Taking Self-Published Books To The Next Level
Recording An Audiobook
For a long time, I wanted to turn some of my books into audiobooks, but I wasn’t sure how to do it, and it seemed like a lot of time, money, and effort.
So I did nothing about it.
Until my bestselling book, Quantum Leap Your Life, came out in the summer of 2022. Soon after I published it, people started asking me if it was going to be available on Audible.
That desire to turn some of my books into audiobooks came back strong, and I knew that meant it was time for the audiobook.
Recording the Audios
I found a local studio in my city that had a sound engineer who mostly recorded musicians, but he had helped one author with an audiobook. The price per hour to use the studio was more affordable than I originally expected.
So I booked studio time and showed up to record the book.
For Quantum Leap Your Life, I recorded the audios in two-hour sessions over the course of a couple of months. Once I was finished, it took the sound engineer from the studio a while to get the files edited because he had so many other projects on his plate at the same time.
But a couple of months after I finished recording, toward the end of 2022, the audiobook was available on Audible.
Then, in January 2023, I decided I would go back and record F*ck the How as an audiobook at some point that year.
Then something kind of crazy happened: I had my first four-figure book royalty month! I knew I was onto something.
So a couple of months into 2023, I recorded F*ck the How. This time, I booked the studio for a whole day, and I recorded the entire book in eight hours (I don’t recommend doing it this way—it’s A LOT for your voice—but at the time, it’s what felt right for me.) It came out on Audible a few months later.
Best of all, my royalties that year kept going up and up and up. By September, I had my first multi-four-figure book royalty month.
My book, Manifest Everything, also came out that year in paperback, hardcover, and ebook, but I wasn’t ready to record the audiobook just yet. I wanted to find another studio to record at first, with a sound engineer who could get the audiobook finished faster than my previous one could.
So I held off for nearly a year after the book was published—even though people kept asking me if that book was going to be available on Audible too.
And then a friend of mine asked me to be on her podcast, and when I showed up to the local studio where she recorded it, I knew I had found the studio I was meant to record Manifest Everything at.
The studio was in a better location, the sound engineer had loads of experience with audiobooks, and his turnaround time for edits was only a couple of weeks.
Since Manifest Everything was a shorter book, I once again booked the studio for the day and decided to record the whole thing.
It only took a few hours, and the audiobook was recorded. It was on Audible a few weeks later.
Next month, I’m relaunching my bestselling book, F*ck the How, for its fifth anniversary, and I’ve decided to add a new chapter to the book.
The chapter is already written and will be uploaded to Amazon in time for the anniversary on June 7. But adding a new chapter also means recording the chapter for Audible.
So this coming weekend, I’m heading back into the studio to record the new chapter. I’m going to the same studio where I recorded Manifest Everything, and I’m so excited to get to work with my new sound engineer again.
I haven’t recorded any of my novels as audiobooks yet because they’re so much longer than my nonfiction books (longer books = more recording time and more money to record them), and they don’t currently sell as well. So I’ve focused on adding audiobooks for my most popular nonfiction books for now, and I’ll worry about the other books when and if I decide to.
If you’ve self-published a book and you don’t have an audiobook for it yet—this is your sign to consider adding one.
Yes, the up-front costs can be high, depending on how long your book is, and how good you are at reading out loud, but in my opinion, it’s worth every penny, especially if your ebook, paperback, and/or hardcover versions already sell well.
Since mine do, I’ve been able to quickly earn back in royalties every dollar I’ve spent producing the audiobooks. They’re now assets that make me money every single month.
In this week’s Career Author Lab post (for paid subscribers only), I’m going to share all about how to record your book as an audiobook, including how to find the right studio, what to do before, during, and after you record it, and my insider tips for making it the best audiobook it can possibly be.
Career Author Reflection
Journal prompt: Which of my books could benefit from adding an audiobook?
Micro-action: For this week, do some research to see if you can find a local recording studio where you can record your audiobook (even if you don’t plan on doing it right now, it’s always good information to have for future use).
Which of your books do you want to record an audiobook for? Share with us in the comments.
~jennifer