During the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, I started seeing this wonderful ad from Dell, titled “Beginnings”:
Perhaps it caught my attention because I have my own story about the quiet beginnings for a new business:
Date: 10/6/06
Time: 10:10am
Place: 10634, the cabin number of a cruise ship docked in Mykonos, Greece
Becoming an audiobook publisher has been a rough road, full of potholes, downed trees, and diverging paths that didn’t necessarily lead me in the direction I wanted to go. Only by trudging forward and refusing to give up was I able to eventually reach the destination.
I offer this post as a road map for becoming an audiobook publisher on ACX with a public domain book. If you want to publish a book still under copyright, you may want to skip down to the end for more information.
Initial Obstacles
I recently wrote about how ideas love speed. I did take several immediate actions 7.5 years ago when I had the idea to create an audiobook publishing company. I read several books that hadn’t been made into audiobooks and contacted the authors about obtaining the audio rights.
One author was interested, but the idea seemed to be squelched by her agent’s lawyers, who were reluctant to be involved with a start-up. Another author wanted to narrate her book. It took her several more years, but I see on Audible that she did narrate her audiobook. A third author was someone rather famous. I didn’t receive a response to my inquiries, but I see that her book is now on Audible, too. Perhaps I gave her the idea.
Life intervened. With the loss of my mother and changes on my day job, I put my dream of becoming an audiobook publisher on the shelf. While ideas love speed, some ideas can’t be implemented immediately and often take years to develop.
All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come.
— Victor Hugo
With the advent of ACX, I knew that I could finally see this idea through to fruition!
Rather than start with a book from a contemporary author as I originally envisioned, I decided to start Jewel Audiobooks with what I thought would be a simpler project: a book from the public domain (PD).
On 1 January 2013, I decided to publish the audiobook of The Heart of the New Thought by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, originally published in 1903. I wanted to produce a shorter work that would be new to audio and had a message I want to share. I often find myself in conversations about the power of our thoughts and words, so this little volume seemed perfect.
Detour: Public Domain Books Ahead!
Even though Audible has countless public domain titles on its site, I didn’t realize that Amazon/Audible/ACX had created procedures to discourage people from using public domain titles to create audiobooks.
They did have valid reasons for thwarting use of public domain texts. First, Audible’s customers have complained about paying for titles that are available for free elsewhere, such as on LibriVox. Also, sales — and therefore your royalty payments — may not be very high for a public domain work where multiple audio editions exist.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Before you start an audiobook project, you must exercise due diligence to determine whether a work is under copyright or in the public domain. The links I’ve compiled in this article will aid you in your research.
An outline of the steps I followed to publish my public domain audiobook through ACX is shown below.
1. First, I created a publisher account on ACX and tried to claim the free Kindle edition of the book.
ACX is set up with a connection to Amazon’s book database. The rights holder must have a print or ebook edition of the title already listed on Amazon.
For this reason, I might choose a different distributor than ACX if I were creating a new audiobook from a public domain text. I don’t want or need to be associated with ebook publishing; I only care about audio publishing. If a book is truly in the public domain, a narrator can record it without making any changes to it. The narrator then will hold the production copyright on that audio edition. You can learn about 2 other distribution options in this comment.
When I asked ACX to associate the free Kindle copy of my public domain book with my publisher account so I could upload the audiobook, ACX support responded::
In order for us to accept your public domain title, you must upload your version of the book on Amazon. The title needs to be uploaded by you with a distinct introduction or dedication in order to make it your own.
Since they are set up for this 1-to-1 match of print and audio editions between Audible and Amazon, I could see why they needed a different version. In addition to the reasons stated above, Amazon and Audible are adding WhisperSync technology so that customers can switch between the Kindle and Audible editions of the text. Therefore, the editions have to match.
2. I then spent considerable time in creating a new ebook edition of Wheeler’s book with a personal introduction and linked table of contents to make it different from the existing free version.
