Happy Monday, WG2E-Land Peeps!!!
I’m over the moon to share a brand new topic for The WG2E…
From Bestselling Ebooks to Audio Books
It’s absolutely possible to be Indie Epublished and still contract to create Audio Book versions of your Ebooks!!!
I know…’cause I just did it last week!!!
***Bob Mayer has done it too!
We’ve both used Audible’s superfab
Audible’s ACX (owned by Amazon) – Audiobook Creation Exchange – is, in a nutshell…taken straight from their website:
…the marketplace where professionals create and sell audiobooks.
- Collaborate with authors, agents and publishers
- Find great titles to produce
- Discover unlimited opportunities to market your work
- Sell your audiobook through top online retailers
- Make money – over 1000 audiobooks already in production on ACX! One of them could be yours.
Here’s the scoop on how Audible’s ACX works…
First, you’ve got to see if your Ebooks are eligible to be considered for their platform.
Upon first look, mine were not.
However, Audible gives you the opportunity to “convince” them that you’ve sold enough and have a large enough fan-base to use their services.
Here’s the letter I emailed to Audible:
Good Afternoon, ACX!!!
I’m D. D. Scott – both an Amazon and B&N Top 100 Bestselling Author, plus a two-time Amazon Mover’s and Shakers List Author – of The Bootscootin’ Books and Cozy Cash Mysteries!
I’d luuuvvv to begin using ACX to turn all my Ebooks (there are 14 now) into Audible books too!
I’ve now sold over 50,000 Ebooks and have had almost 100,000 Free Downloads – making it to #1 on Amazon’s Free Books – of the book that started it all for me BOOTSCOOTIN’ BLAHNIKS – it’s chick lit, gone-country – think Sex and The City meets Urban Cowboy.
Praise For D. D. Scott:
“…one of the top Romantic Comedy/Humorous Mystery writers out right now.” —ENT (Ereader News Today)I’ve self-published my books using Amazon’s KDP, Nook’s PubIt and Smashwords too, so therefore, I own all rights.
I’d like to start with the book that started it all for me then continue from there.
Per your request, here’s the Amazon Page for BOOTSCOOTIN’ BLAHNIKS:
Thank You For Your Consideration! — D. D. Scott
Within 24-hours, I received a wonderful response from ACX that I was approved for not only my Bootscootin’ Books, but also my Cozy Cash Mysteries too! Also, I was given a personal Account Rep (wavin’ atchya, Nicole 
), who then called me and walked me through the process of setting up my profiles and answered any questions I had.
ACX’s contracts are very easy to understand and are on their website for your review.
Basically, you have three options to choose from:
1. You can do a 50-50 Royalty Split, meaning you pay nothing upfront for your Ebooks to be produced as Audio Books, but then split the royalties 50-50 with your narrator/producer.
2. You can offer to pay your producer/narrator so much per finished hour (pfh) – the average range seems to be between $100 and $500 pfh, with some as high as $1,000 pfh, then you keep 100% of the royalties, minus ACX’s small fees.
3. You can flat-out sell your Audio Rights to a Production Company, but then you no longer own the rights to your Audio Book. (Options 1 and 2 allow you to keep the ownership of your Audio Rights)
Here’s the really cool part…
You get to choose your own Narrator/Producer!!!
And wow…is the Audition Process superfab fun!!!
For example, you first choose what type of Narrator you’re looking for. Do you need:
1. Male/Female
2. Accent/Dialect – i.e. American New York, American Southern, Irish, British, etc.
3. Genre and Style – Fiction, Humorous Mystery, Chick Lit, Romantic Comedy
4. Voice Qualities: Sassy, Great Comedic Timing, Sarcastic, Edgy
You actually begin receiving Auditions then, and can make Offers to the Narrators/Producers who you think totally nail your book and characters!!!
It’s just a terrific and superfab fun process all-around!!!
I’ve now got all 3 Bootscootin’ Books contracted!!! With the first one – BOOTSCOOTIN’ BLAHNIKS – to be available in Audio Book form on Amazon, Audible and iTunes by May 1st, and the other two ready as early as June!!!
I’m thrilled to be partnering with Voice Artist/Actress/Spokesperson
as my Narrator/Producer!!!
I knew the moment I heard Christine read my Bootscootin’ heroine Roxy Rae Vaughn that she was my gal!!!
She’ll produce my Audio Books with a sound engineer in a studio in Vegas, and I can’t wait to hear the results!!!
Go, Christine, Go!!!
It’s Your Turn, WG2E-Land: What questions do you have regarding Audible ACX’s Audio Book Process? I’ll do my best to answer them, based on my experiences so far. (***Note: I’ll also interview Christine Padovan here on The WG2E very soon!!!)
The Best of The WG2E Ebooks to Audio Books Wishes — D. D. Scott
You said at first you didn’t qualify, why was that? Thanks for another great post, DD. I would love to do this.
I have no idea why I didn’t qualify at first, Elizabeth…although, it appeared by just browsing through their titles that, unless you’ve “convinced” them with your self-pub numbers, they seem to carry mostly TradiPub Authors.
