Karen Commins's Blog, page 7
December 6, 2017
Author Seeks Narrator: Must Love Books
Indie audiobook publishing, where you produce your audiobook and retain all audio rights, follows a similar format as Internet dating. You register on a site and create an intriguing profile hoping to attract Mr. or Ms. Right for a long-term relationship.
In this 2-part series, I’ll discuss audiobook publishing using the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX.com), the first and best-known audiobook matchmaking site. You’ll see how to maximize your ACX title listing to captivate your ideal narrator! I’ll address independent production on other platforms in future articles.
Check Your Rights
Regardless of whether you publish your audiobook or want a publisher to do it, the first thing you need to do is ensure you have the audio rights to your book. You will take this step regardless of the publishing platform you choose to use, i.e., ACX, Findaway Voices, Spoken Realms, etc.
If you published traditionally, you should carefully check your contract. You may have unknowingly assigned your audio rights to the publisher.
In that case, you should assess whether the rights are automatically returned to you after a certain period of time. I encourage you to ask the publisher about any plans for audiobook production. You can (and should!) request that the publisher revert the audio rights to you if they do not intend to exercise those rights. Many authors have been successful in reclaiming their audio rights in this manner. The links in this article will help you determine the rights holder and give you more info about rights reversion.
You may also need to address a second rights issue before you can start audiobook production. Authors sometimes include lyrics from contemporary songs in their text after obtaining permission from the lyric copyright owner. However, lyric reprint permission does not extend to the audiobook!
In fact, an audiobook narrator can’t sing or even speak copyrighted song lyrics in the recording unless you first obtain a mechanical license, and, if singing is required, performance rights to the song. Otherwise, you would need to modify your text so that your story works without the copyrighted material.
Prepare Your Text
Speaking of modifying your text, you may need to make changes to aid listener clarity and enjoyment. Since your narrator must read your book exactly as it is written, some words could take the listener out of the moment. For example, if your printed book states “you’re reading this book”, you could change the verb to be “you’re listening to this book.”
Typically, non-fiction books require more changes than do fiction ones. If your book includes any of the following types of material, a listener would not be able to follow along easily:
• Charts
• Graphs
• Exercises
• Questionnaires
You may need to write some descriptions for images and/or create a companion PDF of any material that the listener needs in order to fully understand the text. This site has instructions for creating a PDF. You can then follow these instructions to send the PDF to ACX so it can accompany the audiobook purchase. Furthermore, it’s a good idea to reformat your text by removing sidebars and inserting those passages in logical places within the text so your narrator can easily follow the correct flow of your ideas.
Create Your Book Listing
With your rights and properly formatted text in hand, you’re ready to start the independent production process by creating a book listing on ACX.com.
Audible.com, the largest retailer of audiobooks, launched ACX in 2011 as the first matchmaker site where professionals connect to create more audiobooks for Audible’s growing number of listeners.
Unlike dating sites, ACX is free to use and offers authors, literary agents, and publishers (aka, rights holders, or RHs) an excellent way to connect directly with audiobook narrators and producers. Completed audiobooks are automatically distributed to the 3 biggest sites for audiobook sales: Amazon, Audible, and iTunes.
Amazon owns Audible, which owns ACX. Audible is the exclusive audiobook supplier to iTunes, and you already know about Amazon’s publishing clout. In addition, ACX has a well-established process, an incredible talent pool, and a track record of over 100,000 completed audiobooks.
Signing on to ACX is easy as you’ll use your Amazon login and password.
As an RH in the US, UK, Ireland, or Canada, your only requirement to start production on ACX is that you have an edition of your book listed on Amazon. It doesn’t matter whether the edition is hardbound, paperback, or Kindle as long as one edition is there. Unfortunately, ACX is not currently available to rights holders in other countries. I will present other options in future articles.
A detailed tutorial for using ACX is beyond the scope of this column, but many helpful instructions exist on-line, including this terrific tutorial with screenshots. I also refer you to my previous article How to Avoid 3 Costly Mistakes on ACX.
In our remaining time together today, I want to talk about 5 key factors your ACX title profile needs to attract quality auditions for your title.
5 Key Factors
1. Pick the edition with the best (lowest number) Amazon sales rank.
The first step in ACX production after login is to claim your title from the list of your books on Amazon.
If you have multiple editions of the same book, you want to claim the one with the best Amazon sales rank. The sales rank is a vital piece of information for royalty share (RS) projects, which we’ll look at in a moment.
Enter the ASIN of the best performing edition in the ACX search box instead of your name. Your finished audiobook will be added as another edition on the book’s Amazon product page.
The annotated picture below shows you where to look on the Amazon page for your ASINs and sales ranks for each edition. In the example, the Kindle edition has a sales rank of 78,466, whereas the paperback of the same book has 558,236 as its sales rank. These numbers indicate that the Kindle version is bought more frequently than the paperback. You would want to use the ASIN from the Kindle edition when claiming your book on ACX.
2. Consider the pros and cons for exclusive vs. non-exclusive distribution before selecting one.
Under both options, your audiobook will be sold via digital download on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes for a 7-year term. However, your distribution choice will dictate your payment options for the production costs and your royalty rates.
EXCLUSIVE distribution means:
• Your royalty rate is currently 40% of revenues.
• You may choose to pay a one-time fee up-front for production (a per finished hour, or PFH, rate) and retain all 40% in royalties.
• You also have a royalty share (RS) option, which allows you to defer your production costs throughout the 7 years by offering a RS contract where the narrator is paid out of the revenues from the audiobook royalties. You each would receive 20% in royalties.
• You are prohibited from making the audiobook available to libraries, bookstores, or schools and you cannot sell it on CD.
NON-EXCLUSIVE distribution means:
• Your royalty rate is currently 25% of revenues.
• You must pay PFH rates up-front for the production costs, or you already have audio that meets ACX’s recording specifications and is ready to upload.
• You do not have the RS payment option.
• You’re allowed to offer the audiobook for sale at other on-line or physical retailers and/or on CD. You could submit it to services like Overdrive.com for potential library distribution.
The additional information in this article will help you make this critical decision.
If you choose the wrong distribution option, you can’t change it without emailing ACX Support to delete this listing so you can create a new one.