As I explain in this comment, you do not necessarily need to create your own edition! If you want to request permission from a rights holder of an existing edition, you can adapt my email template. I’ve found that providing too many details such as discussing audio rights or “claiming the book” only causes confusion. If the rights holder wants to license their audio rights to you or doesn’t respond, you can ask a different rights holder or create your own edition as I have done.
If you do create your own companion ebook, formatting the ebook and choosing the cover are beyond the scope of this article. Plenty of resources exist to help you with those tasks. In fact, fellow narrator Andrea Emmes has created this fantastic guide (PDF) that documents her approach and offers links to other resources.
2A. I narrated the audiobook from my ebook BEFORE uploading the ebook so I could fix any typos in the text that I found in the course of narration.
When I uploaded my perfect Kindle version to Kindle Direct Publishing, it was immediately rejected because it was not differentiated enough from the free version! The KDP form letter response stated:
We offer our customers free editions of public domain titles in the Kindle Store. In order to provide an optimal customer experience, it’s our policy to only offer differentiated versions of these freely available books…
We consider works to be differentiated when one or more of the following criteria are met:
• (Translated) – A unique translation
• (Annotated) – Contains annotations (unique, hand-crafted additional content including study guides, literary critiques, detailed biographies, or detailed historical context)
• (Illustrated) – Includes 10 or more unique illustrations relevant to the book
….While it’s possible that other features may make books unique, we only consider the criteria noted above to be differentiated. Examples of some features we do not consider to be differentiated include a linked table of contents, formatting improvements, collections, sales rank, price, and freely available Internet content. Please note it is considered misleading to customers to have your title claim differentiation when your book is not sufficiently differentiated.
3. I wrote to both ACX and KDP multiple times asking for a 4th way to differentiate a text — as the companion to the audiobook.
Neither organization offered any accommodation. I also suggested that ACX allow the first publisher to claim the free Kindle version. That suggestion wasn’t adopted, either.
4. I found and bought 10 (count ’em, 10!) lovely vintage images from iStockPhoto to illustrate my ebook.
It took some thought and time to find appropriate images that could be inserted throughout the book and in places where they logically should appear. Simply putting 10 images in one place would not differentiate the book. Also, you don’t want them all at the front because that’s all a prospective buyer would get in the preview. I didn’t mind buying the images as I will re-purpose these illustrations to create a video to promote the audiobook.
5. I uploaded my ILLUSTRATED Kindle edition to KDP and was thrilled when it was accepted for publication!
I had to note the manner of differentiation from the free text in both the title and the first line of the description.
My ebook is now available for sale in the Kindle store. Yay!
6. I logged in to my ACX publisher account and claimed my edition, which was still flagged on ACX as being a known public domain book.
I clicked the link to claim the book and wrote the message explaining that I had created a different Kindle version.
If I had bought the audio rights to a contemporary book, I believe I would start with this step on ACX. All of the steps before now to create and publish a Kindle version were required only because I published from a public domain text.
7. WAIT for the email from ACX stating that your edition has been added to ACX.
This step is very important! I didn’t do this step and claimed my book as soon as I saw it on ACX. If I had waited, I would have known about the next step and saved myself some aggravation and a few days’ delay.
8. Fill out the title profile carefully. Choose whether to use exclusive or non-exclusive distribution.
I updated this paragraph on 8/19/22 because ACX has removed the requirement for non-exclusive distribution. You can choose either one.
When I published the book and wrote this article in 2014, ACX didn’t allow RHs of public domain works to choose exclusive distribution. In order to change my contract, ACX had to remove my title from the system and add it back, so, of course, everything I did had to be re-done, further delaying me by several days.
You also will need to choose your territories of distribution and enter information such as the name of the narrator, name of the publisher, and print and production copyright dates.
ACX provided some additional guidelines about public domain audiobooks:
• You can’t post the title for audition or contract a narrator to create the audiobook. The audiobook must be recorded outside of ACX. See this ACX help article for details.
• You can upload the audiobook to ACX and use it for distribution as long as your audiobook meets the ACX Audio Submission Requirements.
