Tom’s Adventures in Audiobook Land
The following is a post by Tom Hoffman about his experience with producing an audiobook for Orville Mouse and the Puzzle of the Clockwork Glowbirds.
FOUR MONTHS BEFORE TOM BEGAN:
“Hey, I should produce an audiobook for Orville Mouse and the Puzzle of the Clockwork Glowbirds. I wonder how that works?”
ONE WEEK LATER:
After some research I decided that ACX.com was the place to go. They are a service owned by Amazon which pairs writers with narrators, then distributes the finished audiobook on Audible, iTunes, and Amazon.
It all starts with posting information on ACX about your book, what kind of narrator you’re looking for, what the tone of the book is, any information which might entice a narrator to narrate your book, and several samples of the book which narrators can use to audition for you. I knew I wanted a male British accent, comforting voice, storytelling feel. My grandparents were British and I grew up listening to stories about talking animals.
Within a few hours I had several auditions posted on ACX. Some were less than stellar, some were okay, a lot sounded like radio announcers, not too great in the voice acting department. I wanted more than just a nice resonant voice reading the book. I wanted to capture all the emotions, the characters, etc.
I almost went with one narrator who wasn’t perfect but was the best so far. He bowed out after reading a chapter of the book, said it wasn’t his “cup of tea”. He was more tough guy murder mysteries and detective stories. Not exactly Orville Mouse. Then I got an audition from Jason Zenobia. Whoa! That’s the guy. The perfect comforting British voice for kids and 40 years of experience in acting and voice acting. Creekers! I told him the character of Proto the Rabbiton was based on my British grandmother, ever so proper and excruciatingly polite. I laughed out loud when I heard Proto for the first time. I’d found my narrator.
What about money? There are two ways you can work with a narrator. You can pay them outright to record the audiobook or you can do a shared royalty contract. Nothing up front, but they get half the royalties from audiobook sales. They’re rolling the dice that your book will be successful, or at least a nice piece for their portfolio. Since I’m not in this for the money I went with the shared royalty contract. The only downside is now I worry that the narrator won’t make enough money for all his two months of hard work.
We fell into a routine where Jason would record a chapter, send it to me, and I would listen and make comments, changes etc. That’s what worked for us. Since I’m retired I could listen and send back changes in an hour or two. Prior to this Jason went through the whole book and we discussed all the characters, their personalities and the arc and pacing of the story. Thirty-nine chapters later we were done. It was a LOT of work but incredibly fun. Hearing the actual voices of the characters was thrilling, moving. Sometimes they weren’t the voices I’d had in my head, but as it turns out they were much better than what I had been imagining. If you have a good and experienced narrator, trust his or her instincts. Don’t try to micromanage. Be open to new ideas. Listen to it with the ears of the audiobook listener, not just through your own personal filters.
Since I wanted opening and closing music I went online to premiumbeat.com, a stock music service. It’s like clip art but music. I listened to hundreds of samples of music until I found exactly what I wanted. I purchased the music for $49. I have some background in audio programs so I was able to layer the introduction (voice over) and the music in GarageBand on my iMac.
Once we were happy with the final product Jason submitted it to ACX. It takes them several weeks to approve it, make certain all the specs are correct for audible, etc. Once that’s done they put it on Audible, iTunes, and Amazon.
All in all, it was a lot of work but really fun. I was extremely lucky to have Jason Zenobia as a narrator — he was easy to work with, a perfectionist, and a work ethic equal to my own. So much depends on the narrator, so choose carefully. Try to get to know them a bit before you finalize things. Make sure you’re a good match.
If you’re not familiar with Audible, people pay $14.95 a month and get credit each month to download one audiobook which they then own. They can buy others at a discount if they choose. Audible, iTunes, and Amazon set their own prices for the audiobooks, usually based on the length of it. Clockwork Glowbirds was about 72k words and came in at 7 hours 51 minutes. Audible charges $19.95 to non-subscribers and $14.95 to subscribers. Royalties are 40%. If you do the shared royalty, both the author and narrator get 20%.
I should add that I was a graphic designer for 35 years so I was able to design my own audiobook cover.
Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll try to answer them.
If you’re interested in listening, HERE is a link to the first two chapters of our final product on YouTube.
And HERE is a link to the book on audible.
About Tom HoffmanWebsite: https://thoffmanak.wordpress.com/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Hoffman/e/B00HMXAEB8
Thank you, Tom. This was quite informative. I’ve also wondered how it works.
It’s far easier than I thought it would be. And a lot more fun.
In your checking around for places to do this, did you find anyone besides Amazon? I don’t use them for a number of reasons, the most dominate one related to their violations of people’s copyrights. One cannot take on the giant except in class actions suits.
