FOR EDITORS, PROOFREADERS AND WRITERS

Ray Greenley discusses distribution options, the importance of having your manuscript edited prior to narration, and briefing your voice artist or producer.

So you’ve listened to your auditions, you’ve researched your potential producer and think they’re the one for your book, and you’ve come to an agreement on payment terms.

There are a few other bits you’ll need to work out before you can offer the producer a contract.

One is whether you want to distribute exclusively through Audible, Amazon, and iTunes for a higher share of the royalties from sales (royalties are 40% of sale price), or non-exclusively, which means you can set up distribution yourself through other platforms, but you’ll get a smaller share of royalties from sales through Audible, Amazon, and iTunes (royalties are 25% of sale price).

Note that if you want to do a Royalty Share or Hybrid contract on ACX, you MUST do exclusive distribution.
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There’s some other information you’ll need to work out with the producer:
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• The date for the First-15-Minutes evaluation (more about this later)
• The date for project completion

Different producers work at different paces; and many will have other books already waiting to be recorded. They might be able to start on your book right away and have it done in a week or two, or they might be scheduling out months in advance.

Talk to your producer and let them know if you have any schedule in mind, but be ready to be flexible.

​Once you have those dates, you can offer the contract, and when it’s accepted you’re almost ready to go! There’s just one more thing you need to do, and that’s provide the producer with your final, ready-to-record manuscript.

Now, I promise this isn’t just me sucking up to my gracious host, but please, for the love of all that’s good and holy, make sure your manuscript is edited and proofed by someone who knows what they’re doing.

It makes the project many times more difficult when we have to struggle through bad grammar, missing punctuation, and poor formatting. In some cases (as happened with me early on), we can’t do it and the contract has to be canceled.

If you find a producer who you like working with and does good work for you, then you’ll want to build that relationship into something ongoing. Handing them a manuscript that they can barely get through isn’t going to help.

And while those grammar errors may seem innocuous enough on the page to your eyes, they’re VERY hard to hide in audio.

Now, we producers know enough to not expect perfection. We can handle a reasonable number of errors in a manuscript. But in the end, it’s best for you, for us, and for your readers to get your manuscript properly edited, so please do it before sending the manuscript to us.

​From here on out, it sort of depends on you and the producer.

One thing that’s often very handy for a producer is to get some additional information about the characters in the story, including:
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• Your preference for vocal qualities or accents
• How important the character is
• Whether the character will be in future books (and especially if the character becomes more important in future books)

Also, if your book has words that your producer might have a hard time finding pronunciations for (particularly with made-up names in science fiction or fantasy books), having a key is really helpful.

It’s really important to get this sort of information as early as possible while the producer is preparing to narrate the book, but before they’ve actually hit ‘record’.

​None of that stuff is vital; if you picked your producer well, they’ll be ready to handle all of that on their own. But having some guidance can definitely help.

In the final article, we'll look at evaluating the first 15 minutes and production approval. Until then ...

• ACX Rights Holder’s Checklist
• Royalty Share Contracts and Marketing
• So You Want to be an Audio Book Narrator
• 5 Tips for Successful Audio Books
• Michael Kozlowski, Editor in Chief, Good e-Reader

Contact Ray Greenley
Website | Facebook | Twitter

So should you include a podcast transcript? And if you do, should you edit it? Here’s my take.

Writers don’t just listen to podcasts; they create them as part of their author-platform mix. Not all podcasters include transcripts (though I think they’re a good idea) and not all transcripts are created equally.

Some are rough and raw, some are smoothed, and some are edited to within an inch of their life so that they read more like blog posts.

​A podcast transcript is a written version of your audio file.
 
Many people glance at a transcript before they listen to a podcast because they want to know what the key discussion points are.
 
Skim reading allows us to digest large chunks of written content quickly. We get to pick and choose what to ignore and what to focus on. Skimming isn’t about deep comprehension but about getting a feel for what’s on offer.
 
People are busy. Podcasts are great because the audience can consume the content while doing other things. That’s great if the listening takes place on the school run or the dog walk.
 
However, that won’t be the choice for all your book-buying audience. Some will want to engage with your podcast, and only your podcast. Those listeners need to know whether you’re worth their time. We can’t skim a podcast (or a vlog) but we can skim a transcript.
 
