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Audiobooks are the Fastest Growing Book Market: How to Get Your Book Recorded
Audiobooks narrator C. S. Perryess at work.
An Interview with Audible Narrator C. S. Perryess
Audiobooks are hot. Especially for adult fiction.
- People like to listen to audiobooks on their phones.
- New audio platforms like Amazon Echo and Alexa and Google home make listening to audiobooks convenient and fun.
- Millennials like audiobooks.
- There are lots of options for getting them: the library, iTunes, Audible, Google Play.
The Alliance of Independent authors (Alli) says all indies should branch into audiobooks.
But how does an indie author afford the initial expense of hiring a narrator?
One answer: go through the “royalty share” program at Audible, the audiobooks wing of Amazon.
Today I’m talking to the narrator of my audiobooks, C. S. Perryess, who records for Audible (aka ACX.)
1) Tell us about Audible/ACX. Is it true an author can get audiobooks recorded with no money up front?
Absolutely. Audible/ACX offers options. Producer/narrators sometimes work for a royalty, sometimes for a previously determined rate based on the length of the final production, and occasionally for a hybrid deal involving a bit of both.
The author or publisher (known in ACX lingo as the rights holder) determines his /her preferred option before posting the job. You can check it all out here.
2) What made you decide to be a narrator for Audible?
Becoming a “narrator”
I spent many years teaching middle school English, & loved reading to my students.
This love led me to become the organizer and “first pages” reader at an annual writers’ conference I help organize for SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators).
Participants submit only the first page of a manuscript. Then the faculty editors and agents listen to each page as I (and another voiceover/narrator pal of mine) read each page.
Afterward, the panel members comment on what in that first page might pull them in or give them pause. What we’re getting down to is whether panel members would turn that page and continue reading.
I discovered that participants were pleased to hear me read their work, and what better gig could a book-loving introvert have than sitting in a room and reading stories to himself?
Working for ACX
I blithely started with ACX in 2011, unaware that an audiobook narrator/producer is competing against most the out-of-work actors in the country. Bad business decision, eh? Still, in those six years I’ve narrated and/or produced sixteen audiobooks — some for kids, some for teens, and some for adults.
A few of my favorites have been your books: Food of Love, No Place Like Home, So Much for Buckingham, and Why Grandma Bought that Car (which I co-narrated with the amazing Claire Vogel).
The ACX experience is a lot like old school want ads, except that it’s free. A rights holder can search over 50,000 samples to find the narrator s/he wants, or choose to post a “want ad” describing his/her book and offering an audition script.
Producer/narrators are constantly looking for work. If your project is attractive, it’s likely you’ll receive a couple auditions within a week or two.
The audition arrives as a digital file for you to consider. In my experience, rights holders accept or reject auditions pretty quickly, but they can also contact a narrator/producer, offer insight, and ask him/her to submit another audition.
I’ve found the ACX website is very slick and easy to navigate.
3) As a narrator, what do you look for when you’re deciding whether to audition for a book?
Much like an editor or agent looking to represent a book, I will give the book its best shot if I’m passionate about it. So I look for a audition scripts that really hook me, for characters that intrigue me, for a compelling voice.
That said, about 90% of the audition scripts available to me are in such desperate need of editing I drop them before even giving characters a chance to get their hooks into me.
A narrator’s job is to read exactly what’s on the page, and if what’s on the page doesn’t track well, doesn’t make sense, or has any number of other editing/revising needs, I won’t even consider the job.
4) What would make you turn down a book after you’ve been offered the job?
Though this has happened only once in my audiobook career, it should have happened twice. I once auditioned to narrate and produce a little-known book by a big-name author who had passed away.
The gentleman managing the author’s estate accepted my audition and sent me the full manuscript.
To my dismay, the manuscript reflected egregious sexism. Since I had a contract, I tried my best, but after a few chapters I could see I wasn’t the right narrator for the job. Thankfully, the estate manager and I agreed it was best to bilaterally cancel our contract.
Another project had a very promising first chapter with a spot-on voice, but once I got hold of the full manuscript I could see the author had no idea how to construct a novel. It was an editorial mess.
I did my best with it, but I should have asked to back out of the contract. This manuscript wasn’t ready for anyone’s eyes or ears. I’m not pleased at all that this particular audiobook now bears my name as narrator and producer.
5) What are your pet peeves as a narrator? What do authors tend to do that drives a narrator batty?
Probably the same things that drive a reader batty. Of the books available for me to produce, the primary sin is poor editing (or no editing at all).
Some narrators complain about authors including foreign words and obscure English words, but I’m a word guy, so I actually get a kick out of having to research pronunciation and meaning.
I also enjoy it when the project requires an accent or two. It’s not a pet peeve at all, but one of the most challenging scenes I’ve done involved a conversation between a half dozen different women of varied national origin and socio-economic class. A particular author named Anne R. Allen sure had me working hard on that scene.
