How To Make Money Publishing Audiobooks On Audible (3 Ways)

Summary

In this informative video, Dane discusses strategies for successful audiobook publishing on Audible and ACX. He emphasizes the importance of creating audiobooks of five hours or more to stand out in a saturated market, ensuring the content is suitable for audio format, and conducting keyword research with profitability criteria. Dane also introduces a bonus tip: creating series and bundling books to maximize revenue and appeal to listeners, offering a comprehensive guide for authors looking to monetize their work in the audiobook industry.

Takeaways

• 🎧 Making audiobooks with a duration of five hours or more can help you stand out in the market, as three-hour audiobooks have become saturated.
• 📚 The length of an audiobook should be determined by the content's suitability for the format; some books, like cookbooks, do not translate well to audio.
• 📈 Focus on listener preferences and ensure that the audiobook format makes sense for the content being presented.
• 🔍 Use keyword research to find profitable niches with less competition, aiming for keywords with around 100 results or less, under 100 reviews on competitors, and a Best Seller Rank (BSR) below 10k.
• 📉 Avoid niches with too many results or too few, as this can indicate either high competition or low demand.
• 💰 Longer audiobooks not only rank higher on platforms like Audible but also offer a higher price tier, leading to higher royalties.
• ✍️ Consider the cost of production when creating longer audiobooks, as they may require more investment in writing and narration.
• 📊 Use tools like BSR Master to analyze the market demand and competition level for specific keywords in the audiobook industry.
• 📝 Create a series of audiobooks to maximize profits by bundling shorter books into longer, more valuable packages.
• 📚 The script suggests that creating a series allows for the repurposing of content into different formats, potentially increasing revenue without additional costs.
• 👍 Engage with the audience by asking for video suggestions and feedback to improve content and cater to viewer interests.

Q & A

What are the three main ways to make money with audiobooks on Audible and ACX according to Dane?

The three main ways are: 1) Making audiobooks that are five hours or more in length, 2) Focusing on what listeners want and ensuring the book makes sense in audio format, and 3) Using a keyword profitability criteria list to select niches and keywords for the audiobooks.

Why is making audiobooks five hours or more beneficial for standing out in the market?

Audiobooks that are five hours or more are less saturated than those around three hours, which are more common. Longer books can rank higher and sell at a higher price point, thus adding more value and potentially leading to more sales.

What is the approximate word count for an audiobook to be around five hours long?

An audiobook is typically around five hours long if it contains about 40,000 to 45,000 words, although this can vary depending on the narration speed and style.

Why might it be more expensive to produce a longer audiobook?

Producing a longer audiobook can be more expensive because it requires paying for more words to be written by a ghostwriter and more hours to be narrated, which is often billed per finished hour.

How does the price of an audiobook on Audible relate to its length?

Longer audiobooks, such as those five hours or more, are often priced higher than shorter ones, with a three-hour audiobook typically priced around $14.99, while a five-hour book might be priced at $19.99 or more.

What types of books might not translate well into audio format according to Dane?

Books that require visual elements, such as cookbooks and how-to tutorial style books with pictures, may not make sense in audio format because listeners typically want to see the images and follow along with the content visually.

What is a keyword profitability criteria list, and how is it used to select audiobook topics?

A keyword profitability criteria list is a set of factors used to assess the potential profitability of a niche or keyword for an audiobook. It includes checking for a certain number of results, review count of competitors, and the Best Seller Rank (BSR) to ensure there is demand but not too much competition.

What is a good range for the number of results when researching potential audiobook topics?

A good range for the number of results is around 100 or so, indicating a balance between having a niche with enough demand but not too much competition.

What is the significance of the BSR (Best Seller Rank) when evaluating a niche for an audiobook?

A lower BSR indicates that an audiobook is more popular and sells better. Dane suggests aiming for a BSR below 10k for audiobooks, as this suggests a good balance of demand and competitiveness in the market.

What is the bonus way to make money publishing audiobooks as mentioned by Dane?

The bonus way is to create audiobooks that can be part of a series and then bundle them together to form longer, more profitable books. This allows for maximizing the value of the content and potentially increasing sales.

How does bundling audiobooks from a series potentially increase profits?

