For a long time now, I’ve really wanted to have at least one of my books in audio. There’s probably not a lot of profit in it, but it’s something I would love to have. When my friend, Sharon Gerlach announced that her book, Office Politics, was available in audio, I asked her about it. She used ACX (an Amazon company).
Okay, here’s how it works. You put your book (or books) on the site, and it lets narrators know if you’ll pay by royalty share or by hourly fee. Right now I have two of mine up for royalty share. I honestly don’t think I’ll get any takers. For one thing, they show your ranking on Amazon. Unfortunately, they show your PAPERBACK ranking instead of ebook ranking. Which, of course, is a lot worse. Also, Soul of a Vampire only has one review, although it’s a 4 star, so that doesn’t appeal to many narrators, because these people want a book that sells well. Haunted Lake has 34 reviews for an average of 4.1, so that would be appealing maybe…except for the paperback ranking, of course. So if no one picks it up, I’ll probably go with the per hour option. I’m not going to post that on there, though, because if I’m going to pay per hour, I want to pick my own narrator and make an offer. If I announce I’ll pay a flat rate, I may get offers I don’t want, and I hate to reject people. Awhile back, I looked into getting a narrator for Haunted Lake, but the one I contacted wanted $1500. I just couldn’t afford that. On ACX, they have different narrators who work for different fees. They have a $0-50 all the way up to $400-$1000. There weren’t many at $0-$50, so I checked out narrators from $50-$100. If I can get one at $50, Haunted Lake would be about $270. At $75, it would be $405. I’m going to leave it up as royalty only for a week or two and see if HL gets any takers. If not, then I’ll decide.
So what do you all think? Would you do this if you lost money or broke even? Would it be worth it to have your books, or at least one of them, on audio?
lauralynnelliott.com 
I have there books completed in audio, one that’s done with production and waiting for approval by ACX and two more in production.
I’m not really sure how I feel about the whole thing. My first one came out in March and while I paid the hourly rate (on all of them), this book, nor any of the others, are close to being paid off.
I paid the hourly rate instead of the split royalty because if the book didn’t sell, that narrator might not want to contract with me again. I like having the same narrator for all books in a series. So for me, I’d rather pay her so she’s guaranteed her money and will keep narrating my books. Even if I take a loss or I take a long, long time to pay it off.
One plus to the royalty share, however, is that the narrator is just as invested in seeing the audiobook sell as you are because her paycheck depends on it, too.
I wondered which way you went and was going to ask you. Sharon was lucky enough that someone picked hers up with the royalty option; You haven’t had your book in audio THAT long, so I wouldn’t expect it to pay off yet. If I do mine, it might not EVER pay off. I would love to break even, but I doubt it would happen. I haven’t even broken even on paperback sales, but I feel like I need to have my books in print. My money has all been pretty much made in ebooks.
Mine comes 99.9% from eBooks. Like you said, I haven’t had audiobooks that long. If you want to email me, I can give you more details.
As for paperbacks, I’m assuming you mean you haven’t broken even with paying the $25 for expanded distribution and the extra for having a wraparound cover made? I personally chalk that up to an advertising expense. I’ve spent literally thousands of dollars in swag items and have never seen any kind of result. But, I can do paperbacks for the price of making the cover (which I do my self using the eBook cover and putting it into a program that lets me do the rest, but not have to figure out the spine specifics). Then, I have them printed and between print costs (for a book about 240-250 pages) and shipping, I pay roughly $4.00 per book. Compared to the “swag packs”, the shipping involved and the money I pay to have them assembled, it’s cheaper to send paperbacks AND it’s more cost effective. People are more likely to read the book and buy another based on getting a free book rather than business card or a tube of chapstick. If you look at your paperbacks books that way, they’re very useful.
Just something I’ve learned though, paperback sales correspond directly with eBook sales. My biggest months with eBooks are also my biggest months with paperbacks. Which, by the way, across my 11 paperbacks, I’ve probably only earned at most $500, and that’s being generous.
I did mean the $25 for expanded distribution. And I did have to pay Anya extra to make the print cover. But you’re right, it can be an advertising expense to send them to people. I’ve bought several of my books lately to sell at the book fair at RNC. I just hope I don’t have to send them back home again. LOL
I definitely haven’t broken even with mine, but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that it’s a novella (I did it with Forsaken By Shadow) and a lot of people don’t like something that short in audio. I would someday like to have Red done, but that’s going to be well down the line when I have some publishing income to play with.
I think you have to market it a lot, too. I can’t really afford to pay anyone right now, either, so I’ve been rethinking my time frame. If no one picks either book up, I might just wait until after the holidays to pay for it. Hopefully, I’ll have more book sales under my belt. I’m so bad at marketing. I’m hoping I can get myself out there more with the RNC Convention I’m going to next month. Sometimes, it’s so hard to know what to spend book money on. I try to keep it separate from personal money, just like a real business. Of course, there’s not much either place. LOL.
Having a book in audio format sounds great. I just wouldn’t know how to go about it.
It was easy to sign up. I just don’t think anyone will choose my book to read and share royalties. There’s a place in the different narrators’ profiles where you can click and make an offer per hour.
Honestly, I can’t convince myself to do audio. I don’t think it’d be worth it in the long run. If your heart is in it, I’d do the one I wanted most on audio and see how it goes. I recommend paying the full fee upfront though because I wouldn’t want to split my royalties with the narrator. Just my two cents. 😀
I just love audiobooks so much. I’ve always wanted to hear one of mine read.
I think paying up front is the best way to go if you can afford it. Besides, a narrator doesn’t want to split royalties that might be non-existent. LOL
An audiobook would be a great addition to your growing ‘library’! I do wonder though if you would ever re-coup your monies… Have you talked to other authors about sales of audiobooks? But…this is the beauty of being an Indie…you get the final say.
I’ve talked to some, and they usually don’t recoup their money. However, if you look at it as an overall expense with the total of ALL kinds of books being the income, it’s a little different. Do you want to take funds from sales of your ebooks to make an audiobook? If you look at all your book sales, not just audio or paperback, minus your expenses, that’s your profit. If I looked at paperback sales separately, I haven’t recouped my money from that, either. I’m still thinking about it.
I haven’t thought about doing audio for mine – but I voiced the audio for another author’s book (I was selected after a voice audition). It’s hard work. I accepted what would be considered a low hourly rate plus a royalty percentage.
If I ever thought about having one of my books done (and didn’t want to be the voice for it myself) I think I’d do it if the book had substantial sales or a bit of a following.
I just had a narrator audition for Haunted Lake. His voice is NOT what I was looking for. Now I don’t want to reject the audition. 😦 I’m not good at disappointing people. But I’m going to have to.
If you voiced the audio for someone else’s book, then why not do your own? I would do my own if I had the voice for it and had the equipment. ACX allows you to do your own audiobook.
It’s something I might consider doing. Since I was hired for the last book, I didn’t have to do the editing (which is a lot of work, and I would have to learn a LOT about sound editing software). If I did the audio for my own, I’d probably need to hire an editor, and right now I just don’t have enough desire to make an audio version to make it worth my while.
And yeah, if you don’t love the voice, don’t go with it. And remember to get a good sample – there’s a reason they are called voice “actors”. It’s not just about reading in a nice voice. 🙂
I found the perfect voice. I kept listening to several and going back to this guy. I made him an offer. I thought I might be low-balling it a bit, but I wasn’t sure. He accepted the offer! And he seems really nice. His voice is very versatile, and that’s what you need when someone is doing both male and female voices.