9. Upload the audio files chapter by chapter in the ACX interface, and click “I’m Done” when you are satisfied.
10. REJOICE when you receive the email from ACX stating that your audiobook is now available on Audible, and start marketing it!
When I started Jewel Audiobooks, it didn’t have a web site. It still doesn’t have business cards. I imagine many of the companies profiled in the Dell ad also didn’t have those things when they started. I look forward to the same sort of exponential growth in my publishing empire as Dell has had in computers!
Now that Jewel Audiobooks is a dream come true, I’m already planning the publication of my next couple of public domain titles. I’m also planning a follow-up contact about obtaining the audio rights to the first author in my previous search because I still would love to narrate her book. I think it’s another idea whose time has come!
Bonus info about publishing contemporary books:
In August 2016, I held a webinar so narrators could learn about acquiring audio rights for books still under copyright. My guest speaker was Jessica Kaye, who has over 25 years of audiobook and publishing experience as a Grammy-award winning audiobook producer, director, and distributor. She’s also an attorney in the firm Kaye & Mills and specializes in intellectual property, publishing law, and licensing. I wrote this article to inspire and encourage other narrators to license the audio rights to favorite books. If you’re interested in this topic, you can purchase the webinar recording, complete with sample licensing agreement and an exclusive list of links, on my Shop page.
8/10/21 Update
In the 7 years since this article was published, I’ve learned a LOT about producing and publishing audiobooks of public domain works! I distilled much of that knowledge in a video course called Create Your Own Path that I developed exclusively for members of my NarratorsRoadmap.com site. In the first module, I show how to find good books that may be in the public domain and research their copyright status. I discuss publishing options in module 3. As you might expect from the Queen of Links, I’ve added lists of specialized resources to accompany each module.
8/19/22 Update
In addition to the changes to paragraph 8 above regarding distribution, I want to add a link to my Public Domain Narration Headquarters. I link to my other articles about publishing PD works and answer Q&As in the comments.
Great blog, Karen! What are “territories of distribution”?
Greetings, Jon! Thanks for the kind words and good question. The following info is from the ACX FAQ about Distribution:
Thanks again for your interest.
Karen
So does that mean your PD audiobook has World distribution rights?
Yes, I selected World distribution rights. As far as I can tell, the text copyright has expired in all countries. Works issued later in the 20th century might still be under copyright in certain countries.
Hi Karen,
This post was so informative I don’t know where to begin! Thank you for sharing your experiences becoming a publisher. I applaud your persistence and patience in accomplishing this. I’m not sure I would have continued on as you did with all of the roadblocks constantly being thrown in your path. Good for you!
Lovely look for the cover of your first book. Very professional. 😉
All the best,
Lee Ann
Greetings, Lee Ann! Your very nice note makes my day! ☺️
The old adage “the first time is the hardest” is certainly true in this case. At times, it felt like I was chopping down the forest with a butter knife to clear the path! Now that the way to proceed is better known, perhaps you and others will want to join in the fun of starting a publishing empire!
Thanks again for your kind words.
Karen
Hi Karen. Great minds thing alike, again!! I am working on publishing a PD book and to make it into an audiobook. I am using creative commons licensed pictures to illustrate it so I am trying to contact many of the people whose pictures I am using to make sure I credit them appropriately. That’s going to take some time! While I wait for that, I am recording the audio. As you know, you become so much more deeply involved with a book as you record it, rather than just reading it. So I will probably wait to publish the book until the recording is done, so I can revise the introduction with my deeper knowledge of the book as I record it. I’m really glad to hear your experience with all this and I’ll keep it all in mind as I move forward.
Thanks so much! Great post
Linda
Greetings, Linda! It’s great to hear from you! Since we seem to think alike, I’m beginning to think we’re sisters from a different mister! 😉
I like your idea to use pictures under a Creative Commons license. revised and re-recorded my introduction after recording the book. In order to publish through ACX, though, just remember that you’ll still need to get the Kindle version published on Amazon BEFORE you can upload the audiobook.
