Wow. Things are moving right along. After listening to quite a few audition tapes, I found one reader I believe will be perfect. The tone of her voice is exactly what I wanted, and her southern accent isn’t over the top. So, I made her an offer, and she accepted. I just sent her the manuscript, and the next step is that she will record the first 15 minutes of the book, and submit for my comments, suggestions, and approval. Once we’ve covered that, she’ll read the rest of the book, and submit for my final approval. At that point, I should only be looking for small mistakes. We should be able to iron out everything else from the first 15 minutes.
I’m so excited, I can hardly stand it. Will keep you posted as this process continues.
The Write Stuff 
No pun intended, Marcia, but it sounds good.
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😀 Thanks! Sounded good to me, too! 😉
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This is exciting. Let us know how it goes!
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Will do, Darlene. So far, so good. 🙂
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Congrats, Marcia.
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I was going to say, “Glad to hear it!” but I thought that would be too pun-ny. 😉
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Naaah. No such thing as too punny, surely? 😀 And thanks!
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You need to listen to everything before approving it though, Marcia. You don’t need to do it with the book in front (as what matters it that it sounds good) but I’ve found sometimes several pages missing or strange noises, etc. It might just be a problem of uploading but it is a lengthy process.
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Thanks, Olga. They do tell you to listen to every single page, and I plan to. I’m actually going to enjoy it, I think. Just hearing how the story sounds when read aloud will be interesting, I think. At least once, anyway. 😀
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Good luck!
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Thanks, Olga! 🙂
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Awesome! Really looking forward to hearing if it runs as smoothly as you hope.
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Thanks so much, Debby! I’m eager to hear what those first 15 minutes sound like. If they are pretty much on target, then I think the rest will be. This gal seems to have quite a bit of experience, so I’m hoping she’ll be easy to work with, and will really “get” what I’m trying to say with the book. Always something new to learn about this writing stuff, eh? 😀
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Ain’t that the truth? I’m curious – she was still prepared to go with the royalty split, so doing all that work for no guaranteed income, even though she’s quite experienced?
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I suspect that expect it’s the more normal way to go, and I think Indie publishers make up the majority of the submissions. So, plenty of books narrated may or may not translate to plenty of well known authors narrated for. But this is pure conjecture on my part, and what I felt after looking around and listening to lots and lots of auditions. There must be thousands of new books being submitted all the time.
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Forgot, too. There are some who say up front on their bio page that they only do up front payments. Some of them charge $400 an hour and up. So, I didn’t go with those. I looked for someone who had done a lot of readings on various kinds of projects, and wasn’t a newbie like me. Also forgot that all the info on my book, ranking on Amazon, and reviews are at their fingertips, so they make a decision based on how they feel about the potential sales for the book in question.
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Something I’ve always wanted to do with one of my books, but never have. Do they include sound effects, like a foley artist would do? I haven’t listened to one since cassette tapes were the only option.
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Some do, Craig. You can talk to the “producer,” which is what the narrator is called, about adding some sound. It can be subtle, like a bit of music at the beginning of the chapter, or more. I’m guessing it would be your preference, but I suspect you can get info on that at the ACX site. You should give it a try. I figure there’s really nothing to lose, and it’s sort of exciting to have someone reading your work aloud. If you do, keep us posted on how it goes. 🙂
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I thought it was a bit pricey the last time I checked, but I really need to try it once.
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You can pay up front, or do a 50/50 royalty split, so there’s no cash outlay. That’s what I’ve chosen to do. Then I’ll see just how many books sell, and whether I’d come out ahead paying up front, and keeping the full royalty, or not.
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Love to find out how it performs for you.
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I’ll be updating the process, and will let you guys know whether I consider it a success or not. But for me, I want to do it for my readers, even if I only sell a few books. They keep asking and I think it’s good to have the option. Others might be thinking more in terms of profit. I will say that audio books are now considered to be the fastest growing book market out there. So that’s encouraging. 🙂 And if I don’t have to spend anything to do this, then anything I sell is profit, right?
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I agree on all fronts. I heard it’s tough to get takers on the commission basis.
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If by commission, you mean splitting the royalty, based on the pages I scanned, I’d say most are willing to do so. After I loaded my book info, I started getting auditions right away. (I guess the books are all listed somewhere, via categories, and narrators scan for things they are interested in doing, and submit their auditions directly to each author.) Plus, while I was waiting for auditions to come in, I was listening to a lot of readers’ samples, and I messaged several I liked to ask if they would consider auditioning for me. Every one of them did, and my “info” clearly stated that I was interested in the 50/50 split. I did see a few readers who said they only worked on a “pay up front” basis, but I saw far more who would do it either way. And I’m sure they check to see what a book is about and take a look at reviews, etc, before deciding which books they want to audition for. But I was very happy with the number of narrators who auditioned for me, especially since I was pretty specific in the kind of voice/accent/etc I was looking for. You don’t have anything to lose by trying, though. So why not see what happens? You aren’t obligated if you don’t find a narrator you like.
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This is something I need to do.
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Ooh, I can feel your excitement. Good luck with it.
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I’m jumping around like a crazy lady! Truly, it’s very exciting, for some reason. Thanks, Mary. Will be posting again by next week, when I get the 15 minute test run. 😀 Can’t wait!
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Oh, so looking forward to this, Marcia.x
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Thanks, Judith. I’m hoping to put all my books out on audio, and see what happens. I figure it can’t hurt, and it will make some folks happy. Happy folks are a good thing. 😀 😀 😀
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Happy folks are what matters, Marcia. My publishers are looking ti do audio books but with me reading instead of actors, as they say my Northern England accent would work better. hmm .not sure I could do it..x
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I would love to read my own, but alas, I can’t afford the studio/equipment rental. 😦 And it would be a time-consuming project, too. So this way works better for me, assuming the narrator does a good job. I can’t wait to find out.
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Congratulations, Marcia. I’m doing a happy dance for you! 🙂
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Thanks, Mae! I can use all the happy dancers I can get! 😀
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