Erggo

Karen@KarenCommins.com

470.737.NAR8 (6278)

Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™

Narrators

Put Yourself in the ACX Driver’s Seat Webinar

I was reflecting this week about being able to create audiobooks from my studio here in Atlanta for the past 10 years.

To be clear, I’ve recorded all of my audiobooks in my studio. However, when I started narrating early in the millennium, most publishers didn’t want to hire home studio narrators.

I always said I could fly any where; Atlanta is the home of Delta Airlines, after all. The answer was always “Why should we fly you to NY or LA when we have an abundance of talent nearby?”

Everything changed in 2011 when Audible developed ACX.com, its marketplace for narrators and rights holders to get together to produce audiobooks.

I’ve been there since day 1 when the site was in beta test:

  • 1/12/11 — Audible invited me to a super secret, hush hush conference call.
    • On 1/12/21, I tweeted my journal page from that day.
  • 1/14/11 — I was on the call and learned about ACX. Audible asked me to be a beta tester, and I immediately said YES!
    •  On 1/14/21, I tweeted a 1:30 video reading from my journal entry that day.
  • 5/12/11 — Audible launches ACX to the world.
  • 9/18/11 — After submitting 23 auditions on ACX, I won one from a publisher. The book was Dixie Divas, which was the first in a series of 5 books and a bunch more I did for Belle Books, the publisher. Dixie Divas was a royalty share book that has paid several times what my PFH rate would have been and continues to make money for me every month!
  • 1/22/14 — The Heart of the New Thought, my first book as a RH, went live.
  • 5/15/14 — Part 1 of my article about audiobook marketing appeared on the ACX blog.
  • 5/20/14 — Part 2 of my article about audiobook marketing appeared on the ACX blog.
  • 4/7/16 — My article How to Act Like an Audiobook Narrator appeared on the ACX blog.
  • 11/2/18 — I was the featured guest on ACX University.

Of course, I’ve written MUCH more about ACX here on my blog! I’m also a frequent contributor in narrator Facebook groups, particularly the Indie (ACX and Others) Narrators and Producers Group, where I developed and maintain the extensive group FAQ.

I’ve been delighted each time John Florian at VoiceOverXtra has shared one of my articles with his audience. After republishing one of them recently, John asked me if I’d be interested in doing a webinar about ACX.

I responded to him the same way I did to Audible about beta testing ACX 10 years ago: YES!

I’m thrilled to announce VoiceOverXtra will host my webinar Put Yourself in the ACX Driver’s Seat on 11 February!

You can read about it and sign up at this link. You can get a 10% discount if you sign up by Saturday 16 January.

If you leave questions below, I’ll try to answer them during webinar.

I hope to see you there!

 

 

Commit to Creativity Workshop

Yesterday I attended the Commit to Creativity workshop hosted by Krista Vernoff, show runner for the Grey’s Anatomy TV show and others. After doing 2 writing exercises during the workshop, I feel inspired and energized to write more articles here on my blog.

I’ll discuss the workshop and share those 2 powerful writing prompts in a minute. First, I want to discuss my plans for this blog going forward.

I want to write more frequently, and I want to write shorter pieces sometimes.

I also give myself permission to write more about my own journey as a recording artist, writer, and owner of a membership site. While I’m changing my format and focus somewhat from more substantive content that I’d call “teachable moments” — I will still write those, of course! — I think the lessons I learn and observations I have along the way will still be relevant to other narrators and authors who are publishing their work in audiobooks.

With that said, let me tell you now about the workshop yesterday.

Zoom window of panelists Krista Vernoff, Debbie Allen, Cheryl Strayed, Nia Vardalos

I could say that I only learned about this workshop through accident.

On 29 December 2020, I saw a post in a Facebook group where someone referenced this Twitter thread that Krista Vernoff wrote about having a life in the arts. I confess that I did not know who she was when I clicked the link.

I connected to what she wrote and saw that she was hosting this workshop. Her guests were actress/director/dancer/choreographer Debbie Allen, actress/writer Nia Vardalos, and author Cheryl Strayed.

I knew the phenomenal accomplishments of these ladies and thought the afternoon would be entertaining, if nothing else. I signed up.

