Someone asked how to store and catalog all the assets that you create. Our fabulous host Joel Froomkin suggested that Evernote would be a good tool for this purpose.

He’s right!

As I’ve previously written, I love Evernote because it synchs across my devices and is always accessible to me. It offers tremendous flexibility in how you store info and search for it. You can use tags, the title, key words, and dates in your search.

You can add videos, photos, and audio to a note. Evernote also will transcribe your media, including your handwriting!

A Google search revealed plenty of apps for the specific purpose of holding your social media components. Airtable would also work well for this task, but I don’t know whether or how well you can use your phone with it for uploads.

I didn’t want to buy another app or test Airtable. I use Evernote for everything and wanted to try it for this purpose.

As an experiment today, I used my iPhone to:

• capture some images and videos during my day in Grand Cayman
• create a folder in Evernote named Social Media Assets
• add a single note in the folder for each picture or video. You could add multiple media to a single note, but I want each thing to be a separate unit for searchability.
• edit some video clips together in iOS iMovie

The ship’s Wi-Fi is horrendously slow. I also found that it often timed out or logged me out on my phone, especially when I was uploading the videos. I had much steadier reception using my laptop.

Since it was so problematic, I uploaded the images from my phone to an iCloud folder. I then signed onto the Wi-Fi with my laptop and imported the media into my Evernote notes.

I wouldn’t have any issues in uploading videos and pictures straight from my phone into Evernote using regular cellular service or land-based Wi-Fi.

Here’s the 2:26 explainer video I made in iMovie. It doesn’t highlight screen taps as I normally would show in a video I produced at home. However, I think you can get the gist and see how quick and easy it is to use Evernote to catalog your clips and photos.

When you’d want to use the asset you’ve stored in Evernote, you could Open it and Share it to another app, or download it. I’d rather Open and Share it from within Evernote so I don’t have multiple copies of the thing.

A better option might be to store the resource you’ve made somewhere in the cloud like Google Drive and add its Share link to Evernote in addition to or instead of the asset. You then could use Evernote for inventory and search and always have a link to the component.

This Evernote note has the intro clip that we filmed after breakfast that I used in the video demo. I corrected the date and transcribed the video. The video doesn’t load for me on ship, but it should be available and will probably download if you’re on land.

I recorded this tip for cruisers:

If you want to see the notebook containing all the clips I created today, please send me an email. Note that I will process the requests after I get home.

Want to learn more about Evernote? I created a 10-module video course for members of NarratorsRoadmap.com. I show Evernote’s basic features and how I use it for my Customer Relationship Management (CRM) records.

I also want to mention that when I write anything substantive on a social media platform — whether my own post or comments on someone else’s — I copy it from the platform into Evernote so I might repurpose it later. My words belong to ME!

I found in today’s experiment that I took far more pictures and videos than I usually would in a month! Plus, I learned how to do some things; for instance, I’d never used iMovie on my phone. I also learned the importance of uploading videos to YouTube rather than my WordPress site!

The biggest benefit to the experiment was that I felt more creative throughout the day as I was specifically looking for interesting things that I might want to include in my private journals, articles, and social media posts.

Thanks so much to Jess Moran for explaining your system and giving me a new approach to documenting my life!

PS. We had a great time shopping in Grand Cayman! I saw this sign as we walked around and couldn’t resist sharing it here!

The post Storing Social Media Assets in Evernote appeared first on Karen Commins.

It was 5 years ago today — 18 March 2021 — that I first heard about the situation that inspired my forthcoming book.

By the end of that year, I hadn’t done much on the project even though I kept thinking about it. I’d found 2 books and originally planned to mash them up in a new book like I did with Nellie Bly’s and Elizabeth Bisland’s books about their competing and very exciting solo trips around the world in 1889, creating Bly vs. Bisland: Beating Phileas Fogg in a Race Around The World.

However, 6 months later, I wrote in my journal on 22 June 2022: It’s been on my to-do list with no movement forward.

Fast-forward another 1.5 years to 5 December 2023. By this time, I had discovered a third book on my subject, which made my idea to combine texts more complicated. While this project was never far from mind, I still hadn’t taken much ACTION on it.

And then, I attended Jennifer Jill Araya’s workshop Dream Big: Year-End Goal-Setting for Creative Entrepreneurs.

I’m a planner by nature. I know and have written about goal-setting. I understand and have also written about the importance of writing your goals. I definitely get stuff done!

Yet I hadn’t taken the first steps of figuring out and writing a goal for this project until that afternoon with Jennifer. Writing a thought or a wish turns it into a goal.

Jennifer walked us through the framework for setting SMART goals.

As shown on Jennifer’s slide, SMART goals are:

• S — Specific
• M — Measurable & Meaningful
• A — Attainable & Assignable
• R — Relevant
• T — Time-Bound

I wrote my goal for the first time that day. I excitedly shared it in the Zoom chat:

In my Evernote notes for the workshop, I wrote “first quarter 2024” as my timeline for completion. I had no idea that I would feel called to do original research and how that would change the scope and deadline MANY times!

I wrote in my journal on 2/24/24:

It took me almost 3 years from the idea to get fully immersed in this story. Maybe the Universe had to align things for me to meet someone who gave me invaluable advice about structuring my story.

The project scope and my self-imposed deadline have changed several times, but my commitment to the work has only grown stronger. I craft my book every day!

Drew told me something that has become my guiding principle:

Write the book that YOU want to write.
Don’t worry about any deadline that you have set.

Longtime readers (and those who clicked some of the previous links!) know that one of my favorite books is Write It Down, Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want and Getting It.  Author Henriette Anne Klauser offers a number of creative ways to write down things, from filling in blanks in theme books to writing letters.

She assures us that any kind of paper or writing instrument will do. Her only rule is to date whatever you write down.

i’m not sure whether typing your thoughts on your computer screen has the same effect as putting your hand to paper. While we write using our keyboards and screens all the time, we have a greater personal connection when we physically write something on paper.

I actually had explored writing this kind of book about 30 years ago, but I ruled it out for a number of reasons. I didn’t realize that my old dream was now being fulfilled for me until recently when I transcribed my journal from 30 August 2000. This example further convinces me some ideas take time.

Acquiring my dream harp was the same way. I wrote at least 20 years ago — maybe longer — that I’d love to have a Lyon and Healy Style 11 because it has irises on the column and soundboard. I didn’t see it as a true possibility for me, though, and I even forgot I wrote it down. I certainly hadn’t had this model at the forefront of my mind when the opportunity suddenly arose in 2023 for me to buy this harp!

I encourage you to listen to those little glimmers of ideas, write them down, and see how great your life becomes as a result. The Universe will conspire on your behalf in its own good time and way to help you make them happen!

Screen shots from Jennifer Jill Araya’s slides used with her kind permission

The post Write It Down. Make It Happen! appeared first on Karen Commins.

Inspired by this article about how John Steinbeck used his diary while writing The Grapes of Wrath, I’ve been documenting my progress in researching and writing my non-fiction book in my daily journals. My journals are much more interesting as a result!

I then photograph my journal entries related to my book and use Evernote to transcribe them. Longtime readers know I’m an Evernote evangelist and use it for everything. I love it even more since Evernote actually transcribes my handwriting!

Authors who write in longhand could use this technique to quickly generate editable text rather than having someone laboriously type it.

I store these transcriptions in the Evernote notebook I created to house my book’s 1900+ (and counting!) research notes.