The transcript is therefore more than a written record. It’s also the key that unlocks the audio engagement door.
 
Given that it’s a representation of what’s said in the podcast, should you edit it?
 
A better question is, what are the consequences if you don’t? Here are four.

If your listener is already fan, a sloppy transcript is unlikely to put them off because they probably won’t even read it – they’re there for you and your audio. But if they’re new, and deciding whether to commit to listening, the written word might well determine whether they leap on board or jump ship.
 
If the first thing someone comes across on the podcast landing page looks and reads like a dog’s dinner, what does that say about the likely quality of the audio content?
 
In reality, the audio content might well be outstanding, but the podcaster isn’t judged on that until the audience has decided to hit Play. It’s the visible content on the page that counts.

Imagine you’re doing a presentation to a roomful of your author peers. You build your presentation around the problems you’re trying to solve for your audience, create a great slide deck, and rehearse like billy-o so that you’re on top form.
 
On the day of the speaking engagement you turn up ahead of time so that you can check that all your equipment and supporting materials are fit for purpose. Before you go on stage you do some breathing exercises to relax your throat – you want your voice to be clear and engaging for your listeners.
 
You look the part. You sound the part. And you’re a writer in a roomful of writers. That’s all that matters, right? After all, it’s a face-to-face speaking engagement.
 
The problem is, you haven’t brushed your teeth for three weeks and your breath honks. If you were one of those presenters that likes to be front and centre, the first row would be in trouble. But you’re a walker. You like to engage with your audience – a little bit of up close and personal.
 
It’s not the first row that's in trouble. The whole room is at the mercy of your Wookie mouth. Shame, because no one’s interested in your stunning insights, your top tips for how to overcome writer’s block, fact check, or edit the first draft, never mind that what you tell them could make their lives a hundred times easier. All anyone’s thinking is Stay back.
 
A sloppy podcast transcript is like bad breath. It focuses your potential audience’s attention on the wrong thing and risks putting them off before the audio fun’s even begun.

Podcasts are increasingly popular tools used by business owners, marketers, writers and hobbyists to communicate with their clients, fans and friends. And a lot of podcast transcriptions are sloppy. All the effort, and the budget, goes into creating great audio.
 
In ‘How to build a web presence that outsmarts, outperforms and outlasts the search engines’ (Summit on Content Marketing 2017), Stoney deGeyter talks at some length about being excellent in everything we do so that we’re not battling with search-engine algorithms and rankings. He advises focusing on extraordinary engagement that makes our audience/customer journey as easy as possible.
 
Good advice indeed. So why not stand out and create a top-notch podcast transcription?
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• Be the one who sets the bar.
• Be the one whose transcript is as standout as the audio file so that you keep your visitors happy whether they’re skimming the script or tuning in.
• Be the one who decides that it doesn’t matter what content’s being engaged with – the page title, the audio, the thumbnail image, the resources or the transcript. It’s all good, all consumable, all engaging.
• Be the one who embraces audiences with different abilities – not only those with visual impairments, but also those with hearing loss. My colleague Debbie pointed out that cochlear implants only go so far.

 
That way you give people nothing to complain about and everything to rave about. Word of mouth is more likely to kick in. And with it, audience growth, engagement, advocacy and book sales.
 
Certainly, some people won’t care if your transcript is a mess. It’s not them you have to worry about though. It’s about those who do care, those who judge you negatively because they think you don’t give a damn. Which leads us to the biggie.

You’re a writer. Given that your podcast is part of your author platform, the last thing you want to do is give anyone the impression that your writing is poor, even if you’re using audio as an engagement tool.
 
If a famous chef was promoting her new recipe book in my local Waterstones and the canapes made me want to hurl, certainly I’m not going to buy her book. But, much worse, I’m not going to book a table at her restaurant.
 
The biggest problem for the author with a sloppy transcript is not that no one will listen to the podcast but that no one will buy her books.

It’s your choice but bear in mind that the goal is to encourage the listener to engage with the audio and buy your books. The podcasting author has to strike a comfortable balance between rigorous word-for-word accuracy and readability. Here are some guidelines:

• If it doesn’t aid comprehension, consider removing it. Examples include extraneous ums, ahs and stutters.

