If you are a reader, writer, or industry professional, there is a strong chance you’ve noticed a surge of interest in audiobooks within the past few years. Double-digit growth has been possible through increased ease of access due to the multitude of apps, services, and formats catering to audiobook listeners.
In the wake of listeners’ voracious appetite for audiobooks, services are sprouting up with the goal in mind of making it easier for independent authors to get their works translated to audio in a timely, professional, and (most important of all) affordable fashion.
I will outline here three services that specialize in bringing together authors, narrators, and producers to collaborate and produce a final product comparable to that of anything the big publishers can put out themselves.
ACX
ACX, or Audiobook Creation Exchange, was the first service of its style. As a service of Audible, which is a subsidiary of Amazon, ACX allows authors to find suitable narrators to produce an audiobook for sale on the three largest audiobook retailers: Amazon, Audible, and iTunes.
Authors can post a sample of their book to ACX for narrators to audition, after which the author may choose a preferred narrator. Alternatively, authors can browse from thousands of narrators based on compensation, genre, vocal style, age, and other factors, and approach those they wish to work with.
ACX offers a high royalty rate of 40% for sales made while in an exclusive contract with ACX, while giving a significantly lower rate of 25% for sales made under a non-exclusive contract. Under an exclusive contract, authors are barred from selling their audiobooks through any other retailers (including physical CD vendors) for a term of seven years. A non-exclusive contract allows authors to sell their audiobooks anywhere for a significant cut in royalties.
I myself am a producer on ACX. If you check out my producer profile, you’ll notice plenty of information relating to that producer, such as compensation range, vocal style, and genre categories. As you’ll see, a sample of past work is included with each producer. In my case, I’ve included a sample of a previous book released using ACX titled Register Your Book.
Findaway Voices
Findaway Voices is the closest competitor to ACX. It works in much the same way as ACX, with the notable exception being the total number of retailers to which Findaway will distribute. As opposed to ACX, which distributes to three stores: Amazon, Audible, and iTunes, Findaway will distribute to over 30 retailers, including the three previously mentioned.
While this forces the author to accept the 25% non-exclusive royalty rate for sales through Amazon and Audible, sales made through iTunes will earn you a 45% royalty rate. In addition, your audiobook will be available on a number of high-profile retailers such as Google Play, Nook Audiobooks, Chirp, Audiobooks.com, as well as library services like Overdrive and educational retailers like Baker & Taylor and Ebsco.
As a distribution aggregator, Findaway will take 20% of every sale made through its distribution channels, leaving you with 80% of all profits. While some may be discouraged by the idea of a distribution aggregator taking a percentage of what already may be a small royalty rate (such as that of Amazon and Audible), the convenience and headaches it saves in removing the need to upload to each retailer individually may prove a plus to many.
While ACX encourages more of a self-motivated approach to finding a narrator, Findaway lends a hand by examining the manuscript and generating a casting list of narrators believed to be best suited for your book, and from which you may choose your desired narrator. Apart from this, the process of working with the narrator works much in the same way as ACX.
Deciding between a narrower distribution for a higher royalty rate using ACX and a broader, more global distribution using Findaway or another distribution aggregator will come down to your goals with your book and its intended audiences.
For example, I suggested to a recent client that we release her children’s book, a story about a rat who travels the world, through Findaway. I felt that being as it was a children’s book, with its depictions of multiple and varied regions and cultures of the world, would be better suited for a wider distribution that would allow for it to appear on multiple library services and in international retailers.
Spoken Realms
Spoken Realms is yet another service offering streamlined collaborative audiobook production. While not having the same brand recognition as ACX and Findaway, Spoken Realms may prove an attractive option.
Spoken Realms takes great care in providing narrating talent that is high quality and professional. All narrators with Spoken Realms must pass a “rigorous quality assessment,” as they put it. Both production and performance skills are periodically reassessed, and all narrators must have the requisite production equipment and technical knowhow, as well as performance abilities needed to produce a quality product.
In addition, Spoken Realms puts comparatively more work into the research stage of the production process. While Findaway will examine a manuscript only insofar as to suggest narrators best suited for your book, and ACX will not put any research into a manuscript on your behalf, Spoken Realms aims for a “full dramaturgical analysis” of the book so as to both help narrators in providing the best performance required for you book as well as to develop a promotional strategy to help your audiobook’s chances for success.
Spoken Realm’s distribution network is split into two options: a “targeted” distribution two the Big Three of Amazon, Audible, and iTunes, and a “global” distribution to a number of retailers comparable to that of Findaway’s. The exact royalty rates available for each option is not disclosed by Spoken Realms on their website.
This recent outcropping of independent, collaborative audiobook production services has proved a godsend for many authors who desire to release their book as an audiobook.
Where in the past, the logistics and cost associated with enlisting talent, finding a studio and funding recording, editing, and mastering time, and distribution had served as a barrier to entry for independent authors, we are thankfully now undergoing a revolution that has drastically eased access to the possibilities of audiobook production.
The three services I’ve outlined here serve as an introduction to this new trend by giving an overview of the most popular and known services in the industry. If you have any further questions relating to audiobook production, or if you are interested in my services as an audiobook producer, feel free to get in touch with me at carter@authorimprints.com.
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