I tag the journal entries to be able to easily find them later. Once I launch the web site for the book, I’ll re-purpose all my journal entries into a new blog devoted to the book! The blog will certainly improve my SEO ranking for my book’s topic.

Since I was already doing that, I thought, “Why not transcribe the entire journal entry?”

On 12/14/25, I finally embarked on my long-held dream of digitizing my handwritten journals! I started keeping a regular journal on 8/28/99 and now am writing in book #86.

Over the years, Drew and I have looked for the best method to accomplish this task:

• I ruled out using my flatbed scanner because it takes too long to actually scan, plus you have to sit there with it and turn pages.
• I want to keep my journals intact, so that eliminated my super speedy Epson ES-500W from contention. I often use that scanner to create PDFs of Public Domain texts after Drew disassembles the book from the spine. I outlined my steps to perform OCR and otherwise optimize the scanned PDF in step 3 of Planning Your Trip to Public Domain World.
• Reviews of hand scanners made them seem unreliable and persnickety to use.
• The CamScanner app could do the scanning, but it doesn’t recognize handwriting.
• We bought a CZUR book scanner when they first came out. It also seemed to take too long to scan and was cumbersome to use, so we sold it. The newer CZUR ET24 Pro machine is far superior to the one we sold, but their app doesn’t recognize handwriting.

Since Evernote recognizes handwriting, I’m excited to use it to digitize my journals.

Here’s the process I use to transcribe my handwritten text:

1. Write in my journal as usual.
2. Take a picture with my phone’s camera of each page in the entry.
3. Crop the saved photo(s).
4. Share it to my computer. I AirDrop the photo between my iPhone and iMac.
5. Open desktop Evernote. (It’s usually already running.) Evernote will transcribe images on the phone, too, but I found it to be very frustrating because it would eat up time and memory.
6. Create a new note in the journal notebook.
7. Drag the journal picture(s) into my Evernote note.
8. Hover the mouse over the top right corner of the picture until the Transcribe button appears, and click it. Refer to the picture below.
9. Proof Evernote’s transcription for accuracy.
10. Create links to other entries, research, etc. that I mentioned in the journal.

It’s important to check the transcription carefully against the source text. The transcription process makes mistakes, including but not limited to these errors:

• For my handwritten text, Evernote’s transcription frequently uses wrong numbers, whether I’ve written a time, date, or a word count.
• It leaves out commas where I had them — almost always ignoring the Oxford comma and commas between independent clauses — and adds them where I don’t want them.
• It adds ‘s for plural words, which, as a grammarian, annoys me considerably!
• It removes the NOT part of contractions, completely changing the meaning. For example, wouldn’t becomes would.
• Even with typeset text from newspapers, magazines, and books, sometimes Evernote:
  • paraphrases content
  • removes, adds, or changes words
  • makes up whole sentences entirely.

I’ve used this process in transcribing my research finds. The transcription errors become worse as an article’s length grows. I’ve learned to break up long columns of text when I’m transcribing newspaper articles.

So far, I’ve transcribed 148 pages of my current journal and am up to date with it. I started transcribing Journal #1 from 1999 and have completed a number of its entries.

With over 26 years’ worth of words to transcribe, this project will definitely take a while! I keep this quote from Leo Tolstoy in mind:

A man on a thousand mile walk has to forget his ultimate goal
and say to himself every morning:
“Today I’m going to cover 25 miles and then rest up and sleep.”

PS. If you’re interested in developing a journaling practice, I’ve previously written how I use my journal and things I’ve learned about adding entries to my journals. I shared some entries with their take-aways in my This Date in My History series of articles.

Important note about your data privacy when using Evernote’s transcription tool

Evernote’s AI Transcribe FAQ states:

For audio, transcription processing occurs within Evernote. For audio summarization and image and video transcription, some data may be shared and processed by a third-party AI vendor.

Such content is only processed to complete your summarization or transcription request. Your data is not used to train AI models. Files are processed securely and deleted by third-party processors within 30 days. If you need more info, you can always review our Supplemental Terms, our Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy.

Whether you’re using the audio transcription tool, the video transcription tool, or you’re converting your screenshots to text, you can trust that your content stays private and secure.

The post Digitizing My Journals With Evernote appeared first on Karen Commins.

In these times of an increasing proliferation of AI slop, the advice is even more relevant to authors today. I resurrected the piece and its links from the Wayback Machine on Archive.org from this page.

As an audiobook narrator, I encourage every author to get her work into audio. However, regardless of whether you ever want to create audiobooks of your titles, these four tips from other authors about planning your audiobook will make you a better writer.

1. Listen to audiobooks.

This first piece of advice surprises many writers. They may have studied the words of other authors, but they’ve never thought much about how the words actually sound.

Jason M. Hough, New York Times bestselling author of The Darwin Elevator, wrote a terrific blog post that outlines five reasons why writers should listen to audiobooks.

Laura Hillenbrand, the New York Times bestselling author of Seabiscuit: An American Legend and Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, has listened to hundreds of audiobooks. According to her interview in the New York Times Magazine, Hillenbrand said her immersion in audiobooks has actually improved her writing because she hears the musicality of the language.

Stephen King thought about the sound of the words even back in 2007. In a column for Entertainment Weekly, King noted, “Audio is merciless. It exposes every bad sentence, half-baked metaphor, and lousy word choice…the spoken word is the acid test. They don’t call it storytelling for nothing.”

2. Read your work aloud.

To elaborate on King’s point about the spoken word highlighting every error, you could read Chapter 11 from the book Vernacular Eloquence: What Speech Can Bring to Writing, written by University of Massachusetts – Amherst English Professor Peter Elbow.

Jeanette Smith’s editorial in the Guardian Liberty Voice summarizes that chapter, which asserts, “reading aloud is the easiest, most efficient way to revise any written report.”

And as every audiobook narrator knows, when you speak every single word in the text, you will discover:

• grammatical mistakes like subject/verb disagreement
• plot/logic issues
• repetitive words, phrases and sections of text
• typos, including character name changes
• homonyms which are used as part of a visual joke on paper but lose their cleverness when spoken
• sentences full of alliteration that, like homonyms, may look great on paper but are not easy to say, particularly if performed in a character’s accent
• any words or phrases that are difficult or awkward to voice (Audiobook narrators universally would like to remove the words “clasped,” “gasped,” and “grasped” from the dictionary. Say each one followed by the word “the,” and you’ll understand our reasoning.)

In a New York Times editorial titled “Some Thoughts on the Lost Art of Reading Aloud,” Verlyn Klinkenborg further observed that reading aloud helps you understand the meaning of words and their intention.

3. Limit the number of characters in a scene.

This suggestion is one of 10 tips to improve the audiobook experience offered from New York Times and USA Today bestseller Wendy Lindstrom. Not surprisingly, Lindstrom is another author who advises you to read your work aloud.

4. Consider writing strictly for audio.

The explosion in the audiobook market has given rise to a renewed interest in audio dramas. I’m not talking about soap opera-ish, radio plays from the ‘30s or the one performed by Frasier Crane and friends. No, today’s audio dramas are performed by a full cast and have lush music and effects, like on a movie soundtrack.

International bestselling author Jeffery Deaver discussed in this piece how he adjusted his writing style and overcame technical writing problems while creating The Starling Project as an original audio drama for Audible.com. Deaver had to find new ways to present details that are normally explained by a third-person omniscient narrator. A sound clip of the production is included with the article and demonstrates the power of this medium.