There’s a few other places, but ACX was the most streamlined process. I’m retired and not concerned with royalties so I went with them. I’ll find the names of the other places and post them.
Thanks Tom. I appreciate your efforts. I’m not concerned with royalties either. Amazon is pushing small independent publishers and the like out of business. Plus, they seem to think they can get away with using anyone’s work how ever they want to use it. There have been lawsuits about this. They were prohibited from doing some of the things they wanted to do. But if a person has them publish their work, Amazon has direct access to that work and can more likely steal it. Google is the same in terms of violating copyright. I won’t help the bully. Amazon is a bully.
Great information and presentation, Tom. I listened to part of the audio, and the narration illustrates your points re choosing and producing an audio book. I would also be curious to know more about your marketing effort and sale rate; I don’t have a particular audio project in mind at the moment, but you did get me thinking. Thanks from your valuable contribution.
Hi Victor — my marketing consisted of research on the demographics of audiobook readers and then boosting FB posts to that group — in my case women 25-50 with average to high income, good careers, etc. People who are busy and listen to books on the way to their job etc. Most of my readers are women. Also sent it to a few places that review audiobooks. It’s gotten great reviews so far (avg 4.8 stars) but sales have been, as they say, lackluster. Sold about 25 right off then it sank to the bottom of the sea. My guess is that on the surface Orville Mouse appears to be a kids book and I don’t think kids books do that well as audiobooks. I think mass market mainstream adult oriented books (think gritty detective novel) would do much better. It was tons of fun to produce it though and it’s out there now… just waiting…
It was helpful to read about your experience with ACX, as I’m considering making an audio of my latest novel. I’m impressed by the number of readers you had to choose from and that you found just the right person. From your description of him I’m sure children will love hearing the different characters come to life. Other authors have blogged about renting a studio and a producer, capable of meeting the standards necessary for Amazon to distribute the book, and do the reading themselves. Did you ever look into this option? All good wishes for your success.
Hi Christina — thanks for your comment. I was in advertising for 35 years and we dealt a lot with talent for commercials, radio spots, etc. I would only use a professional to narrate a book. They make it look easy, but it’s not. It’s a little like singing and acting. The narrator I used had 40 years of experience in acting and voice over. That’s what made the characters come to life. One thing I know is audiobook listeners will listen to a 30 second sample of a book, decide if they like the voice or not and base their purchase on that. A great book can be ruined by a dreadful narrator. I’m a firm believer in using professionals, whether it’s for installing bathroom tile or producing an audiobook.
Hi Christina — thought I’d toss this in the mix. It’s a sampling of voices used by Jason Zenobia in the Orville Mouse audiobook. And he’s not even British!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJcBJrrsdLs
He’s a wonderful narrator. Thanks you for your comments. I backed off doing the job myself when I heard a CNN newscaster, used to public speaking, said he narrated his latest book himself and it was the hardest assignment he’d ever done.
Tom, since you were in marketing for so long, what can you tell us that works best for independent writer to sell books? Most of the stuff that is recommended does very little, even when pursued with do-diligence.
When I started marketing my first thought was, what is the last book I bought and why did I buy it? I buy books for two reasons — I’m researching a particular topic, or a friend recommended it. Word of mouth. I’ve never seen an ad for a book and run out to buy it. I’ve tried ads with zero success. The formula I’ve hit on is promoting free book days on Amazon. Getting your books out there to readers is vital. And the more books you have the better it works. If they like the free book the odds are they’ll try your other books, especially if it’s a series.
I promote free book days mainly with BookGorilla, FreeBooksy, and eBookBooster. I’ve used a bunch of others, but mainly I use these. I’ve never had a book accepted by BookBub. They’re strictly mass market mainstream stuff. Cost runs from $20 to $150. I’ve had my best luck with BookGorilla. Over the years I’ve given away over 50k books. I still spend more on promotions than I make in sales, but I’m also pathologically optimistic. And I want to get my books out there — I think they provide a positive message to both children and adults, something this world desperately needs. It’s a glacially slow process, but mostly I enjoy writing and creating new worlds, new characters. Not a big fan of marketing.
Thank you, Tom, for taking the time to respond to my query. I will check out the places you recommend. I too feel that the message is more important than the money. The world is going under. We need to throw out as many life rafts as we can. For me, it’s a pay it forward.
Absolutely. Could not agree more. Planting seeds wherever I can.
Thanks so much Tom for sharing what you know with us at VFA, not only about audio books, but also about marketing. There’s so much to do–and learn–after the book is published. Every bit of advice is valuable and appreciated, especially from someone who has been in marketing for 35 years.
Thank you for sharing your experiences Tom. I was just starting to think about doing audio books because it seems to be a growing trend. I will check out ACX.