Getting Started in Audiobooks

According to the Wall Street Journal, Audiobooks are the fastest-growing format in publishing. With the market continuing to expand, it only makes sense to set your sights on audiobooks as a part of your side-hustle. Fortunately, you don't need access to a full studio in order to break in.

Equipment

Getting the equipment to get started doesn't have to break your bank. There are plenty of affordable microphones that can plug into your iPhone and can help you get started. So long as you have access to a truly quiet room, then you can get started working on audiobooks in order to make sure that this is a path that you truly want to pursue.

High end recording equipment and building a studio in your home are steps that you may eventually want to take, but it certainly isn't something that you want to upfront spend the money on. There are plenty of projects that will accept a project from a beginner, and you can even make money on these projects which you can later invest in equipment.

For more information about getting equipment to record on iPhone, check out this post from our sister site, VoiceWorkCentral. They're new, and if you sign up for the mailing list you can learn a whole lot more about voice work (including audiobooks), and the equipment you may want to purchase.

ACX

I do most of my audiobook work through a site called ACX, which stands for the Audiobook Creation Exchange. It's a service from Amazon that matches audiobook creators with authors and rights holders who would like an audiobook made of their title. The service offers two different methods of payment, per-finished-hour, or a royalty share agreement. Both are great ways to monetize your voice, and which one is right for you will be explored in a later post on this site.

While you can find audiobook work on other sites such as Upwork, ACX is the easiest way for beginning audiobook creators to get their foot in the door.

Audition, Audition, Audition

Once you're setup on ACX, you're going to want to audition, audition, audition. I highly recommend finding a project that is short in length that can help you get your feet wet in the process of creating an audiobook. There is a lot of editing work that goes into creating a quality audiobook, and so you'll need to be learning how to do those things as well. These skills, and how to develop them, will be the subject of later posts on this blog.