By applying these tips and planning how your words will sound to a listener, you will tighten and polish your written words into a beautiful string of the finest pearls!

PS. I’ve read stories from authors who narrated their audiobook. Frequently, they changed words and even rewrote sentences during the recording sessions. They hadn’t considered how the words would sound, or they didn’t realize a sentence was problematic to say.

Except in the case of Public Domain texts, only the author has the liberty and luxury of re-writing any part of the book.

As a narrator, I have to read the words that are in front of me and do so much more to fully realize the author’s intent!

Photo: Storyblocks

The post 4 Ways Planning Your Audiobook Can Make You a Better Writer appeared first on Karen Commins.

I’ll share more as I continue with this project.

Behind the Scenes

I first wrote a bulleted list of the pieces of info I wanted to include in the video. I wrote the script and then recorded and edited it in my studio.

As is the case whenever I make a video, I always create my audio first and then match the visual components to it.

I either created the video clips by recording the screen with Camtasia or downloaded them from Storyblocks.com, where I have a subscription.

Their image search is very frustrating and frequently doesn’t reveal useful graphics, so I was pleasantly surprised with the video search. I quickly found usable clips that matched very well with my voiceover.

For instance:

• I said ‘But wait! If I’m going to write a new book, why not add my own research and conclusions to it, especially since I LOVE this kind of research?!’
  • During the first part, I showed a lightbulb that is outlined in blue neon, and the filament spells IDEA.
  • In the second part, I play a video of vivid hearts.
• Near the end, I say, “I still have much research and writing to do.”
  • I love the construction sign clip that flashes up the words “Work Zone!” I think it gives a nod to my site with my vacation postcard logo and my NarratorsRoadmap.com.

During a tour of the New York Public Library, we learned that the lion statues out front are named Patience and Fortitude, with Fortitude being the one closest to 42nd Street. I stood by the one named Patience because Drew and I agree that I could use more patience in my life!

We bought DJI Mic 3 wireless microphones for our live video shoots in New York. In past years, I had tried several lavalier mics and had not been satisfied with the sound quality from them. Drew researched wireless mics and discovered that podcasters use this DJI mic. It interfaces with a phone, making it an easy and portable choice.

At the end of the video, you’ll hear an F-major harp glissando, which I played on my Lyon & Healy Style 11 harp. I set my B and E pedals to sharp, which is the lowest pedal position. Instead of 7 tones in the scale, you only hear 5 of them: F, G, A, C, and D. It feels and sounds like magic to me!

Transcript with Video Description

[March 2021 calendar]
One day during the pandemic lockdown, Drew and I were watching a

[woman lecturing in sculpture gallery of a museum]museum’s
lecture over Zoom. The host mentioned a person and event that were on the periphery of the subject.

[handwritten Curiosity!]
I perked up with curiosity!

[Google what happened to]
I Googled the person to learn more. I thought the story would make a great book,

[Google is there a book about]
so I looked for one in the public domain that I could narrate, produce, and publish as an audiobook.

[pages turning in a book]
I found a book on my topic.

[woman’s hands thumbing over tops of a number of books]
Then I found another one. I discovered some other related titles and decided I could edit parts of them together and create a new book.

[blue neon lightbulb created in outline with the filament spelling IDEA]
But wait! If I’m going to write a new book, why not add my own research and conclusions to it,

[vivid multicolor hearts]
especially since I LOVE this kind of research?!

[Online Course in neon]
I went through a Research Methods for Writers course offered by my library.

[pan up from bottom to top of a stack of newspapers]
I’ve pored over 1000s of newspaper articles and

[Ancestry.com search for Immigration and Travel]
scoured Ancestry.com for factual evidence like passenger lists on ships.

[live shoot outside the New York Public Library, main 5th Avenue branch]
And now I’m here in New York at the world famous New York Public Library, ready to do more research on this exciting book project!

[live shoot outside New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on Amsterdam Avenue]
And today my research is taking me to the New Public Library for the Performing Arts, which is near Lincoln Center. I hadn’t actually been to this part of New York before, so that makes this research trip even more exciting.

[live shoot outside Columbia University, New York]
My research scavenger hunt in New York has now taken me to Columbia University. I’m so excited to be here, and I can’t wait to see what I’m going to find!

[white and orange construction barrier with words Work Zone]
I still have so much research and writing to do, and I look forward to sharing my first book with the world as soon as possible!

[Coming Soon in red neon on black background, with a single letter revealed at a time]
It’s even more exciting to me because it’s going to be a full cast audiobook, and I’m even planning the website.

[my postcard logo]
I’m Karen Commins, and I hope you’re living the life of your dreams! (harp glass)

The post I’m Writing a Book! appeared first on Karen Commins.

Rather than making New Year’s resolutions that were quickly abandoned, I’ve absorbed and applied a few guiding principles and actions over many years. Changing my thoughts and words have made a dramatic positive difference in my overall happiness and throughout my life.

Guiding Principles

1) Joel Osteen always says, “We can’t expect victory and talk defeat.”

2) Wayne Dyer always said, “We can’t get enough of what we don’t want.”

3) These 2 sentences are openings to the broad topic of mindset. Manifesting anything we want in our lives starts with our thoughts. Saying and writing our thoughts sends them out into the universe and gives them creative energy. Therefore, it’s vital that we are ever vigilant to think, speak, and write our words in the direction we want our lives to go!

Also remember: However we fill in the sentence “I AM ___” becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy!

4) In 2016, I saw a video of Mike Dooley, who writes the notes from The Universe. He compared the manifestation process to a GPS system. You have to enter your destination (a BIG goal) and then put your car in gear. Don’t worry if you’re going the wrong way because you’ll get guidance! He said:

Guidance will be forthcoming.
You’re going to quickly hear — perhaps over Barry Manilow – “Make a legal U-turn!”
And you’re going to hear that until you get on track.

Dooley said to adopt a mantra like “Every day, I’m getting closer.” He said you can get excited about the details, but don’t make them the end result.

It can be so difficult to stay unattached to a particular outcome and let the Universe fulfill your desire in its own way and in its own time. If you’re interested, I offered examples and many resources about affirmations, visualizations, and outcomes in Narrator’s Cup of Joe — Woo Woo Blend.

5) Wayne Dyer always said, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

6) What you put out in the world comes back to you and in a time and way you didn’t expect. If I kept saying to the Universe with great angst thoughts and words like “Why not me? What’s wrong with me?”, that’s going to keep showing up for me. It’s an endless loop. You’ve got to throw a wedge in there to change that loop because it’s a perpetual, negative cycle. It’s a terrible act of self negation, because then you start thinking things like:

• Obviously, people don’t like my voice.
• People just don’t like me.
• They don’t think I’m a good person.
• They think I’m not reputable.

These thoughts have no basis in reality! However, concentrated focus on and repetition of them make them part of your identity! As Wayne Dyer, Mike Dooley, and other spiritual teachers/leaders have said:

What you think about expands. Like a cold, the more you talk about something and more emotional weight you give it, the more it becomes part of you.

Actions I’ve Taken to Develop and Maintain a Positive Mindset

1) During Kristine Oller’s Jan. 2018 webinar about mindset, I asked her how to break my habitual thinking of comparing myself negatively to others. She said:

• old ways of thinking were prompting my compulsion to check social media and make comparisons
• look at the story you’re telling yourself and then collect proof that the OPPOSITE of that story is true — find five pieces of evidence to “force your mind to become creative and flexible.”

