In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge Report
* About Audio Books
* Of Interest
Quote of the Day
“Readers don’t connect with characters because they’re perfect. They connect with them because they’re human. … Flaws create authenticity.” Jenn Windrow in Writers in the Storm (see Of Interest)
The Bradbury Challenge Report
Participating in any challenge is a great way to have fun and grow as a writer.
The requirement is to write at least one short story per week, then let me know the title, word count, and genre per the format below. During the past week, the following writers wrote these new stories:
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “The Watcher” 3013 Contemporary
- Christopher Ridge “Dead Air” 1783 dark psychological
- KC Riggs “Coming Home” 1478 Paranormal
- Dave Taylor “Homecoming Weekend” 3,108 Paranormal
- Glynn Young “A Man, His Mother, and His Son” 3460 General
Congratulations to all of these writers.
About Audio Books
I’ve never published any audio books, but an excellent narrator named Jason McGinty narrated one of my short stories as part of an anthology in which that story was included.
I’ll be forever grateful to friend and writer Frank Theodat for inadvertently introducing me to Jason. Like Frank, Jason is as honest as the day is long. and I put a premium on dealing with honest people.
Soon, I’ll put up a guest post by Jason in which he will talk about audiobooks.
Anyway, the purpose of this post…
If you’re thinking of publishing audiobooks, the obvious king of animals in the audiobook realm is Amazon’s ACX.
But although they aren’t the only game in town, ACX acts as if they are a monopoly. Depending on whether you choose exclusive or non-exclusive distribution, they take 50% to 70% of your royalties up front as their fee.
In my book, neither of those is a good option. For that reason, I strongly recommend against using them.
But you have choices:
At present, having done only minimal research, for distribution of my own audiobooks I will probably go with The Author’s Republic. Their fee is only 20% of royalties, and they have worldwide distribution, including to Audible, Google Play, Spotify, iTunes, and many more.
You might also check out Voices by INaudio (formerly Findaway Voices). Their fee is also 20%.
And there are other audiobook distributors and aggregators. I recommend searching for “audiobook distribution platforms” and looking them over yourself.
Here are a couple of starting points:
- Best Audiobook Distributors (includes links to other in-depth articles)
- Audible vs. Wide (4 minute video)
I hope this helps. Soon I’ll put up that guest post from Jason McGinty.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
JD Salinger, author of ‘The Catcher in the Rye,’ stopped publishing in 1965… Short, interesting article.
Still Taking Sign-Ups for 40K Seminar This is a really good deal.