Audiobook fans, anyone?
I'm thinking about taking the plunge...
The other day I received a wonderful and very unexpected email. My Amazon rep asked me if I would like to sit down and chat with a rep from ACX, which is the audiobook creator platform for Amazon indie authors.
Of course I jumped at the chance to meet with them! (When Amazon calls, you answer!) I ended up having an hour-long chat with an ACX rep who was really informative and supportive.
He asked why I hadn’t recorded audiobooks of my backlist; what my future plans were for audio. If you’ve never chatted with indie authors about audiobooks before, it’s a whole THING.
Many indies license their audiobook rights to production companies. In exchange for a small advance (usually like $250), an audiobook production company will take on the responsibility for creating, editing, and distributing your audiobook. When you consider that the average single-narrator (so if you’re writing dual point of view, you’d need two narrators!) audiobook costs between $3,000-$4,000 to produce, having someone pay me for my audiobook rights and then covering 100% of the production costs sounds like a good deal… Right?
Well, in a way, it can be. But I know so many authors who regretted giving up their audio rights even 3, 4, 5 years into the contract. The average audiobook contract lasts for 7 years. And at the end of the seven years, if you want out of the contract, sometimes there are costly buy-out clauses. All of this makes sense.
Audiobook narrators do voice work as a job. They aren’t writing the stories of their heart, willing to take on the risk that no one will read it. (Like authors do!) The average audiobook takes 40-50 hours to record. Factor into that audition time, editing, and revisions, and the job is indeed a big one.
The Amazon platform offers indie authors like me some options to manage the costs, but those have their limitations as well. For example, if I decide to distribute exclusively on Amazon, I would be eligible for various plans that allow me to share the earnings with my narrator without paying the entire recording rate up front. The down side to being exclusive to Audible, though, is that I could not put my audiobooks into libraries or sell them on m website.
I’m a huge fan of libraries and would really like to be able to offer my audiobooks to libraries if I record them… So we’ll see…
I started looking into narrators to see if there were voices I could imagine capturing the essence of my characters. I’ve found a few… And I’m hoping to save my pennies so that next year I can release at least one of my books in audio.
Are you an audiobook lover? I probably read 3-5 audiobooks a month! (Thank you, Libby app!) There are some books I need to sit down and savor, but when I’m cooking or cleaning, walking my dog, or stuck in LA traffic, I’m far more likely to listen to an audiobook than music. (So many books, never enough time!)
How do you read your books? Are you a KU fan? Paperback only? Audio? Let me know what you think and if you have favorite narrators! I’m looking at a few lesser-know narrators (including one a few I know in real life!!) so we’ll see… Will there be audio in my future? You’ll be the first to know!
Things I’ve Been Loving
I am reading a bunch of cool books and of course am writing and working hard to get my next release out! How has your transition into fall gone? Los Angeles had a wild heatwave that gave my health a run for its money (I HATE HEAT!! But my family lives here in SoCal, so…) But we’re solidly into fall which means even though it’s still summer weather, it’s not as hot. And that means I can start to plan for cozy season! It’s already been COLD back home in Chicago!!
I hope you’re reading lots, loving the change of season, and staying healthy and happy. Thanks for reading, friends!!
I hired a pro (April Doty) to narrate and produce my two short works, and she was wonderful to work with! It gave me an affordable way to gauge reader/listener interest before committing to creating audiobooks for my (very long) novels. Your own voice is so lovely, perhaps you could just work directly with someone to package and produce your own narration? I think your readers would love to listen to your author version!
I paid an experienced friend to record my book for me and I did the reading. It was hard. 😑 You’d be surprised how many times you say uh, or um when you speak. I didn’t promote the audio version enough and it hasn’t paid for itself. Maybe I should do it now. 🤔