Karen Commins

Links to Help Authors Know Their Rights

9 September 2017

Last updated 12/18/20

My fellow narrators and I often contact authors about creating audiobooks of their books. Many times, the author tells me that her publisher has the audio rights, or she isn’t sure who owns them.

Authors could make more money by exercising as many subsidiary rights as possible for each book, especially the audio rights. The audiobook industry is on a 3-year trend of double digit growth that shows no sign of slowing.

If you have your audio rights, you could contract with a narrator or producer to create an audiobook. You also could choose to license your audio rights to a publisher or producer. The trade-off is that you earn more royalties if you retain your rights and contract with a narrator or producer. When you license your rights, your royalty rate is lower because someone else is managing the audiobook production process.

I’m posting this list of links about rights so that more authors can get their books into audio.

Links to Help Narrators Research Rights Holders to Books

9 September 2017

Last updated 31 December 2025

I’m not a lawyer, but I have voiced an attorney in multiple audiobooks. Just because an author has passed away or isn’t easily discoverable, or the book is out of print, doesn’t mean you’re free to create the audiobook of her book!

Before you can record an audiobook, you must do due diligence to determine whether the book is in the public domain or still under copyright. When a work is still under copyright, the rights holder is the person or company that owns the audio rights to the book. The rights holder (RH) will receive the royalties from the sale of the audiobook.

If the book is still copyrighted, the RH could retain the audio rights and hire you as an independent contractor to produce the audiobook. You also could license the audio rights and become the rights holder. If you’re interested in this second option, I highly recommend you purchase my webinar with attorney and audiobook producer/director/distributor Jessica Kaye on this topic using the link on my Shop page.

The links on this page will help you understand the copyright laws in the US and UK and do your research to determine whether a book is in the public domain or find the rights holder for books still under copyright. By the way, members of my site NarratorsRoadmap.com have access to an exclusive video where I demonstrate how to use some the sites listed below. I also offer members a number of links not listed here, including some collections of potential public domain books I found on HathiTrust.org.

The Still Small Voice

7 August 2017

If you’ve read my articles about Barry Manilow (here and here), you probably suspect that music is an important part of my life. Did you know that I also play music? I ask your indulgence while I write about music for a few minutes. I promise that I do have a point that relates not only to audiobook narration, but to living the life of your dreams.

Introduction and Exposition

I started piano lessons when I was in second grade. My brother was taking them, and I thought I should do that, too. (By the way, I feel blessed that my parents gave me the gift of a musical education so early in my life.)

In fifth grade, I took up clarinet as part of the school band. I don’t remember deciding I wanted to play the clarinet. I wanted to be in the band, and I think perhaps the band teacher suggested it for me.

While I was in sixth grade, I decided to learn guitar because someone I sort of competed with was playing guitar. Admittedly, competition probably is not a good reason to start anything. I didn’t know then that I don’t have to prove myself to anyone. When the school orchestra needed a string bass player during my seventh grade year, I accepted the challenge and learned to play string bass.

Eighth grade saw me add 2 more instruments to my list: oboe and flute. The band director asked me if I would like to switch from clarinet to oboe. Yes, please! Playing oboe gave me to a chance to stand out. Why be one of 10 or 15 clarinetists when I could be the only oboist?

The flute was different. Rather than playing an instrument because someone else thought I should play it, I wanted to play the flute because it was lovely both in sound and appearance.

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

How to Avoid 3 Costly Mistakes on ACX

21 June 2017

In my Feb. 2016 article 6 Low-Cost Avenues for Greater Audiobook Sales in InD’tale Magazine, I suggested to authors that they look for podcasts and seek interviews on shows that are a good fit for their book. I was delighted to read a case study today on the ACX.com blog about Glen Tate’s success with appearing on podcasts and selling more audiobooks as a result.

However, his persistent promotion of his audiobook editions is only one part of his success. Even more important is the fact that he avoided 3 costly mistakes that many authors make when using ACX.