How to Upload My Audiobook to Audible

Audiobooks are all the fizz and we have been getting questions from authors on what the process and options are for turning an ebook into an audiobook. We did the research and here are our findings.

In that location are two components to cocky-publishing your audiobook: ane) Audiobook Production and 2) Audiobook Distribution

Audiobook Product

Audiobook product is the process by which your written book is narrated and recorded into an audiobook. When it comes to audiobook production you have two options: Yous can tape the audiobook yourself or yous tin can rent a professional to record your audiobook.

Recording an Audiobook yourself

To narrate your own audiobook you will demand a quiet place to record, equipment and software, time and some technical expertise. The equipment and software you need will likely price less than $200. By far the biggest investment volition be in the times it takes you to narrate your book and the time it takes you to edit your sound files in mail-production.

How long volition it take to read your book?

Audible uses 9,400 words per hour as the estimate for professional narrators. If you utilise this to your volume, you can presume that a 70,000-give-and-take novel will be approximately 7.v finished hours as an audiobook. It'due south fair to upkeep about ii times the length of the finished audiobook for full recording time to account for retakes, breaks during the session, and giving your vox some time to rest!

How long will information technology accept to edit your audio files?

After you have recorded your audiobook yous will have to listen to the unabridged volume and fix or re-tape poor audio spots. You will also accept to get the files ready for upload. This process will likely take 3-4 times the length of the fully recorded audiobook. So, for an audiobook of lxx,000 words, you can budget an additional 20-xxx hours of post-product work.

eBookIt has an in-depth step by step guide on recording your own audiobook you can use for reference.

It is most mutual for authors to perform their audiobook themselves in non-fiction where the voice the audience expects to hear is consequent with the author'south voices. It's less common in fiction where the depth of characters and potential range of vocalisation ages, accents, or dialects can become overwhelming and, perhaps, meliorate suited for a professional trained voice player.

Hiring a professional person to tape your audiobook

Many authors choose to hire a professional to tape their audiobook. When hiring a professional narrator the process ordinarily goes like this:

• Y'all create an account at one of the audiobook publishers or product companies (I'll walk you through some popular options below)
• Yous find a narrator (sometimes chosen producer) by listening to their auditions
• You lot and the narrator reach an agreement on how much they will get paid for each finished hour of the audiobook.
• The narrator will tape and upload the audiobook, which you will then approve. Y'all pay the producer and receive your audio file.

How much does professional narration price?

The toll to produce a professionally narrated audiobook depends on the length of your volume, the service y'all utilize and the quality of the narrator. Many ACX actors are members of the SAG-AFTRA union, and as members, they tin can have no less than $250 per finished hour for audiobook projects. You can use our computer below to estimate the cost of professional audiobook production. We recommend using $225-$300 for the per finished hour price.

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Note: ACX has an choice to pay the narrator a reduced upfront fee in commutation for future royalties. We accept outlined how this works in Option 1 below.

Once you have your audio file yous are set to distribute your audiobook!

Audiobook Distribution

Source: Wall Street Periodical Jan 2018

Every bit with eBooks, Amazon has the lion's share of the audio marketplace through Audible. But there are other players out there in add-on to Audible. Audiobooks.com and iTunes have the #two and #3 spots with services like Google Play, Kobo, Overdrive and Scribd growing within the "Other" segment of the market for online sales.

Your first decision volition exist whether yous desire to be exclusive to Amazon/Audible/iTunes past distributing through ACX or whether yous want to have non-exclusive distribution that volition enable yous to get your book on Amazon/Audible/iTunes AND other retailers, services and libraries like Google Play, Kobo, Nook, Overdrive and Scribd. The benefit to existence exclusive to Amazon is that y'all will receive higher royalty rates as discussed below. The do good to non-sectional distribution is that your book volition be available at many more than retailers.

AudioBook Distributors

1) ACX

ACX is Audible's (owned by Amazon) total-service audiobook production and distribution arm. With ACX you tin distribute to Amazon, Aural and iTunes. You have three options for audiobook production and distribution with ACX:

Exclusive to ACX Options

Selection i – You decide to be exclusive to ACX. You find a narrator that is willing to record your audiobook for a reduced upfront cost in render for a share of future royalties. ACX pays you twoscore% in royalties, which are split fifty/l with the narrator.

