How to Price an Audiobook: Your Guide to Audiobook Pricing (2023)

FAQs

How much should I charge to narrate an audiobook? ›

Rates typically charged by audiobook narrators on Upwork are: Beginner: $28 per hour. Intermediate: $79 per hour. Advanced: $480 per hour.

How much do audio books usually cost? The average retail price of an audio book is usually in the range of $20-$30. This is higher than traditional books' retail price, mostly due to the added audio book production cost.

Basic Audiobook Recording Info

Aka a 30,000 word book will be ~ a 3 hour audiobook, taking ~ 6 hours to record, and ~ 12 hours of additional work ( or ~ 20 hours of work total).

For every hour of an audiobook, audiences are listening to about 10,000 words—as a rough rule of thumb, a 300-page book usually contains about 80,000–100,000 words.

E-books based on finished physical books are cheaper to produce than audiobooks from the same source. The lengthy and complex recording process makes audiobooks more expensive to buy but not necessarily expensive to listen to when using a subscription service with a monthly plan.

How much do Authors make with Audiobooks? Depending on the platform, authors get paid royalties either for purchases of the audiobook, for downloads, or per minute listened. They receive 25% – 50% of the purchase price as royalties or a set amount of cents per download or minute listened.

Audiobooks.com Summary. Audible and Audiobooks' key differences are that Audible offers a better returns policy and audio quality, more original titles, and a yearly subscription discount. Otherwise, the services are identical, the price, apps, and audiobook library are excellent for both.

Generally, the standard royalty rates for authors is under 10% for traditional publishing and up to 70% with self-publishing. That's right. In the example above, self-published authors make over $24,000 more than traditional authors for the same number of books sold.

Does selling audiobooks make money? ›

Create Audiobooks

Through Audible's self-publishing platform, Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX), creators simply make an account, upload their audiobook and start making money with every sale made. The books appear on Audible, Amazon and iTunes, and they typically sell for $15 to $25.

Audiobooks.com members receive their new credit(s) every month on their billing date. Members on 1 credit per month plans will be billed $14.95 (plus applicable taxes) per month. A credit can be used to redeem any (one) audiobook.

Audiobook revenue in the United States was $1.6 billion in 2021, a 23.1% increase compared to the previous year. Over the last 5 years, audiobook revenue in the United States has increased by 113.3%, making it the fastest-growing book format in the US.

An author must copyright their audiobooks in order to keep the proceeds from the sales. If the writer is planning to hire a narrator and/or producer, they have rights for their portion of the audiobook. The writer will need to transfer these rights from the narrator and/or producer to themselves.

Yes, you can get paid to read books aloud. There are many websites like ACX, Audible, Voices, Bunny Studio, Peopleperhour and others that allow you to register yourself as an audiobook narrator and make money by reading books aloud.

If you divide 75,000 words by 8 hours you get 9375 words per hour. Then divide that by 60 minutes (in an hour) and voila!

What is the average length of an audiobook? The average audiobook is approximately 10 hours long.

The average audiobook is 100,000 words, or about 11 hours long (55 words a minute, 9300 per finished hour). It takes four to six hours to produce one hour of completed audio, or 44-66 hours per book.

At 113 hours and forty-three minutes, Fifty Lectures is the longest audiobook of all time. You don't have to do the math to tell how long that is—but if you did want to do the math, you'd know that listening to the book would take five full consecutive days.

Our payment system is a breeze. Every time someone signs up through your custom URL, you get a $15 commission. We track your hits and pay you each month you hit the $30.00 payment threshold. Referring your listeners requires no selling.

How many hours is a 500 page audiobook? ›

The average reader will read 500 pages in 13.9 hours when reading at a speed of 300 words per minute (wpm).

Audible is changing their app experience on the Android platform. They are switching to Google Play Billing, and this will affect single titles, you will no longer be able to buy them. This will take effect on April 1st, 2022.

The demand for audiobooks, such as Finding Me, continues to rise among consumers. Their success can be attributed to factors like accessible online audiobook platforms, A-list narrators like Davis, and even the demise of anti-audiobook snobbery (more on that below).

If you're just starting out, expect to offer a PFH rate between $10 and $100; more experienced narrators receive between $100 and $350 per finished hour. Royalty share: Audiobook narrators can receive a royalty share, which translates to about two dollars per sale, or a quarter of the overall profits the title makes.

$40,545. How accurate does $40,545 look to you? Your input helps Glassdoor refine our pay estimates over time.

The titles that you purchase from Audible with a credit or credit card are yours to keep forever and are available to be downloaded across multiple devices. Although you can remove your audiobook(s) from a specific device, they remain in your Library.

Have you ever wondered how your favorite audiobooks are made? The answer, for over 100,000 of them, is ACX! The Audiobook Creation Exchange is Audible's publishing service, connecting your favorite stories to the actors who bring them to life.

While listening to books activates the part of the brain responsible for language processing and reading a book activates more areas responsible for visual processing, both activities engage semantic processing of information in the same areas of the brain.

The 25% rule also refers to a technique for determining royalties, which stipulates that a party selling a product or service based on another party's intellectual property must pay that party a royalty of 25% of the gross profit made from the sale, before taxes.

