Li Miao (second from right), 38, a host on Japanese culture and criminal cases, socializes with other hosts of podcast provider BB Park in their studio in Beijing.

His income from audiobooks reached 2 million yuan ($282,000) last year.

According to a Qingting listener with the nickname Lynnshi'er987, "Shijin has a good voice, and his reading can quickly take me to the story and make me imagine the scenes."

On the road to success, Li invested much time and effort, practiced repeated reading and conquered the tiredness and boredom.

"Without accumulated practice, one's reading can be littered with problems," he explains, adding that he also tutored some people who wanted to read audiobooks, but many of them gave up halfway because they couldn't bear the monotony.

Moreover, he was under pressure when he was signed by Qingting. "At that time the platform only signed four people for one year to see if we would perform well, and the other three exceeded me a lot in terms of the number of fans, audiobooks and click rates. But I didn't admit defeat," recalls Li. "I worked so hard to read audiobooks and sharpen my ability that I didn't sleep for more than five hours a day during that year. I had better results the following year."

He admits it is a fiercely competitive market and he knows many people who tried to get a foothold but failed.

He says he was fortunate to have an opportunity when the market was growing. "Many people have good qualities, and many work very hard, but not everyone can get a good opportunity. Luckily I got it," Li says.

According to a report released in December by iiMedia Research, a Chinese market consultancy firm, audiobooks help listeners to better use their scattered downtime. The market could hit 8 billion yuan in China in 2020, compared to 2.37 billion yuan in 2016, and the number of audiobook listeners will hit 562 million this year.