Table of contents:
- The Booming Audiobook Market
- Why Audiobooks Make Sense for Business Authors
- Audiobook Production Considerations
- Getting Started on Your Audiobook
Recent conversations with author-clients and prospects about their marketing and publishing strategies have all included discussions regarding audiobooks. This shouldn’t be a big surprise given our newfound love of all things audio.
Podcast popularity has taken off, hitting 584 million listeners worldwide as of 2025. In the U.S., 55 percent of the population over age 12 listens to podcasts at least once a month. The market continues to grow, with video podcasts on YouTube looking like they are the next big thing.
Audiobooks appear to be on an even faster trajectory.
The Booming Audiobook Market
The global audiobook market exceeded $8 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 26.5 percent, topping $67 billion by 2033. According to Publishers Weekly, U.S. audiobook sales hit $2 billion in 2024.
In particular, business and self-help topics are seeing even larger increases. According to Grand View Research, “the growth of professional and business-focused audiobooks has attracted a larger audience of individuals seeking continuous learning and skill development.” During commutes to work, professional audiences are working to expand their knowledge and build skills.
Consumer behavior is changing.
In 2024, 38 percent of adults in the U.S. listened to an audiobook, which is up from 35 percent in just one year, per the Audio Publishers Association.
The average audiobook listener enjoyed just under seven books per year. This big jump can partly be attributed to the popularity of audiobook subscription services, which make it easy for audiobook consumers to get access to new releases. Audible currently dominates the market with 63.4 percent of audiobook consumers in the U.S. paying for a subscription.
This is a major opportunity for business authors.
Converting a business or personal development book into an audiobook format makes that title more likely to be consumed by readers. Also, audiobook buyers are a new category of buyer, separate from print or e-book buyers, so that audiobook sales do not cannibalize other formats.
Why Audiobooks Make Sense for Business Authors
When you think about the lifestyles of busy business professionals and leaders, it’s easy to see why books that can be consumed through earbuds or headphones are ideal.
Executives can easily tune into books while en route to meetings outside the office, on commutes, or while exercising, to name a few scenarios.
The ubiquity of cellphones and the emergence of voice-enabled devices are creating even more opportunities for books to be listened to.
They are convenient for anyone who multitasks.
Couple that with many employees’ interest in and need for professional development and relaxation, and it’s obvious why audiobooks have taken off. Nonfiction books made up 65 percent of the market as of 2022, for this reason.
If you’re sold on converting your book into an audiobook in addition to hardcopy or epub, here are some tips for ensuring your audio version is as strong as your print format.
Audiobook Production Considerations
After investing time and energy in writing a book, some business authors don’t want to consider spending more time recording their audiobook themselves.
Fortunately, if this is your situation, you don’t have to record it yourself. Yes, readers enjoy — and may prefer — hearing what the author sounds like, but you can opt to hire a professional voice actor to read your book and record it, and reclaim all that time for yourself.
The biggest pros and cons of hiring someone else are:
Pros
- Improved performance. Voice actors are just that — actors — and they can bring elevated storytelling abilities that you may not have, unless you were a theatre major.
- Polished recording. As with anything, if you hire a professional to record your book, the audio quality is likely to be superior.
- Time savings. Delegating the recording to someone else will reduce pressure on your schedule and get you back 2-3 days’ worth of recording time.
Cons
- Investment. Yes, you can hire someone to record your book, and for that, you should expect to pay.
- Scheduling. Top voice actors get booked quickly, and it’s possible that your first choice won’t be able to meet your schedule.
- Lost opportunity for connection-building. Being able to hear your voice helps build trust and connection with your readers, so having someone else be your stand-in likely won’t hurt the overall success of your book, but you lose out on a closer relationship with your fan base.
A new trend in audiobook production is AI narration, where you upload your manuscript and an AI agent speaks it for you.
In 2024, Audible (owned by Amazon) launched Virtual Voice and AI Voice Replicas, which permit authors to have an AI narrator speak their book and record it. Within a matter of months, 40,000 of Audible’s 200,000 titles were reported as AI-narrated.
This new option is potentially an inexpensive way to convert your written book into audio form, but be sure the quality is where you want it to be before you release it as an audiobook.
Most audiobooks are launched alongside hardcopy and electronic formats. Given Amazon’s apparent preference for multiple book formats, it’s possible Amazon could boost your title because it offers a variety of formats.
Getting Started on Your Audiobook
If you decide that producing an audiobook will help you reach your business goals faster, here are some recommended steps to help you make fast progress.
- Start small. If you’re not ready to go all-in on an audiobook, consider converting one chapter of your book to audio format and make it available for feedback. Ask your audience if they would buy an audiobook from you.
- Conduct market research. You could also turn to your email list or online community and survey your readers. Ask them about their interest level in an audiobook. Would they buy it? And would they prefer your voice or a professional’s?
- Create a budget. Research the costs involved in producing an audiobook by getting quotes from production studios.
- Map out a production schedule. If you want to roll out your audiobook and printed book simultaneously, you’ll want to plan production of all formats simultaneously.
- Choose your distribution channel. Audible’s exclusive distribution plan may be appealing, but you do have other options, such as Spotify’s Findaway Voices and Author’s Republic, to name a couple.
- Pursue podcast guest appearances. As an audio medium, podcasts are a great way to connect with your target audience. You could offer a link to a sample chapter as part of an offer during your interview.
- Monitor results. Track sales figures, downloads, listener completion rates, and reviews to assess how your audiobook performs, to help you decide what drives downloads and whether you’d produce another one.
Don’t jump on the audiobook bandwagon simply because all of your colleagues are, but if your goal is to maximize your potential audience, adding this format is very likely to appeal to a business audience.