• Consider your author brand. If you think that under-editing will impact negatively on your writing ability, you might bend towards heavy smoothing of the transcript so that it reads more like a blog post.

• Correct all non-standard spelling (without disrespecting idiom and dialect, of course). People don’t spell incorrectly when they speak.

• Correct spoken non-standard grammar if its makes the transcript difficult to understand. Speech is often less formal than the written word – we speak in ways we might not dream of writing – but readability should trump slavish adherence to spoken accuracy. This isn’t an exercise in qualitative research methods or oral history. It’s about engagement, trust and communication.

• Introduce standard punctuation and other speech cues to aid readability. In speech, we start, stop, pause, emphasize, and interject with laughter, sighs, harrumphs and so on. Use ellipses (…) for pauses and trailing sentences, italic for emphasis, em dashes (—) for end-of-sentence interruptions, and en dashes (–) for parenthetical sentence fragments. Square-bracketed cues are perfect for oral interjections [groans] [laughs].

• Ensure the transcript reflects what was said, not what you or the transcriber thought was said. If the transcription was created by a third party, they might have made a best guess and introduced errors because the audio was unclear. If you’re unsure what was said (if you were talking to someone else in the podcast), consider a pro transcription trick – place a question mark each side of the queried word (?unnecessary?). Or ask the interviewee.

• If you’ve interviewed someone in your podcast, consider offering them the opportunity to review the transcript before it’s published. There are pros and cons. On the one hand, any misrepresentation will be corrected. On the other, the interviewee might want to use the opportunity to artificially clean up the record, which could spoil the rhythm of the interview.

Even if you don’t include a transcript, consider the following:
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• Include an abstract that summarizes the overarching theme of the episode and some information about the speaker(s).

• Create a bulleted list of the key themes addressed in the podcast.
• Add time stamps so that listeners can hop straight to the content that’s important to them.
• If there’s more than one person speaking, indicate who’s speaking in the transcript.
• Provide a summary of related episodes so that your listeners can binge listen.

And here's a cautionary note from Tim Lewis:

Tim’s transcripts are gently smoothed to aid readability, indicate who’s speaking, and include a brief content summary. He increases visual engagement by introducing eye-catching quotes from the show. 

Louise Harnby is a line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in working with crime, mystery, suspense and thriller writers.

She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

• Get in touch: Louise Harnby | Crime Fiction & Thriller Editor
• Connect: X @LouiseHarnby, Facebook and LinkedIn
• Learn: Books and courses
• Discover: Resources for authors and editors

Here are 5 ways to use audio to promote your book and create engagement with your readers.

Listening is active. At its most basic level, it’s about focus, paying attention.
SIMON SINEK

I’ve deliberately not discussed audio books or podcasting in this article. They’re both valuable ways of delivering your book and the story of your publishing journey, but need scaled-up levels of expertise, planning, equipment, time and money.

I’ve also excluded options that involve video – we’ll look at them in other dedicated resources (e.g. video book trailers, and online video launches). Today is all about sound!

Narrating a chapter of your book is a lovely way to offer your fans the personal touch – for no other reason than they get to hear your voice. It’s a phonic version of Amazon’s ‘Look Inside’!

And it’s a totally different kettle of fish from a full audio book …

In Audio Book Production: A Primer for Indie Authors from an Audio-Book Producer, Ray Greenley, a professional voice narrator, explains how easy it isn’t to create a high-quality audio book yourself – one that’s fit for market and done to the highest standards.

​The equipment, the noise dampening, the time, the fluency, the editing – the author who takes on all of that has a will of iron and more than just a talent for writing. Narrating is, after all, a very different skill to writing.

Sample chapters are a taster
With a sample chapter, though, you don’t need to worry about any of that. It’s a taster, a way for your audience to enter the world you’ve created via the sound of your voice. And because you – the author – are providing all the emphasis and tone of voice, listeners know they’re experiencing the world you created exactly the way you intended it.

They’ll even forgive you if you stammer, or mispronounce a word, or stumble halfway through a sentence and have to go back to the beginning. They’ll forgive you if the dog barks, or a siren wails, or your office chair squeaks … because you’re engaging with them, speaking to them.

Focus on good-enough quality
Don’t get me wrong, it has to be listenable. If it’s such poor quality that the sirens, dogs, and stumbles are so frequent that the sample is painful to engage with, you’ll do yourself no favours. But a little blip here and there is fine.

