Audiobook Self Publishing Guide

Hey folks, I was talking to someone about this so I decided it would be a good thing to turn into a guide. I'm an author who's done direct-hire jobs with narrators for audiobooks and I'm a narrator who's worked directly with authors to narrate books. Having been on both sides of the fence, I've learned a couple things.

Who Is This For?

This is for authors who are looking to take on the effort of producing an audiobook themselves. For folks who aren't afraid to work directly with a narrator & have the funds to get an audiobook made without a publisher. This is especially for folks who either don't have a specific narrator in mind or want to open up the project for auditions.

How Do I Prep an Audition Sheet?

You might think to yourself, "I can just post chapter one as the audition and that should be fine, right?" Please don't :) and here's why: you can tell if someone's voice is not a good fit within 5-10 seconds of listening to them talk. There is no need to waste everyone's time by getting a 10-20 minute audition when you're only gonna listen to a minute or two, tops. Instead, you want a curated list.

Here's what you should be looking for as you prep your audition:

• A paragraph of general prose
  • This is going to be ~70% of the book, so you'll want a paragraph of it so you can hear how 70% of the book will sound when it's read aloud
    
    
• Dialogue between important characters
  • Get dialogue for the most important characters in the story, and include notes on how they should sound (gruff, sassy, airheaded, tired, etc.), what accents do they have, how are their names pronounced, and anything else that might help a narrator get the right sound; if you don't have a single dialogue for all important characters, grab dialogue from different places in the book
    • Since this will naturally have less context in text, add some context with your notes for the audition (e..g, Note: this is a conversation after a climactic fight scene, every character is tired and wounded) 
      
      
• A paragraph of action/intense scene
  
  
  • If your book has action or an intense climax, you'll want to hear how the narrator performs that; include a note that the paragraph is action or intense; if they read it exactly the same way as the paragraph of general prose, that’s not generally a great sign as it could be an indicator of relatively monotone performance
    
    

This should result with an audition that's probably around a minute or two long. Again, for the wrong narrator this is more than enough time to weed them out, but if you get a couple of right narrators who audition, this will be enough range for you to decide who is the better fit for your story.

Where Do I Find Narrators?

If you don’t directly have someone in mind, ACX is going to be the big platform you find them on. That’s the Author/Narrator portal for Audible and you can host the project there for auditions. Other resources to find narrators include Findaway Voices and Casting Call Club.

I Have Multiple Narrators I Like, How Do I Narrow It Down?

Once you’ve got folks auditioning I recommend going through and making 2 to 3 passes. Listen to everybody and make a tally of whose voice you like for the story. You’re not looking for the perfect voice at this point, you’re just looking for the “this person could be the right person”. 

Once you’ve gone through and weeded out all the wrong voices, take a look again at the right voices and be more critical this time. Who has weird timing? Whose accents or voices are a bit off? Who’s audio quality just isn’t up to par? Remember, auditions should be the same quality as the final product, so don’t assume they can fix issues in post when it comes to the technical quality.

This should get you down to 1-3 narrators for a final pass. If you’ve only got 1 narrator, congrats! If you’ve got more, be even more strict. Be subjective! This is your story. If they don’t have the right sound, they don’t have the right sound. Focus on getting the right voice and the right quality for your story.

How Much Does a Narrator Cost?

Narrators will have their standard prices that are usually available upon request. ACX will list a range for a narrator that they’ve input themselves. Here’s what I’ll tell you: last I checked, the industry standard (and what I personally charge) is $200 per finished hour (PFH) of audio. That means however long the final product of the audiobook will be. A 10 hour audiobook at $200 PFH is a $2,000 production. Now, here’s where that gets tricky.

In demand/experienced narrators may go well over $200 PFH. The highest listed range on ACX is $400 – $1,000 PFH, but there are some narrators who are higher than that.

Inexperienced/low demand narrators may go well under $200 PFH, all the way down to $50 PFH. You’re taking risks with a newer narrator in that they may not know what they’re doing, they may have lower sound quality, less confident performances, etc. But that doesn’t always mean they’re going to be bad. You get the benefit of getting to hear a snippet of their work during the audition. When it comes to quality, treat the audition like its a final product. Don’t assume they’ll be able to fix room echo or suddenly upgrade their mic quality between the audition and the actual book recording. Performances can be refined with proper character notes between the two, but the actual sound quality is very unlikely to change.

Royalty Share and Royalty Share Plus

Instead of a pay-for-production (PfP) gig, some narrators are open to a Royalty Share (RS) or Royalty Share Plus (RS+) agreement through ACX. Here’s what you should know about those options:

RS means you (the author/rights holder) split any royalties of audio sales with the narrator in a clean split. This requires Audible exclusivity to set up through ACX, which puts the royalty split at 40% to you and 60% to Audible. Of that 40% that goes to you, half will actually go to you and the other half will go to your narrator. This lasts for 7 years, then the author gets full royalties beyond that point.