Bundling allows for the creation of longer audiobooks without additional content creation costs. By combining two or more books from a series, publishers can offer longer listening experiences at a higher price point, thus increasing potential profits.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Maximizing Profit with Long Audiobooks on Audible and ACX

In the first paragraph, Dane introduces the video's focus on strategies for making money through audiobook publishing on Audible and ACX. He emphasizes the importance of creating audiobooks that are five hours or longer, which he finds to be more profitable and less saturated than the traditional three-hour format. Dane explains that longer books can stand out in the market, potentially ranking higher and selling more, especially since they can be priced higher on Audible. He also touches on the financial implications of producing longer books, including the costs of ghostwriting and narration, and assures viewers that the investment can pay off in the long run.

05:01

🎧 Ensuring Audiobook Format Suitability and Keyword Research

The second paragraph delves into the importance of ensuring that the content of an audiobook makes sense in an audio format, using cookbooks and knitting guides as examples of books that may not translate well to audio. Dane then introduces the concept of keyword profitability criteria for selecting profitable niches, suggesting that one should aim for niches with at least 100 results to ensure demand but not so many that the competition is overwhelming. He advises looking for niches where competitors have fewer than 100 reviews to increase the chances of ranking and emphasizes the significance of a good Best Seller Rank (BSR) for assessing demand and competition.

10:01

🔖 Leveraging Series and Bundles for Increased Audiobook Profits

In the final paragraph, Dane presents a bonus strategy for increasing profits through audiobook publishing: creating series and bundling books. He illustrates how producing a series of books, each around 40,000 words, can be combined to form longer audiobooks, effectively doubling or even quadrupling the content without additional costs. This approach not only maximizes the use of existing content but also allows for the creation of more valuable products that can be sold at higher prices, thus increasing overall revenue from the same amount of work.

Keywords

💡Audiobooks

Audiobooks are recordings of text being read aloud, allowing listeners to consume written content through listening. In the context of the video, audiobooks are the primary focus for making money through platforms like Audible and ACX. Dane, the speaker, discusses strategies for creating and publishing audiobooks to maximize profitability.

💡Audible

Audible is a platform for audiobook distribution, owned by Amazon. It is one of the main platforms mentioned in the script where authors can publish their audiobooks and earn revenue. The video discusses how to optimize audiobook length and content for better performance on Audible.

💡ACX

ACX stands for Audiobook Creation Exchange, a marketplace where authors can connect with narrators and producers to create and sell audiobooks. The script mentions ACX as one of the platforms for publishing audiobooks to generate income.

💡Self-publishing

Self-publishing refers to the process where authors independently publish their works without the involvement of traditional publishers. The video channel, run by Dane, focuses on self-publishing books on Amazon, which includes audiobooks as discussed in the script.

💡Royalty rate

The royalty rate is the percentage of sales revenue that an author receives for each copy of their book sold. In the video, Dane explains that longer audiobooks, such as those five hours or more, qualify for a higher royalty rate on Audible.

💡Saturated market

A saturated market is one where there is an oversupply of similar products or services, making it difficult for new entrants to compete. Dane mentions that the three-hour audiobook market is saturated, suggesting that creating longer audiobooks can help stand out.

💡Narrative speaking

Narrative speaking refers to the style of speaking used by narrators in audiobooks, which can affect the length of the audiobook. Dane notes that the speed of narrative speaking and the presence of explanations can influence whether a 35,000-word book reaches the five-hour mark.

💡Keyword profitability

Keyword profitability is the concept of selecting keywords or topics for books that have a high demand and low competition, making them more likely to sell. Dane outlines criteria for choosing profitable keywords for audiobooks, such as having fewer than 100 results and competitors with less than 100 reviews.

💡BSR (Best Sellers Rank)

BSR, or Best Sellers Rank, is a number that represents an item's sales rank in a specific Amazon category. Lower BSR numbers indicate better sales performance. Dane uses BSR as a metric to evaluate the competitiveness and demand for different audiobook niches.

💡Series

A series refers to a group of books that share a common theme, setting, or characters. Dane suggests creating audiobooks that can be part of a series, allowing for the bundling of shorter books into longer, more profitable audiobook packages.

