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Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™

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6 Low-Cost Avenues For Greater Audiobook Sales

4 April 2018

megaphone with icons for marketing channels

 

Congratulations! You’ve got a brand new audiobook! It’s time to get the word out about it!

I minored in marketing while in college and have always loved to think about marketing ideas. Sandra Beckwith at BuildBookBuzz.com recently asked me a number of questions related to audiobook marketing. Our interview was posted today, and you can read it here.

A while back, I wrote 2 articles on the ACX.com blog to address this very topic. In Part One, I explained some reasons why people are resistant to listening to audiobooks. I then offered 3 ways to make your audiobooks more discoverable to an audience, including an invaluable site to use when developing a promotions calendar.

Part Two contains 4 more ways to promote your audiobooks and includes some very specific tactics about several social media sites, such as instructions about adding the audio edition of your title to Goodreads and subscribing to my Twitter list of audiobook reviewers and bloggers.

While I encourage you to mine those articles and their comments for their wealth of actionable steps, I’m excited to share these 6 low-cost avenues of audiobook promotion.

Author Mentions

The number one thing that any author can do to sell your audiobook is to consistently alert your fans that you have an audiobook available!

Any time you promote your book, make it a habit to say that the audiobook is also available.

I have been astonished and dismayed by the number of audio rights holders who use ACX to create their audiobooks but then do little or nothing to promote the finished product. The audiobook won’t sell itself!

Some narrators like me heavily promote our titles. However, narrators generally can’t spend much energy marketing any one book as we are constantly recording the next one. The author is the person who wrote the words in the book and has the fan base who most wants to know about — and is most likely to buy — an audiobook edition.

Here are some easy ways to constantly update your fans specifically about your audiobooks:

  • Write progress reports on your blog during audiobook production.
  • Add a blurb about or even a link to your audiobook in the front matter of your other editions.
  • Create a sales page on your web site specifically for your audiobooks, or add links to the audiobooks along with the print editions on your site. Include the audiobook “buy” links from Amazon, Audible, and iTunes every time you mention the book (your web site, blog, social media, interviews elsewhere, etc.)
  • Notify your email list about all new audiobook releases.
  • Conduct an audiobook event on Facebook to celebrate release day or some other occasion in your promotions calendar.
  • Host a Google Hangout On Air or a Zoom chat with your narrator and invite your fans to participate in the live stream. Fans love to have a look behind the scenes! Once the event is over, the recorded video of the Hangout is posted on YouTube. You and your narrator could then share that video on your blogs and social media sites for even more coverage.

Audiobook Boom

The popular AudiobookBoom.com site is the brainchild of  fellow audiobook narrator Jeffrey Kafer. Audiobook Boom is kind of like BookBub in that it is a paid service where authors and publishers highlight certain titles. However, Audiobook Boom is only for audiobook promotion, and the weekly email newsletters are sent to subscribers who are audiobook listeners.

You pay $10 per title for a  Listen & Review ad. If you used ACX to create your audiobook, you will automatically receive 25 Audible promo codes so you can give copies of your audiobook to eager listeners. With a Listen & Review ad, you’ll quickly receive a number of requests for your book from people who are willing to review it.

Whispersync

If you publish an edition of your book in Amazon’s Kindle format, your audiobook is eligible for the Whispersync feature. This amazing technology allows people to switch seamlessly between the Kindle ebook and the Audible audiobook.

I created a 3-minute video that demonstrates Whispersync in action.

Whispersync also increases sales of both editions. Amazon offers a discount on the audiobook if the buyer first purchases the Kindle edition. In fact, some people will buy the Kindle book simply to get the audiobook at a discount.

If you promote your free ebook on services like BookBub, you can expect to see an immediate ripple effect of sales of your audiobook edition. For instance, a recent Kindle Free ad on BookBub resulted in over 300 audiobook units sold the same day! The royalties from the audiobook sales might easily exceed the cost of the BookBub listing!

QR Codes

You’ve probably seen the square black and white boxes on coupons, in magazines, on store shelves, and on actual products. These boxes are called Quick Response, or QR, codes, and you can create a QR code on-line for free.

QR codes link to some content of your choosing on-line and can create a deeper level of engagement with a fan. People with smart phones can use an app that takes a picture of the QR code and immediately sends them to your link.

You could print the image of a QR code on a business card, postcard or flyer that you mail or hand out at your live events. If you have a print edition of your book, you could include a QR code in it.

After scanning your QR code in her phone app to read them, the recipient’s browser opens to the link you used when creating the QR code. For example, you might create a QR code link that sends people to your audiobook edition on Audible, plays the MP3 of the audiobook retail sample, or calls up the YouTube video of your Google Hangout with your narrator.

As you can see in these pictures, I have a QR code on the back of my business cards. Once scanned, my QR code will bring up my web site in the phone browser.

front of my business cardthe backside of my business card has a QR code on it

Podcasts

A podcast is defined as a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player.