3. Enter a book description and rights holder comments that generate excitement.
ACX estimates the finished time by dividing 9300 average words spoken in an hour into the word count of the text. You should be aware that the rule of thumb is that 6 hours are needed to produce each finished hour of an audiobook. A 10-hour audiobook therefore requires around 60 or more hours of work.
If you decide on a royalty share (RS) contract, you need to be aware that a narrator has all of the risk for low or no sales of the audiobook. As a result, the most experienced narrators may not be interested in auditioning for, much less performing, your book.
Fill out this area of your profile with enough solid information that makes the narrator interested in your story and convinces her that the long-term royalties will recoup her narration fee and her production costs.
A solid marketing plan is essential to achieve sales, especially for RS projects.
Your numbers of social media followers on various sites may not impress narrators unless you are a celebrity or have numbers in at least 5 figures. Even then, if you haven’t studied marketing tactics for each site, how will you convey to a narrator that you know how to sell books on that platform?
I’m much more interested in knowing other numbers, like:
• average monthly unit sales (not free downloads) in other formats
• recipients on your email mailing list
• frequency of your emails to that list
• total books you’ve written
Also include information about the awards that you have won and your specific marketing and promotional plans for this book and the new audiobook.
The system will automatically link to your Amazon book page and fill in your Amazon rating average and sales rank. A narrator is much more enthused about a sales rank of 40,000 than 4,000,000. If the posted edition isn’t selling, the audiobook probably won’t sell, either. Now you know why I advised you about the sales rank in item 1!
One number that is NOT in your favor on a RS contract is the request for more than 1 narrator. No one wants to share their 20% of royalties with another narrator to whom they aren’t married, and ACX does not accommodate multi-narrator projects, anyway. (If you do need to hire 2 narrators, please leave me a comment for the system work-around.)
4. Be ready to upload visually-pleasing cover art.
Just like in Internet dating, the picture on your profile is the first thing Mr. and Ms. Narrator see about your title. We definitely judge a book by its cover! If you don’t post a compelling cover for your book, you may not receive many auditions.
In addition, your cover art needs to meet Audible’s requirements for a perfectly squared off, proportional image. You may need to pay a designer to create the ideal cover for your audiobook.
Remember, too, that traditional publishers own the copyright to their cover designs. You may be able to license yours for the audiobook, but you should finalize those arrangements before you post your title on ACX.
5. Choose your audition scenes carefully.
Authors commonly post either the first few pages or the entire book as the audition text. Neither may serve your best interest! The first few pages may not include the main characters. Narrators don’t have time to read your entire book or understand the arc or relationships before submitting an audition.
Coffee meetings serve as first dates. Likewise, finished auditions also quick and usually last no more than 5 minutes. Therefore, you should post an audition of 2-3 pages that contains both narrative and some dialogue between the main 2-4 characters. You may need to choose more than 1 scene from different parts of the book. Character descriptions and scene set-ups are appreciated.
Next Wednesday, we’ll look at the rest of the ACX process, from casting the narrator you love to living happily ever after with the audiobook. In the meantime, please leave me any questions and comments below.
The original version of this article appeared in the October 2015 issue of InD’tale Magazine. I’ve updated it and added more links.
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The post Author Seeks Narrator: Must Love Books appeared first on Karen Commins.
November 8, 2017
Finding Your Own Road to Tara
A few years ago, I started my audio publishing empire with a public domain book. Today, I am thrilled to publish my first contemporary audiobook ROAD TO TARA: THE LIFE OF MARGARET MITCHELL by Anne Edwards.
I’m not the first narrator to acquire audio rights and publish an audiobook of a current book. Nevertheless, I wanted to retrace my steps in this article to inspire more of you to follow a similar path. As actor/writer/director Bob Fraser used to urge people, you can cast yourself!
Be Curious
Until the last few years, only about 5% of all books published were ever produced in audio. Audiobook production has increased almost exponentially, yet new books don’t always have an audio edition. The seemingly limitless number of possible audiobooks can be overwhelming, so how do you narrow down the choices?
Simply put, what are you curious about? Start there.
I adopted the mantra of “follow your curiosity” in 2016 after I took Elizabeth Gilbert’s wonderful Creativity Workshop on Udemy.com and also read her book BIG MAGIC: CREATIVE LIVING BEYOND FEAR, in which she wrote:
I believe that curiosity is the secret. Curiosity is the truth and the way of creative living… accessible to everyone….
Curiosity only ever asks one simple question: “Is there anything you’re interested in?” Anything? Even a tiny bit? No matter how mundane or small?
The answer need not set your life on fire…if you can pause and identify even one tiny speck of interest in something, then curiosity will ask you to turn your head a quarter of an inch and look at the thing a wee bit closer….
See where curiosity will lead you next. Then follow the next clue, and the next, and the next. Remember, it doesn’t have to be a voice in the desert; it’s just a harmless little scavenger hunt. Following that scavenger hunt of curiosity can lead you to amazing, unexpected places.
The article you’re reading is the end result of just such a scavenger hunt!
Since I’m an Atlanta native, you won’t be surprised to learn that my favorite book is GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell. I had read some books about the movie when I caught “Scarlett Fever” in my youth, but my knowledge about the author was quite limited:
Margaret Mitchell only wrote the one book.
She was killed in a car accident on Peachtree Street.
Mitchell was so short that she needed a stool to reach the bar at the Piedmont Driving Club . Drew’s aunt told us this odd tidbit a few years ago. His uncle, the PDC manager in the 1950s, heard the story from people who were there at the time.
However, I wasn’t thinking of producing, narrating, and publishing an audiobook about Margaret Mitchell when ROAD TO TARA came to my attention. In fact, I hadn’t ever read any books about her.
Instead, I was developing a creative pitch to Macmillan about producing and narrating an entirely different type of book and thought I’d mention the name I considered to be Macmillan’s most famous author — Margaret Mitchell. (I’ve since learned that Scribner now controls the rights to GONE WITH THE WIND.) My inquisitive muse whispered to me, “Do a Google search to see how Ms. Mitchell signed her name.”
Cue the “Mission Impossible” theme music because the match was struck, and the chase was begun at that moment!
Not only did I see examples of her autograph, but I discovered several biographies about her. I bought one that day and devoured it. I found another at a flea market and quickly read it. I’ve now read at least 5 books and a pile of articles about Margaret Mitchell and her famous book and have 3-4 books still to enjoy.
