Don’t take my word for it. This sampling of a dozen recent articles about the phenomenal and continuous growth in the audiobook industry will prove my point.

9/30/17   Audiobook Revenues Up Again

9/23/17   How Audiobooks Are Becoming an Art Form Unto Themselves

9/12/17   Why Audiobooks are the new Netflix

9/11/17   Audiobook Sales Increased by 29.6% in the First 4 Months of 2017

7/31/17   5 Reasons Audiobook Sales Are Booming And How You Can Be Part Of This Growth

7/15/17  Audiobook Metrics and Statistics for 2017

6/7/17     Audio Publishers Association: Third Year of Strong US Audiobook Sales Growth

5/5/17     Audio Publishing’s Digital Boom

3/31/17   America’s unhealthy obsession with productivity is driving its biggest new reading trend

12/18/16 Global Audiobook Trends and Statistics for 2017

7/21/16   The Fastest-Growing Format in Publishing: Audiobooks

1/30/16   Audiobooks Have Begun to Outsell Print

You’ll find additional press coverage on the Audio Publishers Association’s site.

Even MORE Money

Audiobook royalties represent a new income stream for you. In addition, your audiobook might increase sales of your Kindle ebooks due to the wondrous Whispersync technology.

As I noted in this article:

In 2012, Amazon and Audible announced Whispersync for Voice, a technology that allows users to seamlessly switch between the Kindle ebook and the Audible audiobook. They also could enjoy an immersive experience of simultaneous reading and listening.

To ensure its customers would purchase both editions of the same book, Amazon discounts the price of the audiobook after the Kindle book is purchased, and audiobook aficionados take advantage of the combo deal. In fact, many actively look for free or inexpensive Kindle books just so they can get the audiobook at a cheaper price.

If you haven’t seen Whispersync in action, you’ll want to watch this 3:03 demonstration video.

Once you decide you’re ready to get your work into audio, my Audiobook Resources for Authors will help you learn about the audiobook production process. Questions? Please leave me a comment!

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The post Are You Leaving Money on the Table? appeared first on Karen Commins.

Beccy’s bio:

I’ve always been a reader, my world is not right without a book.

I live in an old cottage on 3 acres in rural Tasmania along with our two Jack Russell terriers who are my constant companions, my husband and a few chooks. I was born and raised in Cornwall in the U.K., and before moving here we lived in New Zealand for a few years (plus a few other places). Injury caused me to retire a bit earlier than planned, I worked as a RN and gained my masters degree to work in nurse education.

I enjoy crafts but am not much good at any of them though I’m not too bad at making crocheted lace. I cook a bit and grow a few veggies, I love lava lamps, essential oils and tie-dye, bit of an old hippy really.

10 Questions For Bec

1. When did you start listening to audiobooks?

I can’t really recall, probably when libraries first introduced books on CD for loan, I’d listen on my Walkman until it broke. Then, three years ago I was given an iPad, first thing I did was join Audible and download the app. I also listen to audiobooks from the library via the Overdrive app.

2. What prompted you to start writing audiobook reviews?

I often forget what I’ve actually read, so I began cataloging my books on Goodreads, it just went from there. I’ve always used reader reviews as a guide to choosing a book, and leaving a review is also a small way of thanking an author. By having my own review blog I hope I also make a minor contribution to the promotion of books.

3. Where do you write your reviews? If it’s a public place, why did you choose it? If it’s at home, describe the room and/or stuff on your desk. A picture would be fabulous!

Always at home, I rarely go out, I’m not a total recluse, just almost! Even if I did go out I would far rather just people watch.

I’m not able to sit in a chair for long,(bad back, just like practically every other ageing nurse) so I work from my bed, just like Mae West! I work entirely on an iPad so I don’t need a desk, there’s not much to see I’m afraid.

