Oh, Butters! Oh, Butters! Look at you! Hi!
LOGO.
Hellooo everybody!
Hellooo every Buttercup!
I've got a couple of big announce– Or, I guess we've got a couple of big announcements.
We've got a couple of big announcements! First and foremost, I wanted to say a huge thank you
to everyone who supported the release of the TSC audiobook! Literally hours after the audiobook
came out, it became an Audible Best Seller in two categories: Romance and Sci-Fi Fantasy, as well as
three categories on Amazon. Thank you so much for making this happen! I was beyond shocked, my voice
actor Nick Denton was floored, and we are just so incredibly grateful. If you haven't checked
out the TSC audiobook yet, you totally should! You can also listen to it for free on Audible if
you try out their 30 day trial. I’ve got all the information listed below. Next announcement!
We've got another giveaway going down! I know there's been lots of giveaways lately, but who’s
complaining? Write4Life is a fundraising event especially for writers that helps raise money and
awareness for the World Literacy Foundation. The event is being held on May 4th. To enter,
all you have to do is donate at least $5 to the Write4Life GoFundMe page. All the proceeds will
go directly to the World Literacy Foundation. Write4Life will be drawing a bunch of winners
to win awesome prizes like a full manuscript critique, personal query responses from agents,
and a ton of books, including a signed hardback of The Savior's Champion! I have all the info listed
below! Definitely check it out, because you could be walking away with this bad boy. That said,
today’s topic was requested by one of my patrons from over on Patreon, Laura Marshall. Laura wants to
know all about how to create an audiobook as a self published author. And apparently, she's not
alone on this, because of all the topics you guys have been requesting, this one’s the most popular.
Thus, I am breaking down the steps for creating an audiobook as an indie author! A few disclaimers
before I get started. First, this is for self published authors. If you are traditionally
published, your audiobook is going to be handled by your publishing house if they so choose. Some
traditional authors get audiobooks, some don’t. Ultimately, it's out of your control. Second,
I'm specifically covering how I had my audiobook created via ACX. ACX is an Audible company that
allows indie authors to create audiobooks. It’s probably the most popular option out there and
it's what I personally use. I'm sure there are several different ways to put together an
audiobook. I know some authors who have recorded the entire audiobook themselves and that's fantastic,
but I don't have time for that shit. If you want to use a path different from ACX,
that is 100% your prerogative, but I can't help ya. Lastly, the process for creating an audiobook
is very long and complicated, so I'm going to divide up this topic into several videos. Today,
we're focusing on set up. I'm going to teach you how to get your ACX page up and running so
you can hire a narrator. This includes creating an audition script, selecting your payment and
distribution, all that good stuff. Let's get to it! Step Number One (1): Create an account
on ACX. This is the easiest step, unless you’re an idiot. ACX is owned and operated by Audible,
which is an Amazon company. So for the stake of streamlining this process, you might as well use
the same email based account you used via Amazon in order to create your ebook. Log into ACX, create
your account, then move along. Step Number Two (2): Find your book. Before you find yourself an
audiobook narrator, you have to find your book on ACX. If your book is available for sale on Amazon,
it'll be in ACX’s database. All you have to do is claim it as your own. For this step, I'm going to
hop on over to ACX and show you how it's done. Okay, so here's the ACX website. Once you're
logged in, finding your book is super simple. Just go up to your name. Click Add Title. You can
type in your author name here or the book title, whatever you prefer. Click Search. And your books
will pop up. As you can see, there's no button next to The Savior's Champion saying that this
is my book. That's because I've already claimed the book and it's already an audiobook. However,
if I wanted to make it EVE: The Awakening an audiobook, all I would have to do is click right
here. Now it's going to ask how you'd like to produce your audiobook. If you already have the
audio files and you just want to sell it via ACX, you would click Continue right here. But if you're
looking for someone to narrate and produce the audiobook, you're going to click the top option
right here. That is the option that I chose. After you go through a few standard legal agreements,
you're going to move on to Step Number Three (3): Prepare your title, which basically means you’re
preparing the audiobook’s display page. For the sake of keeping things simple, I'm going to go
through this as if I were preparing an ACX page for The Savior's Champion because I just made that
audiobook, and all the information is fresh in my mind. The first four things you need to nail down
are super easy. First, you need a description for your book for the Audible retail page. Nine times
out of ten, ACX is going to copy this description directly from your Amazon blurb, so you don't
have to do a thing. Second, you need to list your copyright information. Third is defining whether
the book is fiction or nonfiction, and fourth is selecting the best category for your book, which
basically means you're selecting its genre. Keep in mind they only have about 20 categories for you
to choose from, which means the genres are pretty general. This is not like Amazon or IngramSpark,
where you can choose multiple keywords. The fifth step is where things get interesting. Here, you
are going to specify whether or not you'd like to receive auditions for this project. ACX gives you
the option of saying, “Yes, I'd like to receive auditions so I can find a narrator,” or “No,
I've already picked a narrator.” For the sake of this demo, we're assuming you haven't selected a
narrator yet, so we're going to choose, “Yes.” The sixth step is to describe your ideal narrator’s
voice, and you've got five fields to choose from. The first is choosing the narrator's gender, and
typically you're going to match it with the gender of your main character. Second is choosing the
narrator's language, and third is choosing the narrator's accent. This field is not required.