With the proliferation of smart phones, podcasts are enjoying increased visibility and popularity, and they are a perfect platform for audiobook promotion!

In a Kindle Direct Publishing newsletter, author Hal Elrod, who has sold over 100,000 copies of his self-published ebook, said, “I can confidently say that the number one key to driving book sales has been securing interviews on other people’s podcasts!”

He further commented, “A great place to start is to look on iTunes in the “New and Noteworthy” section to find podcasters who are new (so they’re not inundated with requests) but are gaining a lot of momentum and listeners. Google them, go to their websites, and reach out to tell them how you and your book would add extraordinary value for their audiences!”

You can also seek out interviews on established podcasts. Harper Audio Presents usually features author interviews, even if the author was published elsewhere. In fact, you’ll find many more terrific podcast possibilities by looking in the iTunes store under Podcasts/Art/Literature.

You even can create your own podcast and host it on your web site and/or Soundcloud. For instance, my colleague Ann Richardson and I recorded each of our InD’ear columns and uploaded the recordings to our Narrators Helping Authors Soundcloud account. If you hold a Google hangout with your narrator and/or fans, you can extract the audio and repurpose it as a podcast.

Radio Shows

A podcast interview is valuable experience and can definitely drive sales, but a real radio station has many more listeners. However, unless you’re a celebrity author, the media probably won’t come looking for you. As with podcasts, you can contact local radio stations and ask to be a guest on a show.

According to morning show host Wayne Kelly, the key to booking radio interviews is that you do NOT want to approach the producers as an author promoting a book! The producer could fear booking an introverted author who would provide no value to the listeners. Instead, you would position yourself as someone who increases audience interest with your specialized insight and comments about current stories.

First, keep a list of topics covered in your book. Authors who research topics for fictional stories would develop expertise in those areas. When it’s time to publicize the book and audiobook, look for hot topics in the news which tie into your subject matter knowledge.

Google stations in your locale. You then can find them on social media and/or call the station to ask for the email address of the person who books the most interviews.

 

As you can see, you can market your audiobook with your book and as a standalone product. Want even more ideas for audiobook marketing? You’ll find them on my Audiobook Marketing Cheat Sheet! If you have questions, please leave a comment on the blog or book a personal consultation on my Shop page.

 

Most of this article originally appeared in the February 2016 issue of InD’Tale Magazine. I’ve updated some of the info and links.

 

 

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Filed Under: Audiobooks, Authors, Marketing Tagged With: Ann Richardson, audiobook, AudiobookBoom.com, BuildBookBuzz.com, Hal Elrod, Jeffrey Kafer, marketing, QR code, Sandra Beckwith, Wayne Kelly

7 Places to Learn Audio Editing for Audiobooks

21 February 2018

Pro Tools screen shot

 

In my last article for narrators, I wrote about 3 ways to become a computer super user. One piece of software that all audiobook narrators need is a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Coaches and new narrators often ask me where they can learn how to use their DAW.

The 7 options listed below in no particular order will help you learn the DAW software.

1) The Deyan Institute offers classes in Pro Tools for Production and Pro Tools for Post-Production, as well as an option for 6 hours of Pro Tools instruction.

2) Edge Studio offers webinars in Audition, Audacity, Pro Tools, Reaper, and Twisted Wave.

3) Global Voice Acting Academy has several webinars on recording and occasionally offers classes.

4)  Lynda.com is a FANTASTIC site with professionally produced video courses on Pro Tools, Audition, and Studio One, plus tons of other courses on things like WordPress, marketing, etc. Anyone can get a free 10-day trial using this (affiliate) link.You may be able to access Lynda for FREE with a library card as described in this article.

5) YouTube overflows with how-to videos for numerous DAWS. One excellent source for Studio One videos is the Red Baarns channel created by audio engineer Don Baarns. He also has created tutorials that show how to use iZotope RX products to clean up your audio.

6) Udemy.com offers a number of courses in Audacity, Adobe Audition, Reaper, and Pro Tools. I haven’t used any of these courses, but some of them look pretty comprehensive.

7) You might find a course at a local college or hire a student to teach you. For example, I took an enrichment class on Pro Tools offered on successive Saturdays at the Art Institute of Atlanta.

By the way, if you learn the basic shortcuts keys discussed in the previous article, you have a head start as they will work in your DAW!

 

Updated 4/19/18 to remove links to deleted courses on VoiceOverExtra. com and add the link to Udemy.com

Filed Under: Audio Editing, Audiobooks, Narrators Tagged With: ACX, audiobook, Charles Clerke, Deyan Institute, Don Baarns, Edge Studio, editing, Global Voice Acting Academy, Lynda.com, Udemy.com

Audiobooks Are Not Easy Money

10 January 2018

A journalist requested an interview with me last week to talk about audiobook narration, my favorite topic. I asked her to send me a list of questions and offered to write out some answers for her.