How much should I ask for royalties? ›

The royalty percentage you'll receive from a company varies widely because the amount is based on a number of factors unique to each client. In my experience though, you'll most likely earn between 3–10%. But I've also seen royalties rates as low as 1.5% and as high as 25%.

Arithmetically, royalty (on sales) can be expressed as: Royalty = Payment-to-licensor/Product-sales-price.

Amazon's Audible is the largest audiobook publisher and store, providing over 200,000 titles of audio content to listeners all over the world.

PLR ebook licenses typically include resale rights that give you the right to turn it into an audiobook and sell it through your own store, but always check the small print before you buy to be sure. The only time you don't need to obtain audio rights is for books that are already in the public domain.

Copyright law generally protects the author's right to control how their work is reproduced and distributed. This means that if you want to make an audiobook of someone else's book, you would need their permission first.

Purchase more credits

There are three-credit bundles available that you can access after being a member for at least one month. The price for the bundle is around $35.

For example, at a reading pace of about 9,000 words per hour, a 40,000-word nonfiction book would be about 4.5 finished hours. You can find professional help through audiobook hubs like Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) or Findaway Voices.

First, because what's awesome to read might not be that great to listen to. The narration should sound enticing, not condescending; flowing, not clunky. Second, remember that one page of a print book equals one minute of an audiobook.

The Covid-19 pandemic significantly impacted the market growth due to government-imposed lockdowns at the global level to curb the spread of the virus. This resulted in an increase in the demand for audiobooks as individuals started looking for new methods of entertainment while they stayed at home.

Audiobooks are big business, projected to reach $35 billion by 2030. About 65% of audiobooks are fiction, and genre fiction - mystery, romance, thriller, fantasy - is by far the most widely listened to type of book.

Is the audiobook industry growing? ›

Increasing Demand in Kids Segment to Stimulate Growth

Audiobooks are presently being consumed by a younger and growing audience and are expected to boost the global audiobooks market growth during the forecast period. This is a very hopeful sign for the industry's long-term prosperity.

Returns must be made within 365 days of purchase. Our ability to offer this policy is dependent on our members using it only for these purposes. We reserve the right to monitor returns for any abuse, such as excessive returns, frequent return of titles after prolonged listening, or returns of multiple titles at a time.

To be eligible for copyright, a sound recording must be the original work of the author and show a minimal amount of creativity. You may also copyright a sound effect, called a sound mark by the Copyright Office. Think, for example, of NBC's three chimes—they are copyrighted.

In good news for—likely every reader on this website, a company called WordsRated is looking for “Bibliofile-at-large” (i.e. contractors) to… read books for them. For every book you read, they'll pay you $200.

If you're interested in reading and reviewing books, you may be thinking about the holy grail of e-commerce bookstores: Amazon. However, you cannot get paid to review books on Amazon, or you could have your Amazon account banned. You may receive free books from authors and, subsequently, review them on Amazon.

The ACX Pay for Production program allows the author and narrator to negotiate a rate of pay. Generally, beginning narrators could get a lower rate ($10-$100) and experienced narrators may get ($100-$500).

What is a good PFH rate? This depends on the narrator's experience. Those who don't have years of experience will likely have a $50-$100 PFH rate. Experienced narrators will likely ask for a PFH rate of around $250-$300.

If you want to make an audiobook, plan on spending anywhere between $2,500 and $3,750 for a five-hour book. That breaks down to about $500 to $750 per finished hour of audiobook content.

The average reader will read 300 pages in 8.3 hours when reading at a speed of 300 words per minute (wpm).

How much should I charge on ACX? ›

Producers typically set their rates based on their experience and abilities. The majority of posted rates range from $200-$400 Per Finished Hour. If you are unsure how much to offer to the Producer you want to work with, send them a message to discuss your options and their preferences.

ACX production costs are low, so there's more profit to go around. A unique and robust royalty model. Depending on the distribution rights granted to Audible, authors, publishers, and other Rights Holders, as well as narrators, studio professionals, and other Producers can earn royalties of up to 40%.

We have found that it generally takes a total of around 6.2 hours for a Producer to complete one hour of an Audiobook. Here's how you get there: It takes about two hours to narrate what will become one finished hour.

ACX narrators earn $10 to $100 for beginners and $100 to $500 for professionals. The narrator's pay rate depends on audiobook work, feedback, experience, and if their voice fits particular niches. Audible, like other audiobook work agencies, adapts a per-finished hour (PFH) mode of payment.

Our payment system is a breeze. Every time someone signs up through your custom URL, you get a $15 commission. We track your hits and pay you each month you hit the $30.00 payment threshold. Referring your listeners requires no selling.

Making an audiobook is profitable if you can negotiate good rates, get high-quality voiceovers and publishing, and already have a popular book published. Turning bestsellers into audiobooks is more likely to return profits.

An experienced audio editor will often charge between $75-$100 per finished hour, though well-known ones can charge more. This would cover editing and mastering. An experienced audio proofer will charge between $25-$35 PFH.

The average audiobook is 100,000 words, or about 11 hours long (55 words a minute, 9300 per finished hour). It takes four to six hours to produce one hour of completed audio, or 44-66 hours per book.

You can finish one full size books (15 hours/400 pages) a week WITHOUT wasting a single extra minute on reading. You just read (listen) when you do physical tasks. I audio-read 2 hours a day on work days and 4-5 hours a day weekends.