How it works

About our service
Audiobook Release offers a service from narrator casting and creating a high quality sounding audiobook to getting your audiobook on the market on Amazon/Audible,  Audiobooks.com, Spotify, Overdrive and many more retailers, libraries and apps. Our team has produced over 4000 titles for authors and publishers around the world and we also have put together a small simple but effective KickStart Publishing Kit that helps authors create awareness about their new audiobook. You own the rights to your audiobook and we set you up to receive all royalty payments directly from the distributor to your bank acount. We don't keep amy royalties.

Quality of audio and production 

Audiobook files have specific requirements that are needed to be met in order to not ger rejecte by any outlet. Our team makes sure your audiobook meets those requirements and we guarantee 100% success.

 

Service
We are not a big faceless corporation but instead we are customer focused and that means that when you decide to work with us, you have more personalised assistance. 

 

Distribution 

We not only are a producer but we also know all the ins and outs regarding distribution and we will give all the info about that so you can understand how everything works and we will also take care of correctly submitting your audiobook to the distribution platforms for you. 

 

Pricing for production
Audiobook Productions are priced at a rate Per Final Hour of audio (PFH) and our rate is $480PFH

 

Kickstart Publishing Kit $580 

- Please note that we have our holiday policy going on right now and if the cost for Production of your audiobook exceeds $3000 then the KickStart Publishing Kit will be free. Otherwise, this will be at a 50% discount. So $290

1. Setting up your personal account on ACX and submitting the audiobook files and metadata correctly so it won't get rejected. ACX belongs to Amazon/Audible and is the platform for authors to submit audiobooks and receive their royalties and reports. 

2. Setting up your personal account on INAudio for wide distribution and submitting the audiobook files and metadata correctly so it won't get rejected. INAudio places the audiobook on 40+ retailers, libraries and apps including Spotify, Google Play, Overdrive, Audiobooks.com, and many more. 

3. Audiobook/Book Trailer with footage, voice over, backing music etc. See examples here

https://www.e-audioproductions.com/audiobook-trailers

4. Promotional Landing Page (looks great on mobile and pc) that includes all details about the audiobook, audiobook sample, the trailer, links to the audiobook on various popular sites and an about the author see example here https://www.audiobookrelease.com//audiobooktitlespub/cascadias-call

5. Podcast Interview to help spread the word.

 

Payments
Payments are made in two installments and after you select your narrator because auditions and samples are free. A 50% down payment of the estimated total is required prior to starting production and then the remaining is settled upon completion when we know the final length of the audiobook. You can also choose to pay over time with Affirm. 

Narrator Selection
We produce free samples of your book so you can choose your narrator. We open an audition call to all our over 500 narrators and those who meet the narrator description and are interested will record their audition, we will prepare them and give you several voices to choose from. No strings attached. typically you receive about 5 to 10 auditions 

 
Production Process
After you select your narrator, you will be able to connect on our Audiobook Production Portal where you can meet and answer any questions the narrator may have for pronunciations etc. 

1. Narrator Recordings Narrator will be uploading the recordings in the portal for your review for any misreads etc.  If you notice misreads or mistakes, the narrator will go back and make the corrections. 

2. Editing/Mixing/Mastering

When the recordings are approved by you we then move on to editing, mixing and mastering to make it all sound great, add  backing music to the open and closing files and master the audio the industry requirements for audiobooks.

A little info on Audiobook Distribution
Basically there are two ways to go and are:
1. Amazon / Audible Exclusive. (They are the biggest outlet holding about 35% of the market). In this case (exclusive), you are not allowed to sell anywhere else. On exclusive, they payout 40% of the sales in A La Cart. They decide the price. If your audiobook is sold at $20 they payout $8. However, most sales on Audible/Amazon are made by Audible Members so not in A La Cart type. Members use their monthly subscription credits to get audiobooks and in these cases the payout is much less.  On non exclusive with Amazon/Audible they payout 25% of the price in A La Cart sales. But the payout from subscription based sales remains the same.
2. Going Wide. Going wide means being non-exclusive on Amazon/Audible and being able to reach a wider audience on another potential 40+ retailers and libraries. This way you reach a wider audience. Unfortunately no retailers and libraries except Audible accept audiobooks submitted by individual authors. So to get on those great platforms you need to go through a publisher/distributor.

 
How royalties work

Distributors get the audiobooks on various platforms and apps and libraries such as Audiobooks.com, Google Play, Overdrive and more. Then outlets pay out the royalties to the distributor who keeps a % of the royalties and pays out the remaining to the rights holders. Example. An audiobook is sold on Audiobooks.com for $20. Audiobooks.com keeps 55% meaning $11 and pays out  the other 45% to the distributor meaning $9. This amount of $9 is the royalty. The distributor then keeps 20 % of that and pays out the remaining to the rights holder.

 

We also have partnered with a tech company and we now have the ability to allow authors to sell their audiobooks and listeners can listen directly on their favorite podcast app. This is good because most audiobook listeners are also podcast listeners and they always have their go-to apps. 

 

Auditions Manuscript

I looked at the audition manuscript you had sent with your first email. We can use that for the auditions however, it would be better if we had the beginning of the book because this one starts with dialogue and it doesn't give the narrator any perspective. Also, it is important that you get auditions with narration/storytelling first so you can listen to that and then after get to the dialogue. Would you like me to open the audition with that anyway or would you like to send me the manuscript?