Karen@KarenCommins.com

Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™

Narrators

3 pieces of email marketing research

When I wrote the article 5 pieces of e-mail marketing advice, I was referring to those times when you send a personal message rather than a general newsletter to your voiceover clients and prospects.

As you might expect, an e-mail newsletter has its own considerations. Since newsletters can be a great way to unobtrusively remind people that I am a voice talent, I have just started publishing a monthly newsletter. I want to share 3 things I learned in this process in case you want to create one, too.

1.  Automated software is a must.

Lately, I’ve been hearing radio ads from ConstantContact — yes, RADIO ads about email marketing! I’ve also been seeing banner ads for multiple email solutions on numerous other sites. Email marketing systems have obviously become a big business since people continue to have success in using email as part of their marketing plan.

You could send mail to your list using your own database and email client like Outlook. Another, more popular approach is to upload your database to an on-line service. Since on-line email services are so prevalent and offer an array of built-in features including templates and tracked statistics, it makes a lot of sense to use one if your finances can accommodate it. You can try the systems at no cost for a limited time or number of users in order to decide the best one for you.

Here’s some research that may help you decide which one to use.

Earlier in the year, I saw a question in a LinkedIn group in which the participants were asked for pros and cons about email marketing systems. An assistant started compiling the results for me and got through 254 of the hundreds of responses. I had no idea so many email systems exist! If you’re interested, here’s the full list from those 254 comments.

Of the 84 companies found in those first 254 responses, the top 5 companies, representing 73% of the total votes in my list, were:

ConstantContact 41 votes

iContact 23 votes

MailChimp 22 votes

AWeber 18 votes

MyEmma 11 votes

Aside from this list, you can do a Google search and quickly find a chart like this one that compares numerous features across multiple systems.

2.  Permission-based marketing is a BIG deal. A VERY BIG DEAL.

You’ve probably noticed that most emails from companies include a link to unsubscribe to mailings. That feature is mandated in the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

Beyond that law, though, people have extremely strong feelings about being added to mailings without their permission. In fact, adding someone to your mailing list without asking them first is quite the polarizing issue.

I can make this assertion after reading questions about creating mailing lists in multiple LinkedIn forums. Each time, the question elicited extremely passionate responses. I decided to create a LinkedIn poll in which I asked the question:

“When is it okay with you if someone adds 
your e-mail address to their e-mail newsletter?”
I offered several choices for answers:
  • You’re connected on LinkedIn or other sites
  • They gave you their business card
  • You have exchanged e-mail messages
  • All of the above
  • None of the above — they need permission

Of the 14 respondents, 9 voted NONE OF THE ABOVE, with ALL OF THE ABOVE being the choice of the other 5 participants.

The comments on the poll page linked above and in a similar question I asked in 2008 when I first considered a newsletter give you a good snapshot of opinions on both sides.

I decided to use iContact for my newsletter host, and I felt they went overboard on ensuring that you have permission to send the message to each contact. You have to click a checkbox in several places to validate that you have the reader’s permission.

Here’s what happened to me when I set up my contact list in the system:

  • I removed from my database a number of voiceover clients that I’ve dropped and prospects with whom I hadn’t established a relationship. In some cases, I had been out of touch with a person for 2-3 years, so I removed their names, too.
  • I uploaded my list of solid contacts from my stand-alone database.
  • I couldn’t add a name to my iContact mailing until the person confirms I have their permission, so I decided to let my contacts confirm their mailing addresses could be added to the newsletter list before sending them the newsletter.
  • iContact made me initial that I could contact the person even when I was sending the pre-addition confirmation letter! That’s a Catch-22 if ever there was one!

3.  Timing is [not] everything.

Voice talent live by the clock. Radio and tv ads need to be 15, 30, or 60 seconds. Agents need auditions at a certain time, and clients expect a fast-turnaround for recordings.

Email has its own timing. I’ve read that the best time to send your message is on a Tuesday morning. I planned for my first issue of Success Leaves Tracks to be distributed on Tuesday, 5 July.

The only problem was that I didn’t realize that I was going to hit the permission-based wall.

I thought I could add my database during the July 4th holiday weekend and have the newsletter appear in mailboxes when people returned to work on Tuesday. Nope. I needed their permission. I ended up sending out the “please confirm it’s okay to mail to you” messages on Friday, 1 July.

