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Recent studies show that audiobooks are a quickly expanding market. In fact, the number of audiobooks recorded yearly is forecast to increase by 500% over the next four years. How do you get into this lucrative market? By becoming an audiobook publisher.
You just need 2 elements: a book, and a voice.
Finding a voice over artist to work with is made easy with online voice over marketplaces. You can audition multiple voice talent at once, or simply browse, listen to demos, and select a professional voice talent based on their demos.
But what book should you record?
Copyright issues prevent you from going down to the local bookstore and picking up a bestseller to have recorded and start selling as an audiobook. However, there are thousands and thousands of books available free in the public domain to have recorded. Books that are listed as belonging to the public domain are not copyrighted and are essentially public property, belonging to anyone and everyone for a wide range of uses. It is estimated that about 15% of all books found in the world's libraries are part of the public domain. But be sure to look into your country's laws before selecting a work to record - copyright laws differ from nation to nation.
Avoid Copyright Issues
Currently, under US copyright law, all works published before 1923 belong to the public domain. This includes many classic works including those by Mark Twain, Jane Austen, L. Frank Baum, and Jules Verne - just to name a few. Although you won't see literary works by these authors on the bestseller list from day to day, they are still highly regarded and studied in many levels of academia.
Free Public Domain Books Already Online
Project Gutenburg is the internet's largest collection of free ebooks and contains many public domain works. Just by taking a look at their "Top 100" lists you can see that there is a large market for classic literary works. This is a good place to start when deciding what you want to have recorded.
Top 100 Authors?
Charles Dickens' name can be found very near to the top or at the top of the Top 100 Authors lists on a regular basis. As of this writing, there have been over thirty thousand downloads of his works in the past 30 days alone! Certainly some readers would be interested in listening to an audiobook of his classics, or of the works of any of the top authors listed at Project Gutenburg. By comparing these lists to lists of audiobook downloads, you will quickly be able to identify which books have steady popularity and thus are most likely to be purchased.
There you have it... how to find a public domain book + how to find voice talent = a foolproof guide on How To Get Started As An Audiobook Publisher. What are you waiting for?
Stephanie Ciccarelli is the Vice President of Marketing and co-founder of Voices.com , the voice over marketplace. Stephanie translates years of classical music training, theory and performance into practical applications within the voice over industry. For more info on getting started in Audiobook Publishing, or finding great Audiobook narrators, visit AudiobookVoiceTalent.com
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