Audible titles include Nora Roberts and Janet Evanovich, so it is perhaps “the” primo Audio Book producer.
It looks like they’re just now beginning to open up to Indie Epub Authors too…
I’ll tell you who we can ask for sure, though, my ACX Account Rep Nicole just emailed me late yesterday and may be popping on here today. Also, she’s wanting me to give y’all her contact info…so as soon as I hear from her which bits of contact scoop to give ya…I can lead you right to the source for this incredible opportunity!!!
Fantastic! As usual you are so helpful.
Yayyy!!! So glad this is helping you, Elizabeth!!! Cheers!!!
Oooh, sounds interesting, DD! Do you know if non US authors can do this through them?
Here’s the scoop, Sibel, on their international status (straight from their website):
“I live outside of the US and cannot provide a W9. Is ACX open to me?
At this time, ACX is open only to residents of the United States who have a US mailing address, a valid US Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and have or can submit Form W9. For more information on Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TIN) please go to the IRS’ website. We hope to open up to a wider global audience in the future.”
It does sound like they’ll be opening up to international authors soon, though (based on that last sentence)…and since they’re owned by Amazon, I bet it’s sooner rather than later!!! Yayyy!!!
Big fat bummer! Still, will keep fingers crossed! Thanks for the info
You might email my Rep Nicole, Sibel, and see if she has a date when they’ll be open to international authors…
The A-mazing…
Nicole Op Den Bosch, Associate, Content Acquisition, Business Development
nicoleop(at)audible(dot)com
I got all excited too. I have found quite a few wonderful self-pub options are not available outside the US. I wonder why? As Amazon and Smashwords seemed to have figured out how to do it.
This option should be coming soon to international self-pub authors, though, Tessa…because Audible ACX is owned by Amazon.
Yayyy!!!
Very interesting. . .while I’m not anywhere near this point in my writing career I will file this away for future projects, and keep up with your experience.
Definitely worth a “Consider This” File, Jamie!
U Go, Girl!!!
Okay, Y’All…here’s the superfab scoop on my ACX Account Rep…with her permission of course…
The A-mazing…
Nicole Op Den Bosch, Associate, Content Acquisition, Business Development
nicoleop(at)audible(dot)com
She’ll be glad to answer any questions you have about their services.
She is just terrific to work with!!!
Is there a word count limit? Is there an age limit? Ie do they do YA stuff?
Good Mornin’, Julie!
I have not seen word count, age limits, or genre limitations either. That said, Nicole did tell me that they don’t do a lot of non-fiction at this time. But, it didn’t sound like they were opposed to trying it either.
Those would be great questions to email her about…
Here’s their FAQs Page, which should help y’all too:
http://www.acx.com/help/faqs/200484870
This sounds quite exciting, D.D.! Congrats!
Thanks sooo much, Jeanne!
There is just something sooo A-mazing when you hear your book being narrated for the first time!!! It felt as if my characters suddenly took on new life…
I know this sounds kinda strange, but listening to all the Auditions made my books seem sooo much more “real” to me!!!
That’s fantastic information, DeeDee – thank you. I had no idea you could even do that! I’d been very daunted by the process and logistic involved on my own, but now that I know there’s an easier way to do it…
What’s terrific about Audible’s ACX too, Talli, is that, every step of the way, you, as the author, maintain creative control…if you’ve contracted on your own with your narrator and not sold your rights to a producer.
I luuuvvv that Christine and I are working as a team, along with her sound engineer, to give my books the exact “sound” I’ve envisioned and created.
For example, I want my hero in Bootscootin’ Blahniks – Zayne – to sound very Tim McCraw. So as a Voice Artist, Christine is listening and watching a ton of Tim McGraw videos, interviews, movies and You Tube feeds to re-create his voice buut in a D. D. Scott-way.
And yes, Female Voice Artist can do A-mazing male voices too!
The repertoires these Narrators have is outstanding!!!
I was looking into this the other day and read their website from start to finish. I am very tempted to go this route. D.D. not sure if I missed it anywhere but which option did you choose? I’d probably go with the 50/50 split, although that seems to narrow down your potential narrators quite a bit.
I narrated and uploaded my 1st book “The Amulet” as a series of free podcasts which now has tens of thousands of listeners and I’m always getting asked when “The Emerald Staff” will be available as an audio book but I had no intention of giving that away for free and just heard about ACX a few weeks ago and checked it out.
I’m too busy with tax season right now to concentrate on it at the moment but I’m excited to see that you are doing it and will wait in eager anticipation to see how it works for you.
Thanks for sharing this.
U betchya, Alison!
You can also narrate your own for ACX, so you may want to check on that, based on your podcasts experience!!!
I did go with the 50-50 Split because I felt that gave each of us a very powerful incentive to knock it out of the park and partner together for promotion for years to come.
Which, I should also mention, “years” in ACX contracts amounts to 7-years, that’s their exclusive distribution license period. You can of course re-contract at that time.