I realized that I was using those posts to gather evidence in the old “not good enough” story! I would see something on Facebook which the inner enemy would seize upon and start re-counting for me the auditions I had not won, awards I had not earned, money I had not made, publishers I had not worked for, etc.

I wrote down 8 ways that my story is different and sooo much better than the one the enemy was using! Take THAT, inner enemy!

2) Celebrate my own accomplishments, not just on social media but in a real way.

3) When my brain wants to seize on something and get in a downward spiral over it, I repeat out loud this quote from Paulo Coelho: “Stop being who you were and change into who you are.”

4) Tell myself in the mirror each day all the positive “I AM” statements that I can dream up. Write them down and then think about them and repeat them out loud through the day. Louise Hay’s book MIRROR WORK is an excellent guide for this type of mental reprogramming.

5) Write a compassionate letter to myself and re-read it out loud as needed. I am a much harsher critic of myself than I ever would be to anyone else! My letter is full of encouragement and praise that I wrote as if I were writing it to another person. It helps to re-read it when that “little girl inside” thinks things are unfair. This idea is an exercise in the book SELF-COMPASSION: THE PROVEN POWER OF BEING KIND TO YOURSELF by Kristin Neff.

6) Change the second thought to one that makes me feel better.

It’s very low and very disempowering when I’ve felt hurt, disappointed, frustrated, and angry because I feel like I’m being rejected by the world and/or people don’t like what I have to offer. We cannot help that first thought. It comes barreling in, unbidden, and we’re not in control of that.

We are in control of the very next thought! We are in control of our choice of what are we going to do with that thought we just had. I choose to think in the next thought of things I wrote in my compassionate letter. It’s a perfect antidote because what we see on the outside is a physical manifestation of what’s going on inside.

The It Works! booklet by R. H. Jarrett is a good primer for changing your thinking to create the life of your dreams. I especially recommend you read Brad Jensen’s review even if you don’t get the booklet.

Wishing you radiant health, unbounded prosperity, and every happiness in 2026 and beyond!

The post Change Starts With Your Thoughts and Words appeared first on Karen Commins.

I’ve been a proud member of the Professional Audiobook Narrators Association (PANA) since its inception. The organization offered its first convention PANAcon last month.

When I was asked earlier this year to speak at the first PANAcon on a panel about self-producing your work, I couldn’t say “yes!” fast enough!

If you attended, you should have received an email with links to the videos from all of the sessions. Download all the videos now because they won’t be available after 1 September.

This article and its resources should benefit attendees and non-attendees alike.

The Panel

I was delighted to join and learn from my co-panelists and multi-talented narrators Shiromi Arserio, Tanya Eby, and Cassandra Medcalf as they shared their knowledge and experience in writing, publishing, and marketing their books. I talked about creating and publishing audiobooks from Public Domain texts. Thanks also to narrator Kelly Wilkinson for facilitating our session, the audience members who spent time with us and asked wonderful questions, and to all the volunteers who planned, coordinated, and made PANAcon such a fantastic success.

As panel moderator, Shiromi asked very thought-provoking questions, a few of which I’d like to share here.

What was the most unexpected challenge or most pleasant surprise you encountered when you decided to release your own audiobooks?

I published my first title, a Public Domain book, in 2014. I didn’t know then how that action would completely open up and enrich my life!

Public Domain books have become my passion and a cornerstone of my work. I’ve taught other narrators about finding PD books they love and distributing the finished audiobook.

My ever-deepening interest in copyright led me to apply for and then enroll in the CopyrightX program at Harvard University.

After publishing that first book, I combined 2 Public Domain books into a new book. It remains one of my favorite projects: Bly vs Bisland: Beating Phileas Fogg in a Race Around the World.

I’m currently working on perhaps the most electrifying professional undertaking of my life, which started as an idea to record a single Public Domain book. I discovered more books on the subject and thought I’d create a mash-up of multiple PD books similar to Bly vs Bisland.

This new topic has evolved into a fascinating multi-year historical research adventure for a new book I’m creating that I’ll produce as a full cast audiobook! It will be a celebration of Public Domain texts and fabulous audiobook narrators!

I’ve always admired biographers and historians who weave together a wide range of disparate facts and sources into a compelling story. It’s thrilling to be on that path!

I love and am absorbed in my daily research! It’s terribly exciting to discover hidden gems that the (many, many!) others who dived in this ocean of material completely missed. I’m planning a research trip in the coming months.

The biggest joy of the whole thing is going from idea to implementation — to take something that I had as an idea and work at it to make it appear in tangible form. That’s what makes us artists and what makes self-producing worthwhile.

And I have to say, not spending my time constantly writing to people and saying, “please hire me, please hire me” is huge for me! I’m generating my own work and totally in my own lane here. You can’t put a price tag on that.

I’ve done a handful of public domain titles, and it’s usually just what seems like a fun book that I wish people would cast me for. But you’re much more strategic about how you pick titles. Did you want to talk about that?

First of all, know that an incredible trove of books are in the Public Domain that you would not expect to be there. Most people seem to think Public Domain books are 100 years old and overflowing with very florid Victorian language.

That’s not true! In fact, the juiciest Public Domain titles were published in mid-century 1900s. At that time, the copyright had to be renewed, and a lot of people didn’t do that. In fact, between 1931 and 1963, about 74% of the books published in the US are Public Domain! The copyright has expired, so anybody can do anything they want to with them.

Whenever I see or hear about a book that piques my interest, the first thing I do is check out its copyright status. Is it in the Public Domain, or did the author or publisher renew the copyright?

A lot of people ask me for help finding a book, and the first things I ask them are:

• What do you like to read?
• What kind of books do you like?
• Which genres do you work in, and which do you want to work in?

You’re going to spend time with this book, and you may or may not make any money on it. You might as well do something that you really like that looks good for your portfolio.

Remember I said the key publication dates range between 1931 to 1963. The earliest age of a Public Domain book in that range is 95 years old, meaning it’s stood the test of time. If a book has a lot of ratings and reviews and continues to be of interest, then it’s probably going to make money.

Everything published in the US in 1930 and earlier is Public Domain. Books published in the US in 1931 will all become Public Domain on January 1st. It’s not too soon to find one, record it, and have it ready to publish in the new year!

Goodreads maintains lists of books that are popular for a given year. You can review their list of books from 1931 to find one that speaks to you as an artist. The books that appear high on the list usually include big sellers in literary history that we always hear about. They attract a lot of attention with many people, including big audio publishers, who are eager to record them. Further down that list, though, you’ll find books that are still interesting, that people are still reading and writing reviews about on Goodreads. I think that list is a really good place to start.

As someone who produces their own audiobooks, you have to handle the distribution, the marketing, the cover art, the writing. How are you able to manage your time?

I take an incremental approach, and I create a to do list every day in Evernote of three things:

• • Most important task of the day — If this was the only thing you did today, you’d be satisfied. (1 task)
  • Secondary tasks of importance — Completion of these tasks will make the day even better. (2 tasks, though I often add more)

This article details my use of Evernote and links to the templates of my daily and monthly action plans.

Almost every day, I list 2, 30-minute activities: research on my book, and content creation. For instance, it might take me several days to write an article like this one if I’m just doing a little bit at a stretch.