Same goes for a few other fields like voice age and vocal style, but the more specific you can be, the
better. Speaking of, next, you can select the voice age of your narrator. How young or how old do you
want the narrator to sound? Please keep in mind three of the options are Teenage, Young Adult,
and Adult. I know you're all used to young adult meaning teenage, but that's not necessarily the
case here, since there is a Teenager category right above it. Young Adult, in this case,
means a voice that sounds like they're in their 20s, aka an actual young adult. The last note
you're making for the ideal narrator's voice is vocal style. This field, again, is not required,
but if you're so inclined, you can select from a range of styles like girlish, hip, quirky,
or sultry. Once you're done over analyzing the crap out of your future narrator’s voice, you can
move on to the seventh step, which is additional comments. This is where you provide directions
for potential narrators who are going to audition for your book. Say you want to elaborate on some
of the information you listed above. You want to clarify that the book is multigenre, whatever.
Say it here. It's also a good opportunity to sell your book. Narrators aren't gonna wanna sign on
with your book unless they believe it'll be a good look for them. The audiobook isn't just a
reflection on you; it's a reflection on them, so they're gonna want to know what you bring to the
table. If you're a best seller, if your book has fantastic reviews, if you have a large following,
tell them! You can bet your ass when I filled out my additional comments, I mentioned I had
a YouTube channel with over 120,000 subscribers at the time. You know how many dudes auditioned
because of that? A lot! Next, we move on to Step Number Four (4): Setting up your audition script.
I'm gonna hop back to the studio for this part. When you're preparing your audiobook title,
it's going to ask you for an audition script, and this is where a lot of writers fuck up. “I know!
I’ll just use the first few pages of my book.” Do not use the first few pages of your book. Here are
a few pointers. Your script should be no longer than two to three pages. Narrators have shit to
do, so don't waste their time. Additionally, you want to make sure you give them pages with lots
of dialogue, because you need to see how they plan to voice the characters. And of course,
the pages you choose should accurately reflect the content of your novel. For example,
if your book is high fantasy, then the pages you select should include some very fantastical
content. If your book is scary, have them read a scary scene. “But Jenna, my book has lots of
important content. It’s multigenre!” What if I told you your audition script can feature multiple
scenes? TSC is a romantic dark fantasy. When I created my script, I included three scenes. The
first was a conversation between Tobias and his allies, because I wanted to see how the narrator
would voice multiple characters. The second was a romantic scene between Tobias and Leila,
because TSC is a romance. And the third was one of the most violent scenes in the book,
because it's a dark fantasy, and lots of people die. So long as your script doesn't exceed more
than two to three pages, you are more than welcome to break it up into parts. Once you've finished
your script, upload it to ACX with any notes you might have. For example, with my script,
I included notes about the general mood of each scene as well as the personality of the characters
involved just so the narrators had a heads up. Step Number Five (5): Distribution. There are four
parts to the distribution process: word count, territory rights, payment, and distribution.