Audio samples, like written ones, are gifts from you to your reader. They’re charming, and generous, and your fans will love the fact that you’ve taken the time to record one for them.

What apps to use
I asked my own marketing coaches and some of my colleagues what they use to upload audio to their websites. SoundCloud got an overwhelming thumbs-up. There’s a free option, too.

A YouTube video with a thumbnail picture would be another option. If you’re uploading natively to your website this could slow down load times so, instead, embed a link and host the content on your YouTube channel.

In case your audience clicks through to YouTube, make sure you include all the relevant book-buy links under the video on your channel. Be sure to include captions for those who choose to engage with the sound muted (it happens … a lot!).

Which mic should you use?
You don’t need an expensive mic . I use a Sennheiser headset/mic system that cost under £50. Try different options and see what gives you the best results.

For non-fiction, you could take the audio sample to the next level. Give away an audio version of one chapter of valuable, usable content – something your listener can actually solve a problem with.

This is a powerful offering and goes well beyond the plot taster of a novel.

For example, imagine you’ve self-published a marketing book for small businesses. One of the chapters is dedicated to Pay Per Click (PPC). The chapter outlines the principles behind PPC advertising, and offers guidance on which businesses would or wouldn’t benefit from this strategy, and why.

You create an audio version of this chapter – and because it’s something that your target audience can listen to and use to make informed decisions about an aspect of their digital promotion strategy, they’re compelled to buy the written version and extract all your words of wisdom!
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In this case, you’ve repurposed valuable business content but in a deeply personalized way. 

Readers love live author events. The Norwich branch of Waterstones has hosted a stack of live author readings. I’ve been to see Garth Nix, Jonathon Pinnock, and Alison Moore.

With an audio-only version, you’re recreating the feel of a radio author event because the audience gets to talk to you afterwards and ask questions. Ideally, you’ll want the stream to be recorded so that it’s available as archive content afterwards.

Daniel J Lewis, in ‘New live streaming options for podcasters’, says, ‘Maybe you want all the interaction and accountability of live-streaming, but you don't have the technology or bravery for video. That's when an audio-only live stream can be a great choice. It also makes a good option for those with lower bandwidth.’

What are the options?
Mixlr and Spreaker are Lewis’s recommendations for those looking for lower-cost solutions.

Another option is using the audio-only option of Facebook Live. This has slightly less flexibility in that all the engagement with your listeners will take place in the comments below. Still, this could have some advantages in that you have a record of what people are asking, and if you don’t have time to handle all the questions, you can join in the written discussion later.

Live audio streaming is public and, obviously, live. You don’t get to edit if things go wrong … which is great because it adds emotion and excitement to the event, but requires a little courage. Make sure you have some friends in on the gig who have your back if you’re new to this type of engagement.
 
One of the best things about reader-facing author events is that fans can get a signed copy of the book. In the digital world, this is tricky.
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How about this as an alternative? Get some promo postcards printed; the front will feature your book’s cover. At the end of the show, invite people to email you with their postal addresses if they’d like to receive a signed postcard with a personal message or dedication. You could team this up with an invitation to join your mailing list so that they don’t miss out on future events.

This requires more effort but it’s worth it because it allows you to talk about the journey of your book and your journey as a writer.

You’ll need an interviewer and a script.

It’s tempting for the inexperienced sound eventer to think that a script will detract from the flow and authenticity of the broadcast. It won’t. A script ensures everything stays on track, that the questions and answers are remembered, that neither of you ramble off on a tangent or fall off a pregnantly paused cliff.

You could do a swap with a fellow author, perhaps someone from your writing group – you interview them and they return the favour. That way you both get to promote your books and share your thoughts on the challenges and joys of writing and self-publishing.
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Again, SoundCloud is a good option here (or YouTube).

In ‘9 ways to use audio’, digital marketer Steve Cartwright asks: When your target audience clicks to get more information for your products and services, do you think it would make a difference if you were actually talking to them with your voice to explain what you have to offer?

​Most of you are probably already building your mailing list. Perhaps you include links at the end of your written books, blog articles and website book pages that encourage people to sign up to your newsletter.