Let’s just say that I didn’t get quite the enthusiastic response I had hoped for!

In hindsight, I wouldn’t have sent my confirmation notices on any Friday, particularly one before a holiday weekend! I’m sure that many people deleted the message and moved on, which limits my potential to send them messages through iContact.

Even though my timing in setting up the database could have been better, I’m confident that the newsletter will find the right audience. After all, in the words of Buddha:

An idea that is developed and put into action
is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.

If you’re planning to start or are already publishing a newsletter for your voiceover business, please leave a comment on the blog!

 

Launch of “Success Leaves Tracks” Newsletter

For years, I have wanted to produce a newsletter as a gentle way to keep in touch with clients and prospects. When I started writing this blog 5 years ago, I thought it might take the place of a newsletter. However, I see now that my voiceover business can benefit from both tools.

This blog focuses primarily on topics dealing with voiceover, audiobooks, and marketing. Many of the articles are prompted from specific questions that I receive about working as a voice talent. I also have started a discussion board on Facebook where people may wish to pose these kinds of questions.

Long-time subscribers of this blog probably know that I draw inspiration from reading lots of biographies. I often find myself repeating things I’ve read while in meaningful conversation with people who are looking to make positive changes in their lives. I didn’t want to change the focus of my blog, but I still wanted some way to share inspirational stories with others.

I wasn’t sure that a newsletter would fit the bill. Most marketers would probably say that the purpose of a newsletter is to keep readers informed about your product and services. To me, this viewpoint seems self-indulgent when marketing myself and my services as a voice talent. Just as I don’t fill my blog with entries about my voiceover projects, I don’t want to create a newsletter with that kind of content, either.

Instead, I want to offer something that people would want to read, something they would actually look forward to receiving each month, like they did when I sent postcards in the mail.

You see, I would would highlight a successful, famous person who had nothing to do with voiceover. I loved picking a person and doing some research about them. Then, I would write about their accomplishments and include some of their best quotations on the postcard. People actually called and emailed me to tell me they appreciated the mailing. I stopped the postcard mailings due to the ever-increasing printing and postage costs associated with mailing to a large database.

I don’t know why it took me so long, but the lightbulb finally went on — why not publish a monthly newsletter using the same general idea so that it serves as a virtual postcard?!

And so I am, starting with the inaugural issue of Success Leaves Tracks, to be published today.

In addition to a short biography, the newsletter will include a Success Track that may help you on your path to success. If it sounds interesting to you, I invite you to sign up for the mailing list from my Facebook page. If you don’t receive the July issue, you’ll be able to find it in the newsletter archives.

Now that I’ve told you about my newsletter, my next post will provide some info I learned that may be useful to you if you intend to include a newsletter in your marketing mix.
 

Simple math about audiobook rates

Last updated 2/7/21

 

My email inbox continues to provide fodder for blog articles. Last week, someone sent me this question:

I’ve been asked to record a 200 page audiobook. I’m not in a union or guild. I do have some voiceover experience. What do you recommend I charge?

Original Answer

While the question you asked seems simple, the answer requires more explanation, as found in this blog post and the one from Paul Strikwerda linked within it.

As basic info, you need to know the WORD count, not the page count, of the book you would narrate. You can figure out the finished run-time based on the word count. For instance, Audible uses an average rate of speed of 155 words a minute, or 9300 words per finished hour.

Paul’s article shows you a formula to calculate finished time. My article shows you how to calculate the real time required for editing to produce the book. As Paul points out in his comment to my article, you also need to add time for preliminary research.

You’ll have to consider all of these factors about the time commitment along with your experience, relationship with the client, training, and studio equipment to determine a rate that is fair compensation.

Small publishers only pay $50-100 per finished hour. I would only perform an audiobook at that very low rate if I wanted to build commercial credits.

I hope these thoughts are helpful. Best wishes for your continued success!

New Answer (WARNING: MATH IS INVOLVED!)

Apparently, I overwhelmed this person with good information that would require her to actually do some research because she re-posted her question on a voiceover forum within an hour of receiving my reply.

Here’s the simple mathematical formula for solving this problem:

1.  Divide the word count of the book by your rate of speech per hour to get the estimated number of finished hours. If you don’t know your rate of speech, Audible uses 9300 words per hour, or 155 words per minute (WPM), in its calculation for books posted on ACX. Your actual rate of speech and finished time may vary significantly from the estimate due to the complexity of the text and your acting choices.

