Journey to my 1st Audiobook
From long-time Passive Voice visitor, author Gerard de Marigny:
I can illustrate why I’m bubbling over by telling you my journey to my 1st audiobook, _THE WATCHMAN OF EPHRAIM_. It started with a re-posting of a piece from Neil Gaiman’s Journal that my friend Passive Guy shared on his awesome “The Passive Voice” blog. Gaiman wrote about “ACX” – the Audiobook Creation Exchange.
Now, I confess, I would not even have known about ACX if it weren’t for Gaiman’s piece and I wouldn’t have known about Gaiman’s piece if it weren’t for Passive Guy’s re-posting. See what I mean about the indie community? It’s simply awesome – people sharing news, ideas, and suggestions. I have never felt one iota of competition within the indie publishing family … only the greatest forms of cooperation and even collaboration!
My story doesn’t end there though. I went to ACX and followed their simple directions. Within a few hours I had posted my first two novels to the exchange. Next, I had to be approved – probably just a authenticity check performed by the ACX team, but I was still excited to be accepted. I began receiving auditions from some wonderfully talented actors and production companies.
Yet, I had my heart set on one particular actor – Elijah Alexander. I contacted the production company that Elijah used for previous audiobooks he narrated, but they weren’t interested in royalty-share deals. Then, in a MOST BLESSED act of kindness and support for a neo-pro writer like me – Amazon/ACX offered a stipend for the production of my audiobooks! What that means is – on top of my royalty-share deal with the narrator/production company of my choice, Amazon was willing to PAY a stipend to the narrator/producer as an incentive to get the audiobooks made! Amazon/ACX wrote to me that, because they felt my novels would be popular in audiobook form, they were willing to pay for their production.
. . . .
The stipend allowed me to contact Elijah and offer him a direct r-s deal. The stipend allowed him to record it outside of the big production house he normally utilized. The end result … just over a month later, my first audiobook has been published!
Link to the rest at Gerard de Marigny
PG usually doesn’t include parts of blog posts that mention him, but he couldn’t effectively excerpt Gerard’s post without doing that.
Here’s a link to the original post Gerard described.
, Amazon will pay Passive Guy a small affiliate commission on any of your purchases.
“Amazon/ACX offered a stipend for the production of my audiobooks!”
PG,
The disgraceful robsters, eh? Amazon up to it’s usual perfidy and evil, AGAIN! Eating children, in public!
LOL, lets find someone who can find something to bitch about Amazon for that:)
brendan
Hehe … that’s funny. I hold ‘em you hit ‘em Brendan.
c”,)
What a great story! Congrats to the author.
Thanks Patricia.
Awesome. I’m looking into that…now.
Gerard, congratulations! You’ve inspired me~
Excellent Anthea. That’s exactly what I was hoping to do. Blessings!
I love Audible. IMO it was a great day for books when Amazon bought the company; the fit is perfect. I spend more and more of my Kindling time listening to books – the quality of narration these days is really amazing.
ACX is terrific, and I too highly recommend it. I have Deadly Straits in production with the terrifically talented Todd Haberkorn, and I can hardly wait for it to be finished.
Also FYI, Bob Mayer also did a great post on the nuts and bolts of using ACX. The link is here:
http://writeitforward.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/sop-for-authors-using-audible-acx-by-bob-mayer/
And BTW PG, Gerard is right about the value of PV. I found out about ACX via your post as well.
I should have said thanks before, but I didn’t so apologies, and:
THANKS!
I’m happy to be of help, R.E.
Thank you for that link!
(And with my current finances, I should see if I can record my own. *sigh*
)
You’re most welcome, ABeth.
ABeth,
Authors recording their own work is also a choice on ACX, and there is information there about that option as well (as I recall). I think there is a video (not sure as I didn’t click on it), but I do recall some Q&As as to what was needed to set up a decent home studio at minimal cost, tips on recording, etc. Between that and the tips Brendan, is offering below, you could probably get something going. Good Luck.
Thanks! First up, though, is fixing up a cover for a short story — which doesn’t need me to have the basement finished so I can have somewhere that the Kid is Not when I record… >_>
I can’t remember if I first learned about ACX on this blog or somewhere else, but I just found a producer for an audiobook version of my novella. Looking forward to seeing my story brought into another form!
Congrats to Gerad.
Thanks Steve! peace …
I’ve been dying to try ACX. Looks like I should stop messing around.
And congratulations to Gerard.
Thanks Dan. My suggestion – get started with ACX … but don’t stop messing around!
hehe … c”,)
I would love to take advantage of the Audible/ACX deal, but I have not been able to accept the terms of their agreement which puts the author on the hook for Audible’s costs if someone claims (but does not prove) you didn’t have the rights to publish your works. As far as I could see (and I ran this by an attorney, although this is not his speciality), there is nothing to stop someone from making a false claim, then Audible settling without a fight for whatever reason, and then you get to pay everything. Hardly seemed reasonable to me. I suggested modifying the agreement so that the author only paid when a claim was actually proven, but they said it was a click agreement and could not be modified. I think this is unlikely to actually happen, but boy it would stink to have to pay for some claim that you never got a chance to debunk. (or even to have to pay Audible to defend it)
Wonderful story! Really glad it worked out so well for de Marigny.
I’m taking a workshop this fall about making audiobooks. I definitely want my stories available in that format!
Congrats to Gerard, but I gotta admit that I’m not much of a fan of audio books. I prefer the visceral feel of reading a book where I can assign whatever voice I want to the author. Oh well, to each his own.
Thanks RD. I’ll tell you what … I feel the same way as you do re: visceral feel of reading a book with my own voices – but I have to say, the talent of some of the voice actors is really awesome.
It’s like having your novel turned into a movie, to me. If the movie (or audiobook) is casted well, it can really bring a story to life. The narrator for my CRIS DE NIRO series, Elijah Alexander totally blew me away. I’m humbled by his performances.
Different strokes for different folks. I’m happy that you’re finding success at something you’ve wanted to make happen. I wish you continued success.
“I should see if I can record my own. *sigh*
)”
Abeth,
If you’re a decent reader, and you don’t have a voice that people do not like to listen to, you can.
All them actors, _rarely_ make a great audiobook till they tone the weird accents and voicings down a tad/LOT.
You can make a very acceptable audio book out of reasonably inexpensive kit.
Having the writer read often adds a unique power. I nagged ole Barry Eisler to keep doing his own. His stuff is spooky good when he reads it.
I’m not the expert, but I’ve done a bit, and I can point you in the right direction–s:) Can’t do Apple, just don’t know it enuff to be useful.
Give me a shout if you’d like a pointer or seven. Or if there are a bunch of you doing the same, I’d be happy to string together a list and web it up somewhere.
brendan
Brendan, I think you’d find a lot of interest for your list!
Anthea,
I’ll put something together over the next week or so.
brendan
Agreed! A list would be excellent.