Who hasn’t sat in a lake or ocean reading a book like this gentleman in the picture?
Also, I just found out about this new opportunity, so I’m going to explain it and tell you where to go to get started if you are interested.
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If I had to start all over again today, it is the same program I would use to create online income.
So, back to reading and getting paid.
The audiobook industry is massive and growing at about 25% every year.
It will be over $1 billion in sales by the end of 2019.
Google just dumped a bunch of resources into opening up audiobook stores in 45 countries and 9 languages.
The average audiobook listener is under 45 years old.
Smart speakers and other home technologies have made it more convenient for people to access audiobooks.
I could go on and on and on.
The fact is that audiobook sales are huge.
It’s a growing industry.
Most importantly, there’s a way for you to capitalize on it.
Authors are clamoring for people to narrate their books and they want someone who will do a great job.
How’s your voice?
Can you sound like Sean Connery for 36 hours of reading time?
I’m kidding obviously, but can you read well and articulate words without sounding boring?
So here’s how it works.
You need to do a few things in order to get this cash cow going.
First of all, there is a union for audiobook narrators called AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists)
You need to decide if you want to join them.
The rate for a new narrator in the union is $139.25 per hour.
That’s more than I made stripping in Vegas (I’m kidding I never did that and the photos are lies).
You might make more or less outside of the union.
Now, you’re going to need a good microphone and get comfortable talking into it.
What I would do next is go the website ACX.com
That website is owned by Amazon and Audible and is a meeting place for authors and narrators.
You set up a profile there and audition for books you want to narrate.
Your profile is going to show your experience and is kind of your resume there.
You can put different clips of accents and styles in your profile.
Maybe you can sound like a southern cowboy or Boston native.
Then, you audition for the books you want by sending in a few minutes of reading them.
If the author likes you, you receive an offer and can approve it.
Next, you get put on a schedule to get the book done.
At the end, the author listens to the whole thing and you may have to go make some changes.
After that, you get paid and do another book if you want.
ACX.com has 2 ways to get paid when you complete a book.
The first is per hour or word.
If the offer pays $100 per finished hour (PFH), then you get paid for how many hours the narration is.
Let’s say it was a 10 hour narration, that’s $1000!!!
The other way to get paid is a royalty share.
Let’s say instead you pick that and get a percentage of every book sold, then every time someone buys that audiobook you collect $4.
If 100 audiobooks sell, then that’s $400.
You make more up front getting paid hourly.
However, if a book sells a large amount every month, then that could pay much much more long-term.
I personally think the best way to go would be to have multiple book narrations all tied to royalty payments, earning you an amazing passive income.
You take a risk that the book may not sell and your time was mostly free.
So, here’s where people are going to get weird about this.
When you are new, you are not going to have authors running to you.
Your first couple of books may not pay much because you don’t have experience.
You may have to do several auditions before landing a paying gig and the first book or two may take a long time to do because you won’t really know what you’re doing yet.
However, LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE, over time you will get better and make more money.
You will most likely do this part-time and keep your full-time job for a while until you start making significant earnings.
In anything worth learning and doing, there is always a learning curve and period of discomfort as you do something new and suck at it for a while before learning how to do it well.
I seriously have made Youtube videos that took over 25 takes and every time I screwed up, I wanted to throw something and break it.
That’s the way the journey goes.
Just lean into that and embrace it.
Find ways to improve and get better.
Thank you for reading.
Phillip Adams