publish your book in audio

​Now that you have published your book, you may be looking for other ways to market it to a larger audience, this is where many authors have turned to publishing in audio as well as print (and eBook), and the majority of these authors didn’t read/record it either. 

​It’s worth considering an audio version of your book, more people are subscribing to the likes of Amazon’s Audible and the process itself is a great deal easier than you may have imagined. If you decide to release an audio version, there are two main options you will consider in preparing your book for its audio release.
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One – Doing it yourself

Ensure you have a quiet and sound adequate space to record in, you may need to choose your room carefully and set up so that you don’t get poor audio and background noise. You’ll also need a good quality microphone along with the software to be able to record and also edit your sound files.

Other elements you’ll need to keep in mind will be:

• Recording your opening and closing credits for the book
• A short retail sample, this is normally 1 – 5 minutes in length
• Break each chapter you record down into individual files of no more than 120 minutes
• You should not use text to speech software
• Your sound levels will also need to fall within certain parameters too

​Recording your own book by yourself can be done, but, there is a lot to take on board, in many cases (unless you have some sort of experience in recording) it can be a great deal easier to get others involved, it will lead to an easier process and a professional finish.

Two – Getting help from professionals

If you have used KDP to publish your book (and so many authors already have) then using Amazon’s ACX program is the logical step in converting your book into audio.

Here you can get everything you’ll need to have a professional audio book created and then distributed through Audible, Amazon and even iTunes.

The process is broken down into eight steps:

1. Confirming that you have the rights for the audio book, ACX have more specific details on what these include here, essentially, if you published your book independently you will normally retain the rights for your book, but, if you worked with an agent or publisher then you should check your contract before going any further (we would advise you check with your agent or lawyer if unsure).
2. Creating a profile, here you should describe the book and your preference for type of narrator which would work best. You should also upload an excerpt (1-2 pages) from the book, this will act as the audition script for your hopeful narrators.
3. Post the book so that narrators/producers can audition for the project, you can also look at sample narrations and invite those you like to audition for your book.
4. Reviewing auditions, make sure you receive an audition from a narrator/producer before you agree on anything, you’ll want to ensure that they’re right for your book.
5. Make your preferred narrator/producer an offer, how much you want to offer is down to you, but you may want to consider either offering a one-off payment or a spilt of the royalties from your sales.
6. Start the recording process, next, your narrator/producer will start recording the audio book for you and upload a 15 minute checkpoint of the book, this you can then review and give feed back before continuing (this is to ensure that the book is heading in the right direction for you).
7. Approving your audio book, ACX allows for up to two rounds of corrections on your audio book, once you’re happy you pay (unless you agree to a royalty share).
8. Start selling your audio book. Now ACX will start distribution of your audio book through Audible, Amazon and iTunes (if you grant non-exclusive rights you can also distribute through additional channels).

Once your audio book is live and ready to be purchased, you’ll then start with the more familiar role of self-promotion and advertising.

There are of course option services out there who can record your book and distribute it, but ACX is a good option to consider and they really do try to make the process as user friendly as possible.