When the event started, I felt excited to be in the presence of these creative powerhouses! Within a few minutes, their genuine natures had crossed the ether in the casual Zoom atmosphere and made me feel like they were mentors and friends I had known for years.

Of course, I took a loooong page of notes in Evernote! Almost every utterance from each of these accomplished women was a golden nugget of wisdom. Listed below are a few of the gems I heard:

  • The most important thing is to learn how to take a note even if you don’t like it. — Krista Vernoff
  • If the phone doesn’t ring with a job offer, call yourself and do your own project. — Nia Vardalos
  • Don’t reject yourself. Don’t let someone else’s opinion or criticism come for you. — Debbie Allen
  • Part of creating art is letting it go. — Cheryl Strayed

 

A Compelling Case Study

One part of the conversation was particularly thrilling to anyone in a creative field as we all can follow similar steps to our own destiny!

Early in her career, Cheryl wrote a series of essays as if she were an advice columnist named Sugar. She wrote them for free to create content for a friend’s web site.

At some point, she repackaged and repurposed those essays into a book named Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar.

Some time later, a director urged Nia to read Tiny Beautiful Things. Nia had a highly emotional experience in reading the book; she used the phrase “it unzipped me” to describe it.

Nia decided she wanted to adapt it for a stage play — not that she had any experience in stage adaptations.

She laughed as she said she had the AUDACITY to ask Cheryl Strayed for the permission to develop that adaptation.

Not only did Cheryl say “yes” to the adaptation, but she asked Nia to play Sugar in the stage production! Although Nia hadn’t even given herself permission to ask that question, she had no hesitation in her answer: “Yes, please!”

She and Cheryl lived on opposite coasts, so it cost Nia money to fly back and forth for meetings with Cheryl and later the Broadway production.

In its review of the play, the New York Times awarded a Critics Pick designation.

Nia commented that she’d made the least money on that play than any other professional pursuit, but it gave her the most professional satisfaction.

Now, the play has been done in numerous other cities and theatres. I’m sure when Cheryl wrote all of the columns originally way back when, she never would have dreamed that her creative output would take on the life that it did.

By the way, Nia did an incredible reading from the libretto that had us all in tears. Cheryl’s words and Nia’s interpretation left me breathless and further motivated me to continue improving my acting ability in order to bring even more nuance to my narration.

 

The Writing Prompts

At the workshop’s conclusion, I no longer thought of this workshop as an “accidental” find. It was more a case of “when the student is ready, the teacher appears.”

You’ll remember that I said Cheryl gave us 2 writing prompts. In writing the second one, I found marching orders to guide my path going forward!

She explained we must trust the clarity of our deepest inner truth. Every day, she has to face down the inner critic and start new. Cheryl said, “Every time you do it, you evolve. You hand yourself the key to your next becoming.”

The writing prompt she gave us was:

Dear [your name here],

This is your deepest inner truth, and here is what I know.

In her prelude to the second prompt, Cheryl stated that your power/strength/love is at the root of your desire. She encouraged us to not think about the obstacles we face, but to instead think how it feels when you have stepped into your power and are creating your art. “Who are you when you are doing what you are most deeply, divinely called to do?”

Here’s the writing prompt:

Dear [your name here],

This is your power, and this is who you are when you own me.

In both cases, you should set a timer for 10 minutes and then write everything that comes to you as fast as you can. Don’t stop to edit or fix mistakes. Just keep writing.

For me, the last 3 sentences I wrote about my power contained truths I knew but had tried to ignore.

I won’t ignore them any more.

 

If you do these 2 exercises, did you learn something about yourself? I hope you’ll share your comments below!

 

When the Author is 6 Feet Under

I’ve recently helped a number of narrators research the audio rights holder in cases where the author has passed away. I decided to share my process as it might be helpful to other people.

 

Focus on the Copyright Date

I start by examining the book’s copyright date. Books published in the US before 1925 are already in the public domain. If it falls between 1925 and 1963, I first check to see if the title is in the public domain using the links in this article. (Note: While some of the info below is summarized in the last bullet point on that page, I want to offer more explanation and show the successive steps in this post.)

If I find that the book is in the public domain, I stop my research. The narrator can perform and publish the book on their own without contacting anyone or paying any licensing fees or royalties.

