- Are you thinking about self-publishing audiobooks?
Then, you may want to look into a platform
known as Findaway Voices.
I've talked little bit
about the audiobook distribution platform
but I have yet to actually do a deep dive
and a full review of Findaway Voices.
So today, we are going to be doing a 100% honest
Findaway Voices review so make sure you stay tuned.
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Now, you gonna wanna make sure you stick around 'til the end
because I'm gonna give you unfiltered thoughts
when it comes to Findaway Voices
and distributing your audio books through this platform.
Just what is Findaway Voices anyways?
It is an audiobook distribution platform
that's been around for about two years
but the company of Findaway has been around
for about 12 years and they handle everything
to do with audiobooks.
The Findaway Voices platform reaches
over 36 different retail and library options.
These avenues mean that you can reach out
to far more people than some other places
that you'd only get three.
They have two types of distribution.
There is a standard distribution.
This means that you can reach out to all 36 of these avenues
and it's really just simple 'cause you just go
and upload your audiobook and it's already selected for you
in the event that you don't want it to go
to a specific avenue,
all you have to do is go through and deselect them.
Their other form of distribution is the Voices Plus program
and this is a one-year exclusivity agreement
with Findaway Voices.
Now, there is some fine print involved
when it comes to actually getting this exclusivity agreement
with Findaway Voices.
For instance, when you sign up,
you can't opt out of it for at least six months.
There's a few other things but for the most part though,
the perks that they put into this
might make it worthwhile for you to think about
because they actually have piracy protection,
extra giveaway codes.
Mind you, you get 30 giveaway codes
anytime you upload a book over to Findaway Voices
where you actually get 100 giveaway codes
when you're part of their Voices Plus program.
You get priority access the Authors Direct beta
and you're first in line for marketing
and promotional campaigns.
What about the royalty structure?
Well, Findaway Voices is an aggregate publisher.
This means that you can upload your book to them
and they will send it out to numerous markets on your behalf
and much like other aggregate publishers,
for instance, like Draft2Digital or Smashwords,
Findaway Voices is like the audiobook version of them
and well, they collect a small percentage of your sales
being that they actually do just 20%.
It never goes higher, it never goes lower,
it's just 20% of all net profit
that comes into your account.
So this means that you're profiting about 80% of net profit.
Now, stay with me for just the second
'cause it does get a little bit intricate.
There are two different types of models
with a few different iterations underneath each one of them
and I just keep things simple.
You should just know that there's a retail model
which is it has al la carte,
subscription services, and revenue share.
And then the second version is a library distribution
which is pretty freaking awesome in my opinion,
and they actually have two different forms,
an a la carte purchases as well as cost per check out.
They have this cost per checkout type model.
this is really neat.
It almost functions like Kindle Unlimited use to back
prior to July 2015 and that if somebody just checks it out
and all they have to do is you check it out
and you're paid for and that's nice.
Unlike if you were just to put it through library,
they actually have to purchase it.
Now, when a library purchases your audiobook,
you can charge up to two to three times than normal retail.
Well, why is that?
Because there's going to be a lot of people
consuming your content so you wanna make sure
that you're getting paid for it.
And speaking of, I actually glossed
right past this whole point, its pricing.
You can actually set the price for your audiobooks
unlike some other areas, you can do it here,
you can set it up however you want to,
so just take a look at your competition
and figure out what makes the most sense as far as pricing.
And again, if you're gonna do library,
you'll wanna make sure that you're charging
two to three times the actual cost.
This is something that Findaway Voices recommends.
So if you decide, "Ah, I'm gonna go ahead make it cheap
"so I can make it available through the libraries."
Then, that's all you.
The narrator marketplace is the next one I want to address
and this differs considerably to, say,
something like Audiobook Creation Exchange.
Under normal circumstances, you would just go on to ACX
and you put in a filter for your budget,
and the type of reader that you're gonna get,
the voiceover talent, the accents that they have,
but with Findaway Voices, it's a bit different.
In fact, I'll actually be doing a video interview here
really soon with the coordinator
that actually puts rights holders in touch
with the actual narrators.