Look Locally
If following your own curiosity doesn’t lead you to a book you want to do, you might find someone or something in your local area that will summon inspiration, give you fodder for future projects, and completely enrich your life!
Did or do any authors live or work near you? Of course, it helps if the author is famous because that person’s haunts of yesterday could be the tourist destinations for today.
In the course of narrating this book, I visited several local attractions that gave me greater appreciation of Ms. Mitchell and her accomplishments:
Margaret Mitchell House, where she wrote the book
Atlanta-Fulton Public Library , which has a permanent exhibit of artifacts including her typewriter and Pulitzer Prize that were willed to the library by Mitchell’s husband
Oakland Cemetery , a Victorian-era cemetery where she and many members of her family are buried
GONE WITH THE WIND Museum in Marietta, GA, which houses a wide range of memorabilia related to both the book and movie
Would you believe that I had never been to 3 of those places before working on this book? These adventures made me more knowledgeable about both Ms. Mitchell and Atlanta history. In addition, I took lots of pictures at each location that I could use in my marketing efforts.
The more I learned, the more research I felt driven to do to answer my curiosity. My scavenger hunt turned into a full-fledged quest to find a recording of Margaret Mitchell’s voice. I found it when I traveled to the Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia in Athens. At last, I heard the recordings of Mitchell’s remarks at the 1939 movie premiere! Furthermore, I read all of the letters among Mitchell, her lawyers, and the American Federation for the Blind about creating a “talking book” of her book! I saved pictures of those letters and many others in Evernote. I’ll use that reference material as I write future articles.
Acquire Rights
Once you find a book you’d like to do, you first need to figure out who holds the audio rights. This article will help you with your research.
You can ask the audio rights holder — usually the author or publisher — to retain their audio rights and hire you to produce and narrate the book for a fee. Often this approach works great, especially with indie authors and small publishers.
Larger publishing companies, though, frequently are not willing to go that route, if they even answer your query. Some will only license the rights to an existing audio publisher. Others are willing to license the audio rights to an experienced narrator.
I was fortunate to deal with a highly responsive head of Subsidiary Rights who fell in the latter category above. When she asked me for a draft of my standard license agreement, I knew I needed to get an education on acquiring audio rights! I held a webinar with intellectual property attorney and audiobook producer/director/distributor Jessica Kaye (the 1.5-hour recording and materials are available on my Shop page) and later hired her to write my licensing agreement with the publisher after I negotiated the terms.
Choose Cover Art
When negotiating a license agreement, you can ask to use the same cover art on the existing editions. In my case, the publisher didn’t have the copyright to the images on their edition and therefore wasn’t the correct party to grant that permission.
I planned to license a certain picture of Margaret Mitchell and hire a graphic designer to create a new cover for the audiobook. (Since then, I’ve learned that the copyright on pictures is 75 years, so I probably could have used the original picture I considered.) I ran into delays and non-answers because the Universe had a different vision for me.
A while back, I had set up a search on eBay for “Margaret Mitchell” as I decided I wanted to own her autograph and a 1st edition, 1st printing copy of GONE WITH THE WIND. A few days after I signed the audio licensing agreement for ROAD TO TARA, I was looking at eBay. I almost fell out of my chair to see a listing for the magnificent hand-drawn production artwork for a first day cover (a special and elaborate envelope postmarked on a stamp’s first day of issue) for the 1986 Margaret Mitchell stamp! I quickly bought it. After I received it, I asked for that company’s permission to use their image on my audiobook cover. They unhesitatingly said “yes” and sent me a first day cover with that artwork for my collection.
I matched the fonts and used Photoshop to select the exact shade of red on the ebook cover. I could not be more enamored with the audiobook cover if it had been custom-drawn for me!
Decide on Distributor(s)
Independent audio publishers have a growing number of options for distribution, including ACX.com, FindawayVoices.com, and SpokenRealms.com. The pros and cons of each site are beyond the scope of this article.
I decided to use ACX as my exclusive distributor for the first year for 2 important reasons:
I’ve been on ACX since it was in beta test in 2011 and am eternally grateful for the opportunity it gave me to rejuvenate a stalled audiobook narration career.
My sales numbers probably will be the highest in the first year, so I’ll maximize the royalties paid from Audible.com. As the world’s largest audiobook distributor, Audible pays 40% in royalties on ACX exclusive contracts.
Next year, I will exercise Section 12(a) of the ACX Book Posting Agreement which states that you can write to Audible any time after the first anniversary of the on-sale date to request a change to Non-Exclusive distribution. At that point, I will receive 25% of royalties from Audible and be able to sell ROAD TO TARA on my web site and other outlets such as Overdrive.com.
Develop Marketing Plans
Although I’ve often written about marketing audiobooks, I’ve always advised other narrators that your NEXT book is your best marketing material for your talent. It shows producers and publishers that you are working and gives you something to talk about.
I also have said that a narrator shouldn’t concern herself overly much with marketing individual books. Narrators don’t tend to affect sales as much as authors do. Nothing will generate interest like an Audible sale on the audiobook or a BookBub featured deal for the ebook.
As the publisher, marketing is a top priority. If I don’t market this audiobook, it will be almost impossible to make any money on it. And, while the entire experience has been unforgettable and joyful, I would like the audiobook to make money!
I’ve listed a lot of marketing and promotion ideas on my Audiobook Marketing Cheat Sheet. I decided I’d use 3 initial approaches: advertising, writing, and, of course, reviews.
First, I placed an ad in the AudioFile Magazine Indie Showcase in the upcoming December issue of the magazine. AudioFile is the premier publication for the audiobook industry and the heart of my target market.
I looked around for any related fan sites, forums, etc. where I could promote the audiobook. For this reason, I also am placing an ad in The Scarlett Letter, which is a quarterly newsletter devoted to all things related to Margaret Mitchell and GONE WITH THE WIND. I’ll probably pay for promotion in either or both AudiobookBoom.com and AudaVoxx.com as well.
Long-time readers of this blog know that I advocate study and usage of GET CLIENTS NOW! by C. J. Hayden for developing marketing plans. Hayden explains that writing is an excellent way to build trust and gain visibility among your prospects. I have a business purpose for everything I do, and I write this blog and guest articles on different sites for that very reason.
