WEBVTT
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Today we're talking about the audiobook rules that separate bestsellers from failures.
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There's a lot of stuff to break down here.
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I think this is one of the biggest mistakes that authors make is around audiobooks, specifically one big mistake I'll talk about later.
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Five years ago, I gave away my own audiobook for free on a page in the front of the book.
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People told me I was an idiot, I'm leaving money on the table.
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That decision has brought in tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of leads.
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And that's just one of the things that almost every author gets backwards.
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The audiobook market did 2.43 billion dollars last year, and that's up nine percent over the years before.
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So a lot of people think books are dying.
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No, they're not.
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And in fact, audiobooks are one of the fastest growing channels.
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Here's the thing though the majority of those royalties went to a handful of authors who are following these rules and doing a few specific things right.
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So there's seven rules that separate best-selling audiobooks from failed ones.
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Let's get into that.
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Now, the first big mistake that people make when it comes to audiobooks is they don't have one.
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If you don't have an audiobook, you're leaving so much money on the table, it's not even funny.
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But first, when we think about the actual audiobook, you got to format it for the ear, not the eye.
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So the number one reason that audiobooks sound amateur has nothing to do with the narrator.
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Sure, the narrator matters.
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That's important.
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The reason is because before recording, the book itself still needs to be made audio friendly.
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This is something most people don't think about.
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I certainly didn't when I created my first audiobook, but then you start reading it and you realize click here.
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It's like, oh shoot, I can't say that uh in the audiobook.
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So hyperlinks need to get typed out and they don't need to be self-publishing.com forward slash author dash summary dash this, that, and the other, forward slash.
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I mean, this is like no one's gonna type that in.
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So you need to make your link simple and think in hear language, not see language, because they obviously can't see it.
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And then your visuals need a spoken workaround or a companion PDF.
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That's the beautiful thing about audiobooks.
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Most people don't even think about having a companion PDF.
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You can, you should.
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It's really smart.
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Not only is it gonna help you get more leads, it's gonna help people get more out of the book.
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And then you need to get the formatting right.
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So the formatting means teeing up visuals or working around visuals or even something as simple as in the very beginning saying, hey, there's gonna be a lot of images, you should use the PDF, right?
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So that's one simple thing that you can do up front.
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That's gonna help more people actually get value out of the book itself.
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Now, rule number two.
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Now we're getting into basics, and then this is really where I think people start to screw things up, but you got to decide on a narrator who's reading your book.
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The single biggest decision on an audiobook has nothing to do with distribution or price, it's whether you read it yourself.
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I wrestled with this for a long time and I published multiple books where I just hired editors because it comes down to kind of time and money.
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Do you value your time more or your money more?
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Unless you DIY it, but it's typically cheaper to pay a narrator to just do it.
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But I think if you do that, you're probably making a big mistake.
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So if you do it yourself, you're spending hours, probably a day or two, you're getting in the studio, you're doing all this stuff.
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Is it worth it?
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It depends.
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If you're doing fiction, it's probably not worth it.
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Just pay a narrator, that's fine.
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If you're doing nonfiction, I would say you almost definitely have to read it yourself.
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Unless you have just a horrible voice or you're hard to understand, or you've got some weird accent that people won't resonate with.
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Now, I would argue that sometimes that's good.
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Like I had an insecurity around, hey, I got a little bit of a southern accent, maybe people won't like that.
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That makes me unique.
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That makes people connect with me as the author and as the narrator.
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It's kind of trade-offs, but hiring a professional gets you consistent polished delivery from someone who already knows how to do it.
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They know the pacing and all that stuff.
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So while it's maybe better on paper, if you self-narrate, it's a better connection to the reader.
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So if you've got something on the other side of the book, and so with this book, this book has brought in millions of dollars in sales for the business.
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The audio book is one of the best things that I do because it increases the likelihood that people actually read, aka listen to the book, and then we've just spent hours together.
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They've got a personal connection with me.
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They're exponentially more likely to do business with me, to do business with self-publishing.com.
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Now, if you self-narrate, you've got two routes.
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You can either go in the studio, you find a local recording studio, you find an engineer, maybe you have someone master it, or you can DIY it at home, which means you need a good mic, a USB mic, you need a pop filter, you need headphones, probably, you need a quiet room, you need a closet that works surprisingly well.
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People don't think about that.
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A closet is a really good space because it's usually quiet.
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You have clothes in there that dampen the echo or anything like that.
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And then you need recording software.
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We've got a video on this channel, you can watch it.
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It's all about how to make an audiobook.
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It's been surprisingly popular.
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That video kind of popped off.
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Rule number three give it away to get paid.
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This is counterintuitive.
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People think this is dumb.
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Don't make the mistake of being pennywise and pound foolish by, oh no, no, I gotta optimize where my royalties and you end up with a lot less sales.
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So, my own audiobook, like I mentioned, has generated so many leads and more sales than I can count because of two reasons.
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One, I give it away for free at the beginning of my physical book.
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Now, just to be clear, this is not on Audible.
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So I give away MP3 files.
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Now, a lot of times people will get that for free and they'll end up buying it on Audible or somewhere else because maybe they want to listen at one and a half X speed, or maybe it's just formatted easily for their listening.
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And so you end up actually selling books by giving them away.
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And in the process, I get thousands of free leads.
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So if you're if you're a business owner, you know that hey, you're paying for leads, you know what you would pay for leads.
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And instead of paying for leads, I'm getting free leads, tons of them.
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And in most cases, I'm also getting paid to get leads.
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Okay, so this is why I think you should give it away.
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But then specifically on Audible or other platforms, they will give you codes as an author.
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So this is kind of like this is a little cheat code here.
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A lot of people don't know about this.
