When you notice the insanely high prices of audiobooks, you can’t help but wonder what makes them so expensive. After all, they are just some audio files.
Unlike physical books, they don’t even have to print multiple copies of them. Just produce it once, and you are done with the production work for life!
Then, why exactly are audiobooks so expensive compared to e-books and prints?
Well, according to Golden Child Promotions Publishing the basic reason why audiobooks are so expensive is attributed to their production cost, which is often very high. On average, the ‘cost per finished hour’ of an audiobook is about $300 to $400. So, even if an audiobook is just 10 hours long, on average, it would cost about $3000 to $4000 to produce it.
However, this can vary a lot depending upon the fame and personality of the narrator(s). In many cases, publishers hire famous actors and celebrities to make audiobooks more popular. This can increase the ‘cost per finished hour’ of the audiobook to as high as $1500 or even more.