MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Audiobooks, the future Hardback? Ebook + Audiobook Bundles?

Steven Lake · 10-31-2010, 08:37 AM

Actually, if you have a good reader, it only takes about $100-$300 per studio hour (ie, the hours of recorded content, not the actual work hours) to produce an audiobook (already been down that alley myself). So for a book that takes 6 hours to read at a normal pace (my books average about 20min per chapter, and 6-7 hours total for the entire book), which unless you're a speed reader is the normal pace you'd read a regular book at, will cost between $600 and $1800 total to produce. (this means that the tracks are leveled, and all studio work is completed, and when it's done you have a final product ready for sale.)

Add in the extras like cover, cd generation, ISBN and so on, and you've got at most $3000 into an audiobook which will sell for about $25 in cd form for 6 hours of listening, and about $15 for mp3. (Yes, audiobooks are a racket if you consider that the per unit cost for the packaging after production is about $2 per unit, making them nearly 85% profit) So personally I think that if someone is expecting wide distribution sales in considerable numbers, audiobooks are really economical to produce. The only time they might not be is if you have a celebrity reader like Patrick Stewart who would make the raw studio hours jump to like $20,000 without batting an eye.

I'm right now waiting for my audiobook files to come back from the studio (we use a 3rd party studio for all our audiobooks as it's just cheaper, easier, and produces better quality than if we did it in house), and once they do, I'll be offering them for sale in both packaged CD's and mp3's. So in the grand scheme of things, the only real *downside* to audiobooks is that it takes longer to produce them than a regular book or ebook due to all the extra steps you have to go through if you want pressed cd's like I want. If you don't want pressed cd's and only plan to sell them as mp3's, then the production time is actually far less, but still almost as long as for a printed book.

Anywho, that's my 2c in on this argument. As for doing bundles, I think it'd be a cool thing to do.

10-31-2010, 08:37 AM	#3
Steven Lake Sci-Fi Author Posts: 1,158 Karma: 14743509 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Michigan Device: PC (Calibre)	Actually, if you have a good reader, it only takes about $100-$300 per studio hour (ie, the hours of recorded content, not the actual work hours) to produce an audiobook (already been down that alley myself). So for a book that takes 6 hours to read at a normal pace (my books average about 20min per chapter, and 6-7 hours total for the entire book), which unless you're a speed reader is the normal pace you'd read a regular book at, will cost between $600 and $1800 total to produce. (this means that the tracks are leveled, and all studio work is completed, and when it's done you have a final product ready for sale.) Add in the extras like cover, cd generation, ISBN and so on, and you've got at most $3000 into an audiobook which will sell for about $25 in cd form for 6 hours of listening, and about $15 for mp3. (Yes, audiobooks are a racket if you consider that the per unit cost for the packaging after production is about $2 per unit, making them nearly 85% profit) So personally I think that if someone is expecting wide distribution sales in considerable numbers, audiobooks are really economical to produce. The only time they might not be is if you have a celebrity reader like Patrick Stewart who would make the raw studio hours jump to like $20,000 without batting an eye. I'm right now waiting for my audiobook files to come back from the studio (we use a 3rd party studio for all our audiobooks as it's just cheaper, easier, and produces better quality than if we did it in house), and once they do, I'll be offering them for sale in both packaged CD's and mp3's. So in the grand scheme of things, the only real downside to audiobooks is that it takes longer to produce them than a regular book or ebook due to all the extra steps you have to go through if you want pressed cd's like I want. If you don't want pressed cd's and only plan to sell them as mp3's, then the production time is actually far less, but still almost as long as for a printed book. Anywho, that's my 2c in on this argument. As for doing bundles, I think it'd be a cool thing to do.