in tonality, and fatigue. Believe it or not, talking for hours straight can be tiring. Therefore, we work off 5500 words narrated per hour. So we would allow 11 hours in the studio for you, the author, to narrate your audiobook in Australia. Evidence has proven it is best to work with 5-6 hour shifts so the fatigue does not set in and alter your voice, so that would mean recording over a two day period.
Once the audio is captured, our engineers will then review and correct any errors and master the files ready for distribution. As they are reading n electronic version of your book as you narrate, they are able to correct any errors as you go. However, they do a more comprehensive edit once the narration is complete. We usually allow 3-4 weeks for this to occur and be ready for review – depending on what audiobooks are in the workflow at the time.
All authors then receive the audio for review and if there are further edits or updates to be made, this can be achieved. Depending on what exactly you request to be updated can mean another visit to the studio so we will discuss the changes with you to ensure we are addressing the updates correctly. We tend to address these quite quickly and could mean we have final audio files ready for distribution within a couple of weeks.
Finally, once all the audiobook files are approved, we submit them for one final check with our global distribution partner. The file checks usually take 2-3 days and once approved, allow 2-8 weeks for all global selling channels to have your audiobook listed for sale. We issue a fortnightly report with the status update and once all the major channels (eg. Audible, iTunes, Google Play) are live, we provide you with your exclusive log-in details to log-in and check your sales reports.
HOW MUCH CAN I MAKE FROM SALES?
First, we need to look at what your audiobook should sell for, in Australia and overseas. We encourage authors to list the retail price of your audio at 50% less than your physical book. For example, if you are selling your physical book for $29.95AUD, consider $14.95AUD for your audiobook. However, not all distributors will take this into account. Some offer fixed pricing (like a flat price for a credit) or price books automatically based on length.
Once available for sale, you will collect 70% of that price and will paid any royalties the distributor has collected for you into your PayPal account on a monthly basis – once you’ve accumulated $10.00 or more in any given monthly pay period. Direct deposit is also available to US-based authors with 10 or more titles.
The selling channels all have unique schedules for sending royalties to the distributor. Some will pay within 30 days of the previous month’s end; some will pay 30 days after the previous quarter. Regardless, every month, you will be sent any royalties they’ve collected in your name for audiobook sales in Australia and internationally.