I’m not saying I always accomplish everything — or even anything — on my daily list!

I take you behind the scenes of my process and offer 9 ways I’ve increased my output in my article How I Get Stuff Done.

In terms of marketing my own books, I’m a firm believer in having a promotions calendar. Look for things in and associated with the book that give you reasons to talk about it long after its release date.

I mentioned Bly vs Bisland earlier. Two female reporters, Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland, each went on a solo trip around the world that started in November 1889. I can promote that audiobook:

• every October 2nd because that’s the date Jules Verne’s imaginary character Phileas Fogg made a wager that he could go around the world in 80 days
• every November 14th when the race starts
• every December 21st as that’s the date Phileas Fogg won his bet
• every January 25th on the anniversary of the end of the reporters’ race
• Nellie Bly’s and Elizabeth Bisland’s birthdays and dates of death
• if their name comes up in the news or I create some other reason. For instance, I’ve talked about it being a good book to listen to on a winter trip!

I might only promote that book a couple times a year, but I love having options!

At least enter basic dates on your promotion calendar and add a reminder a week before the date. Once you develop assets of marketing pieces, you can just pop them back out on social media again. Nobody knows or cares that this is the same thing that you used the last three years on the same day! Just keep utilizing and repurposing the things you have. You don’t always have to create something new.

My Audiobook Marketing Cheat Sheet gives you a bounty of tips and tactics you could employ to market your book.

Audience Q&A

How do you determine if a mid 1900’s book is in the PD?

You have to research the copyright date. See Step 1 of my article Planning Your Trip to Public Domain World.

Can you take a public domain book and make it more of a modern story?

Absolutely! If you want a great example, look no further than WICKED! Gregory Maguire imagined new stories for the beloved Wizard of Oz characters because they were in the Public Domain. He wrote a book, which became a bestseller. He then licensed the rights — making even more money for himself! — for a musical and movies, plus all the merchandise!

However, you don’t have to invent a new story. Remember, you can change anything you want in a PD book. Narrator Alison Larkin received great acclaim about her adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic book Great Expectations. She changed Pip’s gender to female, which breathed new life and meaning into an old story.

An email recently arrived in my inbox promoting the March 2026 release of Lady Tremaine: A Novel by Rachel Hochhauser, in which the author tells the Cinderella story through the point of view of the stepmother.

Your possibilities are limited only by your imagination and creativity!

Would you ever write and record an introduction to a public domain book, for example as a way to address problematic language that you want/need to keep in? Or would you just put the disclaimer in the written description?

Public Domain means you, as the producer, can create the audiobook any way you want. If you want to change the language, change it. If you want to delete sentences, paragraphs, or pages, delete them.

I look at each book on a case-by-case book and decide whether I’d add a disclaimer to the book’s description. For something like Huckleberry Finn, I’m not going to change the language. I would add a disclaimer in my book’s printed description and say this language reflected the time that it was written, viewpoints have obviously changed for the better since then, and be aware you’re going to hear objectionable language.

I haven’t included a disclaimer in the recording, but there’s no reason you couldn’t do so.

Disclaimer examples are in Step 6 of my article Planning Your Trip to Public Domain World.

Do you make an e-book of a public domain book you’re making an audiobook of?

I only need an ebook if I want to claim the title on ACX. If I’m going through another distributor, I don’t need an e-book. More information is in Step 2 of my article Planning Your Trip to Public Domain World.

If you work with a person who has already released the e-book on Amazon, how do you handle the royalty share percentage on Audible?

Ebook and audiobook royalties are 2 different things. If the rights holders of the Amazon edition and audiobook are different, they don’t share in each others’ royalties.

Once you produce a PD book, how then do you distribute it?

You have to make this decision for each book. I have a distributor comparison chart for members of NarratorsRoadmap.com, where I look at 22 criteria for 6 distributors. Not only are the royalty amounts different, but you’ll want to consider how often a distributor pays you, whether they offer promotional support like download codes, and many other factors. I also provide my full recommendations there.

You may want to join Rebecca Hefner’s Facebook group Marketing Audiobooks Wide as it’s a reliable source of information.

On all my audiobooks, I want to claim the book on ACX with exclusive distribution on Audible for at least the first 90 days. With an exclusive deal, I’ll receive Audible download codes, which everybody understands and are a great way to promote the book.

Exclusive distribution also garners the highest royalty rate Audible is going to pay anybody. Audible pays me 40% for exclusive distribution, but if I’m not exclusive, they only pay me a 25% royalty rate, leaving a gap of 15%. I think contemporary romance and other modern fiction like cozy mysteries are going to do better with wide distribution. I’ve been publishing biographies and history. So far, the wide distribution hasn’t made up that 15% difference. I therefore still have some books that remain exclusive with Audible because they’re paying me the most money.

On ACX, do you create a Rights Holder’s Profile as well as a Narrator Profile? And do you have to make a Direct Offer to yourself?
You do need separate narrator and RH accounts with different email addresses. They can use the same tax ID (SSN or EIN, which I recommend, as discussed near the end of this article.) You won’t make an offer to yourself. Instead, sign in with your RH/publisher account, select Already Have the Audio (DIY project), and upload all of the files, including cover art.

NarratorsRoadmap.com members can watch my 1:48:21 webinar Public Domain Audiobooks and Self-Publishing, in which I show the entire process for claiming a book as an ACX rights holder.

Does your Audible listing state that it is a public domain book?
Each distributor asks for basic information including the copyright date and owner. I’ll enter the original publication year and “PD” or “Public Domain” for the original rights holder.

Would you create an LLC for your publishing empire?
You don’t have to establish an LLC. I run a sole proprietorship and file a joint 1040 tax return with my husband that includes a Schedule C for business. I have 3 “Doing Business As” (DBA) names: A VOICE Above The Crowd, Jewel Audiobooks and NarratorsRoadmap.com. You really need to talk to your accountant about your particular situation and what makes sense for you.

Regardless of your business type, though, you will want to ensure your business earnings and expenses are separate from your personal ones. Maintain different bank accounts and credit cards for personal and business uses.

You’ll find more info and Q&As on my Public Domain Narration Headquarters page. I hope you feel inspired and equipped to tackle a Public Domain project and self-produce your own work!

The post PANAcon Panel and Q&A on Self-Producing Your Work appeared first on Karen Commins.

I receive a lot of questions in general and especially about Public Domain (PD) books since I’ve written a boatload of articles about them. I realize the process can be overwhelming and/or confusing!

Therefore, I wanted to write this article to provide a clear set of repeatable actions which you can use as a checklist in creating your public domain audiobook.

This graphic outlines the 9 steps in publishing a PD audiobook. I’ll elaborate on each one below.

Before I continue, let me point out a couple of things. First, this is a long article with detailed information. To stave off feelings of overwhelm, you may want to read and follow the steps in each section when you’re ready to take that action.

Also, be aware that narrators who record for audio publishers and production companies usually join a project at Step 6 – Prep Your Script. Since you’re the producer and publisher of your public domain audiobook, you also have to do all the work on the front end!

1 – Find a book that you might like to record and publish. Research the book’s copyright status. If it’s in the public domain, keep going! 