I knew this wouldn’t be a typical interview when I saw 2 questions:

  1. How much money do you make?
  2. What do you use the money for?

girl holding money and giving thumbs up

I realized that she wanted to interview people with side jobs rather than full-time occupations. It turns out that she was writing a column named “Easy Money” and was surveying multiple ways to make money that are associated with books. Her editor had seen listings on Upwork.com where people are looking for audiobook narrators and thought this job would be a good one to add.

I told her that I didn’t want to be included in her story because audiobook narration and production are definitely NOT ways to earn easy money!

As you learned in this article, narration is not as easy as reading aloud. Authors who are new to audiobooks are often shocked at the cost of production.

Also, due to the dramatic growth of the audiobook industry, authors perceive that sales for audio editions are easily made without much or any effort. I therefore thought it would be good to write an article this week about 3 financial aspects of audiobook production so authors can have realistic expectations.

[Read more…] about Audiobooks Are Not Easy Money

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Authors Tagged With: audiobook, money, royalty-share

Author Seeks Narrator: Must Love Books

6 December 2017

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

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

 

Girl holding laptop with ACX on the screen

[Read more…] about Author Seeks Narrator: Must Love Books

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Authors Tagged With: ACX.com, audiobook, indie

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.

[Read more…] about Links to Help Authors Know Their Rights

Filed Under: Authors, Links Tagged With: audiobook, authors, copyright, mechanical license, Professor William Fisher, rights, subsidiary rights

Mailbag: 6 Questions About Audio Publishing

6 June 2017

After reading my article How I Started My Audiobook Publishing Company, a couple of people recently wrote to me with questions about the process. With their permission, I am answering their questions here so more people can benefit from and join in the discussion.

Before you read further, I should state that I’m not a lawyer. I offer advice based on my experience in the audiobook industry, but anyone considering starting a publishing company may need to consult with an attorney.

 

Telisha’s Questions:

1. Does ACX accept copyright audiobooks without the author’s consent in the example of an economy book that has been in publication for 20 years and has a new edition every year which comes out and has never had an audio version.  I would love to do it. From reading your article, I would hate to have this idea usurped as the authors did in your experience.

In order to publish an audiobook, the text must either be in the public domain, or  you must have the audio rights to publish it. Authors own the audio rights to their work unless and until they assign the rights to another party. Many publishers include audio rights as part of a publishing contract for the work.

This chart shows you copyright term and the public domain in the US. The terms vary for other countries; for example, this page has info about copyright in the UK.

If the work is in the public domain, anyone can use it for whatever purpose they like. As an example, I discovered 2 related books were in the public domain, and neither had ever been recorded. I edited both books together so they followed a consistent timeline. The result was an original, derivative work for which I now hold the copyright: Bly vs Bisland: Beating Phileas Fogg in a Race Around The World. I created the Kindle book and produced and co-narrated the audiobook.

Bly vs Bisland cover art for the audiobook
Bly vs Bisland is one of my all-time favorite projects!

If the copyright is still valid on the book, you must do research to determine who holds the audio rights. It could be the author, the author’s literary agent, or a traditional publisher.

When using ACX.com to distribute the audiobook, you must first be able to claim an edition on Amazon. It doesn’t matter whether the edition is Kindle, paperback, or hardback. My article linked above gives the steps and additional info about claiming the Amazon edition when you are using a text in the public domain. The ACX process is much simpler for claiming titles still in copyright and would start with step 6 and skip step 7 in my article.

Not knowing or being able to find the rights holder does not give one permission to record and publish the audiobook! Copyright infringement can be a serious and costly mistake.

Which leads us to the next question…

 

2. How do you find out who holds the Rights on a book currently in print? Can you negotiate to buy the audio rights? Is there a better way to buy the audio rights to a book currently in print?

The research on rights can start with how the book came to your attention. If you know the author, you can ask her whether she still has the audio rights to a book.

If the work is traditionally published, you can contact the Subsidiary Rights department of the publisher. You may need to become a detective following the links in this article and/or hire a researcher.

Once you find the rights holder, you can negotiate with that party to license the audio rights.

In August 2016, I hosted a webinar with Jessica Kaye, a Grammy-winning audiobook producer/director of over 500 titles, founder of long-time audiobook distributor Big Happy Family Audio, and intellectual property attorney at Kaye & Mills. Before the webinar, I compiled a list of links to aid in researching the rights holder and distributing the finished audiobook. In the 1.5 hours of the webinar, I asked Jessica how to structure the deal and specific questions about the budget for licensing. You can buy a copy of the recording and receive my exclusive list of links for $49 on my Shop page.

 

3. What production and payment options did you choose and why? I read up on the ACX website, but wanted to get your perspective as a seasoned business owner and narrator. 

