I-Spy: How to Get an Audio Book Produced

Join the authors and friends of Not Your Usual Suspects for an occasional series of posts about their world of reading, writing and publishing.

Short and sweet, hopefully both informative and entertaining - join us at I-Spy to find out the how's and why's of what we do.

TODAY'S POST: I-Spy How to Get an Audio Book Produced ...





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Are you thinking of financing an audio book? You’re not alone. The two biggest areas of expansion for indie authors are foreign translations and audio books. Just about every author I know (who has managed to hang onto audio rights) is considering whether to invest in creating an audio catalog. Case in point, I started financing audio books from my backlist in May 2012. To date I’ve financed 22 titles through ACX (the Audio Creative Exchange) and sold over 11,000 units. I have no idea if that number is good or bad, but the productions have paid for themselves and earned a bit of profit as well -- every single one of them has been a bestseller in its genre -- so I consider the endeavor a success.

 I’ve learned a few things along the way, and I thought I’d share them you in today’s I-Spy segment.

First, so far I’ve only worked with ACX, so my experience is somewhat limited. ACX has a streamlined and simple process. There are definitely problems -- I have bitched long and loud on the topic of what I don’t like about ACX (including being unable to control pricing of a product I have paid to produce) but it’s still probably the most convenient and practical platform for getting an audio book made.

 Basically here’s what happens:

 1 - You claim the audio rights to one of your titles listed on Amazon (if you are not self-published, you need to be sure you still possess those audio rights).

 

2 - You decide whether you can afford to finance the production yourself (my preference) or you choose to do a royalty-share. A royalty share means you pay nothing up front, but you and the narrator split your royalties for the seven years ACX controls your audio book’s distribution.

3 - You complete the listing for your book on ACX, including uploading an audition script (more about that below).

4 - You start hunting for narrators. OR you can wait for narrators to approach you. (Because I write gay erotic romance, I let narrators read the description of my work and then determine whether they are comfortable trying out for the project.)

 

 5 - You listen to auditions, hire a narrator, work with the narrator to create the best possible audio book, approve the files for sale, and start collecting royalties.

Success or failure depends on choosing the right narrator. The right narrator is the key to everything. A good narrator can make or break your audio book. That said, the single most important element of a successful audio book is the book itself. A narrator has to have something to work with. While it’s tempting to believe that all genre fiction will do well in audio, the truth is, if your book doesn’t sell much in print/digital, it’s probably not going to do brilliantly in audio either. Even with a bestseller, you will sell only a fraction in audio what you do in digital and print. That’s the reality of the audio book market at this point in time. Choose your best selling title. Or your bestselling series -- and then start with Book 1.

 Your audition script should be short. No more than a couple of minutes long. A page, at most maybe a page and a half. Most of the time, you’ll know within a couple of seconds whether the voice is not a contender. But if the voice is close to what you’re looking for, you may need to ask for a second audition. Or you may need to hold off and listen to more auditions to be sure. Take your time. For the audition script you should choose a key scene from the book with a variety of characters. At the minimum it should be a scene with the two main characters. It’s helpful to give the narrator a couple of clues as to what’s going on in the scene and a general note on how people should sound. Like if the main character has a French accent, it would be useful to mention this BEFORE the narrator auditions.

 Next, you need to have a general idea of the type of voice you’re looking for. You can’t expect the narrator to define this for you. A French count does not sound like a cowboy. Are you looking for someone in their twenties? Because someone in his twenties doesn’t usually sound like someone in his forties. And an “articulate” twenty-year old doesn’t necessarily sound like an “street-smart” twenty-year old. You need to know what you’re looking for so you don’t waste anyone’s time. It’s helpful to listen to a variety of narrators -- especially of well-rated and popular books in your genre.

BE PICKY. Don’t be in a hurry to make your decision. Listen to a lot of narrators. The wrong voice is the kiss of death to an audio book.

Here’s something else to keep in mind. You’re not just hiring a voice. The narrator is responsible for producing your audio book, so you’re looking for more than an attractive voice. Ideally, you’re looking for a professional with a good track record.

 If you receive an audition you like, before you do anything else, go check out that narrator’s website, check them out on social media, and check them out on Audible.com to see what else they’ve successfully produced -- or at the very least, successfully narrated. You might consider contacting the last author who worked with the narrator: ask whether she brought the project in on time, whether he made corrections in a timely manner, whether he stayed in character or his accent began to slip. You’re signing up for a seven-year commitment. Be smart. We're all aware that book publishing is filled with starry-eyed hopefuls who at this very moment are writing their first book and dreaming of fame and fortune? Well, you’ve got the very same thing going on in audio book publishing. It’s okay to give an inexperienced narrator a shot, but make sure you’re going into it with your eyes wide open.

