Writing in your Heart discussion
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We have one actor that we use for all our books. We use Audible and are very happy. We do quite well with it. My children's books can't be done, they are too short, but we do every one of my son's books.
Mod
I bet it's nice to stick with only one actor. I'm curious about how sales will change once audiobook is available. Do people use Audible through subscription? Is there a lot of marketing needed to get noticed?
We like using one actor, because he understands us, and will ask question about how we want a character done. In other words, it's not just about him. We did Audible mostly because my brother is legally blind and we wanted him to hear the books. Our actor charges us by the hour, and since my son's book are on the short side, it doesn't run a whole lot, but...we make good money on the sales. We have a group of steadies who will buy the audiobooks now that we have a reputation for having them. It seems there are a lot of people who like audio books. We also do a video, like a commercial for the books too. We noticed an increase of sales with them.
We chose an actor for the first book, who quoted us one price and then took a very long time to deliver and demanded more money. While we liked his voice, we were angry that he tried to hustle us in the end, by pushing to include "atmospheric" music. He wanted to do certain interpretations of the characters that changed the essence of the book. We stayed with him, finished the project and found Dan We have stayed with him since then. He's done at least ten projects for us. Some voice projects have been better than other, but the truth is, some books are better than the others. When you do your audio,make sure you are clear about what you want, the time frame, and then listen carefully to each chapter. You will be surprised at how many errors or mispronunciations that occur. We have also found typos this way as well.
Mod
Carole, I really appreciate the information on this. I'm brand new to producing audiobooks. I'm hearing typos and it's totally making me cringe, but you're right it's helpful.
It sounds like you had some obstacles getting started, but glad you have a good voice actor. That's so important. I went through a ton of auditions to find the right actress. There's a lot of accents in my books and that made it complicated.
I like the idea of doing a commercial. Great suggestion.
Sarah wrote: "Carole wrote: "We chose an actor for the first book, who quoted us one price and then took a very long time to deliver and demanded more money. While we liked his voice, we were angry that he trie..."If you want the name of the video company, I am happy to supply it. You can take a look at the videos on Utube. She did The Hanging Tree, Schism The Battle For Darracia, and The Flip for us. I think if you look on my son's blog, they are all there too- Michael Phillip Cash. We used Createspace for Brood X and Stillwell. They ran us over two thousand dollars each. The other company wrote and did it for a fraction of the cost. I think we paid just under 100 dollars for the others. I can't believe how many hits we got on Utube. We are in the process of doing one for his latest book.(The price may have gone up- but they are reasonable people). I find them more useful for the YA or adult books, rather than the children's books. I have one on my first Captain No Beard and one for the first non fiction cultural book I did. Is everybody YA or adult fiction. Is there anybody in the group that does kid's books? Just wondering. I want to clarify that when I say "we," I do all the publicity of my son's books. I write children's books.
Mod
@ Carol, will you post the links to these? I want to make them easy for people to check out. Is doing a commercial like doing a book trailer?
Sarah wrote: "Carole wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Carole wrote: "We chose an actor for the first book, who quoted us one price and then took a very long time to deliver and demanded more money. While we liked his voic..."http://www.michaelphillipcash-officia...
If you scroll down his blog, you can look at his trailers. They ask for eight lines that sort of describe your book without giving much away. You give them an idea of the tone, the type of images you want, and then they send you one to approve. They do tweak it if it doesn't match what you want. I have done radio ads. They are more expensive- you describe what your book is about and then they do a quick script. The actor reads it and you they run a lottery with your budget and stations pick your ad and play it. You want to get it on a station that will give you the most bang for your buck. I did that s lot for our earlier books, but it got too expensive. Once the week is over, your radio ad is not advertised. The video is nicer, because you can give it out to blogs when they write about you and reuse it in a lot of places. To answer your question, I think commercials are much longer and more detailed. They require actors, videos use stock images and are much less money. Does that help?
Mod
Just watched the trailers. Really captivating. Thanks. Will you please post link to service you use? I'm looking into options for my next series and this looks like a great one. Very helpful. Thanks!
Sarah wrote: "Carole wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Carole wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Carole wrote: "We chose an actor for the first book, who quoted us one price and then took a very long time to deliver and demanded more m..."Here is the email address. Tell them Michael Phillip Cash's mother sent you, lol
info@loewenherz-creative.com
Mod
Thanks a ton! I totally will. :)
Other ideas and experiences on publishing audiobooks include here.