INSECURE WRITER'S SUPPORT_How To Make An Audio Book

 

THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS

has been fully recorded.

 

Within weeks, the audio book will be on sale!

 

 

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO MAKE YOUR OWN NOVEL

INTO

AN AUDIO BOOK?

 



Let me help:

Here is how you may do it with ACX --

I.) To use ACX

you need to already have an account with Amazon, and have the book you wish to record in their system.

Then you can go to www.acx.com and set up your account there, using your Amazon login.

(They are sort of in but not of Amazon. Confusing, I know. But if you understood the State of the Union Address, you will understand this.)

ACX will helpfully list books using your name as a search term, which you can claim right there or do another search to find the one you want.

II.) Set up the “project”.

I went the route of wanting someone else to record and produce the book, but you can try recording yourself. But Patrick Stewart I am not!

The project profile is where you set up the description, book category, and indicate the ideal voice artist for the work (e.g. male/female, accent type, tone and so on).

The section for additional comment is where you add enticing data like “I’m a NYT bestseller, and the half-brother of Stephen King” or whatever you think will encourage a voice artist to think you can earn them money.

I mentioned my book’s ranking and how many it had sold and how Megan Fox would date the person who chose to narrate my book.  (Just checking to see if you were paying attention.)

III.) You will also need to upload or link to the audition script.

Pick a section from your book , roughly two pages worth, something that you think will draw the interest of a browsing listener.

IV.) Next is deciding how you want to finance this.

Options at present appear to be either pay a flat rate, or do royalty share. 

Good voice artists, the ones who can do consistent accents and different voices for different characters, will run $200 per finished hour and up.

(THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS ran to 10 hours, which is about average.)

You have to decide if it is worth it to you or if you will have to sell a kidney to afford it.

Also, if your current book sales will earn said voice artist enough to earn out that flat rate for your book to be worth their while

(and now you know why you mention ranking and sales …)

V.)  “Proofing” the recording:

This was the part I thought would be hard, but wasn’t.  If you are fortunate enough to get a great voice artist like I did with Jack de Golia, you will spot very, very few. 

Jack easily fixed the errors and then I approved the whole thing for sale.

VI.)  ACX approves:

I’m not sure exactly what their process is, but presumably they have some poor soul checking to make sure we weren’t just saying “fjord” for 10 hours.

This will take longer than you want, but short enough to keep your hopes alive.

VII.)  ACX is unique:

Even though they are an Amazon outgrowth, they don’t do royalties or statements the same way.

 They do give you sales data, but it is cumulative and not broken out by week or even month.

Also, they send a physical check in a folder-sized envelope, along with the royalty statement.

By the way, I totally recommend Jack de Golia

– he is a pro and a pleasure to work with.

He had a lot of fun with my characters,

and it shows.