7 Tips for Creating a City-Guide Audio Book – Earn Extra Income

This should interest every journalism student. Every travel writer. Every story writer.

YOU write the script which describes your town. Tell the stories of its history, what’s in the museum. Celebrities. Successes. Failures etc.

Don’t fret over voicing your words. There are hungry radio announcers, actors, teachers etc who will do this for you. (Tip: Offer to split the dividend with them so you don’t have to find money up front.)

.

7 Tips to Creating a City-Guide Audio Book – Extra Author Income

Posted by Arthur Gutch on Wed, Oct 05, 2016

You know the feeling of visiting a new city- you want to see it all, tour everywhere, but you don’t want to look or feel like a tourist. Guided tours exist, but those offer that touristy feel. Why not create an audio tour to help travelers feel like locals and help put money in your pocket while you’re at it! Let’s go!

Where to start

If you’re already a traveler, you’ll have a natural knack for “telling the story” of a city. If you don’t travel much, not to worry, your research prowess will make up for your lack of frequent flier miles- after all, any good writer can become a topical “enthusiast”.

1. Regardless of your background, start by making an outline of what cities you know best and which cities are most traveled in the US or abroad. An easy Google search will reveal the most traveled cities. Consider looking at airbnbs most traveled cities. Airbnb clients sound like the type of clients that would fit your target market.

2. Look at what’s already out there. Once you decide on your target- let’s say you go with the Airbnb crowd since they clearly don’t want to be the traditional tourist- list all of the things a local does- locals don’t go to souvenir shops, they have their favorite eateries, music events, art openings, car shows, farmer’s markets.. Start writing out a “from point A to point B” tour that includes the city’s most famous or loved spots and populate the tour with those local’s attractions we mentioned along the way.

3. Promote it. Write little supporting paragraphs for each area along your tour and be sure to write from a conversational tone. Remember, you’re creating a tour with the sense of a local’s vibe.

4. Record it. This is an audio tour, so get to recording the tour you’ve spent time creating. Be sure whatever method you use to record you will be able to upload it to the internet for easy downloading. Tip: if you speak several languages, consider making it available in those as well. You can also have it translated for you!

5. Take your tour! If you’re in the city you created the tour for, awesome! If not, close your eyes and picture yourself doing it. Does it make sense? Is it exciting? Does it naturally flow? Can the participant stop and start the tour easily?

6. Artwork. Since you’ll be selling this online you’ll need photography or art. Unsplash is an excellent, free photography site with tons of travel-associated imagery you can use as a cover for your city guide.

7. Now it’s time to sell it. Combined with what book marketing tips you’re learning here, contact your city’s travel bureaus and get in touch with businesses like Airbnb. Don’t forget about audible.com and other audio book retailers if you want to go through distribution.

Check our post on marketing with Instagram stories to help give prospective buyers a real sense of the tour they’ll buy!

.

If you do something about this, post your name and student number below here so you can work with a BUDDY.  Tell your tutor you’ve got a new project. Doing something always beats doing nothing. BM