Hi, Lori! I generally know the players in Audiobook World, so it’s meaningful that I had never heard of the Mikkelson twins before I read your message.

A quick Google search convinces me that you are wise to be skeptical. Just the first post in this informative Reddit thread tells me all I need to know about their “process” to advise you to RUN!

Sure, you can hire ghost writers, narrators, and cover artists on the cheap to produce low quality audiobooks. The question is: why would you want to? Audiobooks are not published just to be a passive income stream! Real people buy and listen to them and therefore have certain expectations about how they should be.

Any audiobook needs visibility to generate sales, and gaining that visibility requires marketing and promotion. My Audiobook Marketing Cheat Sheet offers a wide range of tactics and ideas that require time and sometimes money to implement.

Consumers return audiobooks that don’t measure up. Audible will actually claw back the royalties paid out for a sale if the return is made in the first week after release. Any initial income made on a crappy audiobook produced using the Mikkelson approach is likely to evaporate quickly.

Aside from all of that or anything anyone else has written, if they’re so good and knowledgeable about producing and selling audiobooks, why are their own books not in audio?

Exactly.

If you want to find some quick money, do the 50 Ways Exercise explained in this article.

I hope this info helps. Best wishes for your success!

Karen

Hi, Rhonda! I’m glad you found the article to be helpful.

As I stated in the article, if you choose to publish your audiobook through ACX on an exclusive contract, you can change to non-exclusive after 1 year.

If you are exclusive, you are prohibited from selling copies of your audiobook on your web site or on CD at events.

However, ACX is not your only choice for a distributor. You should compare offerings from FindawayVoices.com, SpokenRealms.com, and AudiobooksUnleashed.com. In addition to royalty rates, some of the things you’ll want to consider are:

— frequency of payment
— frequency of sales updates
— promotional support
— whether your publisher name is used
— your goals for distribution — since you’re a speaker who sells your books at your engagements, would you sell CDs at your events? If so, how would you get them made?

The pros and cons for each distributor are too detailed to cover in this response.

If you’d like to discuss options, I am available for 30- or 60-minute paid consultations, which can be booked through the “Rent My Brain” link on my Shop page.

Best wishes for your continued health, prosperity, and success!

Karen

My first thought was to submit Exclusive Distribution with the 40% royalty. However after reading your post I’m rethinking that option. I am a public speaker and sell books at my speaking engagements––like LOTS of books at my engagements. So I’m wondering if it’s in my best interest to publish the audio book Non-Exclusive and take the 25%?

I am SO new to this and don’t want to commit to something that I’m not able to change at a later date. I was under the impression from ACX application that whichever option I choose I cannot change it down the road. Although your post seems to suggest I can make the change in a year?

Any insights you can share with me would be most appreciated!

Thank you in advance
Rhonda
NoRegretsWoman.com

Hi, Petrea! I’m glad you found the info to be useful. Thanks for stopping by the blog.

Karen