Some narrators have reported that using 9000 words per hour (or 150 wpm) is a better average rate for more people. If you’ve done some projects where you were given a word count, divide the word count by your finished time to learn your average words-per-minute rate of speech.

If you don’t have the word count available, you can estimate the finished time by following these steps:

Let’s say you a have a 300-page book. To estimate finished time, start a stopwatch as you read 3-5 representative pages aloud as if narrating. Keep going when you have errors, and stop your timer when you’re done.

Divide the time you obtained doing the sample read by the number of pages in the sample to get the average time to read each page. For instance, if it takes you 10 minutes to read 5 pages, your average time per page would be 2 minutes per page. (10 / 5 = 2)

Multiply the total pages in the book by your average reading time per page from your sample read to see the total estimated minutes. (300 * 2 = 600 minutes)

Divide the total number of minutes in the previous step by 60 to get the finished hours. (600 / 60 = 10 finished hours)

Real life examples usually aren’t so tidy with whole numbers. You find it helpful to use a decimal-to-time calculator with your finished hours figure to see the minutes and seconds.

2.  Multiply the number of finished hours by 6. This number is a very conservative estimate of the number of real-time hours you and your team will spend in recording, editing, and transmitting your book.  For instance, a 10-hour book may require at least 20 and, if you are doing your own editing (which I don’t recommend — instead, outsource it), 60 or more hours of your life from the time you record the first word until the last byte is uploaded or mailed to the client.

The general breakdown of hours for experienced narrators is:

Recording: 2 hours for 1 finished hour

Editing: 3 hours for 1 finished hour

Proofing: 1.2 hours for proofing

Note that preparing to read (pre-reading the book, looking up pronunciations, etc.) is NOT included in this calculation, so you will need to add time for that process.

3.  Multiply the real-time hours by the hourly rate of pay you need to survive. Chances are very good that you will come up with a pay rate for this audiobook that is $1000s MORE than your client wishes to pay. You have to decide how to negotiate a rate acceptable to both of you.

Even with this formula in hand, you still will want to research current audiobook rates. Be aware that the SAG/AFTRA union minimum on ACX is $250 per finished hour. which is an all-inclusive rate. If you are producing the retail-ready project, you need to factor in costs for an editor and proofer as you will pay those out of your PFH rate. (Each publisher has negotiated contracts with SAG/AFTRA, and only the ACX rate is publicly available. The narration rate with other publishers varies.) If you want tips for negotiating a higher price, check out my article Cruising for a competitive advantage

Once you know the amount of time you’ll invest in the project and the amount of money you need to get for your time, you’ll know whether to accept an audiobook project.

For instance, I would voice a royalty-share book only if I’m willing to bet that based on from the book’s ratings and reviews that I would earn back my fee over time. Otherwise, I might do a RS book if I were passionate about the topic and had the time available for the project. I’m much more interested in a hybrid arrangement of a PFH payment up-front and a RS contract. On ACX, this type of arrangement is called a Royalty Share Plus contract.

It’s always good to be working and gaining credits if your survival needs are being met.

If you have more thoughts on this topic or questions on other topics related to voiceover, marketing, or just living your best life,, I’d love to get your comments on the blog!

Photo:  iStockPhoto.com/STEVECOLEcc

Creating promo videos with public domain components part 2

Yesterday, I posted part 1 of this topic, in which up-and-coming voiceover talent Linda Velwest asked about the legalities of using images that she found on-line within the audiobook trailer she wanted to create. Even though she is only using her trailer for promotional purposes, she might not be able to use images and music found on-line due to the owners’ copyrights.

As promised, today’s entry is the rest of the story. In addition to seeing her terrific audiobook trailer created with public domain components, you can benefit from Linda’s list of sites of public domain images and music.

Hi Karen, 

Thanks for your note. When I started working on the video, I just started looking up pictures on the internet. Then I got concerned about stealing other people’s work and I got a little obsessed about stealing! You were very clear in your blog that you wanted other people to think about doing the same thing you did, but I was all paranoid! 

So, here it is!

I found a lot of resources for public domain pictures and pictures where it is very clear how to contact the person who has rights to them and what you need to do if you want to use them:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources

http://creativecommons.org/

The music I got from:
http://www.oldradioworld.com 

You can certainly share my emails on your blog – it would be an honor. Thanks again for your inspiration.