 Communicate with the narrators who try out for your projects. I am astounded by the number of narrators who thank me for taking the time to let them know they didn’t get the gig. Apparently not responding with a yes or no is a bad habit of a lot of authors. I don’t understand this because surely we know better than anyone how demoralizing it is to submit your best effort and then never hear anything back at all. Rejection is still better than dead silence. Take the time to drop everyone who tries out for your project a polite note thanking them for their time and talent.

Once you do settle on a narrator, make sure you get them whatever they need from you in a timely manner. If they send you a list asking how to pronounce words, or they need a different format for the script…whatever they need from you, get it to them in a timely fashion. Make the narrator’s job as easy as you can.


I believe in picking good narrators and then getting out of their way. I'm not a director and, just as I shake my head at narrators who offer writing advice -- "Don't use elaborate descriptions!" -- so too does the narrator resent the author who tries to pull a Cecil B. DeMille. Narration is an art. You have to give the artist room to move, to create.

 Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg. Feel free to leave your questions on the audio book process in the comment section below, and I’ll make a point of checking in regularly to answer them. Or if you’ve financed an audio book, feel free to share your experience with us.

Josh Lanyon is the author of Stranger on the Shore due out May 5th from Carina Press

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FUTURE POSTS will cover:


Kindlegraph / the art of research / writing male/male romance / rejection and writer's block / building suspense / writing love scenes / anti-piracy strategies / audio books / interviews with editors and agents / using Calibre.

We welcome everyone's constructive comments and suggestions!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Audible: The Journey, Part 2

Join the authors and friends of Not Your Usual Suspects for an occasional series of posts about their world of reading, writing and publishing.

Short and sweet, hopefully both informative and entertaining - join us at I-Spy to find out the how's and why's of what we do.


TODAY'S POST: Audible: The Journey, Part 2

I left you with a cliff-hanger so I’ll get right to the answer. The apple is for clicking. If you speak for long periods, your mouth gets sticky and little sounds come out that you don’t want to be there. I was told the granny smith apple helps with that but I’ll tell you another secret: When I clicked, and yes, I clicked, I just drank some water. I never sliced open my apple. It seemed like too much trouble. <G>

I felt more confident on day two, but for some reason on day three, I was nervous again. Probably because my voice still hurt from day two. I was worried it would show on the recording. (It didn’t.)

We started a little later in the day and ended up going later in the evening. The director could tell when I got tired because my “Texas” came out. I tended to drop the ed or ing at the end of words.  We also had a ton of stops and starts because it was trash day and the vibration from the garbage trucks was loud enough to hear even in my sound proof booth.

Oh, and day three marked the beginning of all the sex. Up until now (as far as sex went), I’d only had to read a couple of kissing scenes. Honestly, I didn’t really think about it or get embarrassed until I made a mistake at a particular point and had to go back and re-read it. Yes, I felt myself blush bright red when Paul (the director) told me, “Take it back to where she’s wet and wanting him.” OMG. I think I just flushed again. Anyway, he liked that I didn’t have gratuitous sex. (Uh… not me specifically, but in the book. LOL.) Trust me, after that, most of it was a cake-walk.

Occasionally during the day I’d hear Paul laugh and my heart would thump faster at having written something he thought was funny. It would distract me for a few words, but I just kept plowing forward. Of course the thoughts in my head would be something akin to, “Wait! Which part was funny?” But I never asked.

By the end of day three, my throat really hurt. I was sucking down tea all day and having soup for dinner. In general, I stayed away from foods that might affect my speech. Like dairy. That was tough since I’m a cheese fiend.

The last day in the studio was the shortest of all at five and a half hours. I felt as if I had a more difficult time starting. The more mistakes I made, the more I thought about the poor editor who had to piece it all together. I thought that this far into the book, I wanted it to really sparkle. Not that I didn’t want the top to sparkle, but I was more aware of certain things and therefore got more anal as the process wore on. And, because I knew I had extra time since I was reading fewer pages, I took advantage of it.

I asked Paul to rate my performance on a scale of 1 – 10. He gave me a 7. I was okay with that since this was my first book. I can only get better. He gave me some pointers on what to look out for in the future. (Mainly my Texas accent when I got tired or not careful.)

The closer I got to the end the more melancholy I felt. I couldn’t believe it was all over so fast. I had let my baby out in the world once more, be it good, bad or ugly. And, now I’m faced the tough issue of having not only my story critiqued, but my performance as well. But like everything else in my life, I’ve gone into a business that is extremely subjective and I can handle the critics. I won’t please everybody all the time and I know that. I can only please myself with the material I put forth into the world.

