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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

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.

12 comments:

  1. That's very cool! Elizabeth Spann Craig has been blogging about the same company. Can't wait to hear it.

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  2. wow, i had no idea how the whole thing worked. and you're right; it's a smaller market, easier to stand out. i know LOTS of people on audible-i can recommend your books to them!!!! i'me very excited for you. my tbr list is ginormous. i'm going to have to get into audible, too, if i'm ever going to put a dent in it.

    i'm also loving victor standish so far. thank you again!

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  3. Thank you, Alex!
    ACX has been great so far!

    Words Crafter:
    I would be very grateful if you recommended my books to your friends on Audible. RITES OF PASSAGE, FRENCH QUARTER NOCTURNE, THE LAST SHAMAN, and THE LEGEND OF VICTOR STANDISH are coming out on Audible as well in the future.

    I'm glad you're enjoying Victor so far. Humble soul that he isn't, he knew you would. :-)

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  4. Hi Roland. Great to be back to 'normal' blogging. I never listen to audio books as I'm rarely in the car these days...but I spend hours each day reading. I know these books are a godsend to so many and I wish you well with this venture.

    Denise

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  5. Denise:
    Blogging every day is normal for me. And going backwards, alas, is normal, too! :-)

    I never listened to audio books either. But my job as a blood courier changed all that. Now, I am surprised by how many tell me they listen, too.

    Thanks for the well wishes! :-)

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  6. Hi Roland .. this is such a useful post and I'm looking forward to getting your recording in June, and your books prior to that now I have the Kindle set up etc ..

    So pleased you're going this route and thanks for writing about it .. it will be interesting to hear how it goes - ..

    Cheers Hilary

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  7. I know a couple of authors that are in this process - they're going the royalty route, too. I don't think my sales would entice anyone - yet. Maybe after my next book. But good for you, Roland. That is so cool!

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  8. Uh oh. I totally didn't understand the State of the Union Address. Ha ha ha!

    Congratulations on the publication of your first audiobook! May other novels of yours follow suit.

    Perhaps Megan Fox if it were a video recording of your novel?

    Thank you for the helpful tutorial. :-)

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  9. Excellent information, Roland. Just to be clear: Jack auditioned, you hired him. He narrated the book, then you listened to see if there were any changes required? It sounds so simple! Overall what do you think the time lapse was from start to finish? Can't wait to give it a listen.

    VR Barkowski

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  10. Hilary:
    I hope you enjoy my books, both Kindle and Audible! Let me know what you think! :-)

    Gwen:
    Knock on wood for me, will you?

    Jennifer:
    Neither did I understand the State of the Union Address which is why I mentioned it!

    If Megan Fox narrated my book on audio, I would be the next 50 SHADES OF GREY!!

    VR:
    Jack de Golia submitted his audition for THE BEAR WITH TWO SHADOWS from having read it unsolicited on April 11th. I approved and made my offer on the 12th.

    He submitted the book chapter by chapter -- sometimes two chapters at a time. I gave the final approval for the book on May 1st.

    So Jack took a little under a month from audition to finished product.

    But the audition for THE LEGEND OF VICTOR STANDISH was submitted and approved by me on April 12th. And due to prior projects, the first chapter has just been turned in on May 1st. But both narrations were quality.

    The average time it takes for the finished product is two months. Now, I do not know how long it will take for ACX to approve BEAR.

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  11. Awesome. The literary world needs more audio books.

    I love the cover of this novel.

    .....dhole

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  12. Hi, Roland,

    CONGRATS. I have a special affinity for BEAR, since, so many years ago I had the privilege to help it along with cover and editing... GEEZ that was a while ago ...

    ALL THE BEST!

    I can't wait to have my future books on audio....

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