A journalist requested an interview with me last week to talk about audiobook narration, my favorite topic. I asked her to send me a list of questions and offered to write out some answers for her.
I knew this wouldn’t be a typical interview when I saw 2 questions:
- How much money do you make?
- What do you use the money for?
I realized that she wanted to interview people with side jobs rather than full-time occupations. It turns out that she was writing a column named “Easy Money” and was surveying multiple ways to make money that are associated with books. Her editor had seen listings on Upwork.com where people are looking for audiobook narrators and thought this job would be a good one to add.
I told her that I didn’t want to be included in her story because audiobook narration and production are definitely NOT ways to earn easy money!
As you learned in this article, narration is not as easy as reading aloud. Authors who are new to audiobooks are often shocked at the cost of production.
Also, due to the dramatic growth of the audiobook industry, authors perceive that sales for audio editions are easily made without much or any effort. I therefore thought it would be good to write an article this week about 3 financial aspects of audiobook production so authors can have realistic expectations.