I pitched the idea of writing about different aspects of my journey with this audiobook to AudioFile Magazine and The Scarlett Letter. I’m pleased that both publications welcomed my contribution.
What’s more, AudioFile asked to review the audiobook to go with my piece on their blog! I’ll use my Twitter list of audiobook reviewers to find others who might review the audiobook.
Finally, I developed this :58 video to help promote the audiobook on social media. I love to make videos because, like my writing, they are a creative outlet where I go from idea to implementation.
Licensing audio rights and publishing a contemporary audiobook can be risky, especially if you pay an advance on royalties. I read somewhere that money is only good for what it allows you to do, be, or have. Did I risk the money I paid for the advance, attorney fees, cover art, editing, and advertising? No. I choose to view it as money I spent to allow me to be an audiobook publisher of current titles, do creative work of my choosing that fulfills me, and have a lasting thing of beauty in the completed audiobook, a long-term passive revenue stream, and an infinitely more fascinating life!
Do you feel encouraged to find your own Road to Tara? I hope you’ll tell me about it in a comment below!
The post Finding Your Own Road to Tara appeared first on Karen Commins.
October 20, 2017
Top 10 Q & A About Audiobook Production
As I’ve talked with authors about producing audiobooks of their work, I’ve noticed that many are new to the format and ask similar questions. I’ll answer the 10 most common questions I’ve heard about audiobook production in this post.
1. When should I produce an audiobook?
I encourage authors to plan for the audiobook as part of the overall book release. In fact, planning for your audiobook will make you a better writer.
In addition, just as you have costs for an editor and cover designer, you also will incur expenses in producing the audiobook. Budgeting for the audiobook at the same time as your print and ebook editions makes it part of the expense of the book rather than a separate, standalone cost.
That said, I wouldn’t recommend a simultaneous release of your first book. Most authors need to develop a fan following in order to sell enough audiobook copies to recoup your production expenses.
2. How much does an audiobook cost?
The expense of audiobook production is usually computed Per Finished Hour (PFH). A PFH contract means that the narrator would be paid the contracted hourly rate multiplied by the run time of the audiobook.
The industry rule of thumb is that it takes 6.2 hours in real time to record, edit, proof, and master 1 finished hour. Therefore, a 10-hour audiobook could require 60 or more hours to produce. If we charged for each studio hour, only the largest publishing companies would ever be able to afford to produce an audiobook.
The most experienced narrators charge $200-400 PFH for their narration fee. Editors and proof-listeners each charge an additional PFH rate which must be paid immediately upon completion of the audiobook. If you create your audiobook using ACX.com, you can work with a narrator/producer who will hire the team necessary to create your retail-ready audiobook.
You can estimate the finished time of your audiobook by dividing the number of words in your book by 9300, which is the industry average number of words that can be spoken in an hour.
For example, let’s say your book has 82,500 words. If we divide 82,500 by 9300, we get 8.87, meaning the approximate finished time of the audiobook would be almost 9 hours long. (To be precise, this decimal to time calculator shows us that 8.87 hours equates to 8 hours, 52 minutes, 12 seconds.) The completed audiobook may be shorter or longer depending on the narrator’s actual rate of speech, which can vary due to the complexity of the material. For easy math, let’s say the finished time is exactly 9 hours. If you agreed to pay $200 PFH for this book, your cost of production would be $200PFH times 9 hours equals $1,800.
This article and its comments will give you a more detailed explanation and much better approach regarding the cost.
3. What are the differences between Royalty Share, Per Finished Hour, and Hybrid contracts?
I already discussed a PFH contract. If you’re using FindawayVoices.com, AuthorsRepublic.com, or other audiobook production services, you would be billed PFH.
On ACX, you also have the option of using a Royalty Share (RS) contract with your narrator/producer. While many authors think of this type of contract as “free” narration, it really is a method of deferring the cost of production so that these expenses are paid out of the royalties earned from the audiobook.
Although it’s not an option shown in the ACX system, many authors and narrators create Hybrid contracts. In a Hybrid deal, you would pay the narrator a negotiated PFH rate up-front and outside of ACX in addition to signing a RS contract on the ACX system. This sort of arrangement helps an author attract a more skillful narrator while enabling the narrator to receive part of her payment up-front so she can pay her production team and some living expenses.
4. What are the downsides to having a Royalty Share contract?
You earn only half of the royalties available to you. ACX pays out 40% of royalties it receive; you could receive that entire 40% only if you pay up-front for production with a PFH deal.. On an RS contract, you would get 20%, and your narrator would get 20% of those payments for the life of the contract.
You MUST agree to exclusive distribution on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes for 7 years. In other words, you couldn’t sell the audiobook on CD or your website, or use other distributors which could get your audiobook into libraries and other outlets.
If you later decide you want a non-exclusive contract or hope to bundle a series into a boxed set, you would need to negotiate a buy-out price with the narrator.
Note that if you want to bundle a series of books for which you used RS contracts, you must use the same narrator for all of the books in the series. This page in the ACX help section has more details.
Experienced narrators are unlikely to audition to narrate your book. While you earn royalties from all of your editions, the narrator only earns from sales of the audiobooks. She is incurring up-front costs before getting payment and has ALL of the risk for low or no sales of the audiobook.
It may take longer to get your title produced. Seasoned narrators usually look for books that pay PFH rates up front and do RS titles to fill gaps in their recording schedule. I will put 2-4 months on a RS contract so that I have availability take work that pays up front.
5. Why aren’t I receiving any auditions for my royalty share title?
One reason for lack of interest may be that your book is competing with 100s or even 1000s of other titles. Aside from that point, experienced narrators view RS titles as red flags. We think that the author doesn’t have confidence in her work that the audiobook will earn back the production costs.
Even for solid books with lots of reviews and ratings, narrators look at numerous factors when deciding whether to audition, including cover, genre, and Amazon sales rank. Narrator Jeffrey Kafer explains many issues and fixes for them in this article. I offer some additional advice in this comment on another article here on my blog.
I’ll let you in on one of my secrets: I search the language in every book before I audition. This video shows my test for romance books, but I use the same technique for determining 4-letter words.
