Audiobooks

Author Seeks Narrator: Must Love Books

6 December 2017

Indie audiobook publishing, where you produce your audiobook and retain all audio rights, follows a similar format as Internet dating. You register on a site and create an intriguing profile hoping to attract Mr. or Ms. Right for a long-term relationship.

In this 2-part series, I’ll discuss audiobook publishing using the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX.com), the first and best-known audiobook matchmaking site. You’ll see how to maximize your ACX title listing to captivate your ideal narrator! I’ll address independent production on other platforms in future articles.

Finding Your Own Road to Tara

8 November 2017

A few years ago, I started my audio publishing empire with a public domain book. Today, I am thrilled to publish my first contemporary audiobook ROAD TO TARA: THE LIFE OF MARGARET MITCHELL by Anne Edwards.

I’m not the first narrator to acquire audio rights and publish an audiobook of a current book. Nevertheless, I wanted to retrace my steps in this article to inspire more of you to follow a similar path. As actor/writer/director Bob Fraser used to urge people, you can cast yourself!

Are You Leaving Money on the Table?

3 October 2017

Each day an author doesn’t have her books in audio, she’s leaving money on the table.

One Email That Isn’t a Scam

20 July 2017

When you receive an email from a Nigerian prince, you probably think, “This so-called prince is just somebody who wants to take my money.”

Other types of emails may cause the same reaction. Authors are inundated every week with solicitations from marketing and web site gurus, proofers, webinar hosts, and more. It could be easy to become jaded to the constant barrage of offers.

However, one email that isn’t a scam is the one from an audiobook narrator who wants to collaborate with you on producing your audiobook. The reaction to that kind of email should be one of giddy excitement, such as, “This is somebody who wants to MAKE me money! What a prince!”

Although narrators routinely work with audio publishers, we are independent, freelance business owners just like you are. We don’t have agents who deal in audiobook work. Each narrator is on her own for ensuring she has a steady workload.

Until recent years, only about 5% of all books were made into audiobooks. Even though audiobooks are the fastest growing segment of publishing and have had double digit growth for the past 3 years, the overall number of audiobooks is still a relatively low percentage of the number of available books.

Consequently, the majority of authors do not have audiobooks of their titles and may not know how to create one. Narrators frequently do outreach with authors to help them learn about the production process. We speak at authors’ conferences and workshops. Some of us (ahem) write articles to share our knowledge and love of this medium.

We also prospect to line up projects on our own. We look for authors who are prolific in writing and releasing their books and treat their writing as a business. Once we find an author of interest, we research her work to find a book that:

isn’t already available as an audiobook
is a good fit for our voice, skills, and interests
contains content suitable for an audiobook in a genre that is successful in audio
could be expected to sell well in audio

With the research complete, the narrator will contact the author — usually through email — to inquire about the possibility of creating the audiobook.

If you’re on the receiving end of an unexpected query email from an audiobook narrator, you might initially think it’s a scam. What should you do?

Why Use Evernote for Audiobook Pronunciation Research

12 July 2017

Recently, several audiobook narrators discussed in a Facebook group how we do our pronunciation research. Like many narrators, I use the iAnnotate app for the text since it allows us to read the book from a tablet and noiselessly turn pages.

Most people in the discussion either added their pronunciation research to the PDF in iAnnotate or copied it to an Excel spreadsheet.

My method is different because I store all of my pronunciation research in Evernote.

Evernote is described as a note-taking app that works on and syncs across all of your devices. The more notes you enter into it, the more powerful it becomes. You can find no shortage of tutorials to learn how to use it, including on Lynda.com. As a reminder, I advise that you find a library that includes access to Lynda.

I’ll tell you why and show you how I use Evernote for pronunciation research in this 7:37 explainer video.

Note: You can use iOS Slide Over with iPad Pro, iPad (5th generation), iPad Air and later, or iPad mini 2 and later. Check Settings/General to see if you have a Multitasking option. If so, choose Allow Multiple Apps. If you don’t have a Multitasking option, you’d need to switch between Evernote and iAnnotate with the Home button on the iPad.

You can view the Evernote note used in this demo at:
http://bit.ly/RTTPronunciationList

If you scroll to the bottom of that note, you’ll see that I added branding info. This way, everyone who sees the note will know its owner and can contact me and/or connect with me on social media.

If you decide to get an Evernote account, I’d love it if you used my referral link:
http://evernote.grsm.io/KarenCommins8181

Updated 7/15/17 to add instruction about Multitasking in iOS

Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™