A large percentage of texts from those years appear to be copyrighted but are actually in the public domain due to a key technical requirement of the copyright law at that time. Copyright owners — usually the author, but it could be the publisher — had to renew the copyright by the end of the 28th year following publication in order to maintain their copyrighted status.

These books can be categorized into one of these ways:

  • Between 1925 and 1977, if the book wasn’t published with a copyright notice — in other words, if it didn’t include the C in the circle © or say the word copyright with a date — it’s in the public domain.
  • If the book was published between 1925 and 1963 and was published properly with the copyright notice, but the copyright owner didn’t actually renew the copyright, it’s in the public domain.
  • If they published it with all the correct formalities and renewed it by the end of the 28th year following publication, the copyright was extended for an additional 67 years, or a total of 95 years under copyright. Its copyright runs through the end of the 95th year after the publication date. You would need to continue your research as indicated in the next section.

As an aside, be aware that everything that was published in 1925 is going to be in the public domain on 1 January 2021. Enterprising narrators may want to pay attention to that point because you could start looking for an upcoming public domain book that you want to do! If this topic interests you, I’m creating a course for members of NarratorsRoadmap.com that includes a discussion about how to find some of these public domain gems.

Each January 1st, another year’s books enter the public domain. On 1 January 2022, books published in 1926 enter the public domain, and so on.

 

Find The Person

For works still under copyright that were traditionally published, you can contact the subsidiary rights department of the publisher. An inestimable number of books were published before commercial audiobooks became a mainstream form of entertainment. Depending on the contract, the publisher may have acquired all or only limited rights to the text, and those rights may revert to the author after a certain period of time.

I prefer to find someone representing the author since publishers can take a long time to respond, if they respond at all. You would also need to do this research for books independently published.

I perform a number of Google searches that will seem like word association.

This first search is best for prolific authors or those who wrote 1 or more books that are considered to be classic literature. If you’re lucky, the results will lead you directly to the door of the person who manages the rights.

[author name] literary estate or [author name] literary rights

As an example, doing this search for reclusive author J. D. Salinger will readily show in the results that his work is zealously controlled by his son Matthew. The estate waited until 2019 to allow ebook productions of Salinger’s works and still hasn’t permitted audiobooks to be made.

I usually then search for the author’s obituary.

[author name] obituary

Once I find the obituary, I look for the names of the author’s agent, the publisher, and survivors. If the survivors live in a different city from the author, their city is usually listed in the obituary.

[survivor’s name] [city name]

Sometimes I need to search for a survivor’s name with the author’s name.

[survivor’s name] [author name]

I’ll usually get some hits, possibly including the survivor’s obituary if the book was published decades ago. I once wound up creating a family tree for one famous, early 20th century author!

Sometimes the survivor’s name will pop up on a site with some contact info, or I might see other tidbits that I can add to my search terms, like a business name or organization they are associated with.

If I don’t find those names in the obituary, I will do satellite searches with the author’s name, like

[author name] agent

[author name] manager

The author may have left their papers with a museum or university. If the archivist has created a finding aid for the papers, you may see contact info for the estate, especially if the material is restricted. I’ve also paid an on-site researcher to look through the contracts. I search for finding aids with this format:

[author name] papers finding aid

 

Find Their Contact Info

Once you’ve determined a promising contact name, you’ll need to find their contact information. If you’re living a charmed life, you might see an email address, web site, and/or phone number listed on one of the pages you’ve already reviewed.

Without that serendipity, you can do some more searches to look for those pieces to the puzzle.

My favorite Google search uses the site: modifier. Adding site: tells Google to only look at the pages of the specified site.

site:[sitename.domain] [search term]

As an example, LinkedIn.com becomes my personal rolodex with a search like

site:LinkedIn.com Macmillan subsidiary rights.

With LinkedIn, you can learn a person’s city and company name.

In this Tuesday Tip, I offer 3 ways to find the person’s email address.

 

Formulate Your Query

Now that you’ve located a person who could respond about the audio rights for your book, your query to them starts a conversation about the audiobook. You could present yourself as the sub-contractor to whom they can hand off the audiobook production process, but don’t overwhelm them with a proposal, audio sample, or contract in the initial query.

We have to think of our queries from the point of view of the people who receive them. What would make you want to stop what you’re doing and get you excited about working with a random person who sent you an email? This Tuesday Tip gives you pointers for creating short and concise emails.

