Renea Mason - The Audiobook Book

Thanks to Tammy Becraft, Rissa Blakeley, Haven Cage, Antoinette Hord, Elizabeth Robbins, Dawn Stewart and Karen Tsakos for their time and help.

Thanks to Karen Commins, Debra Holland, Hollie Jackson, Jennifer Kahn, Cherie Lasota, Cyndi Marie, Joc Protho, Lydia Hayden Rella, Gary Solomon, TyDef Media, and the awesome folks at both Audible and ACX.

A lmost everyone knows the famous Chinese proverb from Chapter Sixty-four of the Tao Te Ching, as ascribed to Lau Tzu: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Sohere you are, taking your first step on your audiobook journey.

As an author or would-be narrator, the most important questions are: How will you get to where you want to go? And why take us with you?

Its not as though were terrible company. We do get a little rowdy sometimesone of us is always cracking jokes, another laughing so hard she snorts, and the third is usually shaking her head at the other two while trying not to laugh, but failing miserably. But who cares if were the life of the party, you want to know about audiobooks, right?

There are plenty of options. Some books claim you can get rich recording audiobooks on your iPhone, while others charge you $5.00 to convey the same information found on the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) website for free. Some are nothing more than gimmicky sales bibles, professing to make you a bestseller, but are often written by someone who isnt a bestseller. If thats what youre looking for, you wont find it here.

What you will find here is not only the how to, but also the why you should (and sometimes shouldnt) consider particular paths or decisions. As always, we try to have a little fun. How many self-help books ask the question, Are you comfortable talking dirty into a microphone? In joining us, you might just glean some crucial information and have a chuckle or two. Most likely at our expense.

We could start by telling you the history of audiobooks, but we know you dont care, and the Wikipedia page has that covered, should you be curious. What we will tell you is our story, one that started out as a simple audition.

In March of 2015, Renea posted a call on ACX for a Duet Narration, which led to more than eight completed audiobooks as a team, an Audie Award, a long-term partnership, and this book. Were working on a movie deal too, but David Hasselhoff wont be available to play the part of Noah until sometime in late 2018. Well keep you posted. Just kidding.

We each bring something different to our journey. Noah, an Audible-approved narrator, has performed over 200 audiobooks. Both he and Erin have worked on stage, TV, and film productions. Erin, the founder of a thriving audio description business, also works on Audible projects and has completed more than fifty audiobooks. Since securing her first publishing contract in 2013, Renea has published ten books, including seven independently published titles. Her Good Doctor Trilogy and Symphony of Light series have collectively won thirteen book awards.

According to a June 24th, 2016, Publishers Weekly article, indie authors using ACX have been nominated for Audie Awards twenty times in the past five years, with only three winning their category. We're proud to be one of those three winning teams.

Its not necessarily our experience or Audie win that makes us different, but our relationship. With audiobooks being the fastest growing sector of publishing, we have a unique opportunity to help set the groundwork for what kinds of partnerships are possible in our community. For us, that vision consists of collaboration, strong communication, and mutual understanding between authors and narrators. One of the goals we have for this book is to address subtleties and concepts that might not be so apparent at the beginning of a business relationship, allowing authors and narrators to see both sides of audiobook production. Even though it sounds clich, we are stronger togetherexposing and generating more opportunities as a team than as individuals.

Perhaps were a little too idealistic, but there have been people who have helped us along the way, and if we put our collective ideas together to help you start your journey successfully, then its our little way of giving back. We didnt pen this book to sell thousands of copies, though that would be nice. Writing and publishing this turkey took a lot of work, but if we can help others choose the right path for themselves, well be contributing to the growth and evolution of an incredible form of entertainment. Plus, it does all of us good if we as a community produce more and better-quality audiobooks. After all, the listening public is hungry for content, but we want their love of the medium to continue to grow. Lets give them what they want.

The bottom line: Theres a wealth of opportunity in the audiobook market to explore. In our opinion, collaboration can often lead to better results than individual effort. What follows in this book are processes, hints, suggestions, specifications, questions, and lots of anecdotes about audiobook production. Join us on the journey. Be our collaborators in this unique medium. Help us improve the process and get more people on board. Our jobs as authors and narrators are not easy. Sometimes our work is incredibly frustrating but also very satisfying, expressive, and a hell-of-a-lot of fun.

Come on, take our collective hand. We wont bite unless you want us to. ;-)

Renea, Noah, & Erin

B efore we begin , we want to address some scuttlebutt thats been heard around the water cooler here at Mad Mason Press.

Theres been chatter in the back rooms and dark alleys of the audiobook world and beyond, suggesting listeners of audiobooks, who are also avid readers, are somehow cheating by experiencing books aurally. The notion seems to stem from an idea, proffered by who knows who, that listening to a book, rather than reading it, is somehow a less intellectual experience.