I am happy to say that so far my Danger Zone ratings have been very good and since I try to learn from my mistakes, I gave myself a note before narrating Dangerously Close: SLOW DOWN.

Which leads me to my second session and my second narrated book.

I finished Dangerously Close in three days. The book was smaller than Danger Zone (coming in at 106K), but I had more characters with points of view, which meant I had more voices to mark in my head.  I was lucky enough to have Paul back to direct so I wasn’t nearly as nervous when I started on day one. I read slower which led to less error. I dropped my page average by about a minute.  The toughest hurdle for me on this book was singing two songs I wrote. I’m a shower/car singer so when the recorder goes on, I tend to get nervous and hit every note except the one I’m supposed to. God bless, Paul. At the end of the last day he let me record (at my request/begging) the two songs again so the editor could stick them in the book where they belong. I was having a tough time so he told me practice for a few minutes. When I was ready and told him to record, he smiled at me said, “I got it already.” The sly dog recorded on my rehearsal. Love that man. (I also had to record “talking” the songs and I won’t know until I listen which version they used.) In the end, he told me I’d improved 100% since the last time. Yes, that made me smile.

In conclusion, I can tell you that I worked my butt off for both books. Not only in the studio but in preparation for the studio. If you think narrating a book is an easy job, think again. Committing to each character is a ton of work. But it’s been some of the most rewarding work I’ve ever done. I know I’m lucky to be able to bring my books to life and hope people enjoy them as much as I enjoyed writing/narrating them.

So that's the story. I know I asked your thoughts yesterday, but after hearing about both sessions, do you have any other thoughts or comments about the process? Ask away... I'm all ears. 

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Dee J. Adams has been writing romantic suspense for over a decade. Her Adrenaline Highs series is published through Carina Press and her debut novel, Dangerous Race was a finalist for Best First Book in the 2012 Golden Quill Awards. The third book in the series, Dangerously Close, was released 7/23/12. She's been married to the love of her life for 23 years and has one remarkable daughter.

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FUTURE POSTS will cover:
Kindlegraph / the art of research / writing male/male romance / rejection and writer's block / building suspense / writing love scenes / anti-piracy strategies / audio books / interviews with editors and agents / using Calibre.
                                         We welcome everyone's constructive comments and suggestions!

Audible: The Journey, Part 1

Join the authors and friends of Not Your Usual Suspects for an occasional series of posts about their world of reading, writing and publishing.

Short and sweet, hopefully both informative and entertaining - join us at I-Spy to find out the how's and why's of what we do.

TODAY'S POST: I-Spy: Audible: The Journey, Part 1

Many of you know that my background is in show business. I studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and worked as an actor and dialogue coach for many years. Though I’ve spent a lot of time on sets, the most amount of time I spent in a studio (specifically for voice overs) was for my Tide commercials in the 90s. The reason I bring all this up is because I’m going to ask you a question…

Do you want to know how you can narrate your own book?

I can tell you, you’re not going to like my answer. You need to have a background in performing. If you don’t and if you’re not famous, you have two chances of a company letting you narrate your own book. Slim and none. Of course, just about anything is possible anywhere. I think writers like to make the improbable happen and generally tend to sell it, so if you have an amazing voice and the ability to keep dozens of different voices straight in your head and you can convince the powers that be to give you an audition, then anything is possible.

Here is how it began for me.

When I discovered my first book, Dangerous Race, had been picked up by Audible, the book had already been narrated. Yes, I was thrilled, but the performer in me said, “Hey, wait a minute! I want to narrate my book!” I will be the first to tell you that I don’t have a spectacular Kathleen Turner voice. The thing about narrating is that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I can deliver my books the way I intend people to hear them.  I don’t care if my voice isn’t the best, because my delivery is what matters to me. (And, FWIW, I worked really hard in school to lose my (Texas) accent and bring my pitch down as I spoke in a much higher register when I moved to LA, but I digress…)

As soon as I found out Danger Zone had been picked up by Audible, I immediately found out who I needed to call about narrating. Mike, the man in charge, was probably about to tell me that just because I wrote the book didn’t mean I could narrate it, but I didn’t give him a chance. I told him I had been an actor for twenty years, had both my SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) cards and spent a ton of time in the studio during my Tide years. That caught his attention. He also asked where I lived because finding a studio was another obstacle if I didn’t live near the Audible studios in New Jersey. The conversation went a little something like this:

“Why don’t read something for me?” he said.

