Every amazing audiobook is a collaboration between the author and the storyteller (that’s me!) with one goal in mind: creating the best audiobook possible. But before we can start on this exciting, one-of-a-kind journey, I like to confront the elephant in the room so he/she/they can leave and get on with his/her/their own life already. Who wants to be stuck in a room forever with people who just ignore you all day long? Right?
So what do you get when I narrate and produce your audiobook? You get an inciteful, creative and quality performance of your book. I thoroughly read through the book, making notes regarding characters, any accents needed, tone and tone changes, words to be researched for pronunciation and meaning, and any questions I might have for you. If I run into questions that are not obviously answered in the book text, I will contact you to make sure we’re on the same page for pronunciations and approach. You get fully edited, proofed and mastered professional quality publish-ready audio. It will conform to whatever the audio requirements are for you chosen distribution partners.
And, what do I get when I narrate and produce your audiobook? I get that not everyone has the same expectations, goals and resources. For this reason, I negotiate one of three different pricing tiers for each title/series. No matter which tier you choose, you get the same professional product. Each tier includes the book prep/research, narration, editing, proofing, pickups and mastering.
Royalty Share A pure royalty share option means there is no out-of-pocket for you. We share the royalties for sales 50/50 for the life of the audiobook. However, I will accept a royalty share contract only for books that have an Amazon Sales Rank under 50,000*. With a Royalty Share, there may be some restrictions as to how you can distribute the audiobook. The three entities that I work with who can accommodate payouts on a royalty split are ACX, Findaway and Spoken Realms.
*The higher the number, the lower the sales rank. For example a book with a sales rank of 87,000 has a LOWER sales rank than a book with a sales rank of $50,000.
Royalty Share + Reduced PFH Rate (Royalty Share Plus on ACX) If your book’s Amazon Sales Rank is below 50,000*, I request a reduced per-finished-hour (PFH) in addition to the royalty share split. This rate is currently $100 per finished hour. (PFH is the total runtime of the finished audiobook.)
*The higher the number, the lower the sales rank. For example a book with a sales rank of 87,000 has a LOWER sales rank than a book with a sales rank of $50,000
Flat Rate Production* (no royalty share) If you’d rather, you can pay for the production up front. With this option, you keep all royalties from the audiobook sales. My rate is $300 per-finished-hour of audio. Unless we are working through a portal such as ACX or Findaway (who will act as intermediaries regarding payment/approval of the work) I ask for a deposit of 50% after you have approved a 15 minute sample of the book, with the rest due once the audiobook is completed.
*You can calculate the approximate runtime of your book by dividing the total word count by 9,300. For example, a 50,000 novel would have a runtime of approximately 5.3 hours.
If you're interested in working together or if you have additional questions that I did not cover here, please this contact form to get in touch.