4. How do you decide whether to read a book or listen to it? Do you ever do both for the same book?

The choice is quite easy for me, I will read a book if I know I shall want to dip into it again for information, or if it has a useful glossary or references. I see no point at all in buying a cookery book in audio form. Other books I prefer to read are those that benefit from being illustrated like travel and gardening books. Recently I’ve been buying the Whispersync audiobook/Kindle combination. It’s so useful for checking up on unusual names, or, when listening to a more complex story – saves all that rewind business.

5. Do you have a go-to genre?

Yes I do! Just a few years ago I picked up a murder mystery from the library and was hooked. I enjoy police procedurals, British for preference, I like the American P.I. type stories, historical crime, oh, and I love to have a good series to follow. I also love a darned good humorous cozy mystery.

6. What is your review policy? Do you accept review requests from narrators?

Judging by some of the requests I’ve been receiving I think it’s time I reviewed my policy, or maybe it’s just that nobody reads it. I don’t accept erotica, or anything shape shifting or vampire like. I dislike legal thrillers and James Bond type books. Horror is out as is anything dark, evil or psychologically disturbing. I’m really not keen on books with sex scenes, even moderate ones as they always seem a bit farcical to me, and let’s be honest, it’s all been said before.

I read all requests, some are from narrators, a few from authors or their assistants, but these days I am picky, I had some awful listens in the early days when I didn’t know how to say no.

7. Describe how you approach your reviews. Do you have different criteria for different genres?

Let me say first and foremost, one thing I have learned is that the British sense of humour is often not internationally appreciated! On occasion, some remarks I’ve written have been misunderstood or worse, taken for rudeness so I’m more restrained these days.

In my reviews I always include the book cover of course, along with the usual details, and yes, I do include the publishers summary, mainly because it saves me the job and I can just get on with the review, besides, they are far better at précis than me.

I suppose I do use a genre specific criteria, but in a very loose way, for example, a ludicrous plot might be quite acceptable in a humorous cozy mystery but totally unacceptable in a serious police procedural.

I’m not a writer nor am I a book critic so I don’t use literary jargon, not that I know what much of it means anyway, I just write as a reader reviewer and it’s all about telling people why I did or didn’t enjoy a book. Put quite simply, that means I might expand a little on the storyline and the characters, and if a book evokes a particular response in me then I attempt to describe that too.

If I dislike a book I say what it is I disliked and try to explain why, quite often I seem to go against the tide of popular opinion but I don’t allow other people’s ratings to affect my own. I really dislike a book containing long information dumps or, even worse, a lengthy denouement. Nevertheless, I do try to find something good to say about every book I review, if I dislike it so much that I can’t even finish it then I just don’t post a review.

I find the most difficult reviews to write are about books I’ve really loved, and that’s because my lack of writing skills means I don’t do the author justice.

I always finish up with a few comments on the recording quality and narrators performance, after all, it is an audiobook! I’m always left feeling a bit puzzled at reviews with no mention of the narrator. The comments usually include the usual remarking on voice, clarity, cadence and suchlike. However, the hardest quality to convey is that “undefinable something”. That certain little thing that keeps us coming back for more. I like to think that those narrators come from a long line of storytellers and are continuing a tradition.

8. Do you multitask when listening to books? If yes, what else do you do while you listen, and how does listening to books affect the other activity?

I listen when I prepare and cook dinner, sometimes if a book is really interesting I spend far longer in the kitchen than is strictly necessary.

I’ll listen when I crochet which is not a good idea, the more interesting the book the more I have to rip back my crochet mistakes and start again.

If I’ve remembered to charge my phone I’ll use that to listen in the garden. I know some people listen at work, I wouldn’t be able to do that as I’d be concentrating on the book rather than work.

I’ve never listened to audiobooks whilst driving because I become too engrossed in stories, I’d probably get lost!