If you’re contacting a family member, I’d ask if that person manages the author’s literary rights or could direct you to the correct person. You might have a better chance of convincing them to let you produce it.

Be mindful that lawyers, agents, and publishers are less apt to hire a narrator they’ve never heard of to make an audiobook of unknown quality from a (probably backlist) book they weren’t even thinking about. Hiring a narrator means they have to make time in their already overloaded schedule to manage the audiobook production process, where they usually have no expertise and lack the time and/or inclination to learn.

Especially in the case of a well-known author, these folks are much more interested in licensing the rights — note that it’s not a purchase, but a license for a specified period of time.

If you want to learn about licensing rights, head to my Shop page, where you can purchase the fantastic webinar I did with Grammy-winning director, long-time audiobook distributor, and IP attorney Jessica Kaye on this very topic.

Some publishers and agents don’t want to license rights to an independent narrator. If they do indicate interest in getting an audiobook done, they might ask your license terms. You need to show everything you can to give them confidence in your ability to produce a quality product and promote it to increase sales. I’d be ready to offer the distributor name I’d plan to use and any other facts they’d need to trust me.

All of the research you’ve done may make you feel more emotionally attached to the book. You have to be prepared to let it go. Once someone expresses interest in creating an audiobook, the RH may shop the rights around to maximize their deal.

The good news is that millions of other books still need audio editions, so you can easily get interested in a different book!

 

 

Breaking a Contract on ACX

If you’re following my #TuesdayTips on Twitter (also accessible through my Evernote notebook of them), you know that #44 on 24 March 2020 contained instructions for downloading your data from Facebook. After getting my data, I excavated the following post I made on 9/28/14 in a FB narrator’s group. I’m publishing it here — with some links, of course! — because its lessons remain timely. I’ll add some comments in purple.

 

Ripping a contract in half

[I want share] a recent experience about breaking an ACX contract in the hopes it helps someone else.

The 2 lessons to the story:

1) If you hear warning bells before you audition, either request the book or forget about auditioning.
2) Life’s too short to deal with bad text and a non-responsive rights holder!

The abridged version:

  • I broke a royalty share (RS) contract on ACX before recording the first 15 minutes. The manuscript was terrible, and the rights holder became unresponsive.
  • I sent her 2 messages through the ACX message system before requesting project termination.
  • You have to send the reasons for termination to INFO@acx.com. I first wrote to support@acx.com but was told I had to send the request to INFO@acx.com.
  • ACX dissolved the project and deleted it from my dashboard the next day.
  • If you ever need to dissolve a contract, feel free to copy any of the language from my messages.

The unabridged version, complete with my messages to the RH:

I saw a book titled “Keeping A Journal”. I’ve been keeping a journal for years and know the many benefits of this practice. It was a short royalty share book of an hour or less. Even though I couldn’t find anything about the author, I auditioned because I wanted to share the message about journaling. I’d say now that if you can’t find any info about the author, don’t even bother auditioning.

The audition script seemed a bit repetitive. The word choices seemed like someone who was trying to sound more educated than she is.

I heard the warning bells and almost didn’t audition. Whenever I hear warning bells now, I listen to them! I thought about asking for the complete book before the audition. However, since it was so short, I decided to go ahead with it. Anyone who has been burned by doing a short ACX book probably thought the same thing!

The rights holder (RH) selected me and sent the manuscript right away. She said she teaches journaling classes. “Great!”, I thought, “She obviously knows what people commonly ask when they start journaling and will get right to the heart of it.”

I thought the book would get better than the audition copy. I was wrong. It got worse….much, MUCH worse.

My first message to the RH explains some of the book’s problems:

Hi, [RH]! I hope you are enjoying a relaxing holiday weekend.

I had planned to record, edit, and submit the first 15 minutes of Keeping a Journal today. However, I wonder if I have the final version of the manuscript.

Before I continue, let me assure you that I view my narrations as a collaboration with the author. We want the same end result — happy listeners who leave great reviews/ratings and who want to refer their friends to the audiobook.

I was excited to see your book on ACX because I am a firm believer in the power of journaling. I auditioned and agreed to a royalty share contract only because I want to promote the value of journaling, not because I need the work.