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Audible, you can get, I think last I heard it was 25 codes in the US, 25 codes maybe in the UK.
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And then when you give them all away, they will actually give you more.
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This is kind of a hidden thing.
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Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't.
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But then you can use that to get more people to download the book for free.
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That's going to help boost your rankings in Audible or wherever they're listening to downloading audiobooks.
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And then you can also use that maybe as part of the bounty program.
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We've got a video on how to get paid with the bounty programs.
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Most people don't know about that.
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Talk about that a little bit later.
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You can give away the codes, people claim the codes, they listen, they leave a review.
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Start with this, and then that leads into the rest of this to get more traction with your audiobook.
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Hey, quick interruption: if what you're hearing right now is making you think about your own book, don't let that feeling pass.
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We've helped thousands of authors turn that exact feeling into a published book that builds their authority in their business.
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If you want to be next, come find us on Instagram at selfpublishing.com and send us a DM with the word ready.
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Our team will reach out, we'll learn about your book, we'll map out exactly the path forward and what it looks like for you.
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We'll create a custom plan, DM us ready, find us on Instagram, and let's get back into the episode.
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Rule number four, publish your book in all formats, not just one.
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I kind of mentioned this at the beginning, but there's a whole segment of people who will never read your book, but they would listen to it.
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So by publishing an audiobook, you're automatically separating yourself and you're appealing to that portion of readers that only listen to books.
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You can do that, but I would say as a carve out for this as well, is make sure that you publish ebook and print.
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So don't just publish the audiobook.
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Maybe you want to go audio first and then publish the others.
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I think I would do it the reverse.
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But for some people to say, hey, I got a podcast or whatever else, like my people are audio listeners.
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Yeah, maybe it makes sense to publish that format first.
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It's exclusively on audio, then you do the big launch later.
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But if you publish in more formats, you're gonna sell a lot more books, you're gonna reach a lot more readers, and you're gonna make a lot more in royalties.
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Audiobooks have some of the highest royalty rates of any format.
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Really, audio and ebooks make the most money.
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So format matters not only just to get people to read the books, but to maximize your royalties that you were in the process.
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Again, if you want to learn more on this, we created a whole video on how Amazon pays you, what the royalty rates are, different for ebooks, print.
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I'll save it for that.
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You can watch that video to learn more about how to maximize royalties.
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Rule number five, distribution.
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So it used to be that the only way that you sold books was to get into bookstores.
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The only way to get into bookstores was to have a publishing deal.
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Then you had to have an agent.
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There was all these gatekeepers and middlemen.
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Well, now 70% of all books sold are sold on Amazon and other online retailers.
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So you need to choose your distribution like a business owner.
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There's two main ways to get your audiobook out in the world.
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Picking the right one is it's a real business decision.
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This is not just a technical setting or a checkbox on Audible.
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So the first is ACX.
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Maybe you've heard of it, maybe you haven't.
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ACX stands for the Audiobook Creation Exchange.
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This is owned by Amazon and owned by Audible.
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This is the exclusive route.
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I would argue that you got to do this.
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You might not have to do it exclusively, but you got to at least publish on Audible.
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So if you go through ACX, your book's gonna sell on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes.
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Now the upside of this is you get direct access to that audience.
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There's a simple royalty structure.
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It's honestly a little bit simpler to set up.
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There's a marketplace to find narrators if you choose to go that way.
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But the downside is that if you choose the exclusivity piece, now you get more in royalty rates, but that means it's the only place that you can sell the audiobook.
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I don't love that.
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Or you go lower royalty rate and you've got the ability to publish on other platforms as well.
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Now, either way, on Audible, just kind of frustrating, you don't have control over the pricing.
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They price it for you based on the length of the book.
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It sucks.
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I know, you know, that just kind of is the way it is.
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You could also publish through a company called Now Voices by NAudio.
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Through them, you can sell the book on Spotify, Audible, Amazon, Google Play, and all that stuff.
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So the upside there is a lot more distribution.
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So I would argue you should maybe publish through them or do both.
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Like maybe you just do ACX for the Audible version and you do them for everything else.
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The downside, though, is it's a more complex royalty tracking across platforms.
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It's a little bit complicated.
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You got to make sure they're not competing with each other.
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Our coaches get questions about this all the time because our authors are confused.
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They're like, wait, what do I need to do here?
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Do I need to do both?
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How do I make sure that they're not, I don't have multiple listings?
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So if you care about reaching the massive amount of listeners or the most amount of listeners possible, you got to be on Spotify these days and elsewhere.
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ACX alone is probably not enough.
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If you want the right widest possible reach, it's worth submitting through Now Voices in addition to ACX.
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So that's what I do for my book.
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And I've noticed my own listening habits.
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Maybe you've noticed the same.
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Because I'm a Spotify premium customer, I get free books, I get free listening time.
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So I I'm like, I'm listening to one book a month on Spotify, and I'm listening to maybe two or three over on Audible.
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Audible is where most auto audio books are sold, but Spotify and other places are kind of eating a little bit of that market share, which why that matters for you as the author.
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If you want to sell more books, you should be on those platforms.
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Rule six, launch it last.
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The audio book should almost never be the first thing that you launch.
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You know, I mentioned that earlier, maybe if you just have an audio podcast or something, but we like to do what we call the staggered launch approach.
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So basically, what that means is you launch from easiest to hardest format.
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So you go ebook first, that's the easiest format.
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You make it ebook only, you do a launch, you get reviews, all that stuff.
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Then you do a separate launch.
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This kind of confuses people.
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Wait a month later, you launch the print book.
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And so now all of a sudden, okay, you've got a second shot at hitting the bestseller list.
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Those bestseller lists are different depending on the format.
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So you're promoting, promoting the print book.
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And then maybe a month after that, you launch the audiobook.
