By now, most writers are at least somewhat familiar with the basic logistics of indie publishing. Today, though, I wanted to talk about another venue that indies have for sharing their stories that may not be as widely known and thought about: audiobooks. If you’ve published an indie novel or are planning on publishing one– or like some authors I know, retain the audio rights on a traditionally published book– you have the option to have your book made into an audiobook and sell that, too. It not only offers another way for readers to connect with your stories, it can be an added significant source of income.
Now, right up front, I should say that the process of having an audiobook made represents a quite significant time commitment on your part, even if– like most authors– you hire a narrator and sound engineer. As a homeschooling mama of small children ranging from 2 years old to 9, I frankly don’t have that kind of time at all. I would never have been able to even think about audiobooks if my amazing parents had not stepped in and surprised me with the offer to take care of everything. So this article is really a collaboration between me and my dad, and when I say “we” what I really mean is “my superhero mom and dad with unbelievably minimal help from me.”
At any rate, here’s a look at the process that “we” went through:
First, you’ll need to pick an audiobooks distributor. (Google ‘audiobooks’ and you’ll find a lot of them.) All will take a percentage of the sales, the percentage depending on whether you distribute through them exclusively or not.
We picked ACX,one of the largest and probably best-known distributors.
Do you remember those old commercials about “There’s no wrong way to eat a Reese’s?” I was going to say that the same can be applied to writing: There’s no wrong way to write a novel. Except that there probably are wrong ways of going about the process, if the novel never actually gets written. I suppose it’s more accurate to say there’s no right way to write a novel– or rather, there’s no single right way.
In order to get down to the heart of my post today, I need to first tell you a story. But don’t worry, it’s an encouraging success story– the kind that everyone likes to hear. Also, it’s about my dad, so I figure that I’m justified in going around doing some mild bragging on him.
In our culture, being a quitter isn’t generally seen as a good thing. We value determination, drive, commitment, and the willingness to carry a task through all the way to the end. And rightly so. Determination and commitment and all the rest are admirable qualities to have– and they’re essential to us as writers. I’ve always felt that one of the deadly sins of the unpublished writer (ie the sins that will stop her from ever getting published) is to be a serial book-starter. To start writing story after story, only to abandon the work in favor of some bright, shiny new idea when the going gets hard.
I got the call from my husband two weeks ago, the one you never want to get. While at the park, our oldest daughter (age 7) had fallen and broken her arm. (My girl is something of a tree-climbing-roller-skating-bike-riding daredevil. Yet she managed to get a fairly spectacular compound fracture–her first–falling less than 4 feet off the toddler section of the playground. Really? Yup).