​This is the perfect place to test whether you can increase your sign-rates by using your voice to ask your readers to join the party.

If you’re not building a mailing list, consider these wise words of experience from full-time, self-published crime writer Jeff Carson:​

How about doing the same thing, but asking people to join that newsletter with your voice?

• If you fancy adding some animation to your audio, take a look at the Music Visualisation Video Creator.
• Don’t forget to include discount coupons and book-buy links under your audio stream, wherever you host it.
• Always include a call to action, so your listener knows exactly what you want them to do.
• Be available to your readers – let them know how they can contact you.

Louise Harnby is a line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in working with crime, mystery, suspense and thriller writers.

She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

• Get in touch: Louise Harnby | Crime Fiction & Thriller Editor
• Connect: X @LouiseHarnby, Facebook and LinkedIn
• Learn: Books and courses
• Discover: Resources for authors and editors

Professional voice artist Ray Greenley talks about doing your own audio-book narration , how long it will take and what kit you'll need.

In previous posts I talked about platforms (ACX), pricing, and sourcing and evaluating a professional voice artist for your audio book. 

I know what you're thinking – 'There’s another option you’re not telling me about on purpose … I could avoid all these issues and just record my book myself!’

Yes, that’s true. You could.

Okay … are you sure? I mean, REALLY sure?

Because producing an audio book does take quite a bit of work. As a rule of thumb, a producer who knows what they’re doing will generally spend about six hours working to produce a single hour of finished audio.

So if your audio book ends up being about 10 hours long, that means you could expect to spend about 60 hours working to produce it once you’ve invested the time in learning how, and the money in the equipment you’ll need.

You'll need the following equipment (I'll go into more detail below):

• a microphone (no, your built-in microphone on your laptop or iPhone really won’t cut it)
• probably a USB preamp to go between your microphone and your computer,
• a computer to record onto
• recording space

​There are some decent microphones that plug directly into your computer via USB, but generally you’ll get a better sound with an XLR microphone and a preamp.

​Also, vitally, you’ll need a good space to record in. It should be quiet with plenty of sound-absorbing material in it to make the space sound as ‘dead’ as possible.

A walk-in closet can do the trick in a pinch, although chances are you’ll need some additional sound treatment to really get it acceptable.

​By the way, if you live in a busy area with a lot of traffic or other outside noises that you can hear from your space, then your space is no good unless you can somehow insulate against all those outside noises or are willing to record in the middle of the night when (hopefully) things are quiet.

​Okay, well if you’re really on a budget, you can record using Audacity, which is free recording software. It has some solid tools and can do what you need.
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If you’re willing to invest some money, you can get some reasonably priced software that can do a bit more. I use Studio One Artist from Presonus, and I know some other narrators work well with Reaper. Both of those programs can be had for less than $100. 

There are many others as well.

For the preamp, there are some good options at a reasonable price. I currently use a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, but I’m looking forward to upgrading to a Presonus Studio 2|6 soon.

Another reasonable option would be the Presonus AudioBox USB.

One of the nice perks to getting one of the Presonus preamps is that it includes the recording software I mentioned earlier, Studio One Artist.

Once again, there are lots of other options, many of which would probably be sufficient for your needs.

So I can tell you that I use a Shure KSM32 and it works well for me. I’m pretty fortunate that I can sound good on such a relatively inexpensive microphone (US$499+).

Unfortunately, there’s absolutely no way to know if YOU will sound good on it, too.
Microphones really are very personal tools. One that works great for me might be terrible for you, and vice versa.

Your best bet is to try several out and see what works well. The easiest way to do that is to find a specialty store that sells them; the store will often let you try some out before you buy because they’re aware of the difficulty in matching the microphone to the voice.

​So … no, not nearly. You still need to learn how to USE all that stuff, which takes a lot of time and effort.

I know this isn’t a surprise coming from me, but I think you’ll REALLY want to consider carefully when it comes to narrating your own book.

If you think you might really want to get into narration and put in the time and energy to learn how to do it right, then have at it. It’s very challenging work, but also very rewarding.

There are very few people who have the right talents to be both a writer and a narrator, let alone have the time to train and use both sets of skills. My hat’s off to you!

However, if you’re thinking you want to record your own book because you just want to try to save some money over paying a narrator to do it, or hoping to avoid the work of finding a good narrator who’ll take your book on as a Royalty Share project … please don’t.

