A Studio of One’s Own

Posted on February 8, 2021 by | Comments Off on A Studio of One’s Own

Every audiobook Producer needs a space that they can call their own—a space where they can harness the hypnotic power of their voice and keep the outside world, well, outside. In the first post of this three-part series, we’ll show you how to set up your recording studio and walk you through the essentials, from layout and soundproofing to selecting the right gear.

It’s all about location

You have to customize your studio to best fit your space, whether that’s a tiny house in the mountains, a crowded high rise in Manhattan, a condo by the beach, or a house with high ceilings in the suburbs. Some of the best home recording studios are built in a closet, with a designated desk for post-production in another room. Other producers soundproof their office, living room, or even bedroom.

When choosing your studio space, consider:

Are there any windows? More windows means more unexpected noise, especially if they face the street. Thick curtains can help block out many noises (but not construction sounds like jackhammers).

Do you want to record standing up or sitting down? Both ways work; it’s just a matter of how you’re most comfortable performing. Each will require a different amount of space and type of microphone stand.

How much space will there be between you, the microphone, and the walls? A microphone is best set up at a point no further than 40% away from the front wall, half-way between the side walls, and 60% away from the back wall.

What kind of floor do you have: carpeted, tile, or hardwood? Carpet is ideal for sound insulation, and you can always buy a thick rug or isolation pad (more on that later).

How high are the ceilings? You’ll have to add soundproofing to the ceiling, too, so you want to be able to reach it.

Another important factor to consider is whether or not there’s an open power outlet near your designated space. To minimize any faint electric buzzing noises, you’ll want to plug all your gear into one surge protector, in one outlet.

The sound of silence

So you’ve picked the quietest room in your house, away from street-facing windows, noisy refrigerators, and your overly enthusiastic children. Bear with us—this space is not as quiet as you think. Close your eyes and listen. Then listen closer. You might start hearing your AC unit on the other side of your house. A plane flying overhead. Your upstairs neighbors stomping around.

Without proper soundproofing, all of these sounds and more will be readily picked up by your sensitive voice-recording microphone and jolt listeners out of their immersive audiobook experience. Don’t worry, our tips below will help ensure that your audio meets our Submission Requirements before it ever reaches your audience’s eager ears.

DIY soundproofing and acoustic treatment

  • Walls and Ceiling: Block out external noise and dampen vibrations by covering your walls and ceiling with acoustic panels, egg-crate mattress covers, carpets, or even thick moving blankets, duvet covers, or curtains. If you’re using fabric insulation, leave a bit of space between each panel so the sound of your voice can be diffused a little and won’t sound flat (sometimes fabric absorbs sounds almost too well).
  • Door: Treat the studio side of your door the same way as your walls and ceiling. You want to make sure that all cracks are covered, and you also want to be able to get in and out easily. We recommend using a plastic door sweep or a long, dense pillow to cover the crack between the door and the floor when you’re recording.
  • Floor: If your studio space is not already carpeted, buy a thick rug to cover your entire floor. In addition to blocking out noise and eliminating vibrations, recording on carpet will help mask low end frequencies emitted by your equipment. If carpet isn’t doing the trick, or you have some wiggle room in your budget, you can opt for isolation pads to cover your floor.
  • Furniture: Fully stocked bookcases placed in corners of your studio can help with acoustic treatment because they diffuse sound waves. Additionally, if you want to record sitting down, you should look for a desk that’s stable and large enough to hold your microphone, computer, and accessories; your chair should be the right height for your desk, comfortable, and not squeak (even if you’re narrating a horror audiobook).

For more inspiration on your studio set-up, take a virtual visit to the DIY recording studios of three Audible Approved Producers.

  • Acoustic Foam Panels
  • Moving Blanket
  • Blackout Curtains
  • Door Weather Seal

Find these product recommendations on our Studio Gear: Soundproofing Amazon Idea List.

