[hotelhyatt]

i'm following kay's ryan deiss/kindle thread with great interest, but i can't think of anything i'm ready to write an ebook about. however, along with the 'face for radio' comments (mostly triggered by my refusal to brush my hair), i have received moderately encouraging comments about my voice - so i'm investigating the idea of making an audiobook. i've even got a short story that i wrote myself that may relieve me of the problems of finding something with a creative commons licence that i'd fancy reading out loud - although, in the long run, i'd like to do some children's stories, too.



does anyone here have experience and/or advice to offer on the subject of creating and selling audiobooks?

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[nemoforone]

i don't know that much about audio books, but one of the projects i did for someone has audio lectures, which are just recordings from lectures given at meetings of a local club. because the lectures are given by well-known people, people seem to like the podcast, and find it (and consequently our site) looking the lecturers names. if you did a mix of your own writing and some cc based material on a similar theme, it'd give you an avenue for people to discover / subscribe to your own work.

there is an organization that publishes free audio book recordings by volunteers called librivox, so if you talk to someone there, you might be able to track down a good niche.

[KitRittyTug]

i don't know anything about audio books. the first thing i'd ask is who buys them? blind people? people who like to listen to a book while they're driving? what's popular? fiction? what are the best sellers of audio books? when you figure that out, then you'll have a better idea of what to target.

what markets have you already investigated to sell audio books? and what's their quality control like?

[nemoforone]

kay, i've browsed several sites that provide audiobook download facilities, and professional facilities for creating them. one such site also talked about creating audiobooks on the cheap (i.e. diy rather than studios and professional readers), which is apparently a popular way for students to create study material these days.

one of the major markets for audiobooks is in-car entertainment for bored kids on long journeys. the other big one is adults doing anything that's not mentally challenging or sedentary - travelling is again a big one, jogging, dog-walking, housework, and filling in waiting time for one reason or another. there are plenty of times when people want something a little more challenging than listening to music, as i well remember from the days when i used to drive about 45,000 miles a year around scotland as a necessary part of my job. a smaller but significant market exists for those who find reading difficult or tiring.

what did you have in mind when you mentioned quality control?

most audiobook distributor sites categorise their wares, and 'fiction>short stories' is a medium-volume category. it will do fine for a test run, i reckon.

[irresseni]

kay (yesterday)

[drugimpotence]

the other big one is adults doing anything that's not mentally challenging or sedentary - travelling is again a big one, jogging, dog-walking, housework, and filling in waiting time for one reason or another. yeah, in ye olden days when i did my own ironing i used to enjoy listening to radio 4. it would have been better to be able to choose which play or story to listen to rather than the take it or leave it choice of the day on the beeb. i never really thought about buying any audio books before. i would enjoy listening to them whilst cooking. it would make a change from the greatest hits of the 1960s anyway.

what did you have in mind when you mentioned quality control? oh, that's just me with some bees in my bonnet about amazon publishing stolen content and crap. i was wondering what steps you might be able to take to prevent someone from stealing your audio books and selling them as their own.