Until recently I had no idea how easy it is to make an audiobook. My publisher always took care of that, so I didn't pay much attention. For my latest novel, Bridges, my publisher decided not to make an audiobook, so I decided to do one myself. Here's how the process works:
1. Go to ACX and set up an account.
2. Search for your book using your name, the book's title, or its ISBN.
3. Claim ownership of your book.
4. Upload your cover.
5. Set parameters for how and how much you want to pay.
- Options include splitting royalties with the narrator or paying the narrator a fee per completed hour.
- Top-notch narrators charge around $300 per completed hour. My most recent book is 250 pages and about six-and-a-half hours spoken.
6. Solicit auditions for narrators to read a few pages of your book.
- You will receive an email each time you have a new audition to review.
7. Choose the narrator you want. (I chose the talented Amy McFadden, who narrated the prequel to Bridges.)
8. After the narrator is finished, you can listen to the entire thing on ACX and either approve it or request changes.
9. Once you approve the audiobook, you pay the narrator (I used PayPal).
10. The narrator indicates to ACX that he/she has been paid.
11. ACX distributes your audiobook through Audible, Amazon, and iTunes under both exclusive and non-exclusive contracts. If you grant non-exclusive distribution rights, then you can distribute through additional channels.
12. Each retailer independently prices your audiobook, generally based on its length.
13. Track sales through your author dashboard on ACX.
14. Get paid royalties monthly via direct deposit.
That's it! If you have any other questions about the process, let me know in the comments. If there are enough, I'll ask my narrator Amy to answer them in a future post.
-Maria
Maria Murnane writes bestselling novels about life, love and friendship. Have questions? You can find her at www.mariamurnane.com.
This blog post originally appeared on CreateSpace.com. Reprinted with permission. © 2017 CreateSpace, a DBA of On-Demand Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.