Reducing noise with the right electronics

  • Microphone isolation shield: In addition to the soundproofing steps we’ve mentioned above, you may want to mount an isolation shield to your microphone to absorb any additional vibrations from your walls and floor. Be sure to follow the instructions when attaching the filter to your microphone, as mounting it too close to the microphone won’t do much in terms of sound absorption.
  • Computer: Another source of noise is your computer, specifically its fan and hard disk. We recommend using a low-power computer with an SSD drive and no fans, like the Microsoft Surface Pro, or very quiet fans like the Macbook Air. Another bonus for upgrading your computer is faster audio processing and editing. Note: check that your computer ports are compatible with your audio interface.
  • Lighting: You can make your space as bright or as dim as you want, but stay clear from fluorescent light bulbs, which can produce radio interference. Wall dimmers can also make a low buzzing noise when turned on. Instead, we recommend a desktop or standing lamp with LED bulbs which are quiet, energy efficient, and won’t add extra heat to your space.
  • Microphone Isolation Shield
  • Desk Lamp
  • Microsoft Surface
  • Macbook Air

Find these product recommendations on our Studio Gear: Electronic Accessories Amazon Idea List.

Choosing your recording studio gear

Just like your acoustic treatment has to be customized to fit your space, your studio gear should be tailored to your unique voice and environment. We won’t go into all of those factors here (check out our upcoming Gearing Up For Audiobook Production part 1 and part 2 for more information), but we’ll introduce you to everything you need to get started.

To record an audiobook, you’ll need a way to capture your voice (a microphone), a way to transfer and save your sound (typically an audio interface connected to your computer), a way to listen to your recording (headphones best replicate the audiobook listening experience), and a way to record and edit your sound files (software called a digital audio workstation or DAW).

Starter packs

We’ve selected the starter packs below for their ease of use and professional-grade quality. They include a studio condenser microphone, which is the most popular type of microphone used in audiobook recording; an audio interface; headphones; necessary cables; a DAW; and a selection of accessories like microphone stands and a pop filter to screen out popping noises during recording.

  • M-Audio Recording Bundle
  • Presonus AudioBox Studio Bundle
  • Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Studio Bundle

Find these product recommendations on our Studio Gear: Recording Starter Packs Amazon Idea List.

Make yourself at home

Soundproofing your studio and using quality equipment is will get your of to a solid start producing amazing audiobooks. The most critical element is you: your voice, how you use it, and your ability to capture and master it to produce stories that will engage your listeners. So make yourself at home, get comfortable using your new equipment, and check out our Performance: The Craft of Narration video playlist to hone your voiceover skills.

For more information, check out these Production Pointers from Audible Approved Producers and keep honing your craft.

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Posted in Actors + Studio Pros, Producer Tips

An Update from ACX

Posted on January 20, 2021 by | Comments Off on An Update from ACX

We’re committed to making Audible and ACX the best experience it can be for our creative community, and we’ve heard your feedback. We have been hard at work building a new reporting system to reflect details on returns, including returned units by title. Starting March 2021, you’ll be able to see this data on your ACX Sales Dashboard. This data will also be included in your monthly financial statements for March 2021 and the following months. We appreciate your patience as we invest the time and resources to make these updates to the dashboard and our backend systems, so that we can expand reporting details for our thousands of creators. As of January 1, 2021, we are paying royalties on any return made more than 7 days after purchase.

We are also making other changes to our ACX policies to provide more flexibility, which we know is important to you. Effective February 1, ACX Rights Holders of DIY or Pay-for-Production titles that have been on sale for 90 or more days can convert their distribution type from exclusive to non-exclusive. In addition, all ACX Rights Holders will have the option to terminate after 90 days of distribution, but Rights Holders with Royalty Share or Royalty Share Plus deals must provide Producer consent when making their request. More details about this update will come in the payments letter that will be sent next week.

We wish you all the best in 2021.

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GORUCK: A DIY Audiobook Adventure

Posted on January 14, 2021 by | Comments Off on GORUCK: A DIY Audiobook Adventure

In 2008, Jason and Emily McCarthy founded GORUCK with two goals: to create a backpack that could survive any environment, and to start a movement that shows people how to get the most out of a life where adventure calls and tomorrow is never promised. Jason joins us today to share how tackling those challenges set him up to self-produce an audiobook based on his experience.

