|
Audio is one of the few areas that is growing right now. Ebooks have leveled off (from a growth perspective. They are still selling well, but not growing much). Audible was making audio books more accessible and is now an Amazon company. Amazon puts audio on sale quite often. My only gripe is that if I publish audio with them, Amazon controls the pricing and because there is no competition, the share they payout is a much lower percentage than it is with ebooks (Apple is largely responsible for Amazon allowing authors to get 70 percent of a sale price with books--Amazon had to match that rate to stay competitive).
One of the problems with audio books is they are VERY expensive to produce. For me to produce one book, it would cost me around 1000 to 2500 and could take up to 3 months--of my time and also that of the person/studio doing the recording. And then if I upload to Amazon, they control the pricing. They can put it on sale, which could hamper me from being able to earn that money back in a timely fashion.
BUT. Right now, customers are willing to pay money for audio, whist for ebooks, there is a growing number that wait for free (or discounted or free for the first in series, etc).
The industry is always changing. I'm glad to see audio taking off, but I've been unable to capitalize on it, and it may not make sense given the money required upfront.
|