Linda Velwest

 
As Linda pointed out, finding images and music that are truly in the public domain and free of copyright restriction can be a tricky matter. Cornell University has created a very helpful Copyright Information Center which can help you navigate the copyright maze. In particular, this comprehensive chart lists dates that will help you figure out if something is in the public domain.

With so much material available in the public domain, I’m sure that more voice talent will create our own promotional videos instead of only narrating them for others! I’d love to hear from you if you have created or plan to create a promotional video using elements in the public domain, so leave your comments and video links on the blog!
 

Creating promo videos with public domain components part 1

Recently, I had a wonderful e-mail exchange with up-and-coming voice artist Linda Velwest about creating a promotional video. Linda kindly gave me permission to repost her messages here on the blog so that others can benefit from this discussion.
 

Hi Karen,

I’ve been following your blog and I’ve been voluteering at librivox. My name there is lindavw. I just finished recording my first solo project and I’m waiting for it to be PL’d. I saw the trailer you made for your Alaska book and it inspired me to think about doing one for the book I just did! I hope you don’t mind me stealing your idea! It’s a good one. 

The book I read is a short YA book from the 1930’s about these girls who are in college and their adventures during their sophomore year. I was going to make a video with me talking about the book, maybe taking some lines from the book, and having a slideshow of colleges and college students from that time as the visual on the video.

I looked up on the internet and found a bunch of pictures of college students from that era. I found some great pictures from a variety of sources – some college handbooks that have pictures of their history, some pictures of movie starts of the time, some cool old pictures I also looked up the legality of using pictures in a video. And I’m kind of confused so I was hoping you could answer my questions or point me in the direction of sources that can. 

I am not a voice actress at this time. I’m taking classes, getting coaching and practicing all the time. But I’ve never actually been paid for anything. If I do make this video, I’ll post it around and use it as a way to promote myself and get my name out there. But I have no intention of getting paid anything for the book or the video. 

I think of it like a school project where I’m preparing to enter the workforce by dong things as similar to how a professional would do it as possible. I don’t want to do anything illegal or unethical and I don’t know what the boundaries are. 

Thanks for your inspiration and any help you can give me.

Linda Velwest

Here’s my response, with some formatting and highlighting added for readability.

Greetings, Linda! Thanks so much for the nice note; you made my day! I love the line in your last paragraph about preparing to enter the workforce. So many people dash off the question to me “I have been told I have a nice voice. How do I get started in voiceover?” without any thought or perusal of the wealth of info on my web site. It’s so refreshing to hear from someone who is working at building her skills and taking a methodical — and wise — approach to starting a new career. Bravo!

I’m delighted that you liked my book trailer and want to create one of your own. Not only do I not mind that you are using this idea, I expected and encouraged people to do so in this blog post.

As you’ll read in the comments, one voice talent used the idea to create a trailer for a local art exhibit and landed inquiries about creating a similar one for pay. Video is a very effective marketing technique! 

Also, take some cues from that article about ways to spread the video, as well as publicize your book. My book has been in the catalog for 1 week and has already been downloaded more than 500 times because I have been promoting it.

Think of the target audience for the book or how it might relate to a group of people, and you can figure out some places where those people hang out on-line. For instance, I posted the info and link to my book in the Alaska forum on CruiseCritic.com because it’s Alaska cruise season, and many people like to take audiobooks on a trip, particularly if it relates to their destination.

I really don’t have a lot of specific info I can share about picture copyrights. Generally, pictures on the Internet or in magazines, books, and papers are protected by copyright. You wouldn’t be able to use them or a derivative of them legally without permission of the owner. In gaining permission, you might have to pay a usage fee or royalties.

The same is true of music. You couldn’t use something from your own CD collection or off the web. I’ll come back to the music in a minute.

Most of the pictures in my video were from the public domain book I narrated, along with 1-2 that my husband took on our Alaskan cruise. As the photographer, he owns the copyright to those pictures and kindly granted me usage of them.

However, I also used some images from iStockPhoto.com, which is one of many on-line sites of stock images that you CAN use in your own work. Photographers and videographers upload their work to these sites. You purchase a picture or video clip, and a usage license comes with it. I’ve also bought and used these pictures in my blog.