💡Bundling

Bundling in the context of the video refers to the practice of combining multiple books into a single, longer audiobook or a package deal. Dane presents bundling as a bonus strategy for increasing the value and profitability of audiobooks on Audible.

Highlights

Three main ways to make money by publishing audiobooks through Audible and ACX.

Making audiobooks five hours or more to stand out from competitors.

Audiobooks of five hours typically require around 40,000 to 45,000 words.

Longer audiobooks sell for higher prices and get higher royalty rates.

Focus on listeners' needs, avoiding audio formats for books that require visual aids like cookbooks.

Ensure your audiobook makes sense in audio format to avoid wasting resources.

Keyword profitability criteria for audiobooks include a minimum of three hours, ideally five hours.

Look for keywords with around 100 results or less to avoid high competition.

Check competitor reviews to ensure they are generally around or less than 100 reviews.

BSR (Best Seller Rank) should be below 10,000 to ensure demand for the audiobook.

Creating a series allows bundling books for longer, more profitable audiobooks.

Bundling books in a series can create additional audiobooks without additional content creation costs.

Use a plugin like BSR Master to check the competitiveness and demand for audiobook niches.

Examples of keyword research and how to use criteria to evaluate potential audiobook niches.

Encouragement to engage with the content by subscribing, liking, and commenting on the video.