When I began keeping a journal back in 2010, I had no idea that it would become my first book, How Not To Start A Backpack Company. I also didn’t know that I would go on to not only self-publish, but also self-record this very personal story in a small soundproofed room at our GORUCK Headquarters in Jacksonville Beach, FL. Turns out, producing an audiobook is a lot like rucking (aka walking with weight in a backpack). Both can be uncomfortable at first, but the more you do it, the better it gets over time. 

You see, in 2010 my life was a mess. I had just gotten out of the military, I was going through a divorce, and the US financial crisis was in full swing. Back then, GORUCK was little more than a hobby. I was broke and thought I had nothing to lose, so I hit the open road with my dog Java to visit all 48 contiguous states, to meet people and get into adventures. I thought we could sell a few backpacks, too.

Truth is, I lost a bunch of money, didn’t sell any backpacks, and ended up all alone. I had a great front row seat to watch my life burn down before my very eyes. The silver lining was that this trip became instrumental to me turning my life around, because I was motivated to not live in flames. The magical part of the journey came when I focused on building a community of people through rucking and the GORUCK Challenge — instead of just trying to sell gear. I believed in that people-first vision then and have followed it ever since. Ten years later, with thousands of GORUCK events and over $120MM in revenue behind us, what’s abundantly clear to me is that we would not be in business if we weren’t making a real impact on people’s lives, including our own. Serving others is the why that will always drive us forward.

In late 2019, Emily asked me if I had a specific photo – the one of Java in the GORUCK Truck in front of a herd of bison – to put on our Christmas card. I handed her my phone for her to find it as I headed to bed. After some digging, she found the photo and stumbled upon that journal that I had written during the summer of 2010 and completely forgotten about.

Emily stayed up most of the night reading, and the next morning, she came down to the kitchen and implored me to tell this story to the world. She described the journal as an unfiltered glimpse into my journey as an entrepreneur and human being. This was the GORUCK origin story that needed to be told. 

I started making the rounds to the publishers in New York. You meet in their office, they tell you what other books you need to copy to sell a few more copies of yours. You have no leverage because you’ve never sold a book. The publishers I chatted with wanted this story to be more of a business book with bullet points and to-do lists. Or they wanted it to be about how my life was like a bad country song where I had a broken heart and a dog and a bottle of whiskey. I wanted to one-up them and show both sides of building a business amidst personal chaos.

So, I decided to go directly to our audience, just like we did with our original backpack, GR1, way back when. Six months later, I self-published How Not To Start A Backpack Company with editorial help from my good friend and the original photographer from that summer 2010 trip, Alex Beck. It was really happening.

Within a few days of the launch, I got a message on Instagram from a member of our GORUCK Tough (GRT) community, Kat Lambrix of Audible Studios. She wanted to know if we planned to do an audio version of the book, because she and others would love to listen to it while rucking. She gave us some quick start tips that I’ve shared below, but her greatest advice, by far, was reminding me that this was my story, and I knew how to tell it best.

Tips for Successful Audiobook Recording

  • Speak half a beat slower than you think you need to. Remember that listeners don’t have the text in front of them, so they’ll need time to digest what it is you’re saying – especially if listening while training or rucking.
  • Read off of a tablet when recording. Avoid a laptop because your mic will pick up the fan noise.
  • Stay hydrated, and if you’re getting really clicky, try a few bites of a green apple.
  • Don’t eat anything new the night before you record. Your mic will pick up noises from your stomach!
  • When you take breaks, especially if you’re feeling like your energy is dragging, try a quick round of exercise to regain your focus.
  • Don’t worry about the first few pages. Record them without going back so you can get into the flow of recording. Then if you listen to it and feel like it doesn’t match the later parts of the book when you’re more comfortable behind the mic, go back and redo them.

Next thing I knew, Emily had bought a bag of green apples from the supermarket and said she’d hold down the fort with our three children. It was a surreal experience to lock myself in what we jokingly refer to as “The Champagne Room” at GORUCK HQ and reread the journal and emails I had written from my rock bottom. Emily narrated her part as well, and we both admitted afterward that tears were shed while revisiting the past.

Without ACX elevating the field of independent publishing, authors like me would have zero chance to tell our story in our way. For us, the goal was to create a calling card. Let’s get the story out there and see what people think. Self-publishing our book, and narrating the audiobook on ACX made that possible.