Find a Book

Endless possibilities exist for book discovery, so it would be impossible to list all the sources here. NarratorsRoadmap.com members have access to over 2 dozen of my hand-curated, HathiTrust.org collections of probable public domain books, as well as Resource links to other sites. I like to search for books on HathiTrust.org because it’s a consortium of college libraries, and Google has scanned millions of their books.

Narrators commonly choose books on Gutenberg.org. You may want to read through my Q&A about text sources.

Check the Copyright Status: Copyright Background

I will refer only to US copyright laws throughout this and all my articles. When selecting your book and arranging distribution, be aware that laws differ in other countries. It’s possible for a book to be PD in the US and not in another country like Canada. (Thanks to Canadian narrator Robin Siegerman for the reminder.)

As a refresher from my last article:

• Everything published in the US in 1930 and earlier is Public Domain.
• Everything published in the US in 1931 will become Public Domain on 1/1/27.
• Everything published in the US between 1931 and 1963 might be Public Domain and requires you to do research discussed below to determine the copyright status.
• Everything published from 1964 forward is still copyrighted. You would need to license the audio rights for these publications.

In the period between 1931 and 1963, the copyright originally only lasted 28 years. The rights holder needed to renew the copyright before the end of the 28th year to extend the copyright life another 28 years. Changes in the laws over time have kept the renewed copyrights active for 95 years.

For instance, Gone With the Wind was published in 1936. In order to maintain the copyright on her book, Margaret Mitchell’s estate had to submit the renewal before 31 December 1964.

The copyright lasts through the end of the year, so 1936 original copyright date + 95 because it was renewed + 1 for the full year = 2032, or the year this book enters the public domain.

Each 1 January, a new year’s books will enter the Public Domain as the 95 years of copyright protection will have elapsed. As mentioned above, all US books published in 1931 will become Public Domain on 1/1/27.

Check the Copyright Status: Research in Renewal Databases

I use the 4 sites below to check for copyright renewals for US books published in 1931-1963:

• NY Public Library US Copyright Search
• Stanford Copyright Renewals
• Google’s Scans of the Catalog of Copyright Entries  The Search box is mid-way down the page.
• US Copyright Office Public Record System — Pilot only contains renewals in 1978 and later, so it wouldn’t have renewals for books published prior to 1950.

If you don’t find a renewal on one site, look on the next one.

Be aware of these 4 caveats:

1. You must do your due diligence and research the copyright status for books you find on HathiTrust or anywhere else. Just because they believe the book is PD doesn’t mean it is.
2. The text may be in the public domain, but the translation may still be copyrighted.
3. A renewal could be listed with other works, so that’s why we need to look at multiple sources. Search by author name and title to cover the bases.
4. When the core text is PD, anyone may add new material, organization, or art and copyright the new work. You have to be sure you’re reading from the PD version.
   • The 1st edition of a book could be public domain while a later edition is copyrighted. You may discover that the copyright on a book wasn’t renewed but see a copyright on a later edition. The new copyright only applies to NEW material! It does NOT apply to the original text.
   • The copyright listing will say “NM” and indicate what the new material is, like text, resequenced chapters, intro, etc.
   • You would need ensure that you narrate the original 1st edition that wasn’t renewed as you wouldn’t know the specific changes made to later editions.

Renewal registration numbers start with an R. For example, you can see in the Stanford Copyright Renewal Database that Gone With the Wind has 2 renewal numbers. You may see other numbers associated with the copyright, but if they don’t start with an R, they aren’t a renewal.

If you don’t find a renewal for US books published in the time frame, your book is public domain. Keep going!

2 – Plan the distribution of your audiobook. Two distributors require that you first claim an Amazon edition. If you are using them, decide how to claim the Amazon edition before you go further.

If you can’t distribute the finished audiobook, there’s no point in spending the time and money to create it.

Choose Distributor(s)

I’ve created an Audiobook Distributor’s Comparison Chart for members of NarratorsRoadmap.com to aid in that important decision. Members can also watch my webinar under Video Courses titled Public Domain Audiobooks and Self-Publishing in which I show all the steps for distributing your audiobook through ACX.

Amazon Edition

I wrote about the Amazon edition requirement here. If you decide to use ACX, InAudio, or John Marshall Media as your distributor to Audible, you will need to start the process with an Amazon edition.

To clarify:

• You don’t need a RH’s or anyone else’s permission to RECORD a PD text.
• You do need to get an Amazon RH’s permission to CLAIM their book on ACX as you would be utilizing the audio rights associated with their Amazon edition.
• If you don’t use ACX, InAudio, or John Marshall Media as your distributor to Audible, you don’t need to worry about claiming an Amazon edition.

You have 3 options for claiming an Amazon edition:

1. Create your own.
   • If you’re writing the book, you would definitely take this option. If you’re reading a book that someone else wrote, you have to differentiate your edition from others of the same public domain book. I detailed my experience in this article. This answer to a question about Kindle Publishing discusses obtaining a copyright on your edition in order to make publishing on Kindle easier.
   • I don’t create my own editions any more and don’t recommend it to other people.
   • One person who had a background in copyediting wanted to learn how to format their Kindle book. If you also want to learn how to format your ebook, Adobe InDesign is the software used by Big 5 publishers to design and layout their text. You can learn InDesign through LinkedIn Learning, which you may be able to access for free through your library. Otherwise, Udemy.com seems to be a good source for paid courses.
2. Ask an existing Amazon rights holder to pair your audiobook with their edition.
   • This answer on my Public Domain Headquarters Page explains how to find an Amazon RH. You can follow my email template to submit your request to the rights holder.
3. If you’re a NarratorsRoadmap.com member, I have a partnership with a person who creates Kindle books and may be willing to create one that you could claim. To submit your request, let me know the following info by email before you start production. I’ll coordinate with my colleague and let you know the answer.
   • Title Name
   • Link to text
   • Sites searched for copyright renewals to determine public domain status
   • Availability of any existing Amazon Kindle edition

After you follow options 2 or 3 and start to claim an Amazon book on ACX, you may see a message stating the audiobook already exists when it does not. If that happens, you can click the link to contact ACX Support. Tell them the Amazon RH gave you permission to claim the book, and ask them to unlock the title for you.

3 – Obtain or create a PDF to use as your recording script.

Modern authors and publishers can create a PDF of their text with a few clicks. Books in the public domain preceded the advent of personal computers and software. We need to either locate a PDF someone else created or construct our own.

Google “Book Name in Quotes” PDF to search for a PDF of your book. You may be able to download a PDF on sites like Archive.org, Gutenberg.org, and HathiTrust.org.

If you’re a member of NarratorsRoadmap.com who can’t login with a member account to HathiTrust, send me a request as explained here. I will download your book for you!

If you can’t find a PDF of the book that you want to do, you’ll need to create your own using one of these 2 methods to scan the book:

1. Use a machine.
   • I’ve bought print books on Amazon and eBay, disassembled them from the binding, and scanned them in an Epson ES-500W scanner. I love the speed of this machine!
   • You can also use a flatbed scanner or a specialized book scanner like a CZUR Book Scanner. I have one but haven’t used it enough to offer comment about it.
2. Use a scanning app.
   • An app is an excellent choice if you don’t want to or can’t disassemble the book. Many people have reported ease of use and good results with the CamScanner app.

PDF Optimization

Once you have a PDF, you will want the text to be editable with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) so that you’ll be able to mark it up during your prep process (step 6 below). I also suggest you compress the file size of the PDF to make it easier to work with.