Option 2 – Yous decide to be exclusive to ACX. You lot find a narrator and pay them the full upfront fee for narrating our audiobook. ACX pays you 40% in royalties and you go along 100% of the royalties. The producer does not receive a share of royalties.

With these two exclusive options, you lot are tied into a seven-yr exclusivity contract with ACX. Some authors have had luck asking ACX to break their contract afterwards the showtime 12 months of the contract has passed, nevertheless you will need to enter into the agreement expecting that your volume volition be exclusive for the full seven years.

Not-Exclusive to ACX Options

Pick 3 – You decide not to be exclusive to ACX. You find a narrator and pay them the full upfront fee for narrating your audiobook. ACX pays yous 25% in royalties and you proceed 100% of the royalties. You cannot separate royalties with a producer if you pick thie non-exclusive pick with ACX. Note that ACX penalizes you on the royalty charge per unit if you cull the non-exclusive understanding. However, if you decide to be non-exclusive to ACX, you have other options for your audiobook production and distribution.

A Note on ACX Pricing

Authors who publish through ACX cannot set the price of their audiobook. The ACX website provides the following guidelines on pricing:

While not ever the case, the regular price on Aural for the production is by and large priced based on its length, as follows:
• under 1 hour: under $vii
• one – three hours: $seven – $ten
• 3 – 5 hours: $x – $20
• 5 – 10 hours: $15 – $25
• ten – 20 hours: $20 – $30
• over xx hours: $25 – 35

To exist clear, although the above represents general guidelines for Audiobooks sold on the Audible website, Audible retains sole discretion to set the price of the Audiobooks information technology sells.

The post-obit table summarizes the iii ACX distribution options that we outline above:

2) Findaway Voices

Findaway Voices provides audiobook production and distribution services. Findaway Voices champions an open audiobook market where authors and publishers cull where to sell their audiobooks and at what cost to sell them. They've built a robust, global distribution network that makes it easy for authors to sell their audiobooks through more than 20 audiobook sellers across retail, library, and schoolhouse markets. This distribution network reaches more than 170 countries around the world. They also give authors full command over pricing (with the exception of Audible which prices based on length equally noted above). Findaway Voices likewise has a unique partnership with Draft2Digital, where Draft2Digital authors can easily connect to Findaway Voices through their Draft2Digital business relationship and rapidly offset creating a new audiobook or distributing an existing one.

"Audible has been the master game in town for and so many years, which means most audiobooks are sold through their credit-subscription model. That's changing, now, as new entrants into audiobooks are providing more pure play retail options where authors will take the freedom to control their prices, run discounts and promotions, and generally experiment with distribution strategies that were previously unavailable. Nosotros're barely scratching the surface at what will exist available for authors with sales, marketing, and distribution!" says Kelly Lytle of Findaway Voices.

Royalty Share: Findaway Voices pays authors eighty% of the royalties they receive from retailers. If you are distributing to Audible/Amazon/iTunes through Findaway Voices, Audible will pay Findaway Voices the 25% non-exclusive royalty (ACX option 3 above) and Findaway Voices volition give the author 80% of the royalty and keep 20% of the royalty. We have illustrated this in the pie chart beneath.

For non-Audible retailers, Findaway volition receive a twoscore%-50% royalty from these retailers. Findaway Voices will requite the author 80% of the royalty and go along twenty% of the royalty. For example, on a book that retails for $10 on Nook, Nook will pay Findaway Voices a 45% royalty on the book price, which is a $iv.50 royalty. Findaway will give the author $three.60 (80% of the $4.fifty royalty) and keep $0.90 (20% of the $4.50 royalty).

iii) ListenUp

Located in Atlanta, since 2009, ListenUp Audiobooks has been one of the publishing industry's top audio production companies. ListenUp offers Indie Author'southward and Publishers Audiobook production and non-exclusive distribution services, paying 80% to Authors of the royalties they receive from retailers and libraries in over 190 Countries. Authors can ready their own prices with ListenUp, and are informed of each Distributor's distinct parameters for how they toll their audiobooks, with a determining factor being the length of the audiobook.

At that place is a $149-$199 upfront fee to distribute with ListenUp just this fee is waived if you lot utilize ListenUp to produce your audiobook. "Nosotros take exceptional Narrators and Producers and are ever striving to create a perfect audiobook, offer the ears a wonderful listening experience," says Diane Lasek of Listenup.