I promise it’ll take time you’d probably rather spend writing, and the chances of it really being a high-quality production are not great (no offence).

In the long run, I’d bet it will cost you more than you’ll save, one way or another.

• ​ACX Rights Holder’s Checklist
• Royalty Share Contracts and Marketing
• So You Want to be an Audio Book Narrator
• 5 Tips for Successful Audio Books
• Michael Kozlowski, Editor in Chief, Good e-Reader
• 26-page primer: Audio-Book Production. 

​Contact Ray Greenley
Website | Facebook | Twitter

Louise Harnby is a line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in working with crime, mystery, suspense and thriller writers.

She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP) and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

• Get in touch: Louise Harnby | Crime Fiction & Thriller Editor
• Connect: X @LouiseHarnby, Facebook and LinkedIn
• Learn: Books and courses
• Discover: Resources for authors and editors

Here's more from professional narrator Ray Greenley on how to create an audio book.

​The following article is an excerpt from a 26-page booklet in which Ray offers his experience and advice. At the bottom of the post there's information on how to access Audio-book production: A primer for indie authors from an audio-book producer.

In this post, he focuses on evaluating the quality of a professional voice artist, and offers advice on an alternative form of contract that shifts some of the risk.

That’s a tough question with few solid answers, but I can offer some tips.

1. Take some time to listen to some good, well-produced audio books.
You are usually safe with most stuff from the larger publishing houses and big-name authors. Try to listen to not just the narration but also to how the narration SOUNDS. Then compare that to the auditions you’ve received.

2. How loud is the recording in the pauses between sentences?
There shouldn’t be a lot of background noise, but neither should it sound like the recording drops off a cliff in between sentences.

3. Are there ANY extraneous sounds in the background, like a barking dog or a car driving by?
Those sorts of sounds should NEVER be in the recording and I would consider them an instant red flag.

4. Can you hear a lot of ‘mouth noise’?
Strange clicks, smacking lips, that sort of thing. This is a challenge for almost all narrators, and if you catch a little, it’s not a cause for major concern. But if you find yourself distracted by the sounds, be careful.

See, the thing is that a Producer on ACX really does have to be more than just a narrator. They have to be a narrator, a director, an editor, and an engineer.

There are a lot of skills involved and not everyone is equally good at all the facets of each job. This is why you need to listen to more than just the performance when evaluating auditions.

Note that no one is perfect and you can get a good audio book from someone who has at least a base level of competency in some the various skills while excelling in a few others.

Again, it’s up to you to determine if a producer is capable enough to do a good job with your book.

Also, when evaluating any producer, be sure you look them up to see what other books they’ve done. Do they have a bunch of books already out there?
​

• Listening to the samples of those books, how do they sound?
• What sorts of books are they?
• Are they about the length that your book is likely to be or longer, showing that they will be likely to complete your project?
• Have they done books in a similar genre to your book?

Note that some producers publish under a pseudonym, so if you can’t find anything on your own, ask. If they’re really brand new and have absolutely no history to go by, don’t be afraid to ask about what sort of training they have that can give you confidence that they’ll do the job.

In short, do your homework on your potential producer, or you’ll only have yourself to blame if things don’t work out!

Yes, there actually is another option. How astute of you to ask!

So if you think about it, the bottom line for a Pay for Production contract is that the risk is entirely on the rights holder. You put up all the cash and hope the audio book sells enough to make that money back and more, while the producer gets paid and moves on to the next project.

Meanwhile, the bottom line for a Royalty Share contract is that the risk is entirely on the producer. We do all the work involved in getting the audio book recorded and don’t see any return on our time until it starts selling, while the rights holder doesn’t have to put up a dime.

The third option is a split between those two, known as either a ‘Hybrid’ or ‘Stipend’ contract (the name ‘Stipend’ comes from an incentive program offered by ACX; just be aware that that program is something different than what I’m describing here).

A Hybrid contract is ostensibly a Royalty Share contract, but the rights holder offers a modest Pay for Production payment in addition to the Royalty Share. The producer gets enough up front to cover some of their production costs, while the rights holder can attract a higher tier of talent to their project.

