IMPROVE BOOK SALES-AUDIOBOOKS

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If you are a writer than you have to appreciate Amazon. Don’t go crazy just yet with that statement. Years ago, decades, when print was king, if you wrote a book and dreamt of being a published writer the world for many writers was cruel.
 
It required perseverance, knowing someone, luck, an agent, and bunch more.

Today, if one chooses to follow the traditional route not much has changed. In fact, it might be more of an uphill battle.

However, with the help of Amazon specifically, today a writer can self publish. Take your work a step further and create a paperback with Amazon or Creatspace.

Each of the above has their own pluses and minuses. But this brings me to the third element, Audiobooks. The fastest growing segment of the last several years. And now, with the help of ACX, owned by Audible, an Amazon company.

I found this takes a little more effort on the author’s part to create a finished product.

After the author registers all of their pertinent information with ACX the next step is auditioning producers. The person who will read your book. 

Here is the process.
1. ​ I described the story, the characters, their voices along with special tips for anyone choosing to read.
2.  After that section is completed the author selects up to three pages in the book that would a good representation. Select the gender and type of voice you think would be best for your book. The author needs to remember, this is your book. You are in charge.

I selected a part where Glen Barton, the homicide detective/protagonist follows a clue where he enters the dead man’s apartment without a warrant. His brother, Nikolai Koslov, the leader of a Russian gang, surprises Detective Barton and confronts him.
  
BELOW IS THE AUDITION I SELECTED TO PRODUCE “LAYERS OF DECEIT-LIES HAVE CONSEQUENCES.”

After listening, I made some corrections and gave the producer the green light to proceed to the next step. 

The following are segments from two different articles about the future of Audiobooks.

May 9, 2018 By Michael Kozlowski 

Digital audiobooks increased by 25.8% in 2016 and generated $264.8 million in revenue. Last year audiobook sales saw another strong gain of 30% and major publishers brought in $343.4 million dollars.

For the first time ever, digital audiobooks have overtaken mass market paperbacks in revenue total revenue earned. Audiobooks on tape and CD’s continue to bring in a respectable amount of money,  physical audio was $55.6 million in 2017, down 8.6% from 60.9 in 2016

Published: Jan 30, 2016 10:43 a.m. ET

JEREMYOLSHAN EDITOR- Marketwatch

                                                             Audiobooks have begun to outsell print

All good business stories begin with an economist admitting he has no idea what’s going on.
“I just don’t get it,” Richard Thaler told me a few months ago, when I asked how his book tour was going. “More people are listening to my book than reading it.”
 
Though I’m a heavy audiobook listener, and have written about how the technology is changing our relationships with reading, exercise and time, that audio has grown popular enough to outsell some traditional books is hard to fathom. Audiobooks racked up $1.5 billion in sales last year and remain the fastest-growing segment of the book publishing industry, according to the Audio Publishers Association, but text is still king.

You as the author set reasonable deadlines as to when the book will meet certain milestones and be completed. I was very pleased with the producer I selected, Dan Orders. I was very pleased that he was ahead of schedule on the first milestone. The reading of the first 15 minutes of LAYERS OF DECEIT-LIES HAVE CONSEQUENCES. 

                                                                         I am proud to share the opening 15 minutes.