ACX forces one to select non-exclusive distribution when publishing an audiobook from a public domain text. The royalty rate is currently 25% of earnings, paid each month.

With Bly vs Bisland, I could have chosen exclusive distribution since it is an original work. Exclusive distribution gives you a 40% royalty rate, but you’re only allowed to sell the book on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes throughout the contract period. I chose non-exclusive distribution for it as well since I’d also like it to be available in libraries and places like the NY Historical Society Museum.

I’m currently producing and narrating a text for which I negotiated and licensed the audio rights. I haven’t decided if I want to distribute through ACX or another venue. If I do go through ACX, I’m leaning toward exclusive distribution for the first year to maximize the royalties paid. Like print editions, the interest in an audiobook is highest during its first year.

After the first year, section 12(A) of the ACX Book Posting Agreement states that you can write to Audible to request a change to non-exclusive distribution for titles produced under the pay-for-production model. The distribution cannot be changed for books created under a royalty share (RS) contract. As both the audio rights holder and narrator, I wouldn’t enter into an RS agreement with myself. 🙂

 

4. What was your starting out per-finished hour rate?

I’m assuming this question refers to my rate as an audiobook narrator. I completed my first audiobook for a commercial publisher in 2003. My rate was $60 per finished hour, which included editing and mastering the audio files to be retail-ready and transmitting them via DAT.

To learn more about building skills in becoming an audiobook narrator, check out this article. You’ll find more advice specific to being a producer on ACX at this link.

 

Adrian’s Questions:

5. I just finished recording an audio version of a copyrighted book that the author himself narrated and a friend of mine suggested that I start my own publishing company. I’m confused since the agreement with the author of the book was that we will publish the audiobook thru ACX and he will receive all the royalties. But now I wonder if I should use this opportunity and offer him to publish the book thru my publishing company that I want to start. Obviously all the profit on his book will be completely his.  

Can you give some advice or thought on that? 

Adrian clarified for me that:

  • he had been the sound engineer in a work-for-hire arrangement with the author
  • the author had paid him the agreed-upon fee
  • he had created an ACX account for the author to upload the files

In this instance, you have no choice but to give the author the audio files per your agreement with him. For instance, the agreement may state that you will provide the edited, mastered, retail-ready, finished product. Withholding the files definitely is a breach of contract. I also would think attempts to re-negotiate the terms of the agreement at this point violate the spirit of the agreement and could jeopardize your long-term reputation.

Assuming that the file upload wasn’t included in your contract, you could offer to upload the files to the author’s ACX account as a convenience to that person and for an additional fee. The audio rights to the work, the audio files, and the ACX account all belong to the author.

Offering the author the chance to “publish through your company” doesn’t get the author anything, and, in fact, would cost the author more because you presumably would take a commission from the royalties. Otherwise, how would you make money from this venture?

The 3 easiest ways that you could start a publishing company are:

  1. following the steps in my article to produce works in the public domain
  2. acquiring the audio rights to books as discussed in questions 1 and 2 above
  3. becoming an agent for authors who don’t want to or have time to do the casting, production, and technical aspects like uploading files, and/or for those who want to use ACX but live outside the US, UK, Canada, or Ireland.

In your position as sound engineer, option 3 seems like the best route for you. You would need to outline the services covered in your fee to potential clients BEFORE you sign an agreement.

You would need to cast qualified narrators since authors usually are not the best oral interpreters of their text. You could use the talent pool on ACX for casting. You could also use ACX for distribution or another service. You would make these kinds of decisions when developing your business plan.

As the audio publisher, you’re also responsible for marketing the audiobook, starting with its cover art. Many times, the audio publisher cannot license the cover art to the print editions and must create or obtain new artwork for the audio.

 

6. If I want to start a publishing company is it enough to make a ACX publishing account or do I need to register it somewhere else?

ACX is merely a distribution option in audiobook production. You would still need to follow rules in your state, county, and city about starting a business. You may be required to get a business license and/or file other paperwork. You also need to talk with your tax advisor about the type of business you’d run (sole proprietor, LLC, etc.), which would dictate how you’d report the taxes on the income from it.

*****

When I worked at the government, I taught many training classes. I always liked to end with this quote:

We have not succeeded in answering all our problems.
The answers we have found only serve to raise a whole set of new questions.
In some ways we feel we are as confused as ever,
but we believe we are confused on a much higher level, and about more important things. 
🙂

Obviously, we’ve just scratched the surface about considerations in audiobook publishing! If you have questions, please leave a comment, or contact me on my Shop page to set up a 30- or 60-minute personal consultation.

Updated 7/9/19

Filed Under: Audiobooks, Away From the Mic, Business, Narrators Tagged With: ACX.com, audiobook, Bly vs Bisland, copyright, public domain, publishing

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