Several years ago a friend asked me, “when are you going to create audio-books? Your kids’ books would do great. Anyone under the age of 25 is ‘listening’ to books not reading.” This friend even found www.acx.com (Audiobook Creation Exchange) for me so I had no more excuses as to why I wasn’t putting my books on audio. Since acx.com was an Amazon company, I knew there would be quality there and a great distribution plan in place.
It’s a pretty easy web site to use and they have a very large ‘stable’ of narrators to choose from. As the author, you are in control every step of the way. You start by posting an audition excerpt from your book. Professional narrators then send you their audition. I have always received 8-15 auditions for each book, so I had many to choose from. You can pay them outright from a sliding scale (which is my preference) or give them a percentage of the book sales. It took me two tries to find the ideal narrator, Carin Gilfry, for my children’s books. She is open and friendly and extremely patient making any changes I want, no matter how small.
After you find your narrator and they accept your terms of the contract, there are very easy steps you go through as they narrate your book. You proof chapter by chapter, (on line) ask for the corrections or tweaks via acx.com email or personal email.
I then went on to launch my true crime series into audio-books. Daniel Dorse is the voice of my lead detective, Jack O’Roarke of the NYPD. His voice is right out of the Jack Webb, Dragnet era and I love it!
Tip: You should always review and edit the manuscript that you are converting to an audio book before giving it to the narrator. I find that with an audio book, I delete about 50% of the: ‘she said.’ ‘he replied.’ ‘she exclaimed.’ ‘he told her.‘ They are just not necessary because you have a voice telling the listener who is speaking.
The result is that I have a steady stream of sales every month from these books.
Emma and the Lost Unicorn
Dance of Murder
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BOOKS BY TRISHA SUGAREK
