one year of self-published audiobooks

I’ve now had self-published (well, self-funded audiobooks) for one year. My bestselling title? CHILD OF THE GHOSTS, as narrated by Hollis McCarthy, with FROSTBORN: THE DARK WARDEN, as narrated by Brad Wills coming in for a veeery close second (like, a difference of eight units or so).

Valuable lessons I have learned in this time:

-I recommend self-publishing ebooks or paperbacks for all writers. I don’t recommend self-publishing audiobooks for every writer because it’s very expensive, and difficult to turn a profit. However, if it doesn’t turn a profit in the first year the production cost makes an excellent business deduction. (Though you should consult with a qualified CPA for tax filing advice, not a self-published fantasy writer on the Internet.)

-If an audiobook is less than nine hours long, it’s really hard to sell. The general rule of thumb is that about 9300 words makes up a single hour of finished audio (this varies by narrator a little), so your book should probably be about 80,000 words or higher if you want to turn it into an audiobook. That said, if you have a bunch of shorter books, you can bundle them together into an omnibus edition, which will be easier to sell.

-It’s a really enjoyable experience to hear a good narrator read your book. Like, it provides a way of looking at the characters that you might not have considered before.

-If you put your audiobook in some of the library services like Bibliotheca, it can do very well.

-A small but substantial subset of audiobook listeners tend to email complaints to writers, like, a lot. And tech support requests related to audiobooks for some reason, because OBVIOUSLY I will know why your audiobook isn’t playing through your Bluetooth speaker from an obscure Chinese manufacturer. My favorite email was from someone who said he had pirated one of the audiobooks and hadn’t liked it that much, but he might change his mind if I gave him a free copy of the next book.

Do writers actually fall for that? I hope not.

(Though I did once get an email from a guy who read a pirated copy of my book, complained about the typos, and then suggested that I hire him as a proofreader. Naturally, I didn’t respond, but I suspect this guy’s natural sociopathy will take him to a lucrative career on corporate boards or maybe Congress.)

-If your ebooks are in Kindle Unlimited, that’s also a really good way to sell a bunch of audiobooks, though you’re limited to just Audible, Amazon, and Apple for that.

Audiobook publishing has been an interesting experience. Thanks to all my narrators for all their excellent work!

I hope you have enjoyed listening!

-JM