Above all I hope my story inspires others to NOT wait for the perfect time to follow their dreams, but just to get going and figure it out on the move.

Are you ready for the adventure of a lifetime? Listen to Jason and Emily’s audio opus on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes.

Then, get ready to go ruck on your own journey—creating an audiobook with ACX allows you to put your story out there, engage your audience, and learn a lot along the way. Click here to get started.  

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Posted in Actors + Studio Pros, Audiobook Industry, Audiobook Marketing, Authors + Publishers, DIY, Rights Holder Advice, Storytellers

Best of the Blog: 2020 Edition

Posted on December 31, 2020 by | Comments Off on Best of the Blog: 2020 Edition

With the help of some super-talented ACX creators, we’ve shared some great audiobook production, publishing, and marketing advice in 2020. Today, we’re closing out the year with a look at some of our favorite posts and videos.

Award-Worthy Advice from Indie Voices These rockstar indie creators represented the ACX community at the Audio Publisher Association’s Audie Awards this year. Get to know them and go behind the scenes of their award-winning work—then get inspired to create your own award-winning production in 2021.

Performance Masterclass ft. Khristine Hvam & Ryan Bess Winnick [VIDEO] There’s a lot to learn when it comes to audiobook performance, and the best actors never stop improving their craft. Here’s your chance to be a fly on the wall during a coaching session that covers pacing your performance, setting the scene, and understanding how physicality and preparation can enhance your narration.

Raise Your Voice: Narrator Erin Mallon Takes on Authorship Ever wondered what it’s like to be a Renaissance woman in publishing? Look no further than this Q&A with multi-hyphenate Erin Mallon, an actor-turned-narrator-turned-writer whose genre-bending work takes audio storytelling to the next level (think: meta comedic audio play).

Time Well Spent 2020 brought new challenges in time management and working from home. While it’s too early to know what 2021 will bring, we’re confident that entrepreneur Sarina Bowen’s tips on setting goals, developing good habits, and being consistent and will set you up for success.

Expanding Your Range: The Making of an Audiobook Musical [VIDEO] Now’s the perfect time to resolve to break new ground with your audiobook productions in 2021. Get inspired to try something new by learning how the cast of an audiobook musical put it all together, from the initial idea to the final edit.

Hannibal Hills: Lessons from the First Three Years Part I and Part II It’s never too late to launch your career in audiobook production. Take it from Audible Approved Producer Hannibal Hills, who went from self-starter to self-mastery in 3 years. In this article, he shares practical advice for sharpening your skills, building your brand, and telling the stories that are true to you.    

Love Is in the Airwaves Here’s to gal-mances everywhere! Follow along as New York Times best-selling romance authors Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward gush about each other’s audiobooks and share their process for casting and communicating with narrators, especially for dual narration and duet narration projects.

We can’t wait to see where your audiobook career will take you in 2021.    

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Posted in Actors + Studio Pros, Authors + Publishers, Marketing Advice, Producer Tips, Rights Holder Advice, Videos

Warm Up Your Voice with Caitlin Kelly’s Recipe For Success

Posted on December 18, 2020 by | Leave a comment

As we transition from sweater season to full-on winter, warming up takes on a whole new meaning. We’ve got just the thing to carry you through the cold days and keep your voice in tip-top shape: Caitlin Kelly’s special tea, perfect for any season. As an Audible Approved Producer who has narrated over 200 audiobooks, she knows the importance of vocal health and credits this recipe for soothing her vocal chords before recording sessions. For best results, pair it with Caitlin’s tips and techniques for audiobook producers, featured on ACX University.

I have one “go-to” for when my voice is fatigued. It could be from a particularly rigorous recording session or from a night out with friends and a few cocktails. So, when I have vocal swelling from overuse or dehydration, I turn to a hot cup of apple cider vinegar and honey. This elixir was introduced to me in college by my vocal performance teacher, Alix Korey – a broadway diva who drinks coffee and smokes cigarettes all day – and it has been part of my vocal care regimen ever since. I think of it as hot bath and a warm hug for my throat.