It's kind of like a match-making process.
There are two ways that you can set up narration
for your book.
Now, of course you can come with your own content.
So let's say, for instance,
you got a non-exclusive deal through ACX,
that means you can distribute over to Findaway Voices
and you just grab those files,
go right over to Findaway Voices.
I'll be doing a video about that here really soon
showing you how to do that.
Now, the two main ways is per finished hour.
Now, with Findaway Voices,
they're going to be starting at a bit more of a premium.
So if you're expecting to go to Findaway Voices
and finding a narrator, say, for under $100,
it's not gonna be very likely.
In fact, they have a lot of people that are involved
in the SAG-AFTRA union.
So this means that you have to probably pay anywhere
from about $150 or more to the voiceover talent
so this is not going to be cheap
if you're thinking about coming into this and thinking,
"Oh, I'm gonna be able to get away
"with doing $50 per finished hour."
That might not happen, but if you are on a fixed budget
but you want to get some good quality narrators,
then this is definitely the option you wanna look into
and that's the Voices Share program.
I talked a little bit about this in previous broadcast.
Now, how the Voices Share program works like this?
It is a royalty split program but unlike, say, ACX,
that does a 50-50 royalty split,
this one works a bit different.
You actually only pay 50% of your costs upfront
in exchange for about 20% of your royalties.
So instead of, say, getting 80% of your net profits,
you will get 60%, that 20% would go to your narrator,
and of course, remember,
Findaway Voices will get that additional 20%.
Now, this is a 10-year program, take a deep breath.
You're gonna go, "Oh my gosh, 10 years."
Well, here's a beauty of it.
They actually have a nice little future
that isn't opt out of sorts.
So in the event that this book starts to take off
or you want to just take all the rights for yourself,
then all you have to do is pay the 100% then.
So this means you paid 50% upfront
and then you do the full 100%.
So it comes out to be about 150%.
This is going to be a way the Voices Share program
is going to be a way that you can actually get your stuff
onto the market without having to risk as much
and here's the thing is,
even narrators that are a part of this program
don't have to risk as much as, say,
what they do over on ACX where they have the 50-50 split.
At least, get that money upfront
that'll pay for some of their overhead.
I really like this Voices Share program.
It's very interesting and it's very innovative.
So if you find that you are a bit cash trapped,
you may want to look into the Voices Share program
and worst case scenario, you've got this deal for
in the next 10 years and as soon as those 10 years are up,
well, the rights default back over to you.
What about the pros and cons of Findaway Voices?
The pros include wide reach.
They have the widest reach when it comes
to audiobook publishing today.
There's 36 different avenues and you don't have
to utilize all of them if you don't want to.
When you go to setup your account,
they're actually gonna have a terms of service agreement
that you can scroll through
and they will show you a breakdown
of each one of those avenues and how much of a percentage
or what kind of a payout you can come to expect of it.
So in the event that you find one specific avenue
that you're like, "I don't like that payout model".
Say, for instance, you don't like cost per checkout.
You could get rid of that.
Let's say you don't want going to libraries all together.
You can remove that option.
Let's just say that you published your book
in a non-exclusive agreement through ACX,
well, you can deselect Amazon and Audible
going through Findaway Voices.
Oh, by the way, did I fail to mention that?
They actually reach over on Amazon, Audible, and Apple.
Supports all regions.
Okay, so we know that ACX will only accommodate
account holders who are in the US, UK, Canada, and Ireland.
Now, sure they're gonna probably start to expand
but in the meantime, Findaway Voices over here
is honoring all regions.
So regardless of where you're at in the world,
they'll take care of you.
So if you want to publish audiobooks,
then, my gosh, go over, look at Findaway Voices.
Killer royalty structure,
I know I had to say killer because 80% is phenomenal
and I am gonna go ahead
and I'm gonna compare apples to apples
because Findaway Voices has an 80% model
whereas if you go just exclusive on ACX, it's only 40%,
and if you go non-exclusive, that's 25%,
and it should be noted that if you just upload directly
through Findaway Voices,
you're gonna get that 25% model
since the 20% that Findaway does for distribution,
but in the event that you want to, say for instance,
still get all of your royalties on ACX
and utilize Findaway Voices,
then just go non-exclusive on ACX,
and then utilize all the other avenues.