Royalty Share: ListenUp pays authors lxxx% of the royalties they receive from retailers. If you are distributing to Aural/Amazon/iTunes through ListenUp, Audible will pay ListenUp the 25% not-sectional royalty (ACX option 3) and ListenUp volition give the writer lxxx% of the royalty and keep 20% of the royalty. Nosotros have illustrated this in the pie chart below.

For non-Audible retailers like Google, Kobo, and Nook, ListenUp will receive a twoscore%-50% royalty from these retailers. ListenUp volition give the author 80% of the royalty and keep twenty% of the royalty.

iv) Author's Republic

Author's Republic is a distributor of Audiobooks. They do not provide any production services themselves. However, they do have a production bargain with Deyan Audio where, if you use their services, authors receive a larger percentage of the royalties from Author'due south Democracy. ""Author's Republic has very relaxed publisher agreement terms, and you tin can terminate your understanding with them at whatever time if you so choose," says Mike of Author'southward Republic.

Royalty Share: Author'southward Republic pays authors 70% of the royalties they receive from retailers. If yous are distributing to Audible/Amazon/iTunes through Author's Democracy, Aural volition pay Author'due south Democracy the 25% not-sectional royalty (discussed above) and Author's Republic will give the author 70% of the royalty and go along 30% of the royalty. We have illustrated this in the pie chart beneath. For not-Aural retailers like Google, Kobo, Nook, Overdrive, Scribd etc,  Author's Commonwealth's royalty rates differ by partner – some use the author provided MSRP, some are rental prices, and some are library prices.  Generally, Author's Republic receives a fifty% royalty rate from their retail partners. Author'due south Republic volition give the author 70% of the royalty and go along 30% of the royalty.

5) Kobo Writing Life

An offshoot of Kobo, Kobo Writing Life is the brand's platform dedicated to cocky-publishers. KWL enables self-publishers to upload, promote, and sell eBooks and audiobooks. Equally of September 2019, authors who utilise KWL can now begin making sales on audiobooks through the site. Self-publishers interested in promoting their audiobook hither will come across distribution to Kobo.com, Walmart, Indigo (Canada's largest bookstore), and Bol (a shopping platform in the Netherlands and Kingdom of belgium). Nevertheless, your audiobook is not required to be sectional to KWL and its partners in one case it is distributed there.

Royalty Share: The royalty thresholds for audiobooks is cleaved down to 32% (applicative to subscription purchases) and 45% (this is for a-la-carte buys greater than, or equal to, $two.99 USD). With that being said, there are stipulations. If your audiobook is priced below the prices listed hither, you earn 35% royalties. And of form, yous also have the option of offering your audiobook for free through KWL.

5) Publish Drive

Many of you are probable familiar with PublishDrive, a self-publishing service that reaches 400+ online stores and 240,000+ libraries. Not simply does the PublishDrive team provide services for eBook and impress-on-demand distribution, merely they as well enable authors to get their audiobooks out into the world.

If yous begin distributing your audiobooks through PublishDrive, you'll be reaching markets in North America, Europe, and Red china with partners including Aural, Kobo, and OverDrive. Additionally, you'll accept the opportunity to tap into some of PublishDrive's promotional options like automatic cost promotions, Amazon Ads, and review tracking. The combination of managing, distributing, and promoting bundles much of a self-publisher'due south daily piece of work into a  ane-stop-shop.

Royalty Share: PublishDrive enables authors to continue 100% of their royalties through their pricing model, which is dependent on the number of titles in an writer's catalogue (for more information, check out this page ). For more than information on royalties past shop, bank check out this folio.

The following table summarizes the information nosotros have discussed higher up for non-sectional audiobook distribution. Please annotation that you could have a hybrid approach and distribute directly through ACX Non-Sectional to become the total 25% royalty charge per unit and then use one of the other audiobook distributors to get your volume onto Audiobooks.com, Google, Nook, Scribd etc. Click on the image to open a larger version.

Those are the ins and outs of publishing your audiobook. Equally nosotros've covered in this article, audiobook product and audiobook distribution are generally closely linked due to the exclusivity precedent set past ACX. Withal, as with most things self-publishing, authors tin cull between exclusivity and control for audiobook distribution, and DIY or professional person help for audiobook product. We hope this commodity has helped to clearly lay out all the options then you lot can easily evaluate how to take the next step. Take you published an audiobook? Tell us about information technology in the comments.

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Source: https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/self-publish-audiobook-production-and-distribution/

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