Here’s how I make it:

The heat will relax and soothe the muscles in your throat. Use 4 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, or however much you can stand (this stuff is strong for the uninitiated). I use Bragg, which is unfiltered and raw. Shake up that bottle, and dump it in the hot water. The sediment is good for you – it’s called “the mother,” and it’s said to help in a number of ways: aiding digestion, balancing the pH of the body, and supporting the immune system. I swear by it to care for my voice. Honey is a humectant, which means it retains moisture. It will coat your throat and protect it while you rest your voice.

You might also try adding lemon juice. If you have mucus, the citric acid can help cut through it. A touch of cinnamon adds anti-inflammatory properties. Play around with the measurements. These are not hard and fast ratios or anything; just my own preference.

Now, I’m going to be honest with you: this stuff smells like feet. But it will make your vocal folds so happy, you will see the strong smell as a small discomfort compared to the restorative effects of the tonic!

Caitlin Kelly has been doing voice over since 2009. She got started in VO while living in Tokyo, Japan. Since diving into audiobook narration in 2014, Caitlin has recorded over 200 books. To hear more from Caitlin, check out her site, www.CaitlinKellyVO.com.

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Runnin’ Down A Dream Project

Posted on December 17, 2020 by | Leave a comment

It’s a tale as old as time—author meets narrator, narrator reads story, a few editing and mastering techniques later and behold! An audiobook is born. Sometimes, though, the audiobook journey includes a number of twists and turns before the narrator even steps into the booth. Here to tell a tale of one such story brought to audio for the first time is David Niall Wilson, mastermind behind Crossroad Press, a publishing house founded to bring forgotten or undiscovered out-of-print gems into the limelight.

David Niall Wilson from Crossroad Press

As a publisher and author, I find that sometimes between the marketing, the writing, the craft, and the sheer volume of energy that is expended just living your life, you need a few moments to remind yourself that there’s more out there. Some stories find their way to just the right situation that allows them to reach a level that no one vision or voice alone could have created. That’s where this story begins—with a novel titled Case White by Thomas Sullivan. Over a period of many years, I fought to bring it to publication. I’ve been privileged to bring many of Sully’s novels back into print, but Case White is different. It’s an original, and I believe it’s his finest work.

It began as an eBook, then a print edition, and when the time was finally right to bring it to audio, I simply put it up for auditions on ACX. Even now, this incredible story has barely begun to find its way into the hands of readers, so I wasn’t sure who would be interested in taking a very long royalty share project with a less-than-stellar sales record. I was not prepared for one of the most talented voices I have worked with to come to me, ready (in his words) to “fight for this book.” The material covers the time leading up to the Third Reich, and the way madness can take control of a nation,  and the narrator who took the project is Joshua Saxon, whose own family fled the Russian pogroms in the early 1900s and immigrated to the United States in the mid-20th Century to avoid the persecution that would inevitably claim millions of lives.

The synchronicity of this book finding its way to Joshua and linking him to his own past would have been enough to make a great story, but in this case, it’s only the beginning.

Audible Approved Producer Joshua Saxon

To add a twist to this plot, sometimes the reader must find and chase the book. When Case White had wrapped up, Sully, Joshua, and I all moved on to other things, but one day, out of the blue, I received a message: Joshua had discovered that a book he has always loved, published back in the 1960s, had never been made into an audiobook. That book was The Last Temptation of Christ, by Nikos Kazantzakis. The idea seemed crazy. The book was hugely popular, published by a major New York House. If the rights were available at all, I was sure they would be with an agent, or the original publisher, and priced well out of our range. After I got done laughing at the idea of Crossroad Press being able to produce something like that, he let it go.

But I couldn’t. I checked to be certain he was right, and he was. There were many printed editions of the book (it’s still in print), there was a movie adaptation that turned the world on its ear for a while, but there was no audiobook. The currently available trade paperback is a reprinted edition from Simon & Schuster, and it’s been on sale in that same format since 1988.  Experience told me that if Simon & Schuster had the rights to the book, the odds of getting to do the audiobook had just toppled off a cliff. More likely I’d give them the idea to do it themselves if I brought it up.

Maybe I just needed a little more faith. During that same period, I was negotiating for rights to some books by author Leslie Alan Horvitz, and corresponding daily with his agent, Cynthia Manson. I happened to mention my “quest” to her, and she happened to have connections at the publishing house, so she said she would check with them and see what she could find.