6) You have a magnificent “Shedio”—a recording studio in your back garden. Do most narrators of audiobooks have recording studios?
I love my little shedio. Part of the producing/narrating job is finding a truly silent place to record.
No author wants to hear the neighbor’s lawnmower rev up in the middle of chapter five.
Audible/ACX producers run the gamut on how they manage this challenge. For my first three audiobook projects I carpeted our bedroom closet and worked in there.
I’ve heard tell of some producers getting away from neighborhood noise by pulling a car into a garage, rolling up all the windows and setting up recording gear in the passenger seat (though this sounds a bit odd, a car in a garage is stunningly silent).
Some ACX producers have studios that make my shedio look like a dilapidated beach hut.
For those interested in doing this kind of work, being a handyperson is helpful. I found that through research into acoustics, judicious use of recycled deck and fence boards, and a lot of discerning Craigslist purchases, I was able to build this cozy, double-walled sound studio for just under $3,000.
I found it intriguing that the goal for most recording studios is keeping the noise in (rock and roll doesn’t always agree with neighborhood bliss). In contrast, an audiobook studio is built to keep noise out. The one noise the shedio doesn’t protect me from is that annoying beeping sound big trucks make in reverse, but otherwise, it does the trick just fine.
7) Is it true that Kevin Spacey once beat you out for a part in a high school play?
Well, it’s true Kevin and I took Play Production class at Canoga Park High School together before he got classier than the rest of us and transferred to Chatsworth High.
For years after Kevin made it big, I loved telling the story of how Kevin Spacey had beat me out for the part of Lucky in the musical Dames at Sea.
But a few years ago I spent some time with a mutual high school friend who pulled out his yearbook to prove me wrong: both Kevin and I lost the part to classmate Chris Strand (now a Nashville musician, actor and businessman). Memory is a funny thing.
8) What advice would you give an author who wants to write books that will be successful as audiobooks?
If it’s a great book, it can be a great audiobook. So study your craft.
Attend writing conferences. Join your local writers’ group or a national/international groups that focus on your genre.
Then write a great book. Get your heart on every page.
Join an excellent critique group and seriously consider the input that group offers. Find brilliant beta-readers and listen to them.
If you’re publishing traditionally, make the best of the expertise offered by your house’s editors. If you’re an indie author, once your excellent critique group and brilliant beta readers have had a go at your ouvre, hire a professional editor. Do this even if you can’t really afford him/her. Your book is worth the investment
9) How does somebody find you if they want you to audition for them? Where else can they find you: your blog? Social media?
I’m easy to find. When my wife Ellen and I married, we combined names, unaware that this act would make us the only two people on the planet with the last name Perryess.
Also, I’ve embraced your Slow Blogging advice, so for the past six years I’ve posted weekly at csperryess.blogspot.com also known as Wordmonger, my blog about words. I can be found at Twitter @CSPerryess and on Facebook.
My Audible audiobooks can be found here. Also, you can view my author profile at SCBWI, the international Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. I can be emailed directly at csperryess@gmail.com.
And Anne — thanks heaps and heaps for asking me to join you on the blog, in recording projects, as a critique pal, and as a friend.
by Anne R. Allen (@annerallen) and C. S. Perryess (@csperryess) July 9, 2017
What about you, scriveners? Have you turned any of your books into audiobooks? What platform did you use? Do you listen to audiobooks? Any questions for Charlie?
OUR AUDIOBOOKS
So Much For Buckingham, Narrated by C. S. Perryess and Anne R. Allen is available in Audiobook from Audible and iTunes
Why Grandma Bought that Car, narrated by C. S. Perryess and Claire Vogel is available at Audible and iTunes
OPPORTUNITY ALERTS
The Golden Quill Awards. The theme is “Liberation.” $500 first prize. Short fiction, poetry and personal essay categories. Up to 1500 words for prose, 40 lines for poetry. Entry fee $15. Deadline September 15, 2017.
University of New Orleans Press Lab Prize. A prize of $1,000 and publication of your book-length manuscript by UNO Press for a short story collection or a novel. The selected manuscript will be promoted by The Publishing Laboratory at the University of New Orleans, an institute that seeks to bring innovative publicity and broad distribution to first-time authors $18 entry fee. Deadline August 15.
Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Awards. Write Romance, Thriller, Crime, Horror, Science-Fiction, and Young Adult? Short fiction: 4,000 words or less. $20 fee. Grand prize $2500. Deadline October 16th, 2017
Boyds Mill Press accepts unagented submissions of children’s book manuscripts. Highlights for Children owns the press.
20 Literary Journals that publish new writers. Compiled by the good folks at Authors Publish magazine.
25 Publishers who accept unagented submissions for Young Adult books. Also form Authors Publish, a great resource.
Aesthetica Creative Writing Award Two prizes of £1,000 each and publication in Aesthetica. Winners also receive a consultation with literary agency Redhammer Management. Up to 40 lines of poetry ($15 fee), 2000 words for short fiction ($24 fee.) Deadline August 31.
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