Let me know when your audiobook is published so I can do the celebratory happy dance with you!
Karen
Karen,
Very interesting and informative article. Thank you for writing about it. Now that it’s been almost a year, was your experiment worth the effort? I noticed that your audio book doesn’t have an Amazon sales rank, which usually means it hasn’t sold a copy, yet. I hope that’s not the case for you, though.
-Loran
Greetings, Loran! I am only at the start of my publishing empire! 🙂
I have published 2 audiobooks and their accompanying Kindle editions and plan to publish my third later this year. I have been pleased by the sales of the audiobooks. They are the whole reason I go through the process of creating the Kindle editions.
The Amazon sales rank apparently only applies to the print/Kindle copies sold on Amazon. I actually didn’t expect to sell any of my Kindle editions. However, my Kindle edition of THE HEART OF THE NEW THOUGHT has had steady sales in the course of the 10 months it has been available. My Kindle edition of FANNY HERSELF: A PASSIONATE INSTINCT may have been priced too high at the outset and has not enjoyed the same level of sales.
The best part is that I am able to cast myself in fulfilling work that I want to do!
Thanks for writing to me.
Karen
Karen,
How did you register as a publisher on ACX since you’re already registered there as a Narrator/Producer? Each time I try to log-out and then register as an audiobook publisher to create a new account, I’m taken directly to my narrator/producer page. Ack!
Thanks!
Lee Ann
Hi, Lee Ann! You’ll have to use a different email address to set up your publisher account on ACX. If you are creating a Kindle copy of your text, you will want the email addresses to match between KDP and ACX.
At this point, everything on ACX is separate. I have to login under each address to see sales, and the royalty statements are generated for each account. Hopefully, they will create some sort of joint account in the future.
Let me know when you publish your audiobook so I can celebrate with you!
Karen
Hi Karen, Thanks for the info! I just submitted a Kindle version of a book I recorded for Mike Vendetti as a ‘dry run’ and I’m waiting to hear from Amazon for approval. I guess this means I need to switch my Amazon KDP email address to a different address. I’ll do that first then try to register on ACX again.
Thanks so much for the info!
I’ll definitely let you know when I have a print/audio linked product up! 🙂
Lee Ann
Lee Ann, I looked back through my emails concerning my last publication and found another tip to pass on:
Once the Kindle book was live on Amazon, I wrote to ACX to ask them to add my book to ACX as a DIY project.
When you sign into ACX as your publisher email address, the site looks to see which books on Amazon come up so you can claim them. You can also search by title.
With my first Kindle book THE HEART OF THE NEW THOUGHT, my book was still flagged as public domain on ACX even though it was a new edition. I had to write to them to request they release it from public domain status.
With my second Kindle book FANNY HERSELF: A PASSIONATE INSTINCT, I asked ACX for the DIY project on the front end so that I could claim the title and immediately proceed with the MP3 uploads.
All of these steps are obstacles meant to deter people from publishing public domain audiobooks on ACX. They only served to make me more determined to succeed! 🙂
I hope these thoughts help make the path a little smoother for you.
Karen
Karen, Thanks for the extra info! No, I’m sure they don’t want people publishing PD audiobooks on ACX. However, I plan to link this first Kindle book I published to my audio version for Mike Vendetti. It’s currently in the backlog of books Mike has uploaded to Audible.
I wrote to support at ACX because I’m having trouble finding a way to establish another email address with them. All roads lead back to Amazon. Sigh.
I really admire your perseverance!
Lee Ann
Hello Karen! An extremely helpful and informative article. A question, though; where did you draw your text from? Did you find a reliable source for the original text and copy it (as it is the public domain)?
Greetings, Emma! Thanks for the thoughtful question!
Project Gutenberg is a reliable source of works in the public domain.
Two related questions are:
1. “Once you find your text, how do you get it into your document without retyping it?”
2. “If you have 2 versions of the text, how do you decide which to use?”
