Audio books for sale online - why pay?

Published by neil on February 21st, 2008

I’ll bet the vast majority of people searching for audio books online presume they are going to have to splash out money to get their ears around them. iTunes, for example, has an audiobook section accessible from the iTunes Store home page, but this only stocks commercial Audible titles. For free podcast-distributed audiobooks, one must do some digging in the podcast section.

I guess there is something of a perception problem here, and perhaps something of bad experienced with amateur productions. There will inevitably be the perception that something costing a tenner is going to offer greater value, quality, entertainment than something which is available for free. Sadly, where audio books are concerned, this is not always the case. Many Audible titles have terrible production quality, some sounding as though the producer merely dialed-in on the telephone to record the audio!

Free audio books also have a good selection of atrocious production values, and are littered with dull voices, uninteresting readings, and are just plain difficult to listen to. A handful, however, are of a quality that surpasses many of the professional productions, and these really do stand out from the crown, being completely free and very enjoyable.

When I was preparing and researching the production style for TableRappers Persistent Spirit, I listened to a lot of free and commercial audio books. Sadly, I found the vast majority of them too poor in the quality of either the production - background noise, hum, low levels, etc - or in the voice performance to be something I would ever choose to listen to. They did, however, help me to set the bar for how to produce my own audio book and have contributed to the quality of every element of the production.

Is free too big a risk?

The perception that free means poor quality, will inevitably hold back a large slice of potential audience from taking the plunge and dipping their ears into an audio book. Which is a big shame because most audio book authors and producers are striving to improve their content and give it the best chance of a broader audience. I also wonder whether the audience finds it difficult to comprehend why an author would go to all the trouble of writing and producing the audio without any apparent direct financial gain - I would guess the assumption is one of desperation, that the book is so bad no publisher will touch it.

How to reach out

Still, no matter how good it is, word of mouth will remain the primary means of building audience for audio book creators. This means that the old adage of ‘content is king’ is critical to the book’s success. Recommendation, either directly or through trusted reviews, is the single most powerful motivator to have someone try out a slice of new content, and that will only ever happen if the content is compelling.

TableRappers Persistent Spirit, is a free downloadable, original audio book, distributed in weekly chapters. Read some of the reviews here.

Tags: audience, audiobook, cost, podcast, quality, Writing
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