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Now, the dirty little secret around Audible and some of these other platforms is they take forever to get your book live.
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So that's almost by necessity, too.
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I remember with one of my books thinking, oh, I'm just gonna launch them all at the same time.
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And then I upload to Audible and it said, Yeah, your book's gonna be ready in about four to six weeks.
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Shoot.
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My launch is not in four to six weeks.
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It's actually sooner than that.
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And so I almost stumbled on this by accident, but then I realized it's a wildly effective marketing strategy.
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So then in your third month, you do an audiobook only launch.
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Now, this is really important because all the reviews are separate, right?
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I'm gonna talk about this in just a second, but you need to get some reviews on those platforms to get critical mass.
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That's why you launched the audiobook last, and that's why you launched the audiobook separately.
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So, rule number seven, the audiobook needs to be its own review push.
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You can do all of these steps.
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If you miss this, your book isn't gonna sell.
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How do I know?
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Because I've done it.
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And quite frankly, I think I've still got a lot of room for improvement on this because if you go look up this book, if you look it up on Amazon, it's got 2,000 plus reviews.
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If you look it up on Audible, I think it's got like 150 or something.
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We're doing okay, but we need to do a lot better.
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I know some authors who literally just print money on Audible because they took this part seriously.
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So, this is one of the biggest mistakes that I made.
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Don't make the same mistake.
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You need to publish this separately and do a review push on Audible.
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A good baseline for this, now obviously Spotify's in the mix and all that stuff, but a good baseline for an audiobook launch is getting at least 50 reviews on the audiobook itself.
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That's where you start to get real traction.
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That's where they start to have your book show up in search, show up in the recommendation engine.
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Just like the main Amazon platform, reviews wait very highly, like very, very highly.
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So you need to get as many reviews as possible.
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If you've got an established backlist title, going through a full relaunch, that goal can obviously go much higher.
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Like when I relaunched this book, my goal was getting a thousand reviews on the audiobook.
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Obviously, if we fell a lot, we fell short of that and we juiced it a lot, which is really good.
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But I think if I were to go back, I would do an even bigger and more dedicated push to get more reviews.
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So, to recap, the seven rules that separate best sellers from failures when it comes to audiobooks is you need a format for the year.
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You need to decide who's reading it, you need to give it away strategically, you need to publish everywhere.
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So publish in all formats.
00:15:21.190 --> 00:15:22.549
Choose your distribution.
00:15:22.710 --> 00:15:24.230
This is a big decision.
00:15:24.470 --> 00:15:32.789
Launch it last and launch it separately, and then do a dedicated review push just for the audiobook itself.
00:15:32.950 --> 00:15:34.789
Now, for your homework, I've got three things for you.
00:15:34.950 --> 00:15:37.909
Number one, you need to decide if an audiobook is right for you.
00:15:38.070 --> 00:15:39.350
Are you committed to doing it?
00:15:39.509 --> 00:15:41.590
And then make these first couple of choices.
00:15:41.750 --> 00:15:45.429
Are you gonna read it yourself or are you gonna pay someone else to read it?
00:15:45.590 --> 00:15:50.149
Then you can use our 12-week launch plan or our we got a whole launch checklist.
00:15:50.230 --> 00:15:52.789
You can use that, but first off, you got to decide and get it recorded.
00:15:52.950 --> 00:15:55.110
You can't publish the audiobook that you don't record.
00:15:55.269 --> 00:16:02.789
And then number two, if you've got the book written, or maybe you're working on one right now and you want the audiobook piece done in the right order.
00:16:02.870 --> 00:16:05.509
Well, then you need to make sure that you're formatting it properly.
00:16:05.669 --> 00:16:09.909
You've got your narrator, you've made the distribution decision, the launch timeline.
00:16:10.070 --> 00:16:15.190
Plan ahead a little bit, and your book, you'll be ready for the launch when it happens.
00:16:15.350 --> 00:16:18.629
Now, to put together this strategy, click the link in the description.
00:16:18.710 --> 00:16:21.190
We've got a free publishing consultation with our team.
00:16:21.269 --> 00:16:24.629
They'll map out all, I know this is probably feels a little bit intimidating.
00:16:24.789 --> 00:16:27.429
They will help you start to create a plan.
00:16:27.590 --> 00:16:30.549
Okay, we've got this thing called the one-page launch plan.
00:16:30.950 --> 00:16:34.549
They can help you start filling that out and figuring out hey, what is your plan?
00:16:34.710 --> 00:16:35.669
How do you get it written?
00:16:35.750 --> 00:16:36.710
How do you get it published?
00:16:36.789 --> 00:16:38.310
How do you market it successfully?
00:16:38.470 --> 00:16:40.870
How does the audiobook fit into that strategy?
00:16:41.029 --> 00:16:43.350
We'll customize a plan and see if we can help.
00:16:43.429 --> 00:16:44.310
So that's the second thing.
00:16:44.470 --> 00:16:45.509
Book a call with the team.
00:16:45.590 --> 00:16:49.029
And so, thirdly, if you haven't yet, I've got a video I want you to watch.
00:16:49.110 --> 00:16:50.710
It's all about how to make an audiobook.
00:16:50.789 --> 00:16:55.350
So it goes more in depth on the creation process, how do you do it?
00:16:55.509 --> 00:16:58.549
I kind of nerd out on some of the mics and stuff like that.
00:16:58.710 --> 00:17:01.830
Um, so if you're interested in that, check out that video next.
00:17:01.990 --> 00:17:03.669
As always, subscribe to the channel.
00:17:03.830 --> 00:17:05.029
The channel's blowing up right now.
00:17:05.109 --> 00:17:05.990
Thank you guys so much.
00:17:06.149 --> 00:17:10.069
We just recently hit 100,000 subscribers and it's growing faster than ever.