9. Looking back through the reviews you’ve written, please share the link(s) of 1-3 that were favorites of yours and explain why they are special to you.

http://audiothing.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/a-song-from-dead-lips.html

This is the first book in the Breen and Tozer series, it’s special to me because the setting is London during the 1960s, when I was a teenager so there’s the nostalgia factor. The storytelling is brilliant, William Shaw is one of my favourite authors of all time,

https://audiothing.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/think-of-number-dave-gurney-book-1.html

I found writing the review for this one very difficult. Despite it being book which received both critical acclaim and many 5 star reader reviews, I disliked it. This is how I review such books.

https://audiothing.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/i-want-to-be-dixie-diva.html

This book is special because it introduced me to The Dixie Divas, a cozy series unmatched by any other I have read. Above all other reasons for loving is that it made me laugh, really laugh at a time when I especially appreciated it.

10. As a narrator, I sometimes feel I have a spiritual connection to some of the characters in the books. If you were a character in a novel, who would you be, and why?

Oh Karen, I don’t know! I could, I suppose, be my namesake, Daphne du Mauriers’ “Rebecca”, but then again, she didn’t have much of a role did she?

I quite like the idea of being Phrynne Fisher, from the Kerry Greenwood novels, she’s a little bit fabulous, but then, the dentists didn’t have lignocaine back then.

I shall be Jessica Fletcher! From the Murder She Wrote series, Donald Bain writes novels based on that series so it counts. Jessica is clever, travels extensively staying in beautiful hotels. She lives in a gorgeous house near the ocean, she doesn’t seem to have money worries nor is her life complicated by those bothersome romantic interests.

Connect with Bec on these sites:

Blog: audiothingblogspot.com.au
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/27051141-bec-audiothing
Audible: http://tiny.cc/Audiblereviews
Facebook: http://tiny.cc/Facebook-books
Twitter: https://twitter.com/audiothingbooks

Thanks, Beccy, for joining me today and giving us a peak inside your world!

Do you have a question for Beccy? Please leave a comment!
 

The post Interview with Audiobook Blogger Beccy Stokes appeared first on Karen Commins.

Last fall, I spoke at the Georgia Romance Writers annual conference to help authors get started with creating audiobooks. I recently created a 41-minute video from that presentation which:

• explores the audiobook landscape (beginning at 2:43)
• explains reasons every author should produce audiobooks of their books (beginning at 7:23)
• demonstrates Amazon Whispersync capability between an audiobook and Kindle ebook (beginning at 10:19)
• offers specific tips about ways to write with audio in mind (beginning at 12:09)
• advises the viewer about the audiobook production process and gives concrete information about using ACX.com to create an audiobook, including payment for production costs and distribution options (beginning at 22:04)

If you have questions or comments about the video or the audiobook production process, please leave a note for me on the blog!
 

The post Setting Sail In Audiobooks: A Video For Authors appeared first on Karen Commins.

One of my mentors, who is a prolific and award-winning audiobook narrator, advised me that it’s better to be working on spec than to be idle. Working on spec enables you to build your portfolio and hone your craft as a narrator.

As a result, I now use royalty share audiobooks from ACX to fill holes in my schedule. You may find that certain audio publishers also want to pay in a royalty share agreement. All of my experience with royalty share work is through ACX, so all of my comments below pertain to that system.

If you have no experience in doing audiobooks, you might want to first volunteer your time. When I restarted my audiobook career, I first recorded a book for LibriVox. I outlined the many reasons and advantages of this project in my post Reasons to Create Your Own Stuff. Note that one big advantage in volunteering is that you will be able to figure out your most efficient workflow — i.e., learning how to punch-in — under no time pressure while simultaneously adding to world literacy.

The one big downside with doing a LibriVox book is that anyone can use your work — including those who harvest your recordings to train AI speech — without compensating you because you donate the completed audiobook to the public domain. Juan Carlos Bagnell wrote an excellent article on his blog about this practice. My LibriVox audiobook A Woman Who Went to Alaska is routinely offered for sale on eBay. I no longer recommend that people volunteer to record for LibriVox.

Instead, I highly encourage you to volunteer to read for your state’s reading service for the blind or Learning Ally to gain and improve skills, as well as provide a needed service to the world.