It was about 7:30 a.m. Los Angeles time and he was calling from New Jersey.

“You mean now?” I asked, heading quickly for my office and computer to pull up the book and thinking how low my morning voice was (which was probably a good thing).

“Sure. Just read me the opening of the book,” he said.

“Okay.” I scrolled to the first page and took a deep breath, trying not to think how much depended on this spur of the moment audition. Because that’s what I was doing…auditioning to narrate my own book. I dove in, didn’t even get through the first paragraph.

He stopped me after about three or four sentences. “Oh, that’s fine. You’re fine. You can do it.”

Wha-Hoo! Yes, I was hugely excited, but managed to keep my elation under wraps. Had to keep it professional, you know. <G>

Now I had a ton of work to do. Sure, I wrote the book, but I can’t say that I’d ever read the whole thing aloud. You can guess what came next. I started reading aloud. Did I mention this book is about 114K ? No short novella for me. Have any of you talked for nearly six hours straight every day for about a week? I never had. My sessions in the studio before this hadn’t gone longer than three or four hours max. I had to seriously train to do this job! The first couple of days, by the time I hit the three hour mark, my voice was raw. I got the job in October and we scheduled the narrating session for November. I had about a month to get my voice ready. I think I got up to about four and a half hours a couple of times before my first day in the studio.

I was a little nervous about a few things. First, I’m a fast reader. (I knew the director would help me with that, which he did.) Next, it was imperative that I kept all the voices straight. I had about thirty overall characters to execute. (Not execute as in “kill” but as in perform. <G>) Oh, and BTW, the director was a man and I had some seriously steamy sex scenes to read. <um-yikes>

Day one: I sat down in my tiny padded booth and read the opening so the guys could test my level. I got my first note. Slow down. Yep. I saw that coming. (I was proud that in the forty-one pages I read, the director only stopped me three times to slow down. I was expecting much more.)

I also discovered during this time that I had good “mic technique.” That just means I’m able to keep my mouth the same distance from the mic no matter where I’m reading on the page. People can tend to move their mouth away from the mic as they move their face, so you have to keep your head centered – for the most part – and move (just) your eyes to read.

When it finally came to start for real, I found myself running out of air because I simply wasn’t breathing. Not good, let me tell you. The further into the book I got, the better I read it. Or maybe I should say, the more comfortable I was reading it. I learned how to breathe which really went a long way in keeping me alive. LOL.

I marked my script with notes (and a highlighter) and color-coded all the voices so I wouldn’t accidentally slip into the wrong voice during dialogue with multiple characters. (Basically, I knew before I got to a voice who it was by color.)

After five hours we ended the day and my throat was rough. I kept tea, water and a granny smith apple next to me the whole day. I’ll tell you why I had the apple tomorrow!

So... whatcha thinking so far? Does it sound like something you'd want to do?

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Dee J. Adams has been writing romantic suspense for over a decade. Her Adrenaline Highs series is published through Carina Press and her debut novel, Dangerous Race was a finalist for Best First Book in the 2012 Golden Quill Awards. The third book in the series, Dangerously Close, was released 7/23/12. She's been married to the love of her life for 22 years and has one remarkable daughter.

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FUTURE POSTS will cover:
Kindlegraph / the art of research / writing male/male romance / rejection and writer's block / building suspense / writing love scenes / anti-piracy strategies / audio books / interviews with editors and agents / using Calibre.
We welcome everyone's constructive comments and suggestions!

A Rose is a Rose...

But is a book a book by any other name? More and more we find books available in a multitude of formats. Could be an ebook, an audio book or a paperback. Does one format work better for every book?

When I first got my Kindle, I thought it was the coolest way to read. I loved the anonymity of carrying a variety of titles anywhere from the gym to vacation with the parents to the dentist office. I read ebooks exclusively for months. Until my book club chose a selection that wasn't available as an ebook. Okay, so I could deal with the occasional paperback.

Months later we decided to take a long car trip and unfortunately, I get an awful headache when I read in the car. But alas -- I remembered that my Kindle played audio books and I embarked upon a brand new experience. Isn't it wonderful all the choices we now have in books? I was thrilled when I learned Protective Custody was going to be an audiobook. I could be part of the book revolution!

One of my other romantic suspense books, Tropic of Trouble, a personal favorite (since the hero is loosely based on my wonderful husband), is coming to print. Yet another format I'm going to conquer -- or something like that.

I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see what the future holds for books. Will we be able to somehow read a hologram? Watch our story unfold in 3-D? I'm curious. What as yet uninvented format would you like to see come into being?