RS+ is the same deal except in addition to the even split, you will also pay a reduced PFH on top. Exactly how much you’d pay is negotiable between you and the narrator. I’ve never worked a RS+ job and never hired someone for it. I’d rather just do a PfP or a RS job. This seems more like a rip off for the author.

Pros of RS

• No upfront costs
  
  • Because the royalties are shared, you don’t have to pay anything out of pocket to get your audiobook made
    
    

Cons of RS

• You’re betting against your book
  
  • If the book takes off and does super well, you may end up “paying” more in missed royalties than you ever would have on a PfP gig
    
    
• Most experienced/in demand narrators are not going to be interested in a royalty share unless you can show some marketability for your book
  
  • Think of this like how a publisher might only be interested in certain follower/patreon amounts
    
  • The narrator is taking a risk by taking on RS, and generally they want some assurance that risk is worth it
    

When you submit your book on ACX, it will ask you what cost range your budget is for the audiobook. RS and RS+ are checkbox options, but otherwise the ranges go 50 – 100, 100 – 200, 200 – 400, 400 – 1000. You’ll have to decide what’s in your budget. When I hired out for Project Tartarus, I knew $200 was industry standard and I set my budget range to $200 – 400 and got 50+ auditions within a week.

How Do I Estimate How Much A Book Will Cost?

A lot of the estimates out there will take a specific number; I tell people a range. Take the total word count of your book, say 150k as an easy example. Most narrators fall somewhere between 8k and 10k words per hour. A 150k book is likely to be somewhere between 15 – 18.75 hours long, which is then multiplied by the rate PFH. At $200 PFH, you’re looking at between $3,000 – $3,750 for the final book. Once everything has been recorded, ACX will tally all the files and tell you exactly how long everything is and that is what you will pay.

Sometimes a narrator will request a portion of the payment upfront, usually after the contract has been signed and the first 15 minute check-in has been delivered and accepted by the author/rights holder. This is not unusual, but usually only happens if the narrator is concerned that they may not get paid at the end of all their efforts. I did this on a short project I was directly contacted about for precisely that reason and everything worked out fine. This is usually calculated based on the estimated cost of whatever the final product is going to be, then the final payment is based on the actual cost of the final product minus the upfront downpayment.

I Have My Narrator, What Now?

Talk to your narrator. Figure out what their rates are, when they have availability (not everyone is available to start immediately) and figure out what your timelines need to be. I recommend adding in room for flexibility. Narrators are people too and sometimes we get sick and that can affect our ability to work. No one produces their best work when they’re on a time crunch.

You will also need cover art. Audiobooks have square covers, not rectangles, and it’s custom to also include the narrator’s name on the audiobook cover.

Once you’ve sent the contract through ACX to the narrator and they’ve accepted, you’ll upload your manuscript. They will take the manuscript, record the first 15 minutes, and submit it back to you for review. This is your final opportunity to provide feedback before they work on the rest of the book. Any major revisions or reservations you have need to be addressed here, to include potentially canceling the contract if this longer excerpt has significant issues that can’t be remedied and weren’t indicated in the audition. NOTE: If you cancel it at this point, you may be liable to pay the narrator for the 15 minutes of work they performed here.

Once the 15 minute check-in is approved, the narrator will continue on, record the rest of the book, and upload it for you to check its quality. Here’s what you do: listen to each chapter and make sure there are no screw-ups. I tend to do this on 1.5x speed with the manuscript open on the computer so I can read along. This very easily lets me know if there’s a disconnect between what is read and what is written. Some mistakes can be let go, others need to be addressed because they change the meaning of a line. When this happens, make a note of the following:

CHAPTER
TIMESTAMP
NOTE (ex., Narrative - “line of narrative that needs to be reread” highlight difference between what was said and what was written) (ex2., Character - “line of dialogue” highlight difference between what was said and what was written)

This helps the narrator immediately find what needs to be fixed both in the manuscript as well as in the audio file so they can quickly swap out the improper line.

Once you have QA’d the whole book, you’ll hit “Approve” and then you’ll need to pay your narrator. How you work that out is between you, but paypal generally works fine. Once they’ve indicated they’ve received payment, the book will be submitted for ACX’s review. This can take around 10 business days to go through. Once it’s approved, it’ll go live!

How To Do a Pre-Order

You’ll have to email ACX customer support to set up a pre-order. Go to this site to see their exact specifications: https://help.acx.com/s/article/can-i-set-a-pre-order-date-for-my-audiobook-release but generally you’ll have to let them know you want to do a pre-order no-later-than 1 week prior to the final audiobook submitted for their approval, and the date for the release can be no-sooner-than 2 weeks after submission for ACX final approval.

What does that mean? Well, let’s say I send the narrator the contract and he signs it on 1 February, with a final production due 28 February (the last day of the month). I must have contacted ACX on or prior to 21 February to set up the pre-order, and the book must be scheduled to come out on or after 14 March. Remember that business days are likely in effect here, so don’t dally and don’t try to rush things. Just do things early and give yourself time for complications to arise.

Congratulations! Your audiobook is now live!