What she found was that Simon & Schuster did not have the rights to the audio. What they did have was an e-mail address they hadn’t used for a very long time for the author’s heirs, and they shared it with me. Still not hoping for much, I wrote to them, explaining how much Joshua wanted to perform the novel, how our company works, and my desire to bring it to audio. Then I waited. And waited. I was about to shrug and let it go, when I woke up one morning to a long, very cheerful note from Greece: the rights holders were very pleased at the idea of an audiobook! Then came the next bump—the book we need to use for the script was a translation, and the contract stated I had to have permission to use the translation, which I still needed.

The book was translated around 1960, and the translator was listed as P.A. Bien.  Initial searches had Google trying to translate the name into French, found other books he’d translated, but no real information on the man himself. Then I found an article that mentioned that his full name was Peter A. Bien. Once again, I had picked up the trail.  Peter is a Professor Emeritus at Dartmouth, and still attached to their Creative Writing department. When I found the e-mail address, I was not sure what to find, but again, I wrote my note, made my introductions, and waited.

There was no answer to the e-mail, but there was also a phone number. I called it. Peter was on vacation at his home in the Adirondacks, the message explained. At the end of that message was another phone number.

Cover art by Steve Smith

I wish I had time to explain the wonderful phone call I had with Peter, about Kazantzakis’ works, of which he’d translated several, and about translation in general. He gave his blessing, and even said that Joshua could, if he wished, reach out with any questions on pronunciation.  I know that the two talked, and it felt like generations merging. The contract was finalized and signed. Original cover art was commissioned from West Coast artist Steve Smith, who outdid himself, and the production that has just now been completed began. 

Chasing the rights to books can be frustrating—the older the book, the more popular, the more editions, the harder it becomes. This one felt like a marathon, but in the end,  the journey through the words of Thomas Sullivan, the passion of a narrator to perform the book he’d always dreamed of producing, through agents, other authors, across an ocean and back to the Adirondacks, lead to an unforgettable audiobook.

Now I’m going to find my Indiana Jones hat and set out after the next one. I hope some of you will come along for the ride. Remember—audio is still a fairly young medium, and no matter how unlikely a project may seem, it never hurts to ask.

David Niall Wilson is a prolific author and the founder and CEO of Crossroad Press, a publishing company that specializes in giving out-of-print stories new life through e-book and audiobook publication. The publishing company’s work can be found at crossroadspress.com, and the author’s own work can be found on his website, davidniallwilson.com.

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A Note from ACX

Posted on November 24, 2020 by | Leave a comment

Launched in 2011, the Audiobook Creation Exchange has paved the way for exponential growth in audiobook production and consumption, today supplying over 200 audiobooks in store per day to Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. The ACX online rights marketplace and production engine is available to all authors, publishers, literary agents, narrators and studio pros in the US, UK, Canada, and Ireland. ACX.com connects and educates independent authors and rising actors—many of whom are among 20,000 professional actors who have worked with Audible in the past 5 years—in the art of audiobook performance and creation, and provides title-promotion tools and methods to drive sales and audiobook awareness, allowing our creative stakeholders to reach new audiences on Audible and beyond. Free programs, including ACX University and the Promo Code tool, seek to level the playing field and further expand opportunity for authors, narrators, rights holders and producers alike.

As you know, we’ve been working to address some ACX authors’ concerns about Audible’s overall exchange policy, and we appreciate your feedback. The intent of this program is to allow listeners to discover their favorite voice, author, or story in audio. In instances where we determine the benefit is being overused, Audible can and does limit the number of exchanges and refunds allowed by a member. But as designed, this customer benefit allows active Audible members in good standing to take a chance on new content, and suspicious activity is extremely rare.

We hope this helps convey perspective to our valued writers and ACX partners as to the impact of our current returns policies. However, in recognition of these concerns, moving forward and effective as of January 1, 2021, Audible will pay royalties for any title returned more than 7 days following purchase. This adjustment does not impact our customers’ current benefits of membership, and we look forward to continuing to welcome millions of first-time listeners, enabling our members to discover new content they enjoy and growing the audience for our valued creative partners.