Also, even if you are a trained actor, you’ll want to watch this video for more info about ACX and a free performance coaching session from Pat Fraley, Scott Brick, and Hillary Huber.

Method

First, you should know that creating an audiobook requires a significant investment of time. As a conservative rule of thumb, an experienced narrator/team will need 6 hours in real time to produce 1 finished hour of audio, from pre-read to file upload. The amount of time needed will vary by a number of factors, including the type of text (some require more pronunciation research than others), the narrator’s experience level, whether the narrator is outsourcing editing and proofing, etc.

Therefore, be sure to pick a book you love as you will be spending a lot of time with it. Audition for any title that interests you and for which your voice and skills are a good fit, but choose carefully!

I used to hold off on doing auditions, thinking that several offers might come at once. More often than not, though, the rights holders can be very slow to make a selection and do not communicate with narrators/producers at all during the process. Now I audition routinely as each audition allows me to continue developing my storytelling skills by reading different authors and genres.

Still, I try to stack the odds of snagging a great book more in my favor by doing additional research before submitting an audition.

You can ask the rights holder how many copies are sold each month in other formats. One of my narrator colleagues won’t consider voicing a royalty share book unless the print sales are equal to at least 1,000 copies a month. However, the print sales aren’t always a good predictor of the sales for an audiobook. Just like the stock market, past performance of a book is no indicator of future sales.

Whether doing a book in a royalty share deal or pay per finished hour, I’ve found it very helpful to read the reviews of the book even before doing the audition. Many times the reviewers will point to a TV show or movie. These hooks into popular culture give you valuable insight as you develop your characterizations and performance. Reviewers also point out things like incorrect word usage or bad grammar.

I also evaluate the book by using the Amazon Look Inside feature. I choose to narrate books that have few if any curse words (and when used, they should be appropriate to the situation or dialogue and not gratuitous), no explicit sex or graphic violence, and no vampires/werewolves/zombies. I can search the book for these things and also get a better sense of the author’s writing style by reading all of the available excerpts. Sometimes the Kindle edition is offered for free, so I go ahead and download it.

I look at the author’s web site and blog.  This step would be even more important if you’re considering a self-published title. I want to know that an author is as serious about writing as I am about narrating. I want to see that they will work to promote their work even more than I do.

I like to pick books in a series, as I outlined on my Facebook fan page.

If you are chosen to narrate multiple books, you don’t have to start all of them immediately! You can communicate with the rights holder and suggest your dates before accepting the contract. You may even build up a queue of work to perform in this manner.

Royalty share work should not come ahead of paying work. I always have 2-4 months on any royalty share contract so that I have the time to take on audiobooks and my regular voice-over work that pays up front. My view is: The rights holder can have it Fast. Good. Cheap. Pick any two.

I use Evernote during the book prep as I described in this Facebook comment.

I outsource my editing and quality review when I have a stipend. If I don’t have a stipend, I often edit the book myself.

Marketing

The publisher or author doesn’t always market the audiobook. Many of the titles on ACX are backlist and don’t have a marketing budget with them. Even if the rights holder did market the book, I still do my own marketing. I use social media extensively to get the word out.  In fact, I love marketing so much that I wrote 2 articles for the ACX blog on topic that are loaded with tips and tactics specific to marketing audiobooks. This article on my blog links to both of them.

I may also use Google+, a press release, and/or a video to promote my work. In fact, I created a book trailer for In The Shadow of Billy the Kid: Susan McSween and The Lincoln County War. I posted the video here on the blog and across social media.

In addition. I’ll create a Google alert for the topic and/or do specialized searches and comment on blogs, in forums, and any other place where people discuss it. For instance, I’ve already mentioned my upcoming audiobook on the Facebook page for the movie Young Guns, which is about Billy The Kid. Someone commented about the birthday of the actress who played Susan McSween, so it was a great lead-in for my comment about the real woman!

I don’t do all of these things in one day or even in a week. Audiobook marketing is an on-going task.

