People that listen to audiobooks are used to a certain level of quality and I wanted to make sure my audiobook met those standards. Just like self-publishing your digital and print books, quality matters. Again, while the final product isn’t as polished as it would be by a professional narrator, I’m very happy with how it turned out. I also practiced my volume and tempo a few times into my own computer to make sure I wasn’t going to fast or slow. I printed the entire book out in large font and practiced turning the pages silently before heading to the studio. It’s nice to have friends with the right equipment. I’ll admit here that I also got it done for less than $400 which is significantly less than what you’ll spend with a typical studio. It’s well edited and lacks the unpolished feel that would have come from doing it myself. It took two sessions that started after 9pm at night so his kids were asleep and the house was quiet, but I was extremely happy with the final result. In the end I decided to reach out to a friend I have locally who works at local radio stations and has a professional recording studio in his basement. Plus, the idea of doing all of the editing myself seemed very overwhelming. I read several places how self-published authors were doing it by recording straight through their desktop computer with a microphone, but I know the quality of these final recordings are often lacking. The next decision was how and where to record. Sure, I made mistakes and wasn’t as eloquent as someone who does this for a living, but it was something I enjoy as a reader so wanted to do it for my readers. I wanted listeners to hear my voice and how I talk about the subject. A few of my favorites are Jon Ronson, Malcolm Gladwell and Stephen King. While they aren’t always as polished as a professional narrator, I appreciate hearing the author’s voice. I listen to a lot of non-fiction audiobooks and my favorites are always the ones that are read by the book’s author.

The first decision I made was to record it myself. And since I do whatever Josh tells me to, I decided to go for it. Last year he self-published the audio edition of his first book The Personal MBA and has been completely overwhelmed by the success. I originally had no plans to make an audio edition of Your First 1000 Copies, but my good friend and fellow author Josh Kaufman insisted on it. I also promised that I would share the behind-the-scenes look at getting my book into audio format and live on.

Last week I announced the release of the audiobook edition of Your First 1000 Copies.

How to use amazon audible