I use the full version of Adobe Acrobat to perform these actions. I pay yearly for Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite because I use a number of Adobe applications, including InDesign mentioned above in the discussion about an Amazon edition. However, you can choose to get Acrobat as a stand-alone application.

I open the PDF in Acrobat and do the following things:

1. Show All Tools if it’s not already visible. You’ll need to go back to this panel at the completion of each task below.
2. Click Organize Pages — Hover over any page, and you’ll see a sub-menu that lets you change the page orientation or delete it. I delete any pages that I don’t need for my narration: blank, index, pictures, cover scan, etc.
3. Click Scan & OCR / Choose sub-menu Recognize Text and the option In This File. Accept the defaults and click Recognize Text.
4. Click Organize Pages — Sometimes the OCR process will turn some pages from portrait to landscape orientation. I set them back to portrait orientation.
5. From the Adobe top-line menu in the top left corner of your monitor above the Acrobat program window, choose the option File / Compress a PDF. Click OK to the Reduce File Size dialogue box. In the next dialogue box, enter the new file name and select the directory where you to save your file.

Use the optimized file as you complete your project.

4 – Plan post-production for your audiobook with professionals who will edit, proof, and master your files.

Before I prep and record the book, I want to know who will be doing post-production on it. If at all possible, I recommend that you outsource the post-production tasks. If you make a mistake while narrating the book, you’re less likely to find it if you edit your recordings. The more eyes and ears you can put on your project, the better the finished audiobook will be!

You can search my directories of Editors and Proofers. Some editors perform all the services. Contact the people who meet your requirements, including budget, about scheduling your project.

5 – Start planning your cover art. You may be able to use the original cover. You also might hire a pro cover artist.

Check out my section about Cover Art on my Public Domain Narration Headquarters page for some info and options.

Be sure your cover adheres to the ACX Cover Art Requirements. These specs seem to be universal for audiobook retailers.

If you want to hire a cover artist, you can ask other narrators and authors for referrals. My referral is here.

6 – Prep your script for recording as you would any other audiobook. You also have the option to revise the text!

My article How to prep a book for recording is loaded with info and resource links to help you analyze the book, do necessary research, and make acting choices before you start recording the audiobook to fulfill the author’s intention.

Text Changes

When working on a copyrighted book from a publisher, production company, or author, narrators have no liberty to change the text. We must read the text word-for-word, with obvious typos being the exception.

However, when self-publishing a public domain book, we can change the text in any way that we want!

Since it’s public domain, the copyright has expired, meaning the text doesn’t belong to anyone. We can add, change, transpose, and remove words. We can rearrange and remove sentences. We can take out whole pages and add others. We can change character names and genders. We’re only limited by our creativity!

I decide textual changes on a book-by-book basis. Listed below are examples of changes I’ve made:

• I’ve updated some words to reflect more current usage.
• In non-fiction texts, I routinely do the research to learn and restore real women’s first names to them when they are referred to as Mrs. HusbandName. These women deserve to have and be known by their own identities and accomplishments separate from their husband. For example, if the text says “Mrs. Drew Commins”, I would change it to read “Karen Commins”.
• In one case, I surgically removed a couple of descriptive sentences from a fictional story. The author inserted her opinion demeaning certain women. I didn’t share her opinion and refused to speak those hateful words. The story flowed perfectly well without them.

If you’re distributing through ACX, remember that the audiobook still needs to be a 97% match to the text to pass QC. This means that in a 100,000-word book, you could change 3,000 words and still pass QC.

Racist Language

Narrators often ask about changing texts that contain racist language. You certainly have that option.

You may also choose to leave the offensive language in place. These 2 articles offer perspective you may find useful:

• Rebecca Lee wrote the article Modifying Text in Old Books is Form of Book-Banning. 
• PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel Criticizes Changes to Roald Dahl Novels

If you do leave the original racist language intact, include a disclaimer in your description. Here are 3 examples of disclaimers I’ve collected that you can use for reference when writing your own:

• Dreamscape Audio (Men Without Women audiobook)
• HBO Max (Gone With the Wind movie)
• Warner Brothers (cartoons)

7 – Narrate and record your book. Send your files to your post team and work with them to do pickups and complete the process.

At this point, your self-produced project is just like any audiobook you’ve performed for a publisher. You’ll schedule time to narrate the book. If this is your first audiobook, you’ll want to follow industry best practices.

8 – Transmit the finished files to your distributor(s) per their instructions. Your distributor may do QC before releasing the audiobook to retail.

This step is self-explanatory. The project’s end is in sight!

9 – Publicize your new release. Collect ALL the royalties forever! Start the process again with another book.

Congratulations! YOU MADE IT!

My Audiobook Marketing Cheat Sheet contains a treasure trove of tips and tactics to market and publicize your audiobook. For instance, I always advise people to create a Promotions Calendar to give yourself dates and reasons to promote your audiobook long past the release day.

Like anything else, the more you do something, the easier it becomes.

What are your thoughts? Please leave me a comment below!

The post Planning Your Trip to Public Domain World appeared first on Karen Commins.

A reader asked me for tips for finding newspapers and short stories in the Public Domain.

In the US, newspapers, magazines, and short stories will follow the same general copyright rules as books:

• Everything published in 1930 and earlier is Public Domain.
• Everything published in 1931 will become Public Domain on 1/1/27.
• Everything published between 1931 and 1963 might be Public Domain and requires you to do research to determine the copyright status.
• Everything published from 1964 forward is still copyrighted. You would need to license the audio rights for these publications.

Newspapers

The Library of Congress has an extensive newspaper collection in its Chronicling America archive that you can search for free.

My favorite site for newspaper research is Newspapers.com. I’m using it extensively to research a historical non-fiction book I’m writing, but you could just as easily use it to find stories that you want to record.

It’s a paid site that offers subscribers access to over 1 billion digitized pages! They have a 7-day free trial so you can test it before subscribing. I like its download features:

• you can choose between downloading the full page or a portion of the page (both are referred to on the site as “clippings”)
• you can choose either PDF or JPG format

I like to download the clipping as a JPG. The PDFs also are downloaded as images, so you’d need to run OCR on them to create editable text. For me, extracting the text from a JPG is faster than running OCR in Adobe Acrobat.

I save the download file into Evernote and then tell Evernote to transcribe the text in the image. It’s akin to modern magic! When I have the transcribed text, I can edit and reformat it into a usable recording script.

Once you download a newspaper image, you can transcribe the text in the image with your Apple iPhone, Android Phone, or on your computer. A Google search will reveal your options, including a number of 3rd party apps that also perform this function. I also have used the Tools/Text Selection feature in Apple’s Preview program and copied and pasted the text.

You could narrate and publish a single story as I did with Nellie Bly’s interview of Susan B. Anthony titled “Champion of Her Sex”.

If you know the date of a historical event, you can find newspapers that covered it. You could create an anthology of stories related to the same event.

As another idea, you might find stories from a reporter you like and make a compilation of their work or read individual pieces.

Short Stories

If you have or find a favorite author, their Wikipedia page or fan web sites might list their short stories.

I Googled short stories in the public domain and saw a number of interesting results, including Library of Short Stories. The site’s creator Evan C. Lewis, who is a short story writer himself, has formatted and categorized 1000s of short stories in the Australian Public Domain. Be aware that Australia’s laws are different from the US, so I would research the copyright status for any story on this site that I might perform.