The music in my video was from a royalty-free collection of CDs that I have purchased. You can buy royalty-free music on-line by song, CD, or collection. As with the images, it may take some time to hunt down just the right thing.

Since you’ve found images that you like, you can always write to those people and request their permission to use it. They may say yes or no, or they may ignore you completely.

Sometimes the copyright owner will surprise and thrill you with their response. In chapter 12 of my book, the author included the chorus lyrics from a Stephen Foster song “Old Black Joe”, and she described the setting for it. I first planned to sing the song in the narration (I did that with another Victorian song in the book), but I didn’t know the melody.

In researching it, I found a rendition on iTunes that captured the scene to perfection. While the song is in the public domain, and therefore free of copyright restrictions, the performance of it is NOT public domain. The artist has the copyright on the performance.

It was so perfect, and I really wanted to use it in my book.

I found the artist on Facebook and sent a message to him. Not only did he immediately grant me permission to use the snippet, but he offered to help me promote it with Facebook ads! He quite clearly told me that he didn’t care of someone lifted the song out of the book and used it for something else. His purpose in recording it was to reawaken interest in these old songs.

[Important note: Since LibriVox dedicates all recordings to the public domain, anyone could lift your free book and sell it without sharing the revenue with you. See the excellent discussion on Some Audio Guy’s blog about this potential downside to volunteering on this or any other site that leaves your recordings in the public domain.]

[I uploaded the pertinent 1:08 section of the chapter with music if you’d like to hear it.] I am proud of the way it turned out!

I hope these thoughts are helpful. Send me the link to your video when you finish it; I’d love to see it! Best wishes for your health, success, and prosperity!

 

Linda responded with a great list of sites where you can obtain images and music that are in the public domain for use in your own creative pursuits. She also shared her very cool audiobook trailer. All of these goodies will be in part 2 of this topic, which I’ll post tomorrow. Hope to see you here!
 

Reasons to Create Your Own Stuff — Part 2

Earlier this year, I wrote a popular article titled Reasons to Create Your Own Stuff. In it, I described the audiobook that I narrated for LibriVox and included a link to the book trailer I created to promote the audiobook. I also listed some of the marketing plans I had for the audiobook and trailer among my reasons to create my work in this way.

Two bonus reasons to create your own stuff prompted me to circle back to this topic today:

1) My FREE, 10.5-hour audiobook of A Woman Who Went to Alaska is now available for download from LibriVox or through iTunes as shown on this page.

Bonus reason #1 to create your own stuff:

Copywriters have known for years that the word FREE is one of the most powerful and compelling words in the English language. If you can give away something valuable for free, you can get the widest range of potential buyers to sample your products, which in this case, includes my voice and interpretation, my audiobook production skills, my ability to write an effective script for a video, and my creativity in video production.

2) Rajkumari from Mumbai, India, left a comment on my post 10 ways to get work in audiobook narration, noting that an audiobook culture is not prevalent in India. When I responded, I said, “If the audiobook culture doesn’t exist there, perhaps it’s up to you to create it!”

As I wrote that sentence, I was reminded of the important passage quoted below from Eckhart Tolle’s incredible and highly-recommended book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose:

Bonus reason #2 to create your own stuff:

If the thought of lack — whether it be money, recognition, or love — has become part of who you think you are, you will always experience lack.

Rather than acknowledge the good that is already in your life, all you see is lack. Acknowledging the good that is already in your life is the foundation for all abundance.

The fact is: Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world. You are withholding it because deep-down you think you are small and that you have nothing to give.

Try this for a couple of weeks and see how it changes your reality: Whatever you think people are withholding from you — praise, appreciation, assistance, loving care, and so on — give it to them. You don’t have it? Just act as if you had it, and it will come.

Then, soon after you start giving, you will start receiving. You cannot receive what you don’t give. Outflow determines inflow.

Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you already have, but unless you allow it to flow out, you won’t even know that you have it.

I have found this passage to be true of past voiceover jobs. In fact, Tolle’s message was an underlying reason I decided to spend time narrating an audiobook as a service project. You see, I hadn’t narrated an audiobook in a while. So, rather than feeling like an audiobook gig was being withheld from me, I gave this one to the world.

It feels great to be able to give!

What do you think of Tolle’s assertion that you should give that which you think is withheld from you? Does it apply to your voiceover career or any other part of your life? I’d love to get your comments on the blog!