Big bonus here, when you use Findaway Voices,
select their distribution to Apple.
Fun little fact, they actually have a better deal with Apple
than what ACX does.
ACX only gets 25% from Apple.
Now, if you're on the exclusive plan for ACX,
you get 40% of that 25%.
Now, if you're non-exclusive, you get 25% of that 25%
and now we're starting stack some pennies,
but you're in Findaway Voices,
they have a very unique partnership with Apple
in that Apple is doing 45% for Findaway Voices,
and you're ready for this, you're getting 80% of that 45%.
Now, this is a lot of numbers to take into account.
All that the say this, you're getting more of a payout
through Apple by way of Findaway Voices versus ACX.
Something to think about.
And the mere fact that they have
library distribution is huge.
I've only put out a couple of publications
and I've definitely seen some marginal results
with really no promotion at all
and it's all coming through libraries.
So this goes to show that having library distribution
is a no-brainer for all of you indie authors out there.
What about the cons of Findaway Voices?
Look folks, it's not all rainbow and sunshines here
and I think that everybody should always try
to improve their product and their services
and I do know the Findaway Voices team
is currently working on some of these issues
but I'm gonna address them anyways.
No negotiating, one of the nice features that I enjoy
about Audiobook Creation Exchange is the fact
that you can actually negotiate with narrators.
So in the event, let's say,
that their finished price per hour is, say,
$200 per finished hour on ACX, I can contact them
and we can negotiate to get something that works out for us.
Over on Findaway Voices, those prices are static.
So if somebody says, they're $250 per finished hour,
they're set at that, there is no moving 'em.
It's the same for everybody across the board.
Now, that's a big bonus I suppose for the narrators
but for us indie authors,
we're trying to watch our money,
and really get it to where we can produce
a good high quality book without breaking the bank
having this no negotiations on Findaway Voices,
a little bit discouraging but is it a complete turn off?
No, not really.
They're still vetting some really good narrators
and they're certainly worth it.
I just wish that there was some type of way
that we can negotiate.
Clickable links, now, kinda like when you go
into your KDP account,
when you want to look at some book
that it's over in, say, UK,
or over in Canada, or over in Italy,
we can just grab that hyperlink and go to the store
where it's located.
Unfortunately, for Findaway Voices,
there is no links to actually go the audiobook page
where your book is listed.
You essentially just have to go
to each one of those regions, search up your audiobook,
and then hope you find it,
and that brings me over to number three
as far as the cons go is you're never given
any notifications for when your book actually is live
in each of the 36 different avenues.
It's great to actually have that wide reach
but I would love to know when it's going to be available.
That way, I can notify any of my readers AKA listeners
when a book is live in their preferred outlet.
I know for me, I'm a big library fan.
It would be really awesome if I knew when it was available
through something like, say, Hoopla,
or Bibliotheca or OverDrive.
That way, I can contact friends, family,
and even some of my followers, let 'em know that,
hey, if you're cash trapped,
you could always go check it out over at your local library
and it'll still support me.
Over all though, Findaway Voices
audio book publishing platform is absolutely stellar.
I give 'em two thumbs and giant banana sticker
because this team is phenomenal.
They've only been in business for two years
in this particular division
and they are just making waves in this industry.
it is just stellar.
In fact, this is only one of a series of 10 videos
that are gonna covering Findaway Voices.
In fact, I actually got the honor
of getting to interview the full Findaway Voices team.
So over the coming days and weeks,
we're actually gonna be firing off some these videos.
You can take a look at 'em down here once they are live.
Definitely, would love to hear from you
and when you get the opportunity,
you wanna set up your account,
go over to FindawayVoices.com/dale
and get your account setup.
It is non-affiliate account, it's merely a referral link,
and I don't get any financial benefit.
It'll only help you out.
Hey, I'll see you in the next video.