Audiobooks

[D11FYY]

Why so pricey?
Honestly I recieved an email through from Audible claiming I have a free audio book to listen to, catch is after 1 month I get charged £7.99.
I know after doing a bit of research that the Audiobook requires alot more work than the average music album as its rougly 8x as long and has alot less target audience but if they where £4.99 a whip I would be more inclined to buy a few instead of paying £15 for one.

Anyone else noticed this and their thoughts?

Surely there is a killing to be made by setting up a company that could deal with production alot cheaper. (Im not interested as I dont have the slightest inclination or idea where to begin nor would I want to) I read somewhere that some speakers are getting $50-75p/h of talk.

 

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[LateStarter]

I think you're using the wrong comparison for this. Don't compare it to music, but to the book itself. I believe that's what the audiobook price is modeled after and I suspect it's largely due to the royalty/profit structure associated with the content in the book. I'm sure that someone can and will correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Producing a high-quality audiobook isn't cheap (whether you're talking in time or money.) As an author, I pay over $300 per finished hour. I consider this a good deal, because I want a terrific narrator and excellent production quality. If audiobooks were any cheaper, I'm not sure they'd be worth the time and effort to produce. As it stands now, an author must sell a lot of copies before they can break even on the production costs.

As a listener, when I consider the magic of having a book professionally read to me, while I hike, clean the house, make dinner. etc, I still think it's a good deal. But I always thought that, even before I had published books of my own.

 

[Autarkeia]

Personally, i use google's book app to read ebooks aloud. Compared to an actual audio book, it sucks, but the convince and cost trumps the lack of emotion and mispronunciation.

 

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[brewster]

I've signed up twice for their year plan. It's around $239 for 24 audiobook credits. Comes out to about $10/book. Basically the same as any other Kindle eBook on Amazon.