“Attention Voice-Mart shoppers… in aisle seven you’ll find a fresh selection of promising audio book narrators, ready to read your epic three hundred-page novel for only $499.99. But hurry! Only today, they’ll throw in free editing. That’s right, a $299.99 value could be yours, absolutely FREE.”
The shrill sound of my phone woke me up out of a bad dream. So much for power naps!
Ever since I had helped my friend Fernanda with her website, she regularly calls me because she wants to pick my brain about the voice-over business. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and sometimes I feel almost guilty to be the one who has to bring her down to earth again.
The thing is, Fernanda is incredibly talented. I could listen to her voice for hours, and as it turns out, I’m not the only one. Not only is she blessed with amazing vocal cords; Fernanda has the uncanny ability to take you on a journey to a place where time and space no longer exist.
Her unique talent is only matched by her naiveté about the less artistic aspects of our work; minor details such as contracts, rates, self-promotion… you know, the boring stuff. In other words: she’s the ideal candidate to be taken for a ride. The other day it almost happened again…
Thanks for writing this very useful work. It helped clarify some questions I had had. Had.
Nicely done! I knew there was a reason I don’t currently consider audio book jobs. 🙂
Self-producing a job like that poses real problems:
* how many flubs did you make that you did not catch;
* how many pops/blasts/anomalies occurred that were not audible to you (even wearing headsets);
*how many places was the interp not quite right?
Without a producer listening to your read and dropping marks into the recording for you, you’re flying blind so you must listen to the entire studio session to capture those things. That means you’re narrating for 10 hours, editing for 10 hours and if you do end-to-end QA on your production (and it hasn’t been QA’d unless its done e2e) add another 10 hours so that’s 30 hours work if you don’t shortcut the job. So by my calculations, bidding $750 means you’re working for $25/hour. …now if you hire a producer….
…oooophs! I goofed. You’ve got 10 hours of content…edited down to 8.5 hours…so that 28.5 hours and an hourly rate of $26.32/hour. My bad. 😉
Excellent piece Paul. These jobs are not worth the hassle and physical stress of doing. I did one ( that was enough ) and lost my voice from the strain of my other projects on top of this. I swore off audio books, however it was fun to go into a LifeWay in Nashville and find my audio book in stock. If the job is paying many many thousands it’s gonna get snagged by a well repped talent.
Great article. I have been considering to audio books for a while. I got my first one a few weeks back. 16 chapters…how hard could it be, I thought. They had a budget and I wanted to stay in that budget because I felt I wouldn’t have a shot at the job otherwise. Well I got into it and 3 days later, finally finished. It was a lot of work and now I know what a steal the publishers got it for. At least I will learn from that mistake.
What a great article…I finally have a formula. I am amazed at how low projects can establish their rates…it’s just not right.Talent needs to be patient and not so desperate to change the scenario.
I’ve written the word pages to seconds formula down, and will definitely use it in negotiations.
Thanks!
And my thanks go to the great work done by David Goldberg and his team at http://www.edgestudio.com/
You can sign up for free, to get access to invaluable voice-over resources:
http://www.edgestudio.com/signup.htm
After reading your article I see that as a first time voice over artist I charged the right amount when I pitched Holly Lisle about doing an audio book for her. That makes me feel better and it makes me feel even better to know that with the experience I’ve had since then I can afford to raise my prices. So thanks very much for your information.
I am curious about getting hired at companies who do audiobook production and have a cast they work with. Do you have any info on that?
Happy New Year, Kimi. I’m glad my article was of help to you. Please remember that most rates quoted by me, were minimum average rates. To answer your last question, I suggest you check out two websites:
http://www.audiopub.org/index.asp
and
http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/gvpages/narratorscorner.shtml
The Audiofile magazine publishes: the AudioFile’s Audiobook Reference Guide, marketed as “The Audiobook Industry’s Definitive Sourcebook.” Audiobook producers and publishers use the AudioFile Reference Guide to search for talent with audiobook experience.
Best of luck to you!
While on this topic, please check out:
http://voicesofadvertising.com/voiceover-stuff/time-required-to-narrate-and-produce-audiobooks/
Great stuff Paul! I have been doing screencast & eLearning voiceovers for several years and now I have my 1st audiobook opportunity. This was helpful. I did want to let you know that the link you posted here isn’t working.
Thanks again!
Dan
Thanks, Dan. I’ll check into the link and see if I can fix it. Best of luck to you in this New Year
Thanks for this fun and informative article, Paul. I’ve recorded several audiobooks in the past for publishers where I went into a studio to record, and someone else edited and produced the project. I’m now looking at taking on a 10-finished hour recording and editing job and feel reluctant to pitch it at anything less than $250 – $300 per hour.