The following passage from my journal on 5 April 2014 answers both questions:
If you copy and paste the text, you will still need to go through your text to clean up errors. I continued in that same journal entry:
I hope these additional details from my experiences help to make the path clearer for you and others to follow! Best wishes for your success!
Karen
Thank you for sharing this daunting process and paving the way for the rest of us! Since you had to choose non-exclusive rights, I’m assuming that your royalty percentage is lower than it would have been? But, does that give you the option of selling it elsewhere/monetizing it in other ways?
Greetings, Angie! You are correct on both counts!
An exclusive deal earns a 40% royalty rate, whereas a non-exclusive deal has a 25% royalty rate. The non-exclusive deal does allow you to sell your audiobook elsewhere.
I also want to offer some exciting news I’ve learned in this process. In the article, I wrote:
The rights holder must have a print or ebook edition of the title already listed on Amazon.
Rights holders do not have to create their very own Kindle edition!
A copy of the book must still be on Amazon, but you may be able to attach your audiobook to an existing print or e-book edition with the permission of the publisher for that listing.
If you find an existing public domain listing on Amazon, look in the Product Details section of the page to determine the publisher. A Google search may readily turn up that publisher’s contact details.
Send the publisher an email and ask them if they are planning to produce an audiobook of the title. Explain that you would like to do so and attach your book to their page. You can also comment that sales of the audiobook may boost sales of their editions.
I took this approach with a short work that is now headed to retail on ACX. Once I received the permission of the listing publisher, I searched for their book when I logged in ACX. I was able to claim it immediately.
I hope these thoughts are helpful. Thanks for stopping by the blog, and best wishes for your success!
Karen
Hi Karen,
Thanks so much for sharing this information! This could make a real difference in the amount of work necessary to produce a PD work as audio. I think I’ll try this before resorting to publishing a Kindle edition for my next PD title.
Cheers!
Lee Ann
Hi, Lee Ann! My favorite book is Gone With the Wind. My favorite line from it is “Askin’ ain’t gettin'”, to which I always add “but if you don’t ask, you don’t get!” 🙂
It took a couple of emails to explain what I wanted, but it was easy, and, as you pointed out, cost me considerably less time than creating my own book!
Are you still working on your children’s stories, or did I somehow miss the birth announcement? Since you have your own personal illustrator, creating a Kindle book could still be an ideal way for you to go.
Onward and upward!
Karen
Hi Karen,
Yes, my children’s book was published (with me as the RH). It still hasn’t been linked for Whispersync to the Kindle version, yet, though. I’m hoping that buyers will be willing to pay more for the Kindle version if they can get the audio cheaply. The name of the book is The Tale of Chirpy Cricket. Here’s the link on Audible:
http://www.audible.com/pd/Kids/The-Tale-of-Chirpy-Cricket-Audiobook/B00TIWBZYG/ref=a_search_c4_2_18_srTtl?qid=1423769288&sr=2-18
Here’s the link to the Kindle version on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/The-Tale-Chirpy-Cricket-Illustrated-ebook/dp/B00SWIAJKS/ref=tmm_kin_title_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1426481539&sr=8-1
I’m not sure why the process to Whispersync this project is taking so long. I made sure it was word perfect!
Thanks again for all of your info and encouragement.
Lee Ann
Congratulations, Lee Ann! I’m so thrilled to see you have become your own audiobook publisher! The darling illustrations should help sales, and I love that you point out in the text that the Kindle book could be used for immersion reading. Brava!
After hearing other narrators moan about Whispersync, it’s funny to see you chomping at the bit for it to happen! Soon, Grasshopper, soon! 🙂
Once the Whispersync feature is available, you could update your Kindls description to include a line about the companion audiobook.
Best wishes for staggering success!
Karen
Thanks, Karen! Yes, I normally am not that thrilled about Whispersync, either, but this is definitely an exception. 😉 And I do plan to update the Kindle description to mention the audiobook!
We’ll have to compare notes on our respective journeys as audiobook publishers. 🙂
Cheers!
