In Today’s Journal
* On Audiobook Narration, Part 1
* Of Interest
On Audiobook Narration, Part 1
Working with an Audiobook Narrator, for Indie Authors
A guest post by Jason McGinty, an audiobook narrator
Hi there, I’m Jason and I narrate audiobooks.
To be up-front with you, I’m kind of a n00b at this game. My source for all of what I’m about to tell you is either that it was revealed to me in a dream, or I’m making it up as I go. If I get anything wrong, it’s because the dream lied to me.
To show my street cred, or in case you’d like to hear a sample, here are a few audiobooks I’ve narrated. [Ed. Note: For each file, clilck the “Preview link” under the cover.]
- Medicine Woman by Frank Kidd
- Once Upon a Time in Argentina by Frank Kidd
- The Boys’ Book of Western Stories: Short Stories of the Old West by various authors including our friend Harvey Stanbrough
People seem to like my voice.
But enough about me; let’s talk about audiobooks. The purpose of this article is to give a primer on how the process works for indie authors who might never have published an audiobook before.
Why should you publish an audiobook?
Because people like to listen to things, and they usually have more time to listen than to sit down and read.
I know this is true for me, especially when it comes to fiction or entertainment reading. I have listened to far more fiction in the last 10 years than I’ve actually read. Say what you will about the modern “literacy crisis” or whatever (I think it’s overblown), but the fact remains that listening is more convenient than reading for a lot of people.
If you’re already writing a book, it’s almost no extra work on your part to turn it into an audiobook (unless of course you plan on narrating it yourself, but if you’re doing that, you’re not really the target audience for this article).
As to what it will cost you financially, we’ll get to that in a minute, but price aside, it is a no-brainer to open up another convenient way for your audience to experience your story. You might even gain more audience members who wouldn’t have otherwise read your book.
Now let’s talk about how to actually get it done.
How do you find a narrator?
You should hire me by sending me a DM on Substack or emailing me at unsung.substack@gmail.com.
Okay sorry, I’ll give you a serious answer too.
The best way to find a narrator in my opinion is to meet one organically. All of my projects so far have been with authors I’ve met organically through Substack, and not through any of the platforms I’m about to mention.
However, there are platforms out there that can help hook you up with narrators if you don’t know or can’t meet one, as well as managing the process of publishing to the actual audiobook platforms.
The industry-standard platform for this seems to be ACX, with some caveats that I’ll mention in a minute. This is Amazon’s own service, so I understand if you wouldn’t want to use it (for multiple reasons).
All of my projects so far have gone through ACX for the publishing part because it’s the first thing I heard about when I started doing this, but it might not be the best one.
Other options I’ve heard of include Voices by INaudio (my next project will likely go through this one), Author’s Republic, and Spoken Realms. I will talk about ACX because it’s the one I know best, but I would assume the other ones work similarly. [Ed. Note: Also see this recent TNDJ post.]
With ACX, you will go to their site and create an author profile, then create a project for your book.
- If you’ve already met a narrator organically, have them create a narrator profile if they don’t have one already, and then invite [the narrator] to your project.
- If you don’t have a narrator in mind already, you can look through the narrator profiles on ACX and find one you like.
Narrators post samples of their work so you can hear what their voice sounds like and decide whether it would be a good fit for your book. Find one that fits your voice preferences and budget, and invite [the narrator] to your project. You can also make your project publicly visible so narrators can see and apply to it.
Back tomorrow with Part 2 of On Audiobook Narration: What to do after you find a narrator.
Talk with you then.
Of Interest
Parts of a Book: The Complete Guide
The Gospel Fiction Has nothing to do with religion, pro or con. This is a discussion of how to write a “story bible” in your own work.
The Home Purchase from Hell Wow. Story ideas abound.