The pros and cons of audiobooks

With more and more people getting into audiobooks, and with Audible advertising just about everywhere these days, I’ve seen a lot of conversations about whether or not authors should make their books available in audiobook format. It’s a new and exciting thing, so should you get in on it?

Why you shouldn’t make audiobooks

It’s expensive

There’s a bit of cost upfront if you are hiring a voice actor to read your book. Hiring someone will ensure that you have someone who can help you create a quality product, but the cost can be daunting.

People don’t consume audiobooks in the same way as ebooks or physical books

This is not to say everyone, but generally speaking, audiobooks are more likely to be played in the background while the listener is performing another task. The focus is often not entirely on the book in the same way, which means that more complicated narratives may not work as well in the format.

Why you should make audiobooks

You could do it yourself

If you have a good reading voice and the ability to produce quality audio, you could do your own audiobook reading. It is time-consuming, and you will likely need to learn how to produce your own audio, but it could be done!

You’ll reach a new audience

There’s a growing audience of people who consume only audiobooks. This can be viewed as an entirely new audience, one that might have never checked out your work before without access to this format of your books.

There’s less competition

Currently, the audiobooks market is not as flooded with content as either the paperback or ebook markets. It’s still largely considered early for the market, which means getting in now will provide more opportunities for anyone trying to get in.

Will I be doing audiobooks?

I will not be doing audiobooks of any of my novels any time soon. I have certain auditory processing issues that make it really hard for me to listen to anything for a long time, which is kind of required for audiobook production. It may happen one day! But I don’t see those coming any time soon.

Also, I just don’t have a very good reading voice. I would need to train a little if I were to produce it myself, or I’d need to sell a whole lot more books if I were going to hire someone.