You can also find short stories on Gutenberg.org and The Public Domain Review. Each of these links points to short stories on the site.

I like to search HathiTrust.org for all my Public Domain works because it’s a consortium of college libraries where Google has scanned their holdings.

In the late 1800s and early to mid 1900s, leading magazines like The Saturday Evening Post, Harper’s Bazaar, Collier’s, and The American Magazine featured short stories and serialized books from popular authors. You can find bound editions of these old magazines at your library and digitized on HathiTrust. You might also find old magazines on eBay and at flea markets and garage sales!

On HathiTrust, you can search for “short stories” and change the Collection to either Title or Subject.

I suggest you use the Advanced search as it will let you specify years and the language.

This comment has more info about Advanced search. This one explains how to download a book from their collection. If you’re a member of NarratorsRoadmap.com, I will be glad to download a HathiTrust book for you.

NarratorsRoadmap.com members also have access to my hand-curated collection of short stories on HathiTrust.org.

As with newspaper stories, you can create your own collection. You might build it around a theme using works from different authors or a compendium of a single author’s work.

Public Domain newspapers and short stories could be published as an audiobook or a podcast. You could even excerpt some words to illustrate graphics you share on social media. You’re only limited by your imagination how you might utilize these Public Domain works!

The post Finding Newspapers and Short Stories in the Public Domain appeared first on Karen Commins.

I received an email this week from a narrator who is considering making an offer to license the audio rights of a book. They asked me what an industry-standard offer would be.

It seems like a simple question, but it doesn’t have a simple answer.

In 2008 when I first wrote about licensing audio rights, audiobooks were not the mainstream entertainment and hot commodity that they have become. Most books were not produced in audio at that time. A literary agent suggested to me back then that an advance of $1000 might seal the deal.

Even though audio licensing deals are routine these days, an “industry-standard” offer for audio rights still doesn’t exist. It really depends on the skill of the negotiator, the book, the rights holder’s approach, and any competing offers.

Before I continue, let me point out that you will want to research the copyright status of the book. You may discover that books published in the US prior to 1963 are in the Public Domain (PD) or soon will be.

• If you find the book is already Public Domain, you can narrate and publish it now without asking anyone’s permission or owing anyone any form of compensation!
• If it will become Public Domain within a few years, I might approach the RH about hiring me, but I wouldn’t license the rights. Instead, I’d create some sort of reminder no later than June of the year preceding the book’s entry in to the Public Domain.
  • That way, you can record and produce the audiobook so that you are ready to distribute it starting 1 January the following year when the book becomes Public Domain. As an example, my farthest PD entry date at the moment is 1/1/2032, so I know that I’ll be reminded to start recording that book in the summer of 2031.
  • I keep my reminders in Evernote, but you can just as easily add them to your calendar. You could even create a new calendar to track your upcoming Public Domain projects! This article shows a picture of my color-coded calendars in iCloud.
• If the book was published in the US in or after 1964, it’s still copyrighted, so read on.

As a narrator hoping to persuade a rights holder that you should record their copyrighted book, you have 3 options to suggest and negotiate with the audio rights holder:

1. Per Finished Hour (PFH)
2. Royalty Share (RS)
3. Licensing

You must be clear which option you are pursuing and the outcome that you want to achieve BEFORE you contact the rights holder!

This article has more details about finding and contacting the rights holder.

PFH

With a Per Finished Hour (PFH) rate, the audio rights holder is simply another client who pays you to narrate — and possibly produce, as on ACX — the finished audiobook. Your payment, responsibilities, and involvement with the audiobook end once you submit the recordings and are paid for the agreed-upon work.

Royalty Share

Pros:

• You don’t incur the upfront cost of an advance.
• Your risk for low or no sales can be mitigated if the rights holder will pay some or all of your production costs upfront, e.g., with a Royalty Share+ contract on ACX. The upfront amount is usually a smaller PFH rate than your narration fee but can also be a flat amount.
• The rights holder has a vested interest in marketing the audiobook, which is not saying that they actually will do any marketing, though. If they use ACX, they would supply the cover art.

Cons:

• If you perform the work through ACX, the rights holder would own your audio after 7 years and could re-use and -sell it without any further compensation to you unless you negotiate a buy-out before the 7-year term ends.

Licensing

Pros:

• You own the copyright to your audio and your actual recordings forever.
• You can negotiate the licensing agreement to automatically extend each year unless either party chooses to cancel it.
• You have the potential to make the most money over time. You would not pay any royalties until any advance that you paid the rights holder earns out.

Cons:

• You have greater up-front expense if you must pay an advance, which means it will take longer to recoup costs and start showing a profit.
• An advance exacerbates your risk for low or no audiobook sales.
• You as the publisher are responsible for choosing the audiobook’s distribution, as well as providing the cover and all marketing of the audiobook.
• You must account for the sales and royalties due the rights holder every 6-12 months, depending on the terms of your agreement. You may wish to hire an accountant to perform these tasks, especially if you license more than one title.
• The rights holder might shop the book around to other potential producers once you’ve shown interest in it.

Licensing Considerations

Once you decide you want to license the audio rights, the first thing you need to do before approaching a rights holder is figure out how you expect to distribute the audiobook. You’ll want to include that information in your offer. The RH will want to see that you have a solid distribution plan so they have a greater comfort level in your ability to get the audiobook to market.

Next, you need to determine what your top amount for an advance would be. An advance means you pay money upfront on the royalties you expect to earn. You’re advancing the RH the percentage they’re entitled to earn on each sale. You then wouldn’t pay the RH any additional royalties until you have recouped the advance in your royalties from sales.

The higher the advance, the more copies of the audiobook you must sell in order to earn back that money and enjoy a profit.

I would not make my first offer be my best, only offer. For instance, if I was willing to pay an advance up to $1,000, I would start with an offer of much less, say from $0 to $250. I would adjust my offer based on the response received from the rights holder.

I’d want to pay a low percentage of royalties. I’d offer from 15-25% of the royalties I earn to be paid to the rights holder once any advance earns out.

Jessica Kaye noted in the APA webinar mentioned in the Resources below that 25% is a common royalty payment.

A few days after publishing this article, I read in a Facebook group for authors that Tantor offered an author a $1000 advance and 25% royalties. Audio publishers may be competing with you for audio rights to the same book.

I would also ask for usage of the same cover art and to have a licensing term as long as possible — at least 10 years. You may discover that the rights holder may not own the rights to the cover art, in which case you would need to supply your own.

You may adjust your offer more than once as you negotiate the details with the rights holder.

Other resources on this topic:

• If you’re interested in learning more detailed info about licensing audio rights, I hosted a webinar with IP attorney and Grammy-winning audiobook director Jessica Kaye. The 1.5-hour recording, transcript, and sample licensing contract are available on my Shop page. Jessica’s #1 rule about licensing negotiations bears repeating here: never fall so in love with a project that you can’t walk away from it.
• Members of the Audio Publishers Association can view the 9/15/21 webinar Audiobook Rights and How They Are Changing by logging in to the APA site, then clicking Resources, then Webinars. The speakers gave pointers for estimating a book’s revenue.
• Members of my NarratorsRoadmap.com site have access to my exclusive Audiobook Distributors Comparison Chart, which compares 9 popular distributors across 31 criteria.

Image: Negotiate by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free.org

The post What’s an industry-standard offer for audio rights? appeared first on Karen Commins.