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Youtube may be a hidden goldmine for fiction…this short article explains Why.
I am a part of at least half a dozen or more FB groups for fiction and nonfiction.
Some of them are to discover what people are reading. It gets your hand on the pulse of what’s happening out there, what people like, what they don’t like, and everything in between, no matter what genre your stories may focus on.
Several of the other groups are for writers — fiction primarily — fiction is where I really like to spend much of my time getting all of these ideas and concepts out, and even some to the world.
HOWEVER, one of those fiction groups has a lot of authors that are making a full-time income with their self-published books. Some are mid-level yearly salaries of $50–60K+ but many are also making high 6-figures.
So when those people talk…I listen!
Recently a woman posted that 8 months or so ago, she decided to take her books, convert them to audiobooks and post them on her defunct YouTube channel.
Prior to posting her first audiobook, she had an estimated 20–25 subscribers from when she had begun her channel ten years earlier.
In the last 8 months, she’s gained over 9,400 new subscribers, has over 750,000 views and over a MILLION hours of watch time! Her channel is also monetized and she is earning thousands of dollars per month!
That is INSANE!
Of course with a post like that…tons of people began to congratulate her and ask questions.
Here are some of the (paraphrased) posts that stood out to me.
Q: “I had thought of releasing my book as an audiobook on Youtube. I was going to make a new video for each chapter. Do you think this may work?”
A: “When I tried that, my views and watch time dropped significantly. The best thing I found to work for me and other authors I spoke with is to release your entire audiobook as one long video.
Throughout the post she wrote a lot about how Youtube is actually attempting to begin a push for podcasts on the platform.
This means that Youtube will be focusing efforts on promoting longer-duration videos.
This is perfect for us fiction writers that have stories to tell and can narrate or get narrated for us.
You can also break up one long video into chapters that uses can see and click on. So just like any book, they can pick up their headphones, find your video and start right where they left off on chapter 13 for example.
Q: What if my audiobooks are already listed on somewhere like audible?
A: I took all of my books off of audible. I did this to prove I owned the rights to the book to Youtube. If you try and add other author’s books, you will get demonetized, especially when you can not provide proof that you are the actual author.
This was another important question that was also answered more thoroughly within her post and some other questions. The biggest takeaway I got from this was also acknowledged by several other authors there doing similar channels.
She said she actually has made more income from the audiobooks for free on Youtube than she has with other channels like audible and the like.
The money she earns is from ads displayed on her videos. Youtube will show several ads for videos that are over 8 minutes. She said most of her audiobooks are over 3 hours.
That is a lot of ads being displayed, and not excessively either. Even if she has an ad that gets displayed every 25 minutes…her listeners are happy that they didn’t have to pay for it. Plus she earns more money due to more ads being displayed.
Q: How do you make your videos with an audiobook?
A: You will need a software to do this but most computers have something you can use built in. At first, I used a static image of my book cover and the audio just played over that. Now I have some movement in my videos but not much.
Creating a video for your audiobooks is pretty straightforward and there are probably dozens of videos on YouTube to show you how to create a simple video with iMovie or similar software.
She stated that people really don’t watch the image or video, they listen to the audiobook when they’re working, or traveling. When they are commuting or just relaxing on the couch with a cup of coffee and their headphones.
I myself have a Youtube channel in several niches but I don’t have one yet that I use for my fiction. Well, I didn’t until today. I did the same thing that she did. I took a defunct channel that was years old and began posting some of my short fiction.
And that is the key!
Don’t wait until you have something perfect. Just get your books on audio. You can even record them yourself at first. If you don’t want to, you can hire someone or have a friend do it for you.
The thing is…they’re free for your listeners and they will love you for it. They do not have to be audible quality yet.
You don’t need to have the perfect audio or video created to start, and you can always go back and upload a better version at a later date as your channel continues to grow.
I think a lot of fiction authors should begin to leverage Youtube’s push for longer videos as they begin to reveal their podcast options.
It’s something new you can try and after seeing several other authors in the group agree…this is definitely an avenue I will be pursuing heavily over the next few years.
I hope you do too.
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