Audiobook Narrator Elizabeth Klett is this guest on this week’s episode of The Author Biz.

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We’re all told that as authors we should generate as many streams of income from our books as possible, and one great way of adding new revenue streams is through the production of audiobooks. But how much does it cost? How much of my time as an author will it take?

Those questions came up during an interview several weeks ago with author Mike Faricy. In that show, Mike shared his reasons for not producing audio versions of his Dev Haskell series, the biggest of which was time. He wasn’t sure how much of his time would be required for the audiobook process. Neither of us knew the answer to that question, so Mike posed the question inside the Author Biz Facebook group. The question generated some lively response, but no clear answers, so I decided to locate an expert.

Elizabeth Klett is a talented narrator who’s produced dozens of audiobooks for Indie authors over the past few years, primarily through the audiobook creation exchange, which is more commonly known as ACX.

She’s been narrating professionally since 2011, and in addition to her work through ACX has produced recordings for Bee Audio, Listen2aBook, the Online Stage, and LibriVox. She has a B.A. in Theatre from Drew University (one of the top theater programs in the U.S.) and has recorded a variety of dramatic projects, performing roles ranging from Lady Macbeth to Juliet. She also holds M.A. and doctoral degrees in English literature from the University of Illinois and teaches at a university in Houston, TX.

In this 51 minute episode, we discuss the step-by-step process she goes through to produce an audiobook through ACX, what authors should expect when posting an audio project on ACX, and the time involved for both the author and narrator in creating a top quality audiobook.

ACX Audiobooks Show Notes

Elizabeth explains ACX and how the author and narrator work together to create an audiobook.

We discuss the way Elizabeth started in audiobook narration by volunteering for LibriVox, an all-volunteer organization with the objective of making all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet.

Elizabeth has created audiobooks for LibriVox, ACX, Bee Audio, Listen2abook and the Online Stage.

She walks listeners through the step-by-step process of creating an audiobook through ACX.

We discuss the pricing and payment options for the two ACX production options, which are PFH (per finished hour) and RS (royalty share).

Amazon’s new whispersync service is popular with readers, but for narrators, it is somewhat controversial.

We discuss Audible Production Stipends, and how they can make a royalty share audiobook more appealing to narrators.

Elizabeth shares her thoughts on how narrators make decisions on whether or not to accept royalty share audiobook projects.

We discuss Elizabeth’s Per Finished Hour rate and the in-home studio where she records.

Should an author expect her narrator to help with audiobook marketing? Elizabeth shares her thoughts and different ways of using those free audiobook codes from Amazon to get early reviews.

Links

Elizabeth’s website www.elizabethklettaudio.com

Elizabeth’s Audible page

Elizabeth’s Amazon.com page

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining me again this week.

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Thanks to Elizabeth Klett for joining us this week!

Photo of Elizabeth by Claire McAdams Photography