{"id":3676,"date":"2023-12-26T14:46:09","date_gmt":"2023-12-26T19:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/?p=3676"},"modified":"2023-12-26T14:48:27","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T19:48:27","slug":"the-chronicles-of-self-publishing-addendum-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/26\/the-chronicles-of-self-publishing-addendum-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chronicles of Self-Publishing: Addendum 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>(or How I Did It, a \u201c.doc\u201d-umentary)\n

Audiobook Part 1<\/p>\n

At a glance, Audible (ACX) makes creating an audiobook pretty simple. Their site lists all the steps to guide you through the process<\/p>\n

First, I signed up for ACX and created a project page for Phagey. The format asked for a title, a summary, a word count, a budget, and a few other details. Pretty easy to do.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ Next, I created an audition script. Basically, this consists of a single Word or text document with a couple of different scenes featuring different characters, listing some basic voice characteristics and character details, so that I could see how the narrator did with accents, pitches, etc. I tried to make my scene selection wide enough to get a good sampling of the narrators\u2019 skills.<\/p>\n

I also included a note about the book which listed the names, ages, and simple details for each of the main characters, any important side characters, generalizations about other types of characters, and about the book in general, so potential narrators would have some idea about the project overall. In that list I also noted my social media followings, and any ad campaigns and marketing strategies I had going at the time.<\/p>\n

Once that was ready to go, I put out a call for auditions on my project page. Writers can select what pay range they\u2019re aiming for, since some narrators go high and won\u2019t consider lower-paying projects. However, ACX also allows writers to choose between paying the quoted per-hour fee as agreed, or sharing royalties with the narrator, which means they pay the narrator less up front, but the narrator then gets a share of the royalties from each book until their full price is met. I opted to go with paying the full fee.<\/p>\n

(Do note that some narrators are willing to wiggle on their quoted per-hour fee. If you get an outstanding audition, but that narrator\u2019s price is a little out of your range, you can always ask about this before making an offer.)<\/p>\n

Then I waited. I received the very first audition that same day (ACX notifies you of incoming auditions) but gave myself a week to gather a few more. By the end of my self-imposed deadline, I\u2019d received five. For each one, I kept track of when the audition was submitted, which narrator submitted it, their asking fee, and any specific qualities about their narration that I liked or didn\u2019t like. Keep in mind that if the narrator\u2019s overall performance is good, but they read one of the characters \u201cwrong,\u201d you can clarify that with them later. (And they\u2019ll ask writers to do exactly that. More on this in my next post.)<\/p>\n

As I mentioned before, I don\u2019t usually listen to audiobooks because of my hearing loss, so B had to help a lot with\u00a0evaluating the auditions. We looked for things like intonation, inflection, and differentiation in the characters\u2019 voices and thoughts; appropriate pauses and the raising or lowering of volume according to the tension of the $\"\"$ moment in the scene; \u201cmouth noise,\u201d those little \u201csmacky\u201d sounds some people make when they speak that become painfully obvious and can be distracting in a multi-hour audio recording; machine or other extraneous noise, which would indicate that the narrator is not using a sound booth or other professional recording tech; and so on. I tried to imagine (and asked B to do the same) what it would be like to listen to this narrator for the 12.5 hours ACX estimated it would take to narrate a book of Phagey\u2019s length. I also added preference levels\u2014one star for first choice, two for second, three for third. (This was entirely in my own notes, not available to anyone else, and not on the ACX site.)<\/p>\n

When the week had passed, and I reviewed my notes from each audition, it was a no-brainer for me. Stacey Lind was my first choice on all counts. We communicated back and forth a bit, with questions and answers via the ACX message portal (and later through email, since ACX doesn\u2019t do threads very well). She was most helpful and clearly experienced. I made her an official offer that same weekend through the ACX portal. We both agreed to ACX\u2019s contract terms and were off and running!<\/p>\n

Side note: Writers, be sure to clarify with your chosen narrator *before* you make an offer and sign the contract what their terms are as far as payment, i.e. how much will they require up front as a deposit; how do they prefer to receive payment, whether check, credit card, PayPal or some other online payment source, etc.; what kind of time frame they expect to observe, etc. Also, it\u2019s good to follow your narrator on social media, so you get a little more familiar with them.<\/p>\n

Those were the initial steps that ACX made kinda easy. The next part, working with the narrator, adds a few layers of intricacy, which we\u2019ll get into in my next post. In truth, though, Stacey made it super easy and even offers resources on her site.<\/p>\n

On a related note, to date I have five ratings and four reviews for the audiobook, rating \u201coverall,\u201d \u201cperformance,\u201d and \u201cstory,\u201d averaging out to 4.6. I\u2019ll take it, but more reviews are *always* helpful. If you\u2019d like to review Phagey\u2019s audiobook version, please reach out to me at niveymarts (at) gmail (dot) com. I\u2019ll send codes to the first five people to respond. (My access to promo codes is limited. Please don\u2019t request a code if you don\u2019t intend to review it!<\/span>)<\/p>\n

See you next time!<\/p>\n

**Please note that I am not a professional. Outside the writing part\u2014for which I have taken numerous classes and workshops, and for which I\u2019ve seen enormous improvement over the years, but which I am still learning\u2014I mostly have no idea what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m reading everything I can get my hands on, looking at how others who have been successful have done it, and learning this process as I go. I don\u2019t want any reader of these posts to think I\u2019m teaching THE way to self-publish; there are as many ways to do this as there are writers on the path. I am only sharing how I have done it. Your mileage may vary.<\/p>\n

Photos:
\nMaking Notes, Photo by Hannah Olinger<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a>
\nListening, Photo by Samuel Rios<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"