Happy Wednesday Scribblers. Over the last two years, I’ve taken one of my novels, T.A.D.-The Angel of Death, and two of my short stories, The Reunion and A Dragon for Christmas and had them converted into audiobooks (find them here). Typically, in larger publishing houses, this is something they will work with you on. Even my publisher NineStar Press will assist authors with turning their books into audiobooks. However, for many reasons, I went through the process alone and working through ACX I’ve launched three of my stories with three more in the works, all to be released this year. Today I thought I would share the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ as to creating these audiobooks on my own.
The ‘why’ has multiple layers, but the crucial factors to me taking on the process on my own, came down to three things; economics, timing, and choices. From the economic standpoint, if I were to have gone through NineStar Press to have my audiobooks created, there would be another party to split the already minimal royalties with: ACX, the narrator, NineStar Press, and me. That isn’t bad if you are selling thousands or tens of thousands of audiobooks. However, since my books and now my audiobooks don’t sell in those numbers yet, what I would have lost in royalties didn’t seem to make financial sense.
The next reason for me producing the audiobooks on my own is because of timing. As I’ve learned, working with a publishing house, books and audiobooks (and translations), takes time. A lot of time. And I wanted to see if I could speed up the process by publishing my audiobooks on my own. At first, I wasn’t planning on releasing my books on my own and I worked with my publisher to release them. However, because of many factors, the process dragged on and on. At first, I wasn’t getting any auditions (this took about three months) then we tried again and still no auditions (another three months). Finally, I found a narrator who would produce/narrate my story (The Calling), however there were issues. Leading to my third reason for producing my audiobooks on my own; Choice.
After searching for a year to find a voice actor to produce/narrate my first book The Calling, I found a talented, wonderful person to voice the story, however, because he couldn’t work under a Royalty Share contract (more on that later) so I couldn’t use him, if I went through NineStar Press. Disappointing for sure, as he was the only person to show any interest in doing the project. I ended up asking my publisher if I could produce the audiobooks on my own so I could use this talented person. They said yes. I took back my rights for my audiobook production and went to work on getting these audiobooks out there.
Hold up!
Stop the Presses!
Where is The Calling, you’re asking? We don’t see it as published yet, and you’ve been talking about this audiobook for what seems like years? Yes, that is correct, The Calling has taken a long time, this is for a variety of reason; first it sat waiting for auditions (about a year) and now it’s been sitting in production for a year. The reason for the delay in The Calling’s release is complicated, but the root causes have been the pandemic and other medical issues (all out of my control).
Now let’s jump over to the ‘how’. Creating an audiobook seemed, at least to me, to be a simple process. One, you find a narrator. Two, the narrator creates the audiobook. Three, you review the audiobook. Four, you launch the audiobook. Five, you collect the royalties. That isn’t quite correct. It’s not far off, but there are a lot of other steps involved.
When I started the process with The Calling using ACX (find out more here) I had the producer/narrator I wanted, which was a big help. Still, I had to figure out the basics of how to navigate ACX and what the steps were. Now, keep in mind there are other options to produce audiobooks Findaway Voices is another option (learn more here) but for me I went with ACX because they release the audiobooks on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes, which is where a majority of people get their audiobooks, plus the cost were minimal. Now, with ACX, there are four different options for production/narration of an audiobook; Pay for Production, you pay the producer/narrator for their work and you own everything once they deliver the product and you pay them (this is a costly way to go some producers charge anywhere from $200-$400[or more] per finished hour, a book that is five longs would cost you $1000-$2000 as an example, but you earn 40% of the royalties and you don’t have to share that 40% with anyone); Royalty Share Plus, you pay the producer/narrator a certain amount per finished hour and then you split the royalties (this isn’t as costly but can still be expensive say you produce a five-hour audiobook at between $100-$200 per finished hour, that five-hour book would cost you $500-$1000, however you split the royalty 20% for you and 20% for the narrator/producer); next you have Royalty Share, you pay the producer/narrator nothing up front, however you split the royalties 20% for you and 20% for them. Last, you can narrator the book yourself. You provide the audio files to ACX and you will earn the 40% royalties.
You will also need to pick whether you want to be exclusive through ACX or go wide. This will affect your royalties (typically taking them from 40% to 25% for non-exclusive, but the hope is you will sell more to make up the difference).
Okay, that was a lot, I know, but it gives you an idea of the choices you have with ACX for the production cost. For me I’ve gone two routs; I did the Royalty Share Plus (for The Calling) and I’ve done Royalty Share for T.A.D.-The Angel of Death, The Reunion, and A Dragon for Christmas.
Each of the options have their pros and cons, mainly your selection of producers/narrators. The more you pay, the more options you have in selecting a producer/narrator. I believe this held up finding a producer/narrator for The Calling, NineStar Press will only do Royalty Share, so the first two options weren’t available for me.
Once you decide on how you are going to compensate your producer/narrator, you then ensure you have the rights to create the audiobook by claiming the title in ACX. If all goes well, this should be easy. However, for me I had to contact NineStar Press and have them release the books so I could claim them under my pen name.