Exactly how much a producer will be willing to take for their payment as part of a Hybrid contract depends on the producer, but I’d venture that most would be happy with $100 PFH. That can still add up to a fair amount of money. However, at one half to one third of what you’d expect to pay an experienced pro, it’s much more affordable.

The key is that you’re going to want to be able to at least cover the post-production costs for the producer.
​
Remember when I talked about all the things a producer needs to be good at in order to do a good job on your book? Well, most producers would really rather focus on the narration side of things, so they look for editing and mastering professionals to handle that stuff for them.
​
They end up as better narrators, and the post-production is higher quality because they’re working with people who dedicate themselves to that aspect of the production.

It’s a win–win, but it does cost the producer money. Few producers will be willing to put up that cash on a Royalty Share project with uncertain prospects. It’s bad enough to produce a book and not make any money on it. It’s even worse to produce a book and LOSE money on it!

One tricky part with the Hybrid contract is that it’s not officially supported by ACX. To do one, you’ll need to set up the contract in ACX as Royalty Share and then handle the additional payment on the side.

Next time, we'll look at yet another alternative: doing it yourself!

Until then, thanks for reading!

​Resources

• ACX Rights Holder’s Checklist
• Royalty Share Contracts and Marketing
• So You Want to be an Audio Book Narrator
• 5 Tips for Successful Audio Books
• Michael Kozlowski, Editor in Chief, Good e-Reader

Contact Ray Greenley
Website | Facebook | Twitter

This 26-page primer includes over 5,000 words of guidance from Ray, a professional voice artist, on the following:
​

• Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX)
• Terminology and definitions
• Pricing options: Pay for Production, Royalty Share, and Hybrid
• Production time
• Choosing a voice artist
• Red flags
• Sampling the first 15 minutes
• Doing it yourself
• Equipment and environment
• Pre-production manuscript editing
• Distribution rights
• Briefing a narrator

​
To get your free copy, click on the book's image (no email required):

Guidance on creating an audio book from professional narrator and voice artist Ray Greenley.

Ray's a professional voice artist (he's the narrator behind, among other audio books, Philip K Dick's The Unreconstructed M and Other Stories) but he's a fab writer as well.

I love listening to audio books, but creating them? That’s quite another matter. And yet I wanted to know more, and I figured some of you would too.

And because it’s one of those aspects of self-publishing that’s just too expensive to get wrong, I felt that my writing a guide to the process simply wouldn’t do.

I wanted to offer you something that would give you in-depth, honest and usable insights. That way, if you do decide to create an audio book, you can do it right.

​I hoped a professional narrator could furnish you with those insights, and Ray hasn’t disappointed.

​The following article is an excerpt from the full 26-page primer. At the bottom of the post there's information on how to access Audio-book production: A primer for indie authors from an audio-book producer.
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Enjoy! (And thank you, Ray!)

Hello, dear author! Congratulations on your latest book!

Have you considered having an audio book of your work produced? If not, you should! More and more consumers are buying audio books for a variety of reasons, and audio-book sales are booming compared to digital print sales (see Resources: Kozlowski).

As an author, you absolutely want to be a part of that growing market. But audio books are an entirely different beast from print books. Getting into a new market is always intimidating. Where do you even start?

I’m here to help. I’m an audio-book narrator who has worked with indie authors to produce audio-book editions of their work.

In Audio-book production I give you a high-level look at what you need to know to get your book produced as an audio book. In this post, we're focusing on platforms and prices.

There’s work to be done, but it’s probably not as difficult as you might think. Read on!

It wasn’t all that long ago that virtually all audio-book production was handled by a few big publishers, and getting your book produced was probably a similar feat to getting a big print publisher to publish and distribute your book.

That’s all changed. Getting your book produced as an audio book is easier now than it’s ever been.

Probably the biggest factor in that change is a site called ACX. That stands for Audiobook Creation Exchange. It’s run by Audible.com (the world’s largest distributor of audio books, and owned by Amazon.com).

It’s essentially a meeting place where rights holders (that’s you!) can list their books in order to find producers (like me!) who are interested in producing the book as an audio book.

Producers (that’s the term used by ACX; consider it synonymous with narrator for the sake of this discussion) can see the listed book and submit an audio audition for it. 
The rights holder listens to the auditions and can offer a contract to the producer they think will do the best job. 