6. Can I hire 2 narrators for the same book on Royalty Share contracts?
It’s extremely unlikely that you will find 2 good narrators who are willing to split their 20% of the royalties. Each person would only earn 10% of the royalties.
If you actually do find narrators for this kind of project, you would need to work out a means of paying both people since ACX will only make payments to the Rights Holder (RH) and a single narrator.
You might be able to buy out one narrator with a PFH agreement and have a hybrid or straight RS deal with the other one.
7. Why did a narrator decline my RS offer when their ACX profile shows they do RS projects?
One author accused me of false advertising because my ACX profile shows I will accept RS contracts.
Just because I will accept certain RS contracts doesn’t mean I will accept EVERY royalty share contract offered me. I have turned down books for a number of reasons:
I didn’t like the subject.
I don’t narrate books with graphic sex or violence.
I don’t narrate books that contain an overabundance and/or gratuitous use of profanity.
The book was poorly written and was littered with grammatical and punctuation errors.
The author had a poor track history with other books and/or no track history on the book in question.
The author had no promotion or marketing plans for the book, much less for the audio edition.
I also might have a scheduling conflict. I continue to be shocked at the number of people who send me a contract with arbitrary dates of their choosing without ever consulting with me about my interest and availability in narrating their book!
Finally, it’s not apparent to authors, but narrators see search results for available titles accepting auditions based on the compensation rates entered in our profiles. I set my profile for “Royalty Share or Unspecified” in order to see the full range of books available. Of course, I prefer PFH or Hybrid contracts.
8. What are the author’s responsibilities during production?
The author should provide a manuscript that is ready to record at the time you contract with your narrator. If you have some particular pronunciations or a story bible of characters in a series, give those to the narrator at the outset. The narrator may or may not ask you any additional questions before recording the book.
Audiobook narration is a performance art that is based on the narrator’s interpretation of the author’s words. My interpretation will probably never entirely match yours. In fact, many authors are surprised when the narrator brings new meaning to the work that the author hadn’t considered.
Just as a scriptwriter is usually not present on a film set, the author would not be involved in the recording sessions.
Once you receive the final audiobook, you can proof listen to it and report to the narrator any corrections. Some authors think they should be allowed to give detailed instructions and line reads, like telling the narrator to pause a certain length of time or say something with a different inflection. However, you should not expect or ask to change the performer’s creative choices. Corrections are limited to technical issues like mis-reads or mispronunciations along with the location in the book (chapter and time) that they occurred.
9. How much money can I make?
If I knew the answer to that question, I’d be sitting on a mountainside somewhere and speaking to the pilgrims that journey to me for my wisdom! Seriously, so many variables factor into the amount of money you can make, including your reputation, your genre, your royalty rate, and your marketing plan. Look at it this way — if you don’t make an audiobook, you are leaving money on the table.
10. Which companies can I use for audiobook production, and what are the differences between them?
This question is a topic for one or more new articles!
We’ve just scratched the surface of the production process. If you have other questions, please leave a comment below or contact me for a private consultation.
The post Top 10 Q & A About Audiobook Production appeared first on Karen Commins.
October 3, 2017
Are You Leaving Money on the Table?
Each day an author doesn’t have her books in audio, she’s leaving money on the table.
Don’t take my word for it. This sampling of a dozen recent articles about the phenomenal and continuous growth in the audiobook industry will prove my point.
9/30/17 Audiobook Revenues Up Again
9/23/17 How Audiobooks Are Becoming an Art Form Unto Themselves
9/12/17 Why Audiobooks are the new Netflix
9/11/17 Audiobook Sales Increased by 29.6% in the First 4 Months of 2017
7/31/17 5 Reasons Audiobook Sales Are Booming And How You Can Be Part Of This Growth
7/15/17 Audiobook Metrics and Statistics for 2017
6/7/17 Audio Publishers Association: Third Year of Strong US Audiobook Sales Growth
5/5/17 Audio Publishing’s Digital Boom
3/31/17 America’s unhealthy obsession with productivity is driving its biggest new reading trend
12/18/16 Global Audiobook Trends and Statistics for 2017
7/21/16 The Fastest-Growing Format in Publishing: Audiobooks
1/30/16 Audiobooks Have Begun to Outsell Print
You’ll find additional press coverage on the Audio Publishers Association’s site.
Even MORE Money
Audiobook royalties represent a new income stream for you. In addition, your audiobook might increase sales of your Kindle ebooks due to the wondrous Whispersync technology.
As I noted in this article:
In 2012, Amazon and Audible announced Whispersync for Voice, a technology that allows users to seamlessly switch between the Kindle ebook and the Audible audiobook. They also could enjoy an immersive experience of simultaneous reading and listening.
To ensure its customers would purchase both editions of the same book, Amazon discounts the price of the audiobook after the Kindle book is purchased, and audiobook aficionados take advantage of the combo deal. In fact, many actively look for free or inexpensive Kindle books just so they can get the audiobook at a cheaper price.
If you haven’t seen Whispersync in action, you’ll want to watch this 3:03 demonstration video.
Once you decide you’re ready to get your work into audio, my Audiobook Resources for Authors will help you learn about the audiobook production process. Questions? Please leave me a comment!
The post Are You Leaving Money on the Table? appeared first on Karen Commins.
September 9, 2017
Links to Help Authors Know Their Rights
My fellow narrators and I often contact authors about creating audiobooks of their books. Many times, the author tells me that her publisher has the audio rights, or she isn’t sure who owns them.
Authors could make more money by exercising as many subsidiary rights as possible for each book, especially the audio rights. The audiobook industry is on a 3-year trend of double digit growth that shows no sign of slowing.
If you have your audio rights, you could contract with a narrator or producer to create an audiobook. You also could choose to license your audio rights to a publisher or producer. The trade-off is that you earn more royalties if you retain your rights and contract with a narrator or producer. When you license your rights, your royalty rate is lower because someone else is managing the audiobook production process.
I’m posting this list of links about rights so that more authors can get their books into audio.
These sites offer good background info about copyrights, publishing contracts, and subsidiary rights:
PublishLawyer.com
Rights 101
Tell me about royalties for subsidiary rights
UK Society of Authors Guide To Copyright and Permissions
This site publishes a number of other guides and articles that you will find helpful.