Lee Ann
Greetings Karen,
I love your site, very informative. I have radio production experience and was wanting to start my own audio publishing company, but i was worried about the financial aspect to start and how income is made. As far as the sound engineering side is concerned i am pretty much a expert the business side of it is what intimidates me. If possible a few tips about how to start this venture would be greatly appreciated. I mean tips from the ground up.
Cheers
Hi, Stephen! Thanks for the nice note.
To fully answer your question, I really need to write another article! In fact, you’ll be interested to know that I’m actually about to launch a second site AudioForAuthors.com to address these kinds of topics. I want to help authors and publishers with a backlist get more titles into audio!
Basically, a publisher makes money from the royalties of each unit sold of its audiobooks.
A publisher could spend money on:
— audio rights from contemporary authors
— narrator
— studio time, editing, and mastering
— cover art
— marketing and promotion
If you start your company with public domain texts as I have done, you don’t have to pay the author for the rights. In general, public domain audiobooks don’t sell in the same volume as do contemporary books. However, your entry cost is also lower.
As in the case of any new business, the owner needs to have capital that will sustain them until the business is profitable. I started my voice-over business in 1999 while I had a day job that financed my expenses. FWIW, I worked the day job and part-time in voice-over for 12 years.
Since you are experienced in audio production, you might consider doing freelance editing and mastering for narrators who work from their home studios.
I hope these thoughts are helpful. Best wishes for your success!
Karen
Hi Karen, I am going to narrate a book from the public domain in 2018. I have chosen a title written back in 1890 and am quite clear that there are no infringement issues in relation to Copyright on the Original text. I have read your process with great interest and its wonderful to have a step by step guide for ACX. However with the advent of Authors Republic where an audiobook version of a PD book (where an audiobook version has not been done before) should be considered an ‘original work’ have you considered publishing via AR where just a cover is required with the narration?
Hello, Petrina, and thank you for the good question!
I haven’t used Author’s Republic because THEIR company name is listed as the publisher on Audible. I want my books to show up under Jewel Audiobooks, my own publisher name.
However, I can recommend 2 other companies that allow a narrator to simply publish a PD audiobook without regard to the editions on Amazon:
Spoken Realms
Findaway VoicesEDITED 9/15/21 — Findaway goes through ACX to publish, so you still have the problem of first claiming an existing edition on Amazon. Plus, you have no option of doing that through Findaway’s interface.EDITED 8/25/24 to remove the previous recommendation and add this one Big Happy Family Audio
I hope these thoughts are helpful. Congrats on the decision to create your own stuff, and best wishes for your success!
Karen
Hi Karen, Thank you for your reply and further advice – its exciting isn’t it. I feel really motivated by the decision to be honest. I will look out for the further articles but thank you so much for the tips. As always a great, great help. Thank you again, Petrina
Hi Karen,
I recently read your article on narrating public domain books through ACX. Is that something that you still do or would recommend to other voice actors? Do you find it to be worth you time and effort?
Thank you for your insight!
Hi, Andres! Thanks for the note.
Yes, I do continue to occasionally narrate public domain books and publish them using ACX, Findaway Voices, or Spoken Realms. For example, I recently narrated, produced, and published Sweeper In the Sky by Helen Wright, which was a terrific biography about Maria Mitchell, the first American female astronomer.
Narrating a public domain text is a fantastic way to fill gaps in my schedule. I can narrate a book of my choosing, which builds my skills and portfolio and then gives me something new to talk about with publishers.
As of 1 January 2019, a ton of new books entered the public domain! Extensions to the copyright laws had prevented such an occurrence for the past 20 years.
If you’re interested in producing and publishing works from the public domain, this blog article includes many links to aid with your research.
I hope this info is helpful.
Karen
Hi Karen, thank you for such an informative article! I really appreciate that you took the time to work through this process and then share it so that others can benefit from your experience.
I’m brand new to audiobook narration. To build my portfolio, I’m going to publish my own PD title on Kindle and then produce an accompanying audiobook.