Money

It bears repeating that royalty share audiobooks are a lot like the stock market: you can have some with amazing returns and some that are under-performers.

Generally, you won’t make a lot of money on just one book. It takes many royalty share books to generate sales for a sizable royalty check each month. Also, realize that your proceeds for each book will build up over time. The royalty agreement with Audible lasts for 7 years.

My sales numbers range from 14 copies (yes, only 14 units sold) on one book to another book with 1000s of copies sold, with an average payment of $2.70-3.00 per unit sold. While you think you will receive 25% of the proceeds, your net percentage is actually less since many of Audible’s members buy the books using their credits. Audible’s very nice Bounty Program pays $25.00 for each applicable sale and has made up for the lower royalty rates in my case.

If I had narrated only that one book with 14 units sold, I probably would still be waiting for a royalty check since you must have $10 in royalties before Audible issues payment. Direct deposit payments usually come around the 17th-20th of the next month, and checks arrive at the end of the next month.

Regardless of the type of payment you choose, you will receive a royalty statement each month for sales the previous month. You can monitor units sold in the ACX Dashboard, but you won’t know how much you earned for each title until you receive the printout. Statements usually arrive the last week of the next month or first week of the 2nd month following the sales period.

If Audible is paying a stipend on your book, note that the rights holder must APPROVE the finished product within 60 days of the date you signed the contract. Once you have the approval, you must send the invoice to Audible in order to be paid. You can find the invoice template in the Stipend Terms and Conditions link on this page. The Time to Decimal Conversion is very handy when determining your finished time for the invoice.

Whispersync, the new technology that lets a reader switch between reading the Kindle e-book and listening to the Audible audiobook, could affect your royalties in two ways. On the one hand, the audiobook price is lower when the purchaser already has the Kindle edition. The royalties earned on the sale therefore would be lower as well. On the other hand, before Whispersync, people either bought the e-book or the audiobook — not both.

In my experience, Whispersync does actually encourage additional sales, which brings royalties that I would not otherwise have. These sales usually earn less than $1 per unit sold. However, it’s one case where you truly can “make up the difference in volume” because you don’t have on-going costs. Whispersync sales may be a case of whether you view the glass as half full or half empty.

My best sales periods have been December/January, where people are buying presents or later using gift cards, and April-June, when people seem to stock up for their poolside and vacation entertainment.

Audible sales are the gift that keeps on giving! Not only do you rack up more units sold in a shorter period, but those sales can get your book on the old royalty escalator for a higher royalty rate if you signed your contract before 12 March 2014.

I also set up an affiliate account with Audible. I use my affiliate link each time I publicize my titles. You can find my explanation of it in this Facebook post. More helpful tips are included in this post. So far, I’ve had a lot of clicks but no affiliate sales. Given time, though, I’m sure that some of those clicks will be converted to sales. I just created an affiliate account with iTunes.

Miscellaneous

Some of the posts above were in the Facebook Audiobook Crowd group, which consists of professional narrators and industry insiders, and the Facebook ACX Narrators and Producers group. Both groups are closed and have active members. I highly encourage you to join both of these groups if you are an audiobook narrator.

My experience with ACX has always been wonderful. I was one of the original beta testers on the site and have been very excited by its growth. The support staff is nothing short of remarkable! They have been incredibly responsive to my emails. I continue to see improvements both in the site operations and the quality of titles posted for audition.

ACX also has an informative, interesting, and helpful blog. Lately, they have been educating the rights holders more about the process, and their efforts are paying off. I’ve had more communication from rights holders in the past week than in the last 6 months!

Thinking again of the advice from my mentor, let me leave you with this quote from author Neil Gaiman (you can substitute the word “narrate” where he says “write”):
I decided that I would do my best in the future not to write books just for the money. If you didn’t get the money, then you didn’t have anything. If I did work I was proud of, and I didn’t get the money, at least I’d have the work.

Original notebook image: iStockPhoto/Aania

The post Karen’s Primer on Narrating Royalty Share Audiobooks appeared first on Karen Commins.