00:17:10.230 --> 00:17:11.990
The videos are doing better than ever.
00:17:12.069 --> 00:17:13.190
Uh, so thank you guys.
00:17:13.269 --> 00:17:19.190
Uh, we pour our heart and soul into making great and valuable content for you to help you be more successful with your books.
00:17:19.269 --> 00:17:20.309
I'm glad you're loving it.
00:17:20.470 --> 00:17:22.309
Subscribe to the channel, comment below.
00:17:22.470 --> 00:17:26.389
We read and respond to every single comment, and I will see you in the next video.
00:17:26.549 --> 00:17:30.950
Click this link right here to watch the video on how to make an audiobook.
00:00:28.949 --> 00:00:33.590
Today we're talking about the audiobook rules that separate bestsellers from failures.
00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:35.109
There's a lot of stuff to break down here.
00:00:35.270 --> 00:00:42.149
I think this is one of the biggest mistakes that authors make is around audiobooks, specifically one big mistake I'll talk about later.
00:00:42.310 --> 00:00:47.510
Five years ago, I gave away my own audiobook for free on a page in the front of the book.
00:00:47.670 --> 00:00:51.030
People told me I was an idiot, I'm leaving money on the table.
00:00:51.269 --> 00:00:56.310
That decision has brought in tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of leads.
00:00:56.469 --> 00:01:00.790
And that's just one of the things that almost every author gets backwards.
00:01:00.950 --> 00:01:10.070
The audiobook market did 2.43 billion dollars last year, and that's up nine percent over the years before.
00:01:10.230 --> 00:01:12.070
So a lot of people think books are dying.
00:01:12.230 --> 00:01:12.790
No, they're not.
00:01:12.870 --> 00:01:15.670
And in fact, audiobooks are one of the fastest growing channels.
00:01:15.750 --> 00:01:24.629
Here's the thing though the majority of those royalties went to a handful of authors who are following these rules and doing a few specific things right.
00:01:24.710 --> 00:01:28.629
So there's seven rules that separate best-selling audiobooks from failed ones.
00:01:28.710 --> 00:01:29.430
Let's get into that.
00:01:29.510 --> 00:01:33.350
Now, the first big mistake that people make when it comes to audiobooks is they don't have one.
00:01:33.430 --> 00:01:37.510
If you don't have an audiobook, you're leaving so much money on the table, it's not even funny.
00:01:37.590 --> 00:01:42.310
But first, when we think about the actual audiobook, you got to format it for the ear, not the eye.
00:01:42.469 --> 00:01:47.030
So the number one reason that audiobooks sound amateur has nothing to do with the narrator.
00:01:47.270 --> 00:01:48.710
Sure, the narrator matters.
00:01:48.870 --> 00:01:49.510
That's important.
00:01:49.670 --> 00:01:54.469
The reason is because before recording, the book itself still needs to be made audio friendly.
00:01:54.550 --> 00:01:56.310
This is something most people don't think about.
00:01:56.469 --> 00:02:01.430
I certainly didn't when I created my first audiobook, but then you start reading it and you realize click here.
00:02:01.510 --> 00:02:04.710
It's like, oh shoot, I can't say that uh in the audiobook.
00:02:04.790 --> 00:02:15.189
So hyperlinks need to get typed out and they don't need to be self-publishing.com forward slash author dash summary dash this, that, and the other, forward slash.
00:02:15.349 --> 00:02:17.109
I mean, this is like no one's gonna type that in.
00:02:17.189 --> 00:02:23.189
So you need to make your link simple and think in hear language, not see language, because they obviously can't see it.
00:02:23.270 --> 00:02:28.150
And then your visuals need a spoken workaround or a companion PDF.
00:02:28.310 --> 00:02:29.909
That's the beautiful thing about audiobooks.
00:02:30.069 --> 00:02:32.870
Most people don't even think about having a companion PDF.
00:02:33.030 --> 00:02:34.469
You can, you should.
00:02:34.629 --> 00:02:35.590
It's really smart.
00:02:35.750 --> 00:02:39.750
Not only is it gonna help you get more leads, it's gonna help people get more out of the book.
00:02:39.830 --> 00:02:41.590
And then you need to get the formatting right.
00:02:41.750 --> 00:02:52.710
So the formatting means teeing up visuals or working around visuals or even something as simple as in the very beginning saying, hey, there's gonna be a lot of images, you should use the PDF, right?
00:02:52.789 --> 00:02:55.349
So that's one simple thing that you can do up front.
00:02:55.590 --> 00:02:58.789
That's gonna help more people actually get value out of the book itself.
00:02:58.950 --> 00:02:59.830
Now, rule number two.
00:02:59.909 --> 00:03:07.270
Now we're getting into basics, and then this is really where I think people start to screw things up, but you got to decide on a narrator who's reading your book.
00:03:07.509 --> 00:03:13.590
The single biggest decision on an audiobook has nothing to do with distribution or price, it's whether you read it yourself.
00:03:13.750 --> 00:03:21.349
I wrestled with this for a long time and I published multiple books where I just hired editors because it comes down to kind of time and money.
00:03:21.509 --> 00:03:24.150
Do you value your time more or your money more?
00:03:24.310 --> 00:03:29.750
Unless you DIY it, but it's typically cheaper to pay a narrator to just do it.
00:03:29.830 --> 00:03:32.950
But I think if you do that, you're probably making a big mistake.
00:03:33.110 --> 00:03:41.189
So if you do it yourself, you're spending hours, probably a day or two, you're getting in the studio, you're doing all this stuff.
00:03:41.430 --> 00:03:42.550
Is it worth it?
00:03:42.789 --> 00:03:43.590
It depends.