For the title I’ve chosen, it makes more sense to create an “annotated” version… I’ll probably do a study guide. Do you happen to know if the guide material needs to be in the actual ebook? I have a related website where I want to publish the study guide content, and I was hoping to just include the link in the book.
Thanks for your input!
Hi, Jenny! Thanks for the nice note. I’m glad you found the info to be useful.
Since you’re brand new to audiobook narration, I recommend that you don’t immediately start with a commercial release unless you have also had specific training in audiobook narration. Listeners have high expectations about performances and are not afraid to leave negative reviews. As I discussed in this article, I would do volunteer work to practice technique and gain experience.
On Monday, 9/16, my new site NarratorsRoadmap.com will be launched. It has an abundance of resources for newcomers and experienced narrators alike.
Once you’re ready to go forward, you can go this route of publishing your own book. It’s easier to do auditions on ACX and build your portfolio through those jobs.
If you publish a Kindle book of a public domain work, you must distinguish it from other editions. Therefore, the entire study guide, rather than just a link to a site containing it, would need to be included in your annotated Kindle edition.
Thanks again for the comment, and best wishes for your success!
Karen
Hi Karen, thank you so much for taking the time to give me advice. I signed up for LibriVox and I’m really excited to start getting some experience there. 🙂
Congratulations on your the launch of your new site — it looks wonderful! I’m definitely going to continue visiting this site, along with the new one, to help me make sense of everything. I’m so relieved that you’re providing these resources for other people.
By the way, do you think ACX is still the best option for new narrators looking to build their portfolio? I’ve been going through books, and a lot of it seems very poor quality and spammy. Maybe it’s because I’m looking at books that are 3 hours or less? (I wanted to do a short project my first time just to make sure I have the process down.)
I appreciate the help!
Hi, Jenny! It’s funny that you mention short books on ACX as I wrote a Knowledge Base article about that very thing on NarratorsRoadmap.com!
I think you’ll find your answers there. 🙂
Karen
Hi Karen, Very great and detailed information you have on your website. I came across your website when the idea came to me to translate English books into Portuguese so that they can be available in west African countries. I have experienced myself what the impact of books had on my view of the world and my own reality.
I want to make this experience available in those countries where most of the youth don’t have acces or the language capabilities to understand English written/spoken books.
Where do you suggest for me to start my journey. From what I have understood from the comments and this post is that I select the books, and contact the authors for the audio publishing right in Portuguese.
Hi, Adilson! Thanks for the note.
If you find a book in the public domain, you are free to translate it and produce the audiobook without gaining permission from or paying royalties to anyone.
In the US, anything published in 1924 or earlier is already in the public domain, and everything here published in 1925 will become public domain on 1 January 2021.
Many thousands of books published between 1926-1963 are also public domain, but it requires research to verify their lack of copyright. This article can help you determine US public domain books. If you’re a member of my NarratorsRoadmap.com site, you can watch my “Create Your Own Path” course which includes a video and a number of resource links about public domain books.
If you want to use books that are still copyrighted, you are correct in thinking that you would have to obtain the translation rights AND audio rights (2 different things) in order to proceed. You could publish an ebook of the translated material in addition to or instead of the audiobook. This article discusses other rights you would need in order to publish the audiobook.
The author, literary agent, or publisher may hold the rights. I like to start contacts with the author because they tend to answer faster than a publisher. If you’re interested in negotiating audio rights, I refer you to the webinar I did with Grammy-winning audiobook director and intellectual property attorney Jessica Kaye, which is available on my Shop page. The discussion would hold true for translation rights as well.
I hope these thoughts are helpful. Best wishes for your success!
Karen
Karen, I have followed your instructions to the letter and am now awaiting AXC about claiming my illustrated version of my PD book, as per your directions. However I have one question about the book’s details in Kindle.
The 2 options are:
Publishing Rights
1. I own the copyright and I hold the necessary publishing rights.
2. This is a public domain work.
If no one owns the rights as a PD then is it still PD if I reformatted and illustrated it?
the obvious answer to me is to choose Box #2 option because I didn’t write the story but does that effect the ability to “claim” it on ACX?? Should I check Box#1?