You’re very welcome, Susannah. Congratulations on your success as an audio book narrator. Editing is a time-consuming skill and you are right to charge more for that. Most people I talk to seem to think that recording an audio book is nothing more than eading the story. Sometimes I wish that were true! Have fun with your latest project.
Paul! Very useful information to be armed with. I am negotiating a rate as we speak. Client is growing his stable of audiobook narrators & I am the first woman he is taking on. Thing is he has *no clue* what is involved with editing (he is expecting self-produced, so I am on the editing/mastering end). At times it is a little like grasping water to try to get him to realise just how long it all takes. He wants debreathing..sure sure, I have convinced him that a read will sound mental with contextual breaths removed – thank goodness he is in agreement to that. But still, the length at the pace he wants is going to be some 14hrs total finished (290pages at 380words/page average). It’s an academic text.
He was really trying it on (in UK this means trying to “take you for a ride”) on the rate. We’ve moved beyond the ridiculous rate he was offering (sit down: £1000 finished!) to almost double that, or USD200/finished hour, but I still think he needs to budge up!! (Meanwhile my studio rate is GBP200/USD330 – I know its not the same thing but at least an indicator that someone has no problem paying for me, so it must mean I know what I’m doing right?)
Looking forward to reading the rest of your stuff. Hmm, wondering now to send new client link to this page for his edification… except he’ll see me bleating here at the end of it, oops.
I’m glad my information was useful, Sini. Colleagues often forget that one of our jobs is educating our clients. Before we ask for reasonable compensation, we need to establish value. Because people are getting so used to talent working from home studios, it is easy to forget that this saves them a lot of money. They no longer have to pay for studio time, a sound engineer, a director and an editor. It all comes down to the person behind the microphone.
Paul, Another really insightful article! Your last line particularly resonated, as I think sometimes it is easy to forget that, having our own home studios does save the client considerable time and money. It’s now taken as a given that we provide the complete service, but it’s also assumed that the client will only PAY for the voice over part of it!
I must admit I find talking of ‘per page’ confusing when it comes to quoting as, to me, it’s like saying ‘how long is a piece of string?’! I tend to ask for the word count, a sample piece of script. From there I work out how long it’s likely to take me, in preparation, voicing and editing time.
As I do quite a bit of character voicing as well as the narrator for what I call radio play style audio books, I always charge extra for this with self-record and editing work, as it is pretty time-consuming. I’m now fairly comfortable quoting what I think I’m worth, as a result of experience in doing them. However, I’m more uncertain about standard audio book narrations and per finished hour rates etc…still trying to work those equations out!
You’re right, I think that voice talent has dropped the ball as far as charging for editing is concerned. We teach our clients how to treat us, and 95% of them now expect us to throw editing in for free, even though it takes up most of our time. I always make sure to specify what is included in my quote. That way, the client realizes what they are getting for the money.
Great article, Paul. As a producer, I am looking to accurately pay an actress with a lot of acting ‘cred’, but is new to audio book narration. Your fun blog and valuable links will help me ‘dial in’ what is fair to this person. She will be flying from the East Coast to our studios, so I expect to pay for her flight, and will be providing housing and food, and hope to be able to share with her the outdoor entertainment opportunities our area offers. In your opinion, could some of this be considered as payment in addition to cold, hard cash? I do not want to be cheap, but am still learning the rules of this fun adventure. Thanks so much!
KW
Hi Karen,
Thanks for finding my blog! In my experience, an actress with a lot of acting cred usually has an agent who takes care of these details. If I were the agent, I wouldn’t want a blogger to suggest certain arrangements that are strictly between the client and the person representing the artist.
Now, if it were me, I would negotiate a honorarium for the narration and I’d expect you to cover all my expenses. I would also suggest recording the narration on the East Coast and have your director listen in via ISDN. That would save you a considerable amount of money and he actress would only have to travel to a local studio.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the informative piece. I have only completed one audio book. It was an experience I am not eager to repeat so I don’t actively seek out book projects at all. The writer was some kind of financial/life coach guru. The writing, grammar, structure, and logic were so messed up I ended up being angry every time I contemplated opening the word document and my recording software.
I did get paid promptly but learned a bit about the amount of work involved. Editing and cataloguing takes at least the same amount of time as recording and maybe more because you don’t have that second set of ears as you would in a studio. Proceed with caution my friends
Thanks for the great post Paul, I’ve found it extremely useful and I’m recommending it to others via my blog.
Thanks for this great article Paul!
Do you have any recommendations on how audiobooks should pay? And any kind of contracts we should submit for signature before we start recording?
Thanks!
Emily Lepore
Hi Emily, you’ll find the current average rates in the article. The rest is up to you.
Thank you for this article, I have been trying to break into the biz and this gives me some numbers to work with! Thank you for the straight forward numbers. I know it all depends on what we want to make from our time etc etc, but it helps to know a few price facts.
You’re very welcome, Elijah. This world could always use more gifted storytellers!