00:03:43.750 --> 00:03:46.150
If you're doing fiction, it's probably not worth it.
00:03:46.230 --> 00:03:47.670
Just pay a narrator, that's fine.
00:03:47.830 --> 00:03:51.830
If you're doing nonfiction, I would say you almost definitely have to read it yourself.
00:03:51.990 --> 00:03:58.870
Unless you have just a horrible voice or you're hard to understand, or you've got some weird accent that people won't resonate with.
00:03:59.030 --> 00:04:01.030
Now, I would argue that sometimes that's good.
00:04:01.110 --> 00:04:05.590
Like I had an insecurity around, hey, I got a little bit of a southern accent, maybe people won't like that.
00:04:05.750 --> 00:04:07.110
That makes me unique.
00:04:07.430 --> 00:04:11.509
That makes people connect with me as the author and as the narrator.
00:04:11.670 --> 00:04:17.670
It's kind of trade-offs, but hiring a professional gets you consistent polished delivery from someone who already knows how to do it.
00:04:17.750 --> 00:04:19.189
They know the pacing and all that stuff.
00:04:19.349 --> 00:04:24.550
So while it's maybe better on paper, if you self-narrate, it's a better connection to the reader.
00:04:24.629 --> 00:04:30.550
So if you've got something on the other side of the book, and so with this book, this book has brought in millions of dollars in sales for the business.
00:04:30.709 --> 00:04:40.949
The audio book is one of the best things that I do because it increases the likelihood that people actually read, aka listen to the book, and then we've just spent hours together.
00:04:41.110 --> 00:04:43.029
They've got a personal connection with me.
00:04:43.189 --> 00:04:48.310
They're exponentially more likely to do business with me, to do business with self-publishing.com.
00:04:48.470 --> 00:04:50.389
Now, if you self-narrate, you've got two routes.
00:04:50.470 --> 00:05:07.990
You can either go in the studio, you find a local recording studio, you find an engineer, maybe you have someone master it, or you can DIY it at home, which means you need a good mic, a USB mic, you need a pop filter, you need headphones, probably, you need a quiet room, you need a closet that works surprisingly well.
00:05:08.069 --> 00:05:08.870
People don't think about that.
00:05:08.949 --> 00:05:11.350
A closet is a really good space because it's usually quiet.
00:05:11.590 --> 00:05:15.269
You have clothes in there that dampen the echo or anything like that.
00:05:15.430 --> 00:05:16.870
And then you need recording software.
00:05:17.030 --> 00:05:19.030
We've got a video on this channel, you can watch it.
00:05:19.110 --> 00:05:21.110
It's all about how to make an audiobook.
00:05:21.189 --> 00:05:22.709
It's been surprisingly popular.
00:05:22.870 --> 00:05:24.149
That video kind of popped off.
00:05:24.389 --> 00:05:27.430
Rule number three give it away to get paid.
00:05:27.590 --> 00:05:28.949
This is counterintuitive.
00:05:29.189 --> 00:05:30.550
People think this is dumb.
00:05:30.709 --> 00:05:38.550
Don't make the mistake of being pennywise and pound foolish by, oh no, no, I gotta optimize where my royalties and you end up with a lot less sales.
00:05:38.709 --> 00:05:44.949
So, my own audiobook, like I mentioned, has generated so many leads and more sales than I can count because of two reasons.
00:05:45.110 --> 00:05:49.030
One, I give it away for free at the beginning of my physical book.
00:05:49.189 --> 00:05:51.829
Now, just to be clear, this is not on Audible.
00:05:51.910 --> 00:05:53.750
So I give away MP3 files.
00:05:53.829 --> 00:06:05.430
Now, a lot of times people will get that for free and they'll end up buying it on Audible or somewhere else because maybe they want to listen at one and a half X speed, or maybe it's just formatted easily for their listening.
00:06:05.590 --> 00:06:08.470
And so you end up actually selling books by giving them away.
00:06:08.629 --> 00:06:11.829
And in the process, I get thousands of free leads.
00:06:11.990 --> 00:06:16.230
So if you're if you're a business owner, you know that hey, you're paying for leads, you know what you would pay for leads.
00:06:16.389 --> 00:06:19.829
And instead of paying for leads, I'm getting free leads, tons of them.
00:06:19.990 --> 00:06:24.149
And in most cases, I'm also getting paid to get leads.
00:06:24.230 --> 00:06:26.629
Okay, so this is why I think you should give it away.
00:06:26.709 --> 00:06:31.430
But then specifically on Audible or other platforms, they will give you codes as an author.
00:06:31.590 --> 00:06:33.670
So this is kind of like this is a little cheat code here.
00:06:33.829 --> 00:06:35.030
A lot of people don't know about this.
00:06:35.189 --> 00:06:41.110
Audible, you can get, I think last I heard it was 25 codes in the US, 25 codes maybe in the UK.
00:06:41.269 --> 00:06:44.870
And then when you give them all away, they will actually give you more.
00:06:45.110 --> 00:06:46.310
This is kind of a hidden thing.
00:06:46.470 --> 00:06:48.230
Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't.
00:06:48.389 --> 00:06:51.910
But then you can use that to get more people to download the book for free.
00:06:51.990 --> 00:06:57.990
That's going to help boost your rankings in Audible or wherever they're listening to downloading audiobooks.
00:06:58.149 --> 00:07:01.509
And then you can also use that maybe as part of the bounty program.
00:07:01.670 --> 00:07:04.629
We've got a video on how to get paid with the bounty programs.
00:07:04.949 --> 00:07:06.230
Most people don't know about that.
00:07:06.550 --> 00:07:07.590
Talk about that a little bit later.
00:07:07.750 --> 00:07:11.990
You can give away the codes, people claim the codes, they listen, they leave a review.
