𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘹 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦: 3 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘴🕒
Anne Hathaway, Tom Hanks and Benedict Cumberbatch.
What do they all have in common? Well, they have all narrated audiobooks. The industry is blooming.
UK audiobook downloads rose by 17% from 50 million to 59 million between 2022 and 2023, data from the Publishers Association shows. And since Spotify launched audiobooks in France and Benelux in October 2024, it’s seen the listeners and listening hours grow 12% month-on-month on average.
The market isn’t showing signs of slowing down – only picking up – so opting for your audiobooks to go global is a wise move.
To do so, there are a few best practices that we’d recommend:
- Research your target market
- Translate well
- Carefully choose a VO artist
- Be professional
In this blog, we’ll dive deeper into each of the points set out above. Keep reading to find out more.
Best practices for taking your audiobooks global
Research your target market for multilingual audiobooks
Let’s assume you’ve written and recorded your audiobooks in English and they turned out to be a huge success in English-speaking countries. The next step would be to distribute the audiobooks worldwide to gain more listeners. Start your journey by researching your most viable audiences and deciding which market you wish to target based on your market research.
As for age, if your books target a younger market, taking your audiobooks global would be a sensible move. Stats show that the main demographic of users is those aged between 25 – 34 (29.28%) and after that 18 – 24-year-olds (20/41%).
Translate your script into your target market’s language
Make sure you give yourself plenty of time too as, on average, a translator can translate 2,500 words per day. For context, the word count of a typical novel can sit between 70,000 and 120,000 words.
Wisely choose your voiceover artist to record your audiobooks
You don’t want to just choose any old voice for new markets. You want to make sure it aligns with your book. For example, if it was a nature/outdoors book, a soothing but assuring voice would go a long way to help the listener enjoy the audiobook. Do your research to find a shortlist of artists in your chosen market or markets that suit the book.
If you’re the author of the book, you might be tempted to record the audiobook yourself. However, Penny C. Sansevieri advises that “you should never, ever read your own books […] because having a “voice” and being able to narrate and produce an audiobook are not the same thing.”
If you were working with a voiceover company like VoiceBox, the provider would match your project with the ideal voice actor based on style and tone.
Record your audiobook in a professional multimedia environment
If you’re going to take an audiobook global, you should do it properly and dedicate budget to taking the steps necessary to make it professional.
That includes using reliable, good-quality equipment and working with experienced sound-engineers.
If you enlisted the help of a voiceover provider to take care of this for you, note that they would conduct a professional recording session using top-quality equipment.
Conclusion
Whether you want to go global alone or with a provider at your side all the way, we hope our best practices will help you in your audiobook journey.
Contact us today for more information about our voiceovers.