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Audiobook Submission Deadline for the 2020 Holidays

Posted on November 2, 2020 by | Leave a comment

It feels like just yesterday that we were wrapping up our fall mini-season of ACX University, and now the holidays are almost here! We know that everyone has a lot on their (metaphorical) plates right now, and we want to help make your upcoming releases available to listeners by the December holiday season.

Please submit your project for review no later than Tuesday, November 10th for the best chance of having it on sale by the holidays.  

Want to get your production in tip-top-shape and don’t know where to start?First, review our Audio Submission Requirements, then use our free Audio Lab tool to check your sound files before submitting to our QA team. For even more production tips and tricks, look to our YouTube channel.  

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Now on ACX: Royalty Share Plus with SAG-AFTRA Contributions

Posted on October 21, 2020 by | Leave a comment

Great news, everybody: actors can now accept Royalty Share Plus deals with SAG-AFTRA Health and Retirement contributions on ACX!

What This Means for Actors

SAG-AFTRA actors now have the opportunity to accept more audiobook projects on ACX, and actors hoping to join the union have another pathway to membership. With Royalty Share Plus, actors get paid a per-finished-hour rate that can help cover production costs and receive royalties on every sale, splitting royalty earnings 50-50 with the audiobook’s Rights Holder.

Actors will be able to contribute to the SAG-AFTRA Health and AFTRA Retirement funds directly through qualifying Royalty Share Plus projects. Get started by adding your SAG-AFTRA ID to your ACX account. Then, ensure your union contribution will be made for qualifying Royalty Share Plus deals by clicking “Accept with SAG-AFTRA H&R.”

Royalty Share Plus projects must offer a minimum rate of $100 per-finished-hour to qualify. You can review the Health and Retirement Contribution Conditions for SAG-AFTRA Actors for complete terms and conditions.

What This Means for Rights Holders

This update makes it easier to recruit top talent for your next audiobook production. To hire a SAG-AFTRA actor for a Royalty Share Plus project, you must offer a minimum per-finished-hour rate of $100. When your chosen actor accepts with SAG-AFTRA, you simply pay them through their designated Paymaster, then royalties for your audiobook are split 50-50 with the actor as usual.

We can’t wait to hear the new audiobooks that come to life through Royalty Share Plus!

Click here to learn more about SAG-AFTRA and ACX.

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Raise Your Voice: Narrator Erin Mallon Takes on Authorship

Posted on July 24, 2020 by | Leave a comment

The driven artists in the indie publishing community are used to wearing multiple hats. Then there are the independent artists that are pushing the boundaries of their chosen profession to expand even further, following their creative spark to craft projects that expand their careers and enliven the audio storytelling genre.

Erin Mallon is one such artist – you might recognize this prolific narrator from her work with Lauren Blakely, Amy Daws, or Julia Kent, her recently-released audio play, These Walls Can Talk, or her first foray into novel-writing, Flirtasaurus, on Audible. Erin Mallon joined us recently to talk about her ever-expanding career journey.

Erin, you’re known for your work as a narrator of romantic comedies, but we heard you have two exciting new projects to add to your resume – a play and a novel, both written by you! Can you tell us a little about both of these? 

Sure! The first project is These Walls Can Talk, a six-character comedic audio play about intimacy and communication in marriage. And get this – the play is set in… the romance audiobook industry! I will tell you, it was a very “meta” experience. The next project is my romantic comedy novel which released on July 15th called Flirtasaurus. It follows Calliope, a young, determined paleontologist and her budding relationship with Ralph, the sexy astronomer who works in the planetarium at the Philadelphia natural history museum where she is interning. Absurd, dino-driven humor abounds!

Have you always been a writer or was it something you got a feel for as a narrator?

I have been writing for the theater for about ten years now – I actually wrote my first play and narrated my first audiobook the very same year! So I’ve been working both careers simultaneously all this time. Flirtasaurus is my first foray into writing a novel though. It’s been a wild ride taking what I’ve learned from creating my own comedic plays and narrating other authors’ great romantic comedies, then sort of bringing it all together in writing my own book.   

Has your work as a narrator influenced/informed your writing?