Managing Intellectual Property in the Book Publishing Industry PDF
Authors Alliance Understanding Rights Reversion PDF
If a publisher has your audio rights, check your contract. It may be a simple process to request the rights are reverted to you, as author Julianna McLean discovered .
The Creative Penn blog How Authors Sell Publishing Rights with Orna Ross
Note: I bought the book with the same title but found the coverage on audio rights in chapter 10 to be limited to ACX, Podium Publishing, CD Baby and Author’s Republic, with the emphasis on the author’s costs and royalty rates. Licensing the audio rights to a publisher or producer isn’t discussed.
I’ll continue to add to this page as I learn more useful sites. If you know of a helpful site on this topic, please post the URL in a comment. I’ll also be happy to answer any questions.
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Links to Help Narrators Research Rights Holders to Books
I’m not a lawyer, but I have voiced an attorney in multiple audiobooks. Just because an author has passed away doesn’t mean you’re free to create the audiobook of her book!
Before you can record an audiobook, you must do due diligence to determine whether the book is in the public domain or still under copyright. When a work is still under copyright, the rights holder is the person or company that owns the audio rights to the book. The rights holder (RH) will receive the royalties from the sale of the audiobook.
If the book is still copyrighted, the RH could retain the audio rights and hire you as an independent contractor to produce the audiobook. You also could license the audio rights and become the rights holder. If you’re interested in this second option, I highly recommend you purchase my webinar with attorney and audiobook producer/director/distributor Jessica Kaye on this topic using the link on my Shop page.
The links on this page will help you understand the copyright laws in the US and UK and do your research to find the rights holder.
General info about copyright terms and the public domain:
Be aware that copyright law varies by country.
Cornell University chart that shows copyright terms and public domain in the US
In general, if the book was published in the US before or in 1923, it’s in the public domain. You are free to record it as is or create a derivative work from it. For instance, I created a derivative work by combining the texts from authors Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Island about their independent, solo trips around the world in 1889 into a single, flowing narrative. My resulting book and audiobook, to which I own the copyright, is Bly VS Bisland: Beating Phileas Fogg In A Race Around The World .
If the book was published between 1924 and 1978, check its status in the US Copyright Renewal Database below.
The footnotes at the bottom of the page offer even more useful links for research.
Nolo’s quick guidelines on Determining the Length of US Copyright Duration
US Copyright Office Circular 92: Copyright Law of the United States
Per Section 105, works created by the US Government are automatically in the public domain. These include materials created by an officer or employee as part of their official duties. For instance, using material I found on a federal web site devoted to history, I created the text for my audiobook The Trial of Susan B. Anthony . You can contact the site administrator if you have any doubt or question about using material on federal web sites.
UK Copyright Service fact sheet on UK copyright law
Sites that you may find useful in determining the rights holder of your copyrighted title:
For a current book, I would contact either the author or the publisher by finding their web sites. If you contact a publisher, you will want to send your inquiry to the Subsidiary Rights department.When the book is in the backlist and/or out of print, you may need to do more research on these sites to locate the rights holder.
Stanford University US Copyright Renewal Database
United States Copyright Office Public Catalog (1978-present)
Online Books Page Copyright Registration and Renewal Records
Harry Ransom Center UTA Locating US Copyright Holders
Has searchable database, 10 other ways to find rights holder, and other resources
QueryTracker Literary Agents Who Reps Whom
PublishersMarketplace.com
Offers free and paid accounts and contains a database of deal reports.
Other search tips:
You could Google “AuthorName BookTitle” (within the quotes) to find other sites where you might contact the author.
You might even get lucky by Googling “AuthorName BookName audio rights”. Using that search, I once found an article about the author that included mention of her agent’s name.
Once you’ve found the rights holder, this info may be helpful:
Jane Friedman’s blog Requesting Permissions + Sample Permissions Letter
Includes helpful flowchart infographic, as well as links to permissions departments for the Big 5 publishers
PublishLawyer.com Permissions Agreement form
This template may help you create a licensing agreement.
I’ll continue to update this page as I find more related sites. If you’ve found useful sites in researching rights holders, I’d love for you to leave its URL in the comments. Also, you may want to check out the links I listed for authors in the companion article Links to Help Authors Know Their Rights.
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August 7, 2017
The Still Small Voice
If you’ve read my articles about Barry Manilow (here and here), you probably suspect that music is an important part of my life. Did you know that I also play music? I ask your indulgence while I write about music for a few minutes. I promise that I do have a point that relates not only to audiobook narration, but to living the life of your dreams.
Introduction and Exposition
I started piano lessons when I was in second grade. My brother was taking them, and I thought I should do that, too. (By the way, I feel blessed that my parents gave me the gift of a musical education so early in my life.)
In fifth grade, I took up clarinet as part of the school band. I don’t remember deciding I wanted to play the clarinet. I wanted to be in the band, and I think perhaps the band teacher suggested it for me.
While I was in sixth grade, I decided to learn guitar because someone I sort of competed with was playing guitar. Admittedly, competition probably is not a good reason to start anything. I didn’t know then that I don’t have to prove myself to anyone. When the school orchestra needed a string bass player during my seventh grade year, I accepted the challenge and learned to play string bass.
Eighth grade saw me add 2 more instruments to my list: oboe and flute. The band director asked me if I would like to switch from clarinet to oboe. Yes, please! Playing oboe gave me to a chance to stand out. Why be one of 10 or 15 clarinetists when I could be the only oboist?
The flute was different. Rather than playing an instrument because someone else thought I should play it, I wanted to play the flute because it was lovely both in sound and appearance.
One day, a neighbor was selling a flute for $30 at their garage sale. It was nickel-plated, had a couple of small dings in the mouthpiece, and was covered with what I guess were oxidation spots. In other words, it wasn’t the prettiest flute ever made.
I didn’t care. I raced home, got $30 out of my bank (I’ve always been a saver), went back to the garage sale, and bought that flute! In hindsight, I should’ve asked Daddy to negotiate a better price!
I learned to play it on my own, without the benefit of lessons. I started playing piccolo in marching band instead of clarinet. Once I started to work part-time, I paid for half the cost of a new oboe. In addition to paying for half of the oboe, my parents also bought me a sterling silver flute that became my pride and joy. I ended up playing oboe in the symphonic band (more advanced players) and flute in the concert band throughout high school.
