Friday, January 17, 2014

Conda Douglas on Her Audio Book Experience

I've mentioned lately I've been taking my book to audio. When I discovered one of my favorite writers, Conda Douglas, was also delving into the media, I asked her to write about her experience turning "A Crispy Rice Christmas" into a sweet auditory treat. So, here's Conda!

First of all, thank you Marva, for this opportunity!


Around about the beginning of November, I decided to do my first audio book, ever. This turned out to be a daunting task, at least at first, as I determined how to do so. Since I'm a film maker as well as an author, I know a great sound person who is producing audio books. However, when we discussed the process of producing an audiobook, it was obvious that it would take a lot of time and money, neither of which I, as is so common for authors, possess in great abundance.

A number of my fellow authors had good things to say about ACX, the audio production part of Audible (which is owned by Amazon) so that was my next and last stop. I found several advantages to ACX: it's fast and easy to start a production and find a producer (narrator) and there are different ways to pay for creating the audiobook, including a 50/50 royalty split with the narrator. Since my fellow authors also mentioned that many authors were going the ACX route and to be proactive about getting a narrator, I contacted a gal right away with a contract offer, which she accepted right away. Both of us were newbies, so it was a great learning experience. And my narrator did a great job.

The main thing I learned? Well, I had posted for production a Christmas romance, figuring since it was early November and it was a short story, it'd be produced and posted by early December. It was produced, but I hadn't counted on there being a four week long period of ACX "reviewing" the audio. The audio book was published the day after Christmas! Urk. Ah well, live and learn.

Overall, it was a great experience, one which I'm eager to repeat soon!

Visit my blog, Conda's Creative Center at http://condascreativecenter.blogspot.com, for hints, tips and secrets for creative people. 

8 comments:

  1. I would love to do an audio book. It's on my list. Especially since i give half my proceeds to the Third World Eye Care Society.

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  2. Well, by next Christmas you will have this audio book down and you'll be knocking them dead with all your publications!! Great information and I look forward to hearing more about what you'll do next. Congratulations!!

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    1. Thank you Margaret--and the ACX contracts go for seven! years so there's always next Christmas and the next and the next...

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  3. Thanks for the article, Conda. This is a brave new world for authors who have the audio rights for their books.

    By the way, everybody listen to the sample of Conda's humorous romance. Funny stuff.

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    1. Thank you Marva, it was also a blast to write this story!

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  4. Even post-Christmas, it's a fun story. And I applaud Conda for continually braving this new world of publishing, in all its formats.

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  5. Sorry it took me a while to post here, we were dealing with a broken toe today (not mine and all is well, or will be in 6-8 weeks!). I just wanted to thank Marva again and reiterate what she mentioned in the comment above: make sure that you have the audio rights to your book before you start the process with ACX. They call that "asserting your audio rights" on ACX and it's you who must be certain!

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  6. Folks, I've read and reviewed this book....it's a great read. I would LOVE to hear the whole thing in audio!

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