MK
asked
Michael J. Sullivan:
Hi Michael :) I'm reading & listening (amazon whispersyncing) a book called Calculating God, by Robert J Sawyer. I looked up the narrator (Jonathan Davis), because he's very very good! I noticed that he also narrated your :Hollow World, on audible, which I thought was pretty neat. How does the narrator for your book get chosen? Do you choose yourself, or does your publisher? Someone else?
Michael J. Sullivan
Hey MK great question, and thanks for reposting it from July read of the Time Travel Group.
It depends...my first set of books were sold to Recorded Books by my print/ebook publisher Orbit. It became what is known as a subsidiary right, and they had 100% authority to negotiate that deal and set their terms. I had zero say, and couldn't even say no if they chose a publisher I didn't like. As it turned out I got a fabulous narrator, Tim Gerard Reynolds so it worked out fine, but it could have gone very badly. For the second series, it was again sold as a subsidiary right and while Orbit had the legal right to do it anyway they wanted to, (and they had planned on moving it from Recorded Books to their inhouse production) I asked them if they would please keep with Recorded Books (and Tim) and they did.
When it came time for Hollow World, I got a nice five-figure contract but they wanted all standard rights, print, ebook, and audio. I hated the loss of control so I turned it down. I kept the ebook rights, sold the print rights to Tachyon Publications, and the audio rights directly from me to Recorded Books. As part of THAT contract I negotiated the right to select the narrator. Recorded Books gave me 7 or 8 narrators as possibilities and I submitted a couple that I liked. Then I went through them and made my "first pick" choice which was Jonathan. Recorded books made sure he was available to do it, and was interested in the project then he got signed on.
It depends...my first set of books were sold to Recorded Books by my print/ebook publisher Orbit. It became what is known as a subsidiary right, and they had 100% authority to negotiate that deal and set their terms. I had zero say, and couldn't even say no if they chose a publisher I didn't like. As it turned out I got a fabulous narrator, Tim Gerard Reynolds so it worked out fine, but it could have gone very badly. For the second series, it was again sold as a subsidiary right and while Orbit had the legal right to do it anyway they wanted to, (and they had planned on moving it from Recorded Books to their inhouse production) I asked them if they would please keep with Recorded Books (and Tim) and they did.
When it came time for Hollow World, I got a nice five-figure contract but they wanted all standard rights, print, ebook, and audio. I hated the loss of control so I turned it down. I kept the ebook rights, sold the print rights to Tachyon Publications, and the audio rights directly from me to Recorded Books. As part of THAT contract I negotiated the right to select the narrator. Recorded Books gave me 7 or 8 narrators as possibilities and I submitted a couple that I liked. Then I went through them and made my "first pick" choice which was Jonathan. Recorded books made sure he was available to do it, and was interested in the project then he got signed on.
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