00:07:12.149 --> 00:07:17.110
Start with this, and then that leads into the rest of this to get more traction with your audiobook.
00:07:17.269 --> 00:07:22.470
Hey, quick interruption: if what you're hearing right now is making you think about your own book, don't let that feeling pass.
00:07:22.550 --> 00:07:28.310
We've helped thousands of authors turn that exact feeling into a published book that builds their authority in their business.
00:07:28.470 --> 00:07:34.389
If you want to be next, come find us on Instagram at selfpublishing.com and send us a DM with the word ready.
00:07:34.709 --> 00:07:40.310
Our team will reach out, we'll learn about your book, we'll map out exactly the path forward and what it looks like for you.
00:07:40.470 --> 00:07:44.949
We'll create a custom plan, DM us ready, find us on Instagram, and let's get back into the episode.
00:07:45.189 --> 00:07:48.790
Rule number four, publish your book in all formats, not just one.
00:07:48.870 --> 00:07:55.030
I kind of mentioned this at the beginning, but there's a whole segment of people who will never read your book, but they would listen to it.
00:07:55.189 --> 00:08:04.550
So by publishing an audiobook, you're automatically separating yourself and you're appealing to that portion of readers that only listen to books.
00:08:04.709 --> 00:08:10.149
You can do that, but I would say as a carve out for this as well, is make sure that you publish ebook and print.
00:08:10.470 --> 00:08:13.030
So don't just publish the audiobook.
00:08:13.269 --> 00:08:16.230
Maybe you want to go audio first and then publish the others.
00:08:16.389 --> 00:08:18.310
I think I would do it the reverse.
00:08:18.389 --> 00:08:23.350
But for some people to say, hey, I got a podcast or whatever else, like my people are audio listeners.
00:08:23.509 --> 00:08:25.990
Yeah, maybe it makes sense to publish that format first.
00:08:26.149 --> 00:08:31.030
It's exclusively on audio, then you do the big launch later.
00:08:31.269 --> 00:08:38.629
But if you publish in more formats, you're gonna sell a lot more books, you're gonna reach a lot more readers, and you're gonna make a lot more in royalties.
00:08:38.789 --> 00:08:42.149
Audiobooks have some of the highest royalty rates of any format.
00:08:42.309 --> 00:08:44.709
Really, audio and ebooks make the most money.
00:08:44.870 --> 00:08:50.789
So format matters not only just to get people to read the books, but to maximize your royalties that you were in the process.
00:08:50.949 --> 00:08:57.909
Again, if you want to learn more on this, we created a whole video on how Amazon pays you, what the royalty rates are, different for ebooks, print.
00:08:58.069 --> 00:08:59.110
I'll save it for that.
00:08:59.269 --> 00:09:02.870
You can watch that video to learn more about how to maximize royalties.
00:09:03.190 --> 00:09:05.269
Rule number five, distribution.
00:09:05.429 --> 00:09:08.789
So it used to be that the only way that you sold books was to get into bookstores.
00:09:08.950 --> 00:09:11.590
The only way to get into bookstores was to have a publishing deal.
00:09:11.750 --> 00:09:12.870
Then you had to have an agent.
00:09:12.950 --> 00:09:15.350
There was all these gatekeepers and middlemen.
00:09:15.429 --> 00:09:21.909
Well, now 70% of all books sold are sold on Amazon and other online retailers.
00:09:22.070 --> 00:09:24.629
So you need to choose your distribution like a business owner.
00:09:24.950 --> 00:09:27.750
There's two main ways to get your audiobook out in the world.
00:09:27.909 --> 00:09:31.029
Picking the right one is it's a real business decision.
00:09:31.110 --> 00:09:34.950
This is not just a technical setting or a checkbox on Audible.
00:09:35.029 --> 00:09:36.710
So the first is ACX.
00:09:36.950 --> 00:09:38.310
Maybe you've heard of it, maybe you haven't.
00:09:38.470 --> 00:09:41.990
ACX stands for the Audiobook Creation Exchange.
00:09:42.230 --> 00:09:45.750
This is owned by Amazon and owned by Audible.
00:09:45.909 --> 00:09:47.269
This is the exclusive route.
00:09:47.590 --> 00:09:49.110
I would argue that you got to do this.
00:09:49.429 --> 00:09:53.590
You might not have to do it exclusively, but you got to at least publish on Audible.
00:09:53.750 --> 00:09:58.549
So if you go through ACX, your book's gonna sell on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes.
00:09:58.710 --> 00:10:02.310
Now the upside of this is you get direct access to that audience.
00:10:02.549 --> 00:10:04.710
There's a simple royalty structure.
00:10:05.029 --> 00:10:07.509
It's honestly a little bit simpler to set up.
00:10:07.669 --> 00:10:11.190
There's a marketplace to find narrators if you choose to go that way.
00:10:11.350 --> 00:10:21.110
But the downside is that if you choose the exclusivity piece, now you get more in royalty rates, but that means it's the only place that you can sell the audiobook.
00:10:21.590 --> 00:10:22.470
I don't love that.
00:10:22.710 --> 00:10:28.070
Or you go lower royalty rate and you've got the ability to publish on other platforms as well.
00:10:28.149 --> 00:10:32.389
Now, either way, on Audible, just kind of frustrating, you don't have control over the pricing.
00:10:32.470 --> 00:10:34.950
They price it for you based on the length of the book.
00:10:35.190 --> 00:10:35.830
It sucks.
00:10:35.990 --> 00:10:38.389
I know, you know, that just kind of is the way it is.
00:10:38.549 --> 00:10:42.870
You could also publish through a company called Now Voices by NAudio.
00:10:43.190 --> 00:10:49.269
Through them, you can sell the book on Spotify, Audible, Amazon, Google Play, and all that stuff.