Once the producer accepts the contract, they produce the book and submit it through ACX. The rights holder can then listen to the book, and if they approve it, it gets prepared for release. ACX manages the contract, the payment of royalties, and distribution to the associated platforms (Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes.com).

Cost is, of course, always a factor. With ACX, there are multiple options that allow virtually anyone to have their book made into an audio book. But as with many things in life, you often get what you pay for.

First a quick note that there is no fee from ACX for registering on their site or for listing your book. They get their money on the back end once the book goes up for sale, so they just want to encourage as many books to be produced as possible.

ACX allows rights holders to offer producers two types of contracts: Pay for Production and Royalty Share. Note that regardless of the type of contract, the rights holder always gets full ownership of the audio produced.

A Pay for Production contract means that you’re paying the producer a flat fee for their work. Once you’ve paid the fee, the audio book is published and you’ll receive royalties from sales of the audio book.

So what’s a typical fee? Well, first off, the fee is based on the length of the completed audio book. When you offer a contract, you agree to pay a certain amount Per Finished Hour (PFH) of the audio book. So if the audio book ends up being 10 hours long, you’ll pay the agreed-upon amount times 10.
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What sort of PFH rate can you expect to pay? Well, it depends on the type of talent you’re looking to attract. If you want a top-rate, full-time professional narrator, you can expect to pay around $300 PFH, or even more.

… you’d pay around $3,000, yes. Sounds like a lot, right? Well, it is a lot, and I touch on why that number is what it is in the full ebook.

But for now, let’s get back to the discussion on cost. Because you don’t have to offer that much for a Pay for Production contract. You can offer less, and are likely to get producers willing to record your book for less.

Just keep in mind that as you go lower in what you’re offering, so the caliber of producers you attract to your project will change. I’d say that once you get below $200 PFH you’re pushing out of the zone where most quality producers feel like they can get a reasonable return on their time, but that may not always be the case.

A quick note: There absolutely can be an aspect of negotiation with regards to the contracts you offer. ACX doesn’t care what the final number is. That’s entirely something to be worked out between you and the producer.

Yes, there is! 

It’s the Royalty Share contract that I mentioned above. 

In this contract, you don’t pay the producer anything up front, but instead split the royalties on sales of the book with that person.

​Yes, that’s pretty much it! Sounds great, right?

The catch is that the top producers are VERY selective about the Royalty Share contracts they’re willing to accept.

It takes lot of time and effort to produce an audio book, and producers who are trying to pay their bills and feed their families with money from their work won’t take a second look at your book unless it has a record of strong sales.

Even if your book isn’t breaking any sales records, you can still list it and are likely to get some auditions. Just be realistic about the kind of producers who are going to be sending those auditions. They may be low on experience, talent, or both.

That’s not to say it’s a hopeless case. We all have to start somewhere.

Once upon a time, I was that producer who was low on experience and sending out my first auditions. The author who picked me to narrate my first audio book was an indie author who had just written his first book.

While I’ve learned quite a bit since that first book, and there are definitely things I would do differently now, I’m still proud of my work on it and the critical reception has been overall quite positive.

But it’ll be entirely up to you to make that determination. Just as ACX allows rights holders to sign up and post their book for free, they also allow anyone to sign up as a producer and send in an audition for free. And I do mean ANYONE. Do NOT assume that just because someone is a Producer on ACX that they actually know what they’re doing.

In the full edition of the ebook, I offer guidance on how to assess whether the narrator/producer is doing a good job.

​For now, thanks for reading!

• ACX Rights Holder’s Checklist
• Royalty Share Contracts and Marketing
• So You Want to be an Audio Book Narrator
• 5 Tips for Successful Audio Books
• Michael Kozlowski, Editor in Chief, Good e-Reader

Contact Ray Greenley
Website | Facebook | Twitter

This 26-page primer (available here) includes over 5,000 words of guidance from Ray, a professional voice artist, on the following:

• Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX)
• Terminology and definitions
• Pricing options: Pay for Production, Royalty Share, and Hybrid
• Production time
• Choosing a voice artist
• Red flags
• Sampling the first 15 minutes
• Doing it yourself
• Equipment and environment
• Pre-production manuscript editing
• Distribution rights
• Briefing a narrator

Click on the image below to download.