After reading the entire book, I feel I must tell you the version of the manuscript that I have is not ready to be made into an audiobook. Here are a few issues that might be remedied with some strong editing:

1) Much of the content is overly repetitive and makes starting a journal seem more difficult than it actually is. The prolonged and redundant discussion about preparation alone is enough to dissuade anyone from keeping a journal. The actual ideas expressed in the book could be more simply stated in about 2 pages.

2) Some of the word choices are incorrect (“once you INHERIT these various tactics…”), and the overall language is formal and highfalutin rather than conversational.

3) The book doesn’t fulfill the promise of the title about self-discovery and finding joy. The book mentions benefits of journaling, but none are listed or explored. I think most people are concerned about what to write or how the journal will help them over time. Those topics also are not addressed. A listener who hears the journaling “rules” will be inclined to give up the practice before even starting.

When I auditioned, I thought that this book would offer concrete tips similar to Jim Rohn’s excellent advice in his program How to Keep A Journal.

I’m afraid that if I record the version of the manuscript that I have, listeners will rate the content as 1-star and automatically make my performance a 1-star rating as well. I further predict that any reviews would be very negative and highlight the points I have made in this message. With many other books available on this subject, 1 bad review would cause this one to fade to obscurity.

My intent is to help you produce the best product possible. I apologize if my candor angers or hurts you. I am direct, concise, and honest in my communications because no one ever solved a problem by beating around the bush.

Do you want to send me a revised manuscript? ACX doesn’t care if we change the due dates on the contract.

If not, I must ask you to terminate the contract.

Thank you for your time and understanding. I look forward to your response.

Cordially,
Karen Commins

Today, I’d simply ask the RH if I have the final version of the manuscript and then skip to end where I ask for a revised edition. I wouldn’t list any of the various problems I found in the text as it’s not my job to tell the author how to write. I also don’t enjoy spending my time trying to educate a RH who may not value my help.

She didn’t respond. Ten days and both deadlines passed. I wrote to her a second time:

Hi, [RH]! I hope your week is off to a good start.

I wrote to you on 30 August about problems in the manuscript for Keeping a Journal but haven’t heard from you.

Are you revising the manuscript? Both deadlines for this book have already passed. I need to know if you plan to send an updated manuscript or terminate the contract.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Cordially,
Karen Commins

Six days later, I sent my third and final message to her:

Hi, [RH]. I hope you are well.

I’ve written 2 messages to you about the manuscript for Keeping a Journal (30 Aug. and 10 Sept.) but have not received a response. I’m assuming that you don’t want to go forward with creating an audiobook of Keeping a Journal at this time.

Therefore, I’m going to ask ACX to terminate the contract and remove it from my project list.

Perhaps we can work together in the future. Best wishes for your success!

Cordially,
Karen Commins

I then wrote to ACX to request project termination. I gave my reasons and outlined my dates of communication.

 

As a reminder, the ACX message system is the official documentation. While you may communicate with RHs outside of the system, all messages affecting production dates should be sent through the ACX system. Furthermore, contract dissolution is more easily accomplished when it occurs before the first 15 minute checkpoint file is recorded or uploaded.

 

Photo: Andriano.cz/Shutterstock

 

Avoid Copyright Infringement During The Pandemic (and Always)

Last updated 30 March 2020

 

I first saw someone on Facebook propose a concept. A day or so later, I read a tweet from another person writing about the same thing. Suddenly, it seemed that this idea started spreading exponentially. I began to worry about narrator friends who were unnecessarily exposing themselves to risk.

You see, due to the closures and social distancing measures prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, many audiobook narrators, teachers, and parents have announced plans to record books on YouTube to educate and entertain children or even the public at large. They don’t realize they could be liable for copyright infringement.

Before I finished grad school with my Master of Science in computer information systems, I considered switching to law school to specialize in intellectual property law. I therefore was beyond excited to be accepted in the 2020 CopyrightX course offered by Harvard Law School.

I’ve learned so much in this course and look forward to my successful conclusion of it in early May.

While I’m not a copyright expert, I want to share some information to help these well-intentioned people better understand the laws so that they can avoid the possibility of copyright infringement during the pandemic and thereafter.

