Today I am proud and honored to feature Taylor Evan Fulks, an amazing author who has become an even better friend. Congratulations on your success as an award-winning author, Taylor, and Happy 2nd Anniversary on your blog!

This is it!

My 2nd Anniversary Blog GiveAway!

Yeah…I know! I can’t believe it! My journey is almost complete…It will officially end May 16th when I run in the #WarriorDash 5K obstacle run to benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. I’m happy the money is going for that worthy cause, but my reasons for running are selfish, I’m afraid. This book journey has taken me from quiet, subdued, doormat, and transformed me into a Warrior for myself and Sexually Abused Children.

So here it is, two years of social media, my new and improved website, and the revised publication and redistribution of my book, in ALL formats, including an audiobook! Who’d of thunk it! Now it’s time to Celebrate! And this time, I’m doing it right!

So, what do you have to do to be entered in this Rafflecopter Giveaway? Just leave a comment and share this post (Facebook, Twitter, etc…). Easy-peasy!

You don’t have to wax poetic. You don’t even have to say anything…you can leave an * or an emoji, or any (clean) text you want. You’ll automatically be entered in my Giveaway, which by the way, is HUGE!

First prize…A 7″ HD~8GB Kindle Fire

Second prize… A $100 Amazon Gift Card

Third prize… A $50 Amazon Gift Card

Fourth prize… A $25 Amazon Gift Card

So…Let’s do this!

AUDIOBOOKS: AN UNTAPPED GOLD MINE OF READERS

ACX is where it’s at when it comes to producing a professional quality audiobook. It is another company owned by Amazon that is linked to Audible.com and iTunes. I first learned about ACX and their services while in New York at the Book Expo of America, for the IRDA~Indie Readers Discovery Award in July, 2013. They had a booth right next to the Createspace Booth where I received my first award for my book.

They loaded me up with hoards of informational material and coupons for free audiobook downloads on Audible.com. I was overwhelmed by all the information they gave me, and thrilled by the coupons!

I love audiobooks! I have over three hundred in my iTunes library. They’ve come a long way over the last decade, and it’s no longer a monotone, lifeless voice reading with a case of the doldrums.

Narrators are actors, gifted souls portraying and becoming the characters in the books they read. Their skills and abilities bring a book to life! I am amazed by their talent in terms of voice, pitch, tempo, and character distinction. To hear a conversation between a male and female character, each with their own distinct and different voice, is a wonder and a pleasure to hear. They can literally take you away to another place and time…So much so, I’m afraid I was transported back to my past while listening to mine…

When I left New York, award and information in tow, I really didn’t expect to ever be in a position to make MY PRISON WITHOUT BARS an audiobook. I thought it was too involved, too technically difficult, and way too pricey. I was wrong…

The process is relatively easy…

Go to ACX.com and set up an account.
Fill in the metadata for your book and answer a few questions regarding your copyright, if you are the rights holder, and links to your book on Amazon. It’s much like filling out the info on your Author Central page or KDP page.
Fill out the Title Profile. This is where you put all the enticing attributes about your book. This should include a short synopsis of the book, where it is sold, how many reviews the book has received, any awards it has garnished, and anything else that would entice a narrator to audition for the book. This is where you want to make your book shine. All of this information, including your Twitter following, and your Facebook fan base will be placed on an open forum for all of the narrators to see before they submit for auditions.
You can post cover art…but you must make sure it is a square cover, with ACX specifications ( I did a blog post about the difficulty doing this…you can read it here). I have read that it’s very hard to remove cover art once it has been uploaded, so I just left this blank for the time being. When my narrator and I came to an agreement, ACX sent me a reminder to start getting my cover art ready.
Post links to your book…Some narrators like to take advantage of the “Look Inside” feature on Amazon, and read a few excerpts to get a feel for the story before they decide to audition.
Specify your needs in terms of a narrator…Female/male voice, type of accent, dialect or slang, young, mature, comedic, dramatic, etc…
Post your word count…ACX will automatically estimate the hours it will take to narrate your book. Mine turned out to be estimated at 15.6 finished hours. The actual time is 16.3 finished hours. This will give you an idea of what it will cost when you start looking at narrators and their *finished hour rates if you choose to forgo the royalty share and pay for your production.
Choose your royalty option…Royalty Share or Pay for Production. Royalty Share is a program where you and your producer/narrator come to an agreement that you want to work together, and you’ll share your book royalties 50/50. Your royalty rate is 40% with ACX, so you and your narrator split the 40% royalty, 50/50. You also share the rights to your book with ACX for a term of seven years. With Pay for Production, you both agree on a per finished hour rate (PFH) and you pay the narrator in full when the production is completed, retaining all rights and the full 40% royalty for your book (again, your cut is 40% royalty from ACX).
Now you are ready to upload an excerpt of your book for audition. This should be something that tests the skills and abilities of the narrator. I recommend uploading an excerpt with dialogue (preferably between different genders). This allows you to hear how well the narrator distinguishes between voices.