00:10:49.429 --> 00:10:51.830
So the upside there is a lot more distribution.
00:10:51.990 --> 00:10:55.269
So I would argue you should maybe publish through them or do both.
00:10:55.429 --> 00:11:00.070
Like maybe you just do ACX for the Audible version and you do them for everything else.
00:11:00.230 --> 00:11:05.269
The downside, though, is it's a more complex royalty tracking across platforms.
00:11:05.350 --> 00:11:06.470
It's a little bit complicated.
00:11:06.629 --> 00:11:08.870
You got to make sure they're not competing with each other.
00:11:09.029 --> 00:11:12.789
Our coaches get questions about this all the time because our authors are confused.
00:11:12.870 --> 00:11:14.470
They're like, wait, what do I need to do here?
00:11:14.549 --> 00:11:15.269
Do I need to do both?
00:11:15.350 --> 00:11:17.909
How do I make sure that they're not, I don't have multiple listings?
00:11:18.070 --> 00:11:25.990
So if you care about reaching the massive amount of listeners or the most amount of listeners possible, you got to be on Spotify these days and elsewhere.
00:11:26.230 --> 00:11:28.710
ACX alone is probably not enough.
00:11:28.870 --> 00:11:34.870
If you want the right widest possible reach, it's worth submitting through Now Voices in addition to ACX.
00:11:34.950 --> 00:11:36.230
So that's what I do for my book.
00:11:36.310 --> 00:11:37.830
And I've noticed my own listening habits.
00:11:37.909 --> 00:11:38.950
Maybe you've noticed the same.
00:11:39.110 --> 00:11:43.669
Because I'm a Spotify premium customer, I get free books, I get free listening time.
00:11:43.830 --> 00:11:49.190
So I I'm like, I'm listening to one book a month on Spotify, and I'm listening to maybe two or three over on Audible.
00:11:49.350 --> 00:11:58.389
Audible is where most auto audio books are sold, but Spotify and other places are kind of eating a little bit of that market share, which why that matters for you as the author.
00:11:58.470 --> 00:12:01.669
If you want to sell more books, you should be on those platforms.
00:12:01.830 --> 00:12:04.310
Rule six, launch it last.
00:12:04.629 --> 00:12:07.590
The audio book should almost never be the first thing that you launch.
00:12:07.669 --> 00:12:14.389
You know, I mentioned that earlier, maybe if you just have an audio podcast or something, but we like to do what we call the staggered launch approach.
00:12:14.549 --> 00:12:18.710
So basically, what that means is you launch from easiest to hardest format.
00:12:18.789 --> 00:12:21.830
So you go ebook first, that's the easiest format.
00:12:21.909 --> 00:12:25.429
You make it ebook only, you do a launch, you get reviews, all that stuff.
00:12:25.669 --> 00:12:27.909
Then you do a separate launch.
00:12:28.070 --> 00:12:29.429
This kind of confuses people.
00:12:29.669 --> 00:12:32.629
Wait a month later, you launch the print book.
00:12:32.789 --> 00:12:36.789
And so now all of a sudden, okay, you've got a second shot at hitting the bestseller list.
00:12:36.870 --> 00:12:39.590
Those bestseller lists are different depending on the format.
00:12:39.669 --> 00:12:42.629
So you're promoting, promoting the print book.
00:12:42.710 --> 00:12:45.830
And then maybe a month after that, you launch the audiobook.
00:12:45.909 --> 00:12:51.750
Now, the dirty little secret around Audible and some of these other platforms is they take forever to get your book live.
00:12:51.909 --> 00:12:53.909
So that's almost by necessity, too.
00:12:54.070 --> 00:12:57.429
I remember with one of my books thinking, oh, I'm just gonna launch them all at the same time.
00:12:57.509 --> 00:13:02.710
And then I upload to Audible and it said, Yeah, your book's gonna be ready in about four to six weeks.
00:13:03.269 --> 00:13:04.070
Shoot.
00:13:04.950 --> 00:13:08.310
My launch is not in four to six weeks.
00:13:08.389 --> 00:13:09.990
It's actually sooner than that.
00:13:10.149 --> 00:13:16.549
And so I almost stumbled on this by accident, but then I realized it's a wildly effective marketing strategy.
00:13:16.710 --> 00:13:20.230
So then in your third month, you do an audiobook only launch.
00:13:20.310 --> 00:13:23.669
Now, this is really important because all the reviews are separate, right?
00:13:23.750 --> 00:13:29.750
I'm gonna talk about this in just a second, but you need to get some reviews on those platforms to get critical mass.
00:13:29.909 --> 00:13:34.789
That's why you launched the audiobook last, and that's why you launched the audiobook separately.
00:13:35.029 --> 00:13:39.830
So, rule number seven, the audiobook needs to be its own review push.
00:13:39.990 --> 00:13:41.750
You can do all of these steps.
00:13:41.909 --> 00:13:44.070
If you miss this, your book isn't gonna sell.
00:13:44.230 --> 00:13:44.789
How do I know?
00:13:44.950 --> 00:13:45.909
Because I've done it.
00:13:46.149 --> 00:13:55.429
And quite frankly, I think I've still got a lot of room for improvement on this because if you go look up this book, if you look it up on Amazon, it's got 2,000 plus reviews.
00:13:55.590 --> 00:13:59.110
If you look it up on Audible, I think it's got like 150 or something.
00:13:59.269 --> 00:14:01.269
We're doing okay, but we need to do a lot better.
00:14:01.350 --> 00:14:07.190
I know some authors who literally just print money on Audible because they took this part seriously.
00:14:07.269 --> 00:14:09.350
So, this is one of the biggest mistakes that I made.
00:14:09.509 --> 00:14:10.870
Don't make the same mistake.