Like a lot of people, though, I got ultra busy in college and left my instruments in their cases. I can’t remember when I sold the flute, piccolo, and oboe.
Recapitulation
In 1995, I fell in love with the harp and spent the next 21 years in a relationship with at least one harp in my house. I wrote about the resonance between harp and voice-over and discussed 5 things every aspiring voiceover talent should know. The things on that list apply equally to audiobook narrators, so I encourage you to read that article if you haven’t already done so.
As I progressed more in both my demanding day job in IT and my voiceover/audiobook career, I found myself making less time to play my harp. I loved my harp. I loved identifying myself as a harpist. I felt guilty that I didn’t spend quality time with it.
After significant reflection over a period of months, I finally made the very emotional decision to find a new, loving home for my beautiful harp. The woman who bought it aspires to play professionally and studies with my former teacher, so I felt good to leave it in her hands.
Months after the harp’s sale, I found great comfort in this passage from Marie Kondo’s bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing:
…without exception, all the things you own share the desire to be of use to you. I can say this with certainty because I have examined very carefully hundreds of thousands of possessions in my career as a tidying consultant. When examined carefully, the fate that links us to the things we own is quite amazing. Take just one shirt, for example. Even if it was mass-produced in a factory, that particular shirt that you bought and brought home on that particular day is unique to you. The destiny that led us to each one of our possessions is just as precious and sacred as the destiny that connected us with the people in our lives. There is a reason why each one of your belongings came to you.
When I share this perspective, some people say, “I neglected this outfit so long it’s all wrinkled. It must be pretty indignant with me,” or “If I don’t use it, it will curse me.” But from my own experience, I have never encountered any possession that reproached its owner. These thoughts stem from the owner’s sense of guilt, not from the person’s belongings.
Then what do the things in our homes that don’t spark joy actually feel? I think they simply want to leave. Lying forgotten in your closet, they know better than anyone else that they are not bringing joy to you now. Everything you own wants to be of use to you. Even if you throw it away or burn it, it will only leave behind the energy of wanting to be of service. Freed from its physical form, it will move about your world as energy, letting other things know that you are a special person and come back to you as the thing that will be of most use to who you are now, the thing that will bring you the most happiness. A piece of clothing might come back as a new and beautiful outfit, or it may reappear as information or a new connection.
I promise you: whatever you let go will come back in exactly the same amount, but only when it feels the desire to return to you. For this reason, when you part with something, don’t sigh and say, “Oh, I never used this,” or “Sorry I never got around to using you.” Instead, send it off joyfully with words like, “Thank you for finding me,” or “Have a good journey. See you again soon!” Get rid of those things that no longer spark joy. Make your parting a ceremony to launch them on a new journey. Celebrate this occasion with them. I truly believe that our possessions are even happier and more vibrant when we let them go than when we first get them.
While it may sound like a bunch of woo-woo, I’ve discovered the truth in Kondo’s words that your things “come back to you as the thing that will be of most use to who you are now, the thing that will bring you the most happiness.” The sale of the harp has moved my narration business forward in some very specific, but private, ways.
Da Capo
I thought I’d never play music again, so I included my custom-made stand, the music cabinet, and all of my books with the harp. I redecorated from a music room to a library. The harp’s departure was the finale for me as a music maker.
Or was it?
Every so often, a harmless little thought would pop in my brain at the oddest times.
“Maybe you’d like to get another flute.”
I never said anything about it to Drew; I didn’t even write about it in my journal. I truly didn’t give buying a flute a serious thought. After all, if my grand and glorious harp and the magnificent room it was sitting in couldn’t encourage me to play, why on earth would I even think about getting a different instrument, especially since I don’t even have any music?
A couple of weeks ago, I started listening to Marcia Butler’s narration of her riveting memoir The Skin Above My Knee. Marcia is a professional freelance oboist, and I was surprised to learn that her first instrument was a flute. She jumped at the opportunity to play oboe for the same reason that I left the clarinet.
I told Drew about this section in the audiobook and added the offhand comment that I’ve had a recurring thought about getting another flute. Can you guess his reaction? Was it:
“That’s the craziest idea I ever heard.”
“You had a harp and didn’t play it. What makes you think you’ll play a flute?”
“A flute is expensive, and you’d have to re-buy music. Maybe you should wait.”
“I think that’s a fantastic and exciting idea! In fact, I’d like to try to play it, too!”
D — Drew’s instant enthusiasm for this idea is yet one of the many reasons I love him.
July 20, 2017
One Email That Isn’t a Scam
When you receive an email from a Nigerian prince, you probably think, “This so-called prince is just somebody who wants to take my money.”
Other types of emails may cause the same reaction. Authors are inundated every week with solicitations from marketing and web site gurus, proofers, webinar hosts, and more. It could be easy to become jaded to the constant barrage of offers.
However, one email that isn’t a scam is the one from an audiobook narrator who wants to collaborate with you on producing your audiobook. The reaction to that kind of email should be one of giddy excitement, such as, “This is somebody who wants to MAKE me money! What a prince!”
Although narrators routinely work with audio publishers, we are independent, freelance business owners just like you are. We don’t have agents who deal in audiobook work. Each narrator is on her own for ensuring she has a steady workload.
Until recent years, only about 5% of all books were made into audiobooks. Even though audiobooks are the fastest growing segment of publishing and have had double digit growth for the past 3 years, the overall number of audiobooks is still a relatively low percentage of the number of available books.
Consequently, the majority of authors do not have audiobooks of their titles and may not know how to create one. Narrators frequently do outreach with authors to help them learn about the production process. We speak at authors’ conferences and workshops. Some of us (ahem) write articles to share our knowledge and love of this medium.
We also prospect to line up projects on our own. We look for authors who are prolific in writing and releasing their books and treat their writing as a business. Once we find an author of interest, we research her work to find a book that:
isn’t already available as an audiobook
is a good fit for our voice, skills, and interests
contains content suitable for an audiobook in a genre that is successful in audio
could be expected to sell well in audio
With the research complete, the narrator will contact the author — usually through email — to inquire about the possibility of creating the audiobook.
If you’re on the receiving end of an unexpected query email from an audiobook narrator, you might initially think it’s a scam. What should you do?