The word count is simple. You need to let ACX know how many words are in your manuscript,
because this will then allow them to estimate the length of your audiobook. Narrators need to have
an idea of how long this audiobook is going to be because this will directly affect whether or not
they can and will audition for it. Next, we look at territory rights. You need to let ACX know what
your area distribution rights are because this will directly affect where your audiobook can be
sold. Next, we have payment. You need to choose how you're going to pay your audiobook narrator
and your options are royalty share or pay for production. Royalty share means exactly that. You
and the narrator will share the royalties earned on your audiobook. The royalties will be split
50/50, and you don't have to pay anything to your narrator up front. Pay for production means that
instead of sharing royalties, you will be paying your narrator an upfront fee per finished hour
of the audiobook. If you choose this option, ACX has a teir you can select from, ranging from $50
per finished hour to $1,000 per finished hour. You choose the tier you're willing to pay and once the
audiobook comes out, you get all the royalties. Of course, there are pros and cons to each of these
options. The pro of royalty share is obvious; you pay nothing upfront, which means if your audiobook
tanks, you're not financially screwed over it. The con is if your audiobook does really well,
you may end up paying your narrator more than you would have paid otherwise because you're sharing
royalties. This, in my opinion, isn't really that big of a con. Narrators work hard and deserve to
be paid. The other, more relevant, con is that not a lot of narrators are willing to work for
the royalty share option, especially if you're a really small author with a really small audience.
If you choose the royalty share option, your narrator is going to get a cut of your royalties,
which means if your audiobook doesn't sell, they're not gonna get paid. If you have a tiny
audience, the odds are your audiobook’s probably not gonna sell that well,
which means narrators aren't going to be very incentivized to work with you via this payment
option. Typically, the royalty share option works best for authors with a guaranteed audience,
because then the narrator has a guaranteed payout. If you're a no name and you choose this option,
the odds are that the only narrators who will bite are ones who maybe aren't so great at what
they do, or they're very inexperienced and need to build their portfolio. For pay for production,
the pro is that this payment option is a lot more enticing to narrators, which means you're probably
going to get a wider pool of talent to choose from. The con is obvious: you pay up front, and
it isn't gonna be cheap. Take a while to consider which option works best for you. You're probably
going to have to make this decision based on the size of your audience, what you can personally
afford, and which cons you're willing to deal with. Once you've chosen your payment option, you
move on to distribution. With ACX, you have two options: exclusive distribution or non-exclusive
distribution. Exclusive distribution means your audiobook will be distributed to Audible, Amazon,
and iTunes. The pro of this is that one, you're hitting the most popular audiobook platforms and
two, your royalty percentage will be higher. If you go exclusive, the royalty percentage is 40%,
which means you earn 40% of the income per sale. Keep in mind if you choose the royalty
share payment option, this number is going to be split in half. That means 20% for you,
and 20% for the narrator. The con is that this option is exclusive; you can't distribute your
audiobook to other platforms. Then we have the non-exclusive distribution option, which means your
audiobook will be distributed to Audible, Amazon, iTunes, as well as any other platform you choose.
The pro is that you're not exclusive, so you can go wherever the hell you want. The con is that
your royalty percentage will be much lower at 25%. And again, if you choose the royalty share option,
this figure will be split in half. Once you're done with all this, we move on to the final step
for setting up your audiobook, and that is Number Six (6): Review. Here, you review
everything you’ve created and if it looks up to your standards, you can make your ACX page
live. All you have to do is click Post to ACX, and you're good to go! From this point forward,
your audiobook will be open for auditions, and you can go into selecting a narrator, which I will
cover in another video in the future. So keep an eye out! So that’s all I got for you today! A huge
thank you to Laura Marshall for requesting this topic! If you'd like the chance to have a video
dedicated to you or if you want access to tons of other awards, check me out on Patreon! We've
got an exclusive writing group, we have early access to videos, there's a monthly live stream,
there’s signed merch! It’s awesome! All the information is listed below. Check it out! Don't
forget to subscribe to my channel! I post new videos on Wednesdays, and if you want to be alerted as
SOON as I upload, ring that bell down below. You should totally do it, because I post bonus content
all the time! The Savior's Champion is available in ebook, paperback, hardback, signed hardback,
as well as audiobook! If you're new to audiobooks and new to Audible, you can listen to it for free!
I got all the information listed below, so get on it! And be sure to follow me on social media! I'm
on Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, and of course, you can tweet me @JennaMoreci! Bye!
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