00:14:11.110 --> 00:14:16.149
You need to publish this separately and do a review push on Audible.
00:14:16.310 --> 00:14:26.870
A good baseline for this, now obviously Spotify's in the mix and all that stuff, but a good baseline for an audiobook launch is getting at least 50 reviews on the audiobook itself.
00:14:27.110 --> 00:14:29.269
That's where you start to get real traction.
00:14:29.429 --> 00:14:34.549
That's where they start to have your book show up in search, show up in the recommendation engine.
00:14:34.710 --> 00:14:41.110
Just like the main Amazon platform, reviews wait very highly, like very, very highly.
00:14:41.269 --> 00:14:44.070
So you need to get as many reviews as possible.
00:14:44.230 --> 00:14:51.509
If you've got an established backlist title, going through a full relaunch, that goal can obviously go much higher.
00:14:51.669 --> 00:14:55.830
Like when I relaunched this book, my goal was getting a thousand reviews on the audiobook.
00:14:55.909 --> 00:15:00.710
Obviously, if we fell a lot, we fell short of that and we juiced it a lot, which is really good.
00:15:00.789 --> 00:15:05.909
But I think if I were to go back, I would do an even bigger and more dedicated push to get more reviews.
00:15:06.149 --> 00:15:12.950
So, to recap, the seven rules that separate best sellers from failures when it comes to audiobooks is you need a format for the year.
00:15:13.110 --> 00:15:18.870
You need to decide who's reading it, you need to give it away strategically, you need to publish everywhere.
00:15:18.950 --> 00:15:20.950
So publish in all formats.
00:15:21.190 --> 00:15:22.549
Choose your distribution.
00:15:22.710 --> 00:15:24.230
This is a big decision.
00:15:24.470 --> 00:15:32.789
Launch it last and launch it separately, and then do a dedicated review push just for the audiobook itself.
00:15:32.950 --> 00:15:34.789
Now, for your homework, I've got three things for you.
00:15:34.950 --> 00:15:37.909
Number one, you need to decide if an audiobook is right for you.
00:15:38.070 --> 00:15:39.350
Are you committed to doing it?
00:15:39.509 --> 00:15:41.590
And then make these first couple of choices.
00:15:41.750 --> 00:15:45.429
Are you gonna read it yourself or are you gonna pay someone else to read it?
00:15:45.590 --> 00:15:50.149
Then you can use our 12-week launch plan or our we got a whole launch checklist.
00:15:50.230 --> 00:15:52.789
You can use that, but first off, you got to decide and get it recorded.
00:15:52.950 --> 00:15:55.110
You can't publish the audiobook that you don't record.
00:15:55.269 --> 00:16:02.789
And then number two, if you've got the book written, or maybe you're working on one right now and you want the audiobook piece done in the right order.
00:16:02.870 --> 00:16:05.509
Well, then you need to make sure that you're formatting it properly.
00:16:05.669 --> 00:16:09.909
You've got your narrator, you've made the distribution decision, the launch timeline.
00:16:10.070 --> 00:16:15.190
Plan ahead a little bit, and your book, you'll be ready for the launch when it happens.
00:16:15.350 --> 00:16:18.629
Now, to put together this strategy, click the link in the description.
00:16:18.710 --> 00:16:21.190
We've got a free publishing consultation with our team.
00:16:21.269 --> 00:16:24.629
They'll map out all, I know this is probably feels a little bit intimidating.
00:16:24.789 --> 00:16:27.429
They will help you start to create a plan.
00:16:27.590 --> 00:16:30.549
Okay, we've got this thing called the one-page launch plan.
00:16:30.950 --> 00:16:34.549
They can help you start filling that out and figuring out hey, what is your plan?
00:16:34.710 --> 00:16:35.669
How do you get it written?
00:16:35.750 --> 00:16:36.710
How do you get it published?
00:16:36.789 --> 00:16:38.310
How do you market it successfully?
00:16:38.470 --> 00:16:40.870
How does the audiobook fit into that strategy?
00:16:41.029 --> 00:16:43.350
We'll customize a plan and see if we can help.
00:16:43.429 --> 00:16:44.310
So that's the second thing.
00:16:44.470 --> 00:16:45.509
Book a call with the team.
00:16:45.590 --> 00:16:49.029
And so, thirdly, if you haven't yet, I've got a video I want you to watch.
00:16:49.110 --> 00:16:50.710
It's all about how to make an audiobook.
00:16:50.789 --> 00:16:55.350
So it goes more in depth on the creation process, how do you do it?
00:16:55.509 --> 00:16:58.549
I kind of nerd out on some of the mics and stuff like that.
00:16:58.710 --> 00:17:01.830
Um, so if you're interested in that, check out that video next.
00:17:01.990 --> 00:17:03.669
As always, subscribe to the channel.
00:17:03.830 --> 00:17:05.029
The channel's blowing up right now.
00:17:05.109 --> 00:17:05.990
Thank you guys so much.
00:17:06.149 --> 00:17:10.069
We just recently hit 100,000 subscribers and it's growing faster than ever.
00:17:10.230 --> 00:17:11.990
The videos are doing better than ever.
00:17:12.069 --> 00:17:13.190
Uh, so thank you guys.
00:17:13.269 --> 00:17:19.190
Uh, we pour our heart and soul into making great and valuable content for you to help you be more successful with your books.
00:17:19.269 --> 00:17:20.309
I'm glad you're loving it.
00:17:20.470 --> 00:17:22.309
Subscribe to the channel, comment below.
00:17:22.470 --> 00:17:26.389
We read and respond to every single comment, and I will see you in the next video.
00:17:26.549 --> 00:17:30.950
Click this link right here to watch the video on how to make an audiobook.