Transcripts

in today's video i'm going over three

main things to focus on when it comes to

making money

publishing audiobooks through audible

and acx

what is going on guys welcome to the

channel if you're new here my name is

dane and on this channel i talk all

about self-publishing books on

amazon on entrepreneurship and just

lifestyle in general so if that kind of

thing interests you

make sure you subscribe drop a like on

the video and hit the notification bell

so you know when i post

new videos in today's video i'll be

going over three of the main ways that

you're going to be making money

when it comes to publishing audiobooks

through audible and acx so with these

three ways i'm just going over them in

my computer here that allows me a bonus

way at the end so make sure you stick

around for that

but anyways let's jump into my computer

and get into these so number one

is making audio books five hours or more

okay and this is going to come as a

shock to a lot of people

uh and i totally understand it when i

first made started making audiobooks

start making money with them this wasn't

really the case the main thing that you

probably are

aware of if you're aware of how to make

money with audiobooks and

self-publishing audiobooks and stuff

like that

is getting them to around three hours

longer or more

and that's still totally fine but what i

found within the most recent months is

that three hour

long audiobooks are pretty saturated and

if you can get that thing

to five hours or more you're going to

stand out

by default without having to do much

more work okay

and i'm talking about staying up from

competitors here and typically speaking

a book that is around 30

000 25 000 words is me around three

hours or more

longer when it comes to five hours or

more usually around 40 or 45 000 words

i'll talk about this in a second though

okay

so anyways most competitors are gonna

aim for three hours okay this is what i

just mentioned

and it's kind of the medium that most

people are going to aim for and it's

kind of gotten

too saturated at this point and as you

can see i said this is starting to get

outdated and i'm not trying to say it's

a bad thing to have a 30

a 3 hour or 30 000 long word audio book

it's totally fine you can totally get

away with it still with a bunch of

niches but if you want to make it easier

on yourself

into in order to compete with different

people different niches different

keywords on audible

five hours is beginning to be the sweet

spot so like i just said five hours only

requires your books to be around 40

to 45 000 words long you can do 50 000

words just to be safe generally speaking

10 000 words equals an hour

in audio so it's up to you i find i've

found that even sometimes a 35 000 word

book can get to five hours long it

depends how fast your narrative speaking

uh how many images you have them uh

explaining stuff like that

40 to 45 000 words will generally get

you to five hours or more long

and finally it might cost more to have

this kind of thing made

obviously because the book is longer you

have to pay for a ghostwriter

unless you're running yourself that's

totally fine but if you're hiring a

ghostwriter the more words that they're

writing the more it's going to cost

and the longer it is the more it's going

to cost to have it narrated because

you're usually paying per finished hour

but trust me in the long run this will

pay off huge because you're gonna make

way more money because it'll rank higher

you'll get way more sales

if it's five hours or more long it just

adds way more value to the book

and remember on audible if you're

familiar um a

five hour long audio book actually is a

higher priced tier than a three hour

audio book a three hour a book sells

around 14.99 on audible

five hours usually 19.99 or more so

you're getting a higher royalty rate

when it's five hours longer it's ranking

higher because it's more popular you're

out competing

the competitors with three hour long

audiobooks it just makes more sense

number two is focus on the listeners

wants now

what do i mean by this so make sure your

books make sense

in audio format an example of this is

that cookbooks make

basically no sense in audio format don't

get me wrong maybe

some of them actually make sense maybe

you like to have audio formatted

cookbooks but for the most part when you

think about it if you're trying to put a

cookbook into audio format it's

generally not really going to make sense

because most people who are reading a

cookbook

want to look at the pictures they want

to look at the recipe and follow along

as they're creating

the recipe or the meal or whatever it is

especially with pictures and cookbooks

people want to see pictures of what the

recipe of the finished product is going

to look like so a cookbook in audio

format

just doesn't make a whole lot of sense

so that's just one thing to keep in mind

how to style books that require pictures

so for example like knitting for

beginners and i'll show you this in just

a second

make no sense either a how-to tutorial

style book that has like pictures in it

if you're putting that into

audio format just kind of think for a

second how is that going to make sense

and why would someone buy that over the

paperback

or ebook version of your book i'll show

you an example of this right now so if i

go to here and i want to show you the

five hour thing i forgot to show you

this before but for example if i search

up real estate investing

the books that are ranking highest are

the ones that are longer okay 13 hours

nine hours long nine hours long five

hours long

you have to go all the way down to the

what is it fifth or sixth result

to find a book that's ranking that's at

three hours long all the other ones

around it are super long eight hours 16

hours so the longer your book is

the better chance it's going to sell

higher it's going to sell for a higher

price you can see this one's 24.99

because it's 16 hours

19.95 eight hour long 14.95 for the

third the three hour long so

that just kind of to prove my point what

i was talking about there that's just

what i've found over the past few months

you just be able to get away with three

hour audiobooks no problem

but now five hours kind of seems like

the sweet spot to expand on what i was

just talking about with knitting for

beginners you'll see there's only 25

results and i know that seems low it's

like oh there's no competition i could

definitely compete in this but there's

kind of a reason

that there's only 25 results name for

beginners it doesn't make sense and i'm

using this plugin called

bsr master to see the bsr for audiobooks

and you'll see they're all like 200k

plus 140

excuse me 280 265. so very high they're

not a whole lot of demand for these guys

i'm looking at audiobooks and i'll talk

about this in a second we're looking for

audiobooks that are below

10k or so so you can see they're very

high they're not selling very well

and it just doesn't make sense to make a

knitting for beginners booking in audio

format

number three on this list is keyword

profitability criteria list okay so

let's go over the things that are going

to make your audiobook