 

[Read more…] about Avoid Copyright Infringement During The Pandemic (and Always)

Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan

I’ve always been a planner. I’ve even planned vacations more than a year out so that the trip would coincide with a certain date, like when I decided we’d be on cruise ship sailing through the Panama Canal on my birthday. A friend asked me about my plans for this year and expressed curiosity about my planning process, which inspired me to write this article.

 

Background

First, it may help to know that I love the book Write It Down, Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want and Getting It. The author relates numerous stories about various, interesting ways people wrote about an idea as the first step toward making their dream a reality. The act of writing changes the idea from a mere thought in your brain to an attainable goal in the real world. Many of my grand plans start out as glimmering thoughts in my journal.

I have stopped setting big yearly goals like number of books to narrate or amount of money to be earned in a year. Some of those things are beyond my control, especially in devastating years like 2017-2018. Whenever I didn’t meet my big goals, I’ve felt disappointed and critical of myself rather than celebrating all the things that I did accomplish.

In the last 3 years, I’ve adopted the idea of having a focus word guide me through the year. A 2018 article stated to choose something you want more of. “What is your life missing now? Choose that.”

Optimism was my key word for 2018. Content was doubly important as my word for 2019 as I wanted more of both the adjective for an emotional state and the noun for creative output. My word for 2020 remains my secret as I think telling it may diminish its power.

My key word helps me establish intermediate targets like contacting X publishers each month that I hope will lead to the big achievements. I also select some milestones that are completely within my control. For example, this year I will create at least 2 more video courses for NarratorsRoadmap.com. I already know the topics and am gathering the material I want to include in the courses.

 

Go-to Apps

Evernote and my calendars are the foundations for everything I do, both personally and professionally. When I wrote above that I’m gathering material to include in my courses, it means that I’m copying web pages, making notes, and adding media to an Evernote notebook named for the course subject.

As soon as I know I’m going to an activity or am taking a trip, I add the function on my calendar with 1 or more reminders before the day. I’ll be able to look forward to events and schedule my other activities around them. Though we’re not even a week into the new year, I’ve already scheduled trips to NY in March and May for multiple audiobook events, participation at VOAtlanta Audiobook Academy in March, and attendance at the play “Hamilton” when it tours here in Atlanta in April. When planning travel, I copy all of my confirmation emails to Evernote and fill out my Evernote trip itinerary template with all the pertinent details and links to those emails.

I use Evernote as my client relationship manager and set reminders on notes for follow-up actions.  The Cronofy Evernote Calendar Connector automatically transfers the reminders to my calendar and keeps Evernote and my calendar in synch. I have a color-coded calendar to distinguish various activities.

 

 

For instance, I add dates with tie-ins to specific audiobooks to my Promotions calendar. I may set the first reminder a week ahead for a new book where I want to create a graphic. I’d set the second reminder for the day before the date to be sure I schedule the promotion. Sometimes after seeing a reminder about an audiobook in my backlist, I’ll create a new graphic to promote it, such as in this recent tweet.

I start each month by filling in this Evernote template that I created to itemize the major things I want to get done that month. I confess that I’m notorious for trying to stuff 10 pounds of activities into a 2-pound bag! I may not do half the things I set out to do, but action begets action begets action, which all becomes and sustains forward movement. I add dates from the calendar for my standing commitments like my biweekly show for the Georgia Radio Reading Service and the Tuesday tips I write and distribute each week on Twitter.

On a daily basis, I look at the monthly note and my list of Evernote reminders and then fill in this Evernote template of 1 to 5 things I expect to do that day. I list personal appointments like the dentist and hair salon among those 5 tasks.

In the blank space at the top of the note, I record the audio of my daily sightreading practice and enter info about exercise I undertook that day like swimming and walking the dog. Throughout the day, I check the boxes when completing tasks and add any links or documents created in the process.

I have almost 2700 Daily Notes in Evernote stretching back to October 2012. Before I started keeping them in Evernote, I used paper calendars. My paper archives go back to 2003!

I love having all of my planning info in Evernote because it’s searchable, and I can add audio, pictures, videos, emoticons, and links to each page. If I don’t finish something in a day, which is OFTEN the case due to the rabbit holes I jump in, I can copy and paste it to the next day (or even the next week).

 

I hope that sharing part of my process gives you some useful ideas for your own planning sessions! I’d love to see your questions and comments below.