1. Research the narrator.
You already know that you can learn a lot about a person by Googling them to find their web site and social media accounts. I would advise you to look at the narrator’s web site for testimonials from previous clients and professional reviews.
In addition to those sites, you’ll also want to look at the narrator’s credits on Audible.com. You can easily see the number and type of audiobooks they have recorded, as well as listener ratings and comments about their performances.
While looking at the narrator’s audio portfolio on Audible from your desktop computer, I’d suggest that you also look at the length of the recordings, which is shown on the left side of the screen. Someone who has only recorded short books that last 1 hour or less may not have the experience to produce on time and within budget a full novel that would have a run time of 6, 8, or more hours.
2. Educate yourself about the audiobook production process using my Audiobook Resources for Authors page.
Once you start thinking about creating an audiobook, my curated list of articles and resources will help you quickly learn the language and landscape of audiobook production. Don’t worry — you don’t have to learn how to actually DO it!
July 12, 2017
Why Use Evernote for Audiobook Pronunciation Research
Recently, several audiobook narrators discussed in a Facebook group how we do our pronunciation research. Like many narrators, I use the iAnnotate app for the text since it allows us to read the book from a tablet and noiselessly turn pages.
Most people in the discussion either added their pronunciation research to the PDF in iAnnotate or copied it to an Excel spreadsheet.
My method is different because I store all of my pronunciation research in Evernote.
Evernote is described as a note-taking app that works on and syncs across all of your devices. The more notes you enter into it, the more powerful it becomes. You can find no shortage of tutorials to learn how to use it, including on Lynda.com. As a reminder, I advise that you find a library that includes access to Lynda.
I’ll tell you why and show you how I use Evernote for pronunciation research in this 7:37 explainer video.
You can view the Evernote note used in this demo at:
http://bit.ly/RTTPronunciationList
If you scroll to the bottom of that note, you’ll see that I added branding info. This way, everyone who sees the note will know its owner and can contact me and/or connect with me on social media.
If you decide to get an Evernote account, I’d love it if you used my referral link:
http://evernote.grsm.io/KarenCommins8181
The post Why Use Evernote for Audiobook Pronunciation Research appeared first on Karen Commins.
June 21, 2017
How to Avoid 3 Costly Mistakes on ACX
In my Feb. 2016 article 6 Low-Cost Avenues for Greater Audiobook Sales in InD’tale Magazine, I suggested to authors that they look for podcasts and seek interviews on shows that are a good fit for their book. I was delighted to read a case study today on the ACX.com blog about Glen Tate’s success with appearing on podcasts and selling more audiobooks as a result.
However, his persistent promotion of his audiobook editions is only one part of his success. Even more important is the fact that he avoided 3 costly mistakes that many authors make when using ACX.
First, instead of looking for a Royalty Share (RS) agreement with a narrator, Glen listed his first book in the $200-400 per finished hour (PFH) range on ACX.
Paying this rate for the production did 2 things for Glen:
1) It attracted the most experienced talent to audition for the book. Since all of the risk of low or no sales under an RS contract rests with the narrator, most experienced narrators are reluctant — or even refuse — to accept an RS contract.
Many authors view an RS contract as “free” narration rather than properly thinking of it as a deferred payment for the costs of production. As a result, those same authors too often will moan the old phrase “you get what you pay for” after the audiobook has been completed.
One author told me recently that she thought the narrator she cast on her first book had completely ruined it. I listened to the sample and could understand her feelings. The narrator had a sing-song delivery that indicated she was only reading the text and understanding each word only as she read it aloud.
The author said she doesn’t want to promote that audiobook, so its sales languish, which hurts the bottom line for both the author and the narrator. She feels stuck because she can’t create a new recording of the book without paying a PFH kill fee to get out of the existing contract and then paying a second PFH fee to a new narrator.
For a more in-depth discussion about how to make the all-important budget decision, please read my article Authors, Can You Afford to Produce in Audiobook?
2) Paying up-front for production means that Glen now keeps ALL of his audiobook royalties instead of splitting them with the narrator.
Thanks to his subject and his constant promotion of his audiobooks, I imagine that Glen has not only recouped his production costs, but his income from this series of audiobooks is more like a mighty river than a trickling stream.
He had his choice among exceptional performers who have established work flows that ensure they produce pristine recordings on-time and in budget. Glen cast a stellar narrator in Kevin Pierce, which brings me to my next point.
Second, Glen hired the same narrator for all of the books in the series, presumably at the same PFH rate.
Listeners prefer to hear the same narrator in a series if characters repeat from book to book. However, I’ve seen authors who concurrently post all of the titles in a series and then cast them with different narrators. This approach is fine only if each book is based around a theme with different characters. Otherwise, the author may hurt his sales by rushing to create audio editions and casting different narrators in the series.
Finally, Glen has the option to change from Exclusive distribution to Non-Exclusive distribution.
An author’s distribution choice dictates the venues where her audiobooks can be sold. When an author chooses an RS contract on ACX, she has no choice but to accept Exclusive distribution, which limits sales of her audiobooks to only Audible, Amazon, and iTunes.
Libraries are a terrific outlet for discovery, especially for new authors. In order to have the opportunity to place your audiobooks in libraries, you need to have Non-Exclusive distribution. This option is only available to authors who pay per finished hour for the narration.
Glen chose Exclusive distribution, which could be a smart move in the first year of release to maximize the royalties paid. ACX currently pays 40% royalties under Exclusive distribution.
Since he paid his narrator up-front, Glen can elect to switch to Non-Exclusive distribution after the first year. Section 12(a) of the ACX Book Posting Agreement states that you can write to Audible to request a change to Non-Exclusive distribution for titles produced under the pay-for-production model. Glen would receive 25% royalties under Non-Exclusive distribution, but he would be free to add other distributors including other audiobook retailers and libraries. He also would be able to sell the audiobooks on his web site and/or on CD or thumb drives at speaking engagements.
With the finished audiobook in hand, it’s time to promote it. As Glen Tate explained, podcasts can be an excellent promotional method. You’ll find a lot more ideas on my Audiobook Marketing Cheat Sheet.
Do you have questions about using ACX or the audiobook production process? If so, please leave a comment on the blog.
Photo: Drew Commins during our 2005 trip to Paris
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