sell if you want to get into a certain

niche or keyword

so three hours minimum or five hours

ideally

right i'm just talking about this but

you want to make sure you can get that

thing to three hours

minimum or five hours ideally i already

talked about this but this is the

keyword profitability

criteria list for reason number three on

how to make money with auto audio books

number two is there a hundred or so

results or less

and don't go for that really low number

because that example i just showed you

with knitting for beginners there's 25

there seems very low

but that kind of means there's no

there's no demand for it either right so

make sure it's around 100 results or so

you don't want like thousands of results

like that real estate for beginners gear

looked up there there's way too much

competition there but around 100 is a

good number to look for

another one is generally around or less

than 100 reviews on competitors that

you're going to compete with so if

there's thousands of reviews on all of

the competitors it'd be very hard to

rank on that first page and get

that's social proof to out-compete the

other people who have like thousands of

reviews already on their books no one's

gonna buy a book

that has only a couple reviews compared

to a book with thousands

i finally bsr below 10k just talked

about that with the knitting for

beginner's example

200k is very high with that example so

10k is a good

benchmark when it comes to popular

audiobooks and when we talk about

um books on kdp so like paperbacks and

ebooks we're looking for around 150k

but since there's way less competition

on audible

um 10k to 20k and under is a good range

when it comes to an average bsr

i'll show you some examples right now so

i go into audible

um i just searched up a few examples

like the real estate for beginners one

you saw i had like a thousand results

tons of books with thousands of reviews

very hard to compete with the bsrs are

really good

two thousand one or two thousand again

two thousand

seven hundred so there's lots of demand

for them but it's gonna be hard to

compete with this niche uh anisha is

kind of in between

700 results for options trading it's not

showing me the bsrs for some reason but

i'm assuming these are pretty low

there's tons of results there's probably

a lot of demand for these kind of things

but they have thousands of reviews as

well going to be hard to compete with

not even thousands hundreds so it's not

too bad to be honest with you but you

can see four hundred five thousand

that's a tough one

um it's actually not too bad in the

reviews department it's just that

there's a lot of results

be hard to compete with that uh if i go

to off the grid this is another one

you can see this one's a little bit

better and my what i was talking about

before

the length obviously the longer ones are

ranking higher this one only is two

hours this ranking high it has tons of

reviews

to the social proof so it's kind of

outweighing that six hours long three

hours long so this is a niche you should

probably get away with a three hour long

audio book like i was saying before not

all niches you need it but some niches

if you want to stand out

now it's getting to the point where you

need to make a five hour long audio book

to stand out

but you see the bsrs aren't amazing here

thirty thousand hundred thousand

sixty eight thousand so this wouldn't be

a keyword that's super super popular but

there's only 85 results it's not

too bad in that area hydroponics i

always use this

tried and true um but it's not loading

the bsr for some reason sometimes this

plug-in works sometimes it doesn't

165 results it's not too bad um but you

can see

the competitors under 100 reviews just

not too bad either so it's definitely a

decent niche

unfortunately i can't see the bsr so i'm

not 100 sure how in demand this keyword

is i'd imagine it's not too bad but not

too amazing

um last one here is how to talk to

anyone and you'll see the very first

result has a ton of reviews so be tough

to compete with

but as you scroll below it there's not a

lot of books that have thousands of

reviews so it wouldn't be too bad to get

in here

um how to influence how to win friends

as obviously that's just kind of an

outlier in here

um but there's not a bad niche you can

see

the bsrs are pretty low not super low

but it's not a bad one so that's a

decent example not a whole lot of

results so

just want to show you guys some

different examples and how i would do q

research if i was looking for things

in this criteria here that i was talking

about finally let's get into the bonus

way to make money

publishing audiobooks and it is creating

audiobooks that can be put into a

series you're probably wondering why a

series well with this series this means

you can make

singles and then combine them for even

longer more profitable books

in a bundled format so for example if

you have a four book series and each of

those books has 40k

words that means that each one will be

around for five hours each

okay so you have 20 hours of audio

content there in a in a series of books

that are all

similar with that you can bundle two of

them

and make a 10 hour long bundle so

that'll be another book

and then you make a second book out of

the other two and make another 10 hour

long audio book so in total you have

six audio books okay so you're actually

expanding off of work

that you're not even paying for because

you're just bundling them together which

is completely allowed at audible's terms

okay i'm not breaking any terms with

this you can bundle similar books

and then you'll get two five hour long

books put together it makes a 10 hour

long book

or you go ahead and put a four or four

of those books together and make a

massive bundle

20 hours long and make even more money

okay

um i know this is common knowledge when

it comes to kdp lots of people make

bundles totally fine i don't see a lot

of people taking advantage of audiobook

bundles

and this is definitely an area that you

should take advantage of if you want to

make a lot of money with audible

okay so that's the bonus way to make

money publishing books through

audible anyways guys that is pretty much

it for this video on how to make

money publishing audiobooks gave you

three ways plus a bonus way

way number one was making them five

hours or longer

way number two was focusing on the

listeners wants all right

number three was the keyword

profitability criteria there and i don't

need to go over it again you can go back

in the video

what falls into that criteria and

finally the bonus one was making a

series and making bundles

out of those similar books okay so if

you guys enjoyed this make sure you let

me know in the comment section down

below if you have any video suggestions

or anything you want me to make about

publishing online

leave now below i'll definitely take a

look at those i'm looking for

suggestions for videos all the time

if you guys enjoyed it make sure you

subscribe drop a like on the video and

hit the notification bell so you know

when i post new videos

try to post new videos every single week

but that's it for this one and i'll see

you in the next one

peace

[Music]

you