I Travel On This Train Regularly!

Yes, I should be writing. Instead...rambling thoughts on audio books, ACX, and the changing face of publishing.

Just finished listening to the first fifteen minutes of In From the Cold, narrated by Alexander Masters. I’m loving what I’ve heard so far. Masters’ voice is deep and dreamy, which perfectly suits the opening pages of I Spy Something Bloody  with Mark mostly zonked out of his skull, thanks to pain killers, PTS, and exhaustion. Anyway, I think this is going to go over well with readers. Listeners. Listening readers.
 

I stumbled across a blog Neil Gaiman did about audio books back in 2011 and he made two excellent points -- excellent then and probably more excellent now. Pay attention to your audio book rights. Don't hand them over without a second thought (as we all used to do for years and years). And if you hold your audio book rights, think about doing something with them. Like ACX. Not that I haven't had my issues with ACX, but so far they seem to be the best solution to the problem of the humble rest of us affordably getting audio books produced and distributed.
 

Last week I spent a couple of days listening to auditions and picking narrators -- four of them -- for In Sunshine or In Shadow. Brick Shop Audio is producing this project (they also handle the Holmes & Moriarity books) so I’m confident it’s going to be a completely professional production from start to finish. Is anyone going to want to listen to a book of short stories? I just don’t know. It’s going to be a very expensive project and in some ways it’s the riskiest one yet. I'm excited to hear the final results though. (In case, you hadn't noticed, I am very pleased with the way that short story antho turned out.)

 

Because the narrators are also the producers, I definitely check their backlist when I’m picking narrators. I also listen to their other sample clips on ACX and I check out their website. I want to know what I’m getting. Not just as far as the voice, though the voice is paramount, but I want a feel for how this person conducts themselves. Lately -- I guess this is a sign of the publishing times -- I’ve had problems with indie contractors not meeting commitments, not coming through. So I look for a known quantity, but I’m also not afraid to take a chance on a narrator without a long backlist to their credit. I’ve found some wonderful, fresh talent that way.

 

In fact, I’ve been really happy with each of my narrators and with the final audio books. It’s hard to know how well the books are doing. I haven’t been able to find any “average” figures for indie audio sales. So far I’ve got nine projects out there and I’ve sold just under 3500 books in total. Is that good or bad? I have no idea. It’s relative anyway, because all that really matters is whether I am making money.

 

And, despite concerns with Amazon/Audible’s high-handed promotional pricing tactics, I seem to be. Making money, I mean. Certainly the projects are, slowly but surely, paying for themselves. Which is a huge relief -- and the reason I’ve resumed commissioning audio productions.


The other thing that softened my stance was hearing from readers for whom English is a second language. And readers who have physical challenges reading. For both these sets of readers, audio books are more than an indulgence. In some cases they're a godsend. Not that I have ever been anything less than enthusiastic about audio books. Both as an author and a reader. In fact, I've started buying more audio books than ever.

 
I've read blogs where authors chose two narrators to do a book together -- splitting up male and female parts, for example. I wonder how that would work...
 

One thing Audible has abandoned, as of the end of this month, is the dollar honorarium paid for each unit sold. So now charging $1.99 for an audio book really is asking the rights holder to take a leap of faith. I don’t disagree with discontinuing the honorarium. It more than served it’s purpose, given that ACX can’t keep up with processing all the titles coming through the pipeline now. I will be sorry to lose that extra dollar per book, though!  It was a nice little perk.


BUT they've started giving authors more promo copies, so that's pretty neat. You readers will definitely benefit from that. And so will I, I do not doubt.  

 

I read a blog by Bob Mayer where he mentioned paying about $175 per finished hour, which I suppose would make it easier to recoup costs and start making a profit. I pay between $200. and $350. depending on the narrator’s experience, the commerciality of the project, etc.  A lot of authors seem to gravitate to the split royalties option. I’ve done that once (ACX was offering a stipend to sweeten the deal) and we seem to have done all right out of it. I’m not generally comfortable with it because I hate having to be in the position of asking someone to take that kind of a risk on me. And, realistically, sharing rights to the project for the next seven years seems precarious given how much every aspect of the publishing industry has changed in the past two years since I went indie.  

 

I’ve seen a few comments from narrator/producers on blogs where they talk about royalty share and how the narrator is taking all the risk. That’s mostly true though not completely true. Obviously the narrator is investing time and talent on a project that may never pay off. But the narrator is a huge, huge part of the success of any audio book, so the author is also taking a risk. I’ve loved every one of my narrators, but I hear different things from listeners. Especially the listeners who don’t know me, don’t know my work except through the audio books, and aren’t hesitant to offend my delicate sensibilities and slam my carefully chosen narrator.  

 

I listen to a lot of audio books (and sample a lot more) and sometimes I just cannot believe the voice over choices some authors make. I don't necessarily mean the narrator him or herself (though, yeah, sometimes). I mean the crazy, tinny, or hollow background sound. How can nobody not hear that?! Is this because it's a share and this is the best for the bucks? This is where the risk comes in for the author. What if you ultimately decided you wanted a different narrator/production? What’s the process there? If you’re sharing royalties, you’re most certainly locked in for the next seven years. That’s going to be a risk for all concerned. Especially if decisions were made to cut corners.

 

I’m guessing that some narrators, the ones who’ve been doing this professionally for years and years, find the developments in voice over as unsettling as mainstream authors found developments in self-publishing. I get a sudden vision of that scene in Hard Day's Night. I fought the war for your sort! But there really is a lot of wonderful talent out there and I can't see that making audio books so much more affordable is going to be a bad thing. Assuming everyone makes their investment back.