The 50-50 Split does appear to limit your Narrator options. However, you do have terrific narrators available who will go that route.
One word of caution, I went through several auditions in which the narrators first appeared to agree with the 50-50 split, but then at offer/contract time, asked for an hourly rate on top of that to pay their sound engineers. I rejected those offers and stuck with my 50-50 Split.
Audible ACX also has this superfab “Bounty” program right now, where, if I understand it correctly, your Audio Book will qualify for an additional $25 per download if an Audible customer downloads your title as one of their first 3 Audible purchases!!!
How cool is that?!
It’s an incentive for you and your narrator to get your peeps to Audible as new customers there!!!
And that’s on top of your royalties!!!
Thanks, D.D.–cool info from our fearless, groundbreaking leader–Good luck! (If only I had a smidgeon of your energy…)
I’ve got plenty of energy to share, Dee, so jump on in and make these ideas your very own!!!
I can’t wait to see what y’all do with all our superfab scoop here at The WG2E!!!
Cheers to you and thanks bunches for the sweet shout-out! U rock!!!
D.D. – this is such a fantastic post and information I haven’t seen discussed anywhere else. Congratulations and please let us know how the relationship with ACX progresses as your audible books are released.
Thanks Bunches, Kristine!
I hadn’t seen this opportunity talked about in any detail anywhere else either, so I wanted to get all this fabulous scoop to all you waaay wonderful WG2E-Land Peeps!!!
WOW D.D.!
To coin your phrase. . .I am so Over the Moon about this too!
I’m an avid Audible listener and can’t wait to listen to your books on Audio!
I started using Audible services a little more than year ago. I have such a busy schedule it allows me to listen to books, that I wouldn’t normally have time to read. It’s great to do horse, barn, house chores and sitting in dead stopped freeway traffic.
I’m thrilled about your books coming out on Audible, I will buy them all!
I hope other Indie Authors will do the same thing, I’m enjoying Indie books on Kindle, but I’m able to get through more books on Audio. I keep falling asleep at night, when I finally get a chance to sit down and read.
Thanks sooo very much for the superfab fun shout-out, Jill!
You brought up some great points on how Audio Books can reach an entire new audience!!!
(a) While Commuting
(b) While working outside or inside
(c) When your eyes are just too tired to read, but you’d enjoy listening to a book be narrated for you
Thank you for posting about audio books. Great post. Last I checked the site it didn’t say anything about been open/going to open to international authors so that is great news and has made my day.
The only thing that seems to be a problem, well, at least for me is that I have the perfect narrator in mind and would only need the distribution. Would that be problem? To do the audio book off site and then, say, upload so I could sell it through Audible?
I need to finish said novel but I like to get all my ducks in a row well in advance. It also helps to dream big.
I’m tickled you found my post helpful, Catheriine!!!
ACX does allow you to have your own narration…check their FAQs Pages on how that process works.
Enjoy your journey and Welcome to The WG2E!!!
I got so excited reading this post I spelt my name with two i’s. lol.
Oh, I didn’t know that… Thank you so much. You have just made my year.
I come here every day and I am learning such valuable information so a heartfelt thanks to everyone. Also, thank you for the welcome.
U betchya, Catherine!
Nothin’ beats writers helping writers reach readers…and now “listeners” too!
Hello everyone,
It has been my pleasure working with D.D. Scott and Bob Mayer on ACX. I would be thrilled to work with all of you as well and learn more about your titles. Please feel free to contact me directly at nicoleop(at)audible(dot)com.
Thanks,
Nicole Op Den Bosch
WooHooo, Nicole is in the house, Y’All!
Thanks bunches for stopping by, Nicole, and Welcome to The WG2E!!!
U rock!!! And so does ACX!!!
I will add to this stew that some non-fiction projects will work well for ACX as well.
My book “Ten Questions – The Insider’s Guide to Saving Money on Auto Insurance: Hidden Discounts Revealed” is in production as I write this.
I have another project, a series of political dialogues entitled “Essays for the 99%,” that is on deck. This project also required “approval” by ACX in order to become eligible, but the process was quick and easy. Like D.D., I simply sent off an email listing my bonafides, and Bam, there it was.
Nice that you have a “personal representative,” you must be pretty high falootin’ there pardner!
Good luck to all with your project/s!
I HIGHLY recommend that you go audiobook and ACX is you possibly can.
John David
I will add to this stew that some non-fiction projects will work well for ACX also.
My book “Ten Questions – The Insider’s Guide to Saving Money on Auto Insurance: Hidden Discounts Revealed” is in production as I write this.
I have another project, a series of political dialogues entitled “Essays for the 99%,” that is on deck. This project also required “approval” by ACX in order to become eligible, but the process was quick and easy. Like D.D., I simply sent off an email listing my bonafides, and Bam, there it was.
Nice that you have a “personal representative,” you must be pretty high falootin’ there pardner!
Good luck to all with your project/s!
I HIGHLY recommend that you go audiobook and ACX is you possibly can.
John David