Thanks for all your info and help, you really are the PD Guru!
Hi, Jennifer! Thanks for the note.
According to this KDP policy page, you would need to select option 2.
The public domain TEXT doesn’t belong to anyone, so everyone is free to use that text in their own publications. Kindle will let you publish PD material if it is different from other editions of the same PD text in 1 or more of these 3 ways: translated, annotated, or illustrated.
Of the 3 Kindle books I created, I only chose option 1 for Bly vs Bisland. In that book, I mashed up 2 PD texts to create A COMPLETELY NEW BOOK. For that reason, I owned the copyright to this new, derivative book and didn’t need to do anything else to publish it on KDP.
Once your illustrated Kindle edition is published on Amazon, you will then own the copyright to your Kindle edition. You will be able to claim it on ACX to start audiobook production.
I hope this info makes it clearer. Best wishes for your success!
Karen
Hi Karen, as always you are a fount of knowledge and it is most appreciated. Am I correct in thinking that if I substantively edit a PD work it’s considered a derivative work and therefore I would own the copyright?
Hi, Lessa! Thanks for the kind words and good question!
You are exactly right! Your substantive changes to a PD work make it a new work to which you own the copyright.
Technically, I suppose that any change to a PD text makes it a derivative and therefore something that could be copyrighted. However, I’ve made minor updates to texts for the purposes of recording the audiobook without creating a new text for copyright purposes, such as:
— substituted words to make them more current
— removed sentences I didn’t want to say or which were no longer accurate or relevant
— restored married women’s first names (e.g., Karen Commins) rather than referring to them as a reflection of their husband (e.g., Mrs. Drew Commins, which, by the way, I’ve never called myself!)
I do own the copyright on my recordings that included these kinds of modifications, but I didn’t create a new text and copyright it.
I mashed up the PD books written by reporters Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland about their simultaneous solo trips around the world so they they were on the same timeline. My new derivative manuscript became Bly vs Bisland: Beating Phineas Fogg in a Race Around the World, and I own the copyright to it.
You may find some of the other info in my Public Domain Narration Headquarters to be useful.
I’d love to see your new work when it’s ready, so please keep me posted!
Karen
Hi Karen,
Thanks so much for sharing your trials and tribulations in the spirit of helping others. I’ve been considering publishing audiobooks as a new career for myself and your article is sure to be Godsend as I pave my own path. I look forward to learning more as I get through the links you’ve provided!
Hi, Sharlene! Thanks so much for the nice note!
Audiobook publishing is not necessarily a fast, easy, or financially rewarding career to start, but it can be very fulfilling. I’m glad you’re doing your research, and you’ll find plenty of info on my sites!
Best wishes for your success!
Karen
Hi Karen! Thank you so much for all your invaluable advice and the Narrator’s Roadmap. I wish I had known about all this in June when I started recording a full-length PD book.
I have a question about using illustrations to differentiate a book. I’m a pretty good and fast illustrator, but 10 is still a lot…do you know if they have to be full-page, full-color? Have you seen others do half-page, B&W images, for example? I think I could manage that and still feel motivated publish.
Hi, Aisha! Thanks for the note.
The Amazon KDP Public Domain page refers to ORIGINAL, but they are NOT necessarily saying that the illustrations must be NEW and created especially for this book! They also didn’t specify size or color.
In other words, they are really looking for images that are UNIQUE to this edition that make it different from any other editions of the same book.
I bought 10 stock images for one book. They were mostly B&W images, and many didn’t even fill a quarter of the page. For an example, one essay in the book was named “Morning Influences”. I used this image of a rooster to illustrate that essay.
For another, I used the original hand-drawn illustrations that appeared when the book was serialized in a 1917 magazine.
I don’t think the source matters; only the quantity counts (pardon the pun!).
I hope this info helps. Best wishes for your success!
Karen