After you claim your books, you can post your book so it becomes available for producers/narrators to view in ACX search results. This is when the fun begins, because this is when you can select what kind of person you are looking for to produce/narrate your book. There are a lot of options.
Regarding The Calling, I wanted a younger male in his early thirties. For T.A.D.-The Angel of Death, I needed a male voice actor who could sound youngish and oldish as the story crosses a lifetime. With The Reunion, I wanted a man who could sound over the top flamboyant and serious. For A Dragon for Christmas, I needed a Latinx woman who could voice a young girl and end up as a young woman. Then, with Contact-A New World Book One, I needed an actor who had a vast range in vocals who could make three unique characters come to life and give a large group of supporting characters a set of unique voices.
After you go through these first steps, you then need to upload a script for the producer/narrator to read from. This can be the first chapter of your book, but if you have multiple point-of-view characters, create something so you can hear what the actor does with your characters. I did this for Contact-A New World Book One. I pulled a chapter from near the end of the book where all three of my point-of-view characters share a scene for the actor to audition from.
Once you post the script (and any additional details about the story for the actor to help them with the narration) you wait. This is also the place where you share with the producer/narrator how you plan to market the audiobook. This information helps you find the right person and hopefully someone who will also help market the finished product.
Auditions may take time to arrive, but you can speed this process along by going searching for ACX producers/narrators and sending them a message (assuming you like their samples) to audition for you. With the auditions you receive, you decide who you want. For me, this was pretty easy. I had specific voices in mind for my characters, so I waited to find the right voice (or a voice close to what I imaged) and went from there.
With your narrator selected you make them an offer (this is all the contract information that I’m not going over), but this is where you both sign your life’s away (or at least seven years, depending on which type of production you chose, i.e. Pay for Production, Royalty Share Plus, Royalty Share, or Do It Yourself). This is also where you agree on the timeline for the audiobook.
After the contracts are agreed on, this is when you upload the story and create your chapters and sections (if you are lucky ACX can typically pull this information from the book posted on Amazon). All you’ll have to do is verify the information is correct and maybe add or delete something that is wrong or missing.
Part of the contract includes a 15-minute sample, which gives you the option to see if the producer/narrator and you agree on the performance and you like what they are doing. This is also the time when you and actor work out all the kinks in character development. I found this fun. I spent a lot of time with my narrators on the characters and the story.
Chapter reviews come next. After each chapter is uploaded by the producer/narrator, you get to review the section, ensure the work sounds good, and there are no mistakes. This is a step you do not want to skip, as I’ve found several minor mistakes not only in the narration but in the writing. Now is the time they get fixed, so the story, when being told, sounds good. This also gives you and the actor a chance to hammer out character moments and voice nuances.
Are you still with me?
We’re almost finished.
Once all the chapters are loaded, do another review of the whole audiobook to ensure it sounds the way you want and flows smoothly from chapter to chapter. This is also the time to upload your cover art. You can do this at anytime once the audiobook is under contract, so the sooner the better, because ACX has to approve the cover design. Here I made the choice to go with my current covers (to keep the branding the same) which means I needed to pay NineStar Press for the updated audiobook covers (sadly you can’t use the same format cover you already have for your eBook or paperback, plus you need to include the narrator’s name, so for me having NineStar Press do this made sense) the cost was minimal and, for me, worth it.
As you roll to the finish line, if you haven’t been already thinking about the audiobook launch, you need to. Once you and the producer/narrator complete the audio files and once you pay the producer/narrator (assuming you did Pay for Production or Royalty Share Plus) the audiobook goes to final review by ACX. This can take up to a month (or so they say). Unfortunately, you don’t get a heads up when the audiobook is released, they will send you an email letting you know the book is now live this makes planning the launch a challenge, but what I did was contact some different marketing folks and set up launches after the fact, which worked out pretty well. I also contracted several reviewers. ACX gives you promo codes you can share with reviewers, which is helpful. You get 50 promo codes (both US and UK) per title and you can get more once you sell a certain number of audiobooks.
Here are a couple of places you can get audiobook reviews, but read their policy and procedures carefully:
Free Audiobook Codes: https://freeaudiobookcodes.com/
AudioFile: https://audiofilemagazine.com/contact/
Audiobook Reviewer.com: https://www.audiobookreviewer.com/abr-services/expedited-revew-lk74b
The Audiobook Blog: https://theaudiobookblog.com/contact/
Dab of Darkness Book Reviews: https://dabofdarkness.com/about/
Audiobook Promos – For Authors & Readers of All Genres: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1014732691885069
Now that you have the audiobook finished, launched and out there, finally you get to sit back and collect the royalties. Assuming the audiobook sells, which means you need to keep up the marketing.
I hope this information helps with any questions you may have about the audiobook process. Keep in mind this isn’t everything and there are a lot more details that I didn’t dive deeper in. Overall the process, for me, has been positive and pretty cost affective. That’s it for this week. Until next time have a wonderful week.