It has to, right? I started out performing on stage, so once I started writing plays I think I’ve always come to it from an actor’s perspective. When I’m on a roll, it feels a lot like playing all of the characters on the page. It’s always been really important to me that the actors who work on my plays feel energized and motivated by the story, the characters, the words, the comedy – so that every night they can’t wait to get in front of an audience and let that energy and excitement bounce.

Also, I’ve narrated almost 500 books at this point, and I’d say about 75% of those have been in the romance genre. It’s been such an inspiration over the years seeing and experiencing how awesome authors put their work out into the world and pondering how I might adapt my theatrical style and put my own voice out there in novel form.   

You chose to record These Walls Can Talk as an audio play – was that your plan from the beginning?

No, it actually wasn’t initially intended as an audio play! I wrote These Walls Can Talk back in February through a project I co-produce in NYC called The Brooklyn Generator – an “engine” for creating plays in under 30 days. I always intended it to be performed live onstage (and I hope it still will be), but we had only one public reading in midtown before Covid hit and shut our theaters down. In an effort to bring some laughs to people in quarantine at home, I teamed up with some of my romance narrator friends to do a zoom reading of the play and streamed it on Aural Fixation, an amazing Facebook group for lovers of romance audio. The reaction from the audience was really encouraging and folks kept asking when they would be getting the Audible version, so we made it happen!

Let’s turn to Flirtasaurus, your first novel. Was it daunting to start such a large new project like that? How did you know you could do it?

I think I was pretty much equal parts confident and doubtful when I started this process. After writing so many plays, I knew I could tell a story and I felt that I was strong with dialogue – after all, that’s what plays are – but I had some doubts about how to weave a story over the course of six to eight hours (plays usually clock in around two hours or less). Whenever I felt stuck or insecure though, I returned to my processes as a playwright and that always got me back on track. Slowly but surely, I found my natural style of storytelling in this new-to-me format. I think it’s always a bit daunting when you’re standing at the beginning of a creative project, full of ideas but staring a whole bunch of blank pages. That feeling keeps many of us from even starting, because we think we’re supposed to know what to do at every moment. I don’t think that’s how creativity works, though. You just have to show up every day and play. If you can make a commitment to doing that, word by word, page by page, the story starts to take over and tell you what needs to happen, instead of the other way around.

You chose to narrate the audiobook yourself. Why did you go that way instead of hiring a narrator, and how was it reading your own words?

When I started writing plays, I thought I would be writing roles specifically for myself, but that actually never happened. With this though, I felt like I wrote it so naturally in my own voice that I knew I wanted to give it a shot! Plus, my five-year-old son has made me a bit of an amateur dino-expert, so I knew I could get all the crazy dinosaur name pronunciations right without any additional research.

It was actually an incredibly helpful exercise in catching all those pesky final edits and typos before sending the book off for printing. Narrators are great at catching those, because we can’t say it out loud if it’s not quite right on the page. I don’t know that I will always narrate my future books, but for now I’m really loving the process! 

How did you go about marketing this audiobook? Did you reach out to any of your author contacts for advice? 

I teamed up with the awesome people at Social Butterfly PR, and they’ve done a considerable amount of hand holding. I’ve also been fortunate to have worked with so many amazing indie authors, particularly in the romantic comedy genre, so I’ve had the benefit of observing how they operate for years. Wonderful writers like Lauren Blakely, Amy Daws and Julia Kent have all been really generous with tips and support as I start to make my way.

So what do you think – can we expect more novels and audio plays from you? What’s next?

Yes, absolutely! Flirtasaurus is actually Book One in my Natural History Series, which will consist of three interconnected standalones. I am writing Book Two as we speak. I’m also excited that The Net Will Appear, my two-character play between a 75-year-old man (Emmy-nominated Richard Masur) and a 9-year-old girl (Matilda Lawler from Broadway’s The Ferryman) is streaming on The Alzheimer’s Foundation’s Youtube Channel July 24th. We put together a really beautiful online production that I’m eager to share with people. Next steps for that are figuring out the best way to bring it to the audio format. And there are a lot more plays where that came from, which I’m planning to adapt and bring to earbuds far and wide.       

Are you inspired by Erin’s ambition? Have your own ideas about taking your writing or narration career to new heights? Let us know!

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