You can wait for narrators to contact you, or you can seek out and connect with narrators/producers on the ACX website via their message box. You’ll be notified on your dashboard that an audition has been submitted. Click the link and a five-minute excerpt is there for you to hear. Sometimes, you hear “the one” right from the get-go. Sometimes, you don’t. I had my book up for auditions for two weeks. After eighteen auditions, I had four potential narrators when all was said and done. The last night of auditions, Em Eldridge, the beautiful lady in all these pictures, blew me away with her dry-run audition! She was the last audition (number nineteen) and my only choice…She is my voice!

*Note…Amazon and ACX are both dedicated to making this service affordable and available to all authors/rights holders. They have a Stipend Program for eligible, Royalty Share authors (this is decided by ACX algorithms i.e… reviews, sales info, potential sales, and staying power on Audible) to entice experienced, quality narrators to audition. Em has narrated thirty plus audiobooks. The stipend book program offers the narrator $150/finished hour of audio. Even though my book was a stipend book, I didn’t opt to do the royalty share program.

*What’s a finished hour? It can take anywhere from four to eight hours of work by the narrator to complete one hour of finished audio ready for upload. That’s a lot of time and effort to get a polished, professional product. Some of the newer, less experienced narrators charge between $50-$100 dollars per finished hour. The more experienced narrators charge anywhere from$200-$500 per finished hour. The elite narrators used by publishing houses and best-selling authors footing the bill, can be in the thousands of dollars per finished hour range.

When you find the right voice for your book, it’s time to contact the narrator and make an offer. You can do that in the ACX message center. Once you both come to an agreement, I recommend you exchange emails and communicate that way. I found that some of my messages didn’t get to Em in a timely fashion. We also exchanged phone numbers and had some one-on-one chats so I could share pertinent information (if you don’t feel comfortable doing that, no harm-no foul).

Now it begins…You and your narrator agree to a timetable when the first fifteen minutes of the book will be completed for your review. Listen and decide if his/her interpretation is going in the right direction. This is the time to be honest…Is it what you want? Does he/she set the tone and mood of your book? How’s the pace? Too fast, too slow, or just right? Once this part is a ‘Go,’ your narrator will give you a total-book completion date. While they are working on the audio, you’ll receive completed chapters in your project folder. You can listen and make edit notations with the timestamps at the bottom of the screen…make note of mispronunciation, dialect nuances, skips or misreads, mistakes, background noise, or other suggestions you feel should be implemented in the production. It’s your baby!
When the book is completed, you need to do a full listen-through of the entire book. At this point, the narrator can’t make changes until you notify them to do so on your dashboard. When it’s perfect and ready to go, click OK and your book is on its way to ACX for their fine tuning and approval. They do all the sound checks and technical work with the narrator to make it technically perfect and ready for sale. This process takes a few weeks. ACX will notify you when they upload your book on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. Amazon and Audible upload quickly, while iTunes takes a few weeks.

*Note…This is also the time when you get to listen to what the narrator has chosen as your sample audio. Give it a listen. I will tell you as a READER…THIS IS WHAT SELLS ME YOUR BOOK! If you don’t love your sample excerpt, change it! Now is the time to do that! Pull the best five minutes of your book from anywhere; use the best dialogue, the best scene, a hook that will draw a reader to your book and won’t let them go. This is imperative!

Now…Copy that URL, get out there, and sell that audiobook!

That’s it! Easy-peasy!

Look…When it comes to writing and publishing, I’m not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, so if I can do this, you can too! Trust me, with real life pulling everyone in a thousand different directions, it’s hard for people to find the time to SIT and read. Audiobooks allow you to stuff ear buds in, do what you need to do, all while LISTENING to a great book. It’s truly an untapped source of readers. People who listen to audiobooks (umm…that’d be people like me) are voracious readers. We are brilliant people cuz we can multi-task…heehee!

I hope you’ll take a look into ACX and audiobook production. Go to their HOME page and check things out. If you feel overwhelmed (I did) give them a call. There’s always someone there to answer your questions and help you navigate the site.

There’s no greater thrill in the publishing arena than HEARING YOUR BOOK COME TO LIFE!

I know this is a long post, but I had a lot of info I wanted to share. Thank you for helping me celebrate my 2nd Anniversary! I’m so grateful for the visit! For those of you that follow and often comment on my blog, I have no words sufficient to thank you for your friendship and support! You are the best!

Please…Don’t forget to comment and share this post to get yourself registered for the Rafflecopter giveaway! I’m hoping for a big turn out, so I will apologize in advance if I can’t respond to every comment. Just think of it as letting you get to have the last word…

Write with passion…

Taylor~