13116: You Asked Me (Anything) About Audiobook and ACX – And Boy, Have I Got Answers

Raw transcript:

well I asked you to ask me anything
about audiobooks ACX audible narration
the tech anything and guess what it’s
time for answers as I’m recording this I
am going to be giving you the answers to
the best questions asked this past week
and we’ll do that in this episode of the
vo Heroes podcast
[Music]
okay so I’m releasing this episode a
little tiny bit early this week I’m
hopefully going to get it out on Sunday
night or early Monday morning
um but we had such great questions this
past week we did a series of three free
videos training people on the basics of
audiobook narration how ACX Works how
our past classes have addressed the
changes over time that Audible has made
in in ACX and how it operates and I
wanted to get out of the way real quick
the whole notion of the registration
week because we’re in registration right
now actually registration opened
yesterday Sunday
at nine in the morning and we got a
whole bunch of people flooding in to
take the class which we’re really
excited about
we’re offering an early action bonus
price of 16.95 which means we’re paying
the first 300 of your full tuition now
that only lasts until tomorrow night at
nine o’clock Tuesday night nine o’clock
on the 31st of January just making sure
all the dates and times are right and
then the price goes up to 19.95 now that
price is going to remain the same
through the end of registration
registration closes on Friday uh
February 3rd at 9 00 PM Pacific Time
sharp like Dan closes the door it’s
slams shut we’re done because we spend
the weekend matriculating everybody into
the class which starts on Monday uh 2 6
February 6 starts next Monday and then
the classes are each Monday live in the
evening uh February 6th 13th 20th and
27th and then we follow that each week
on Thursday with q a sessions on the 9th
the 16th the 23rd and March 2nd and not
to worry
all of the classes all of the Q and A’s
all of them are recorded both on video
and on audio they’re released to the the
people attending the class so that you
can if you’ve got something already
going on if your February was already
packed
it’s okay because all the information is
going to be available to you so got that
out of the way if you want to do it
Now’s the Time to do it don’t wait until
tomorrow uh don’t wait until the price
goes up either because that’s like 300
bucks you’re just basically thrown away
so join us
acxmasterclass.com join that that link
is going to be down below uh on all the
slides but what I want to get into now
is ask me anything here are the answers
so here’s our first question I just
watched the first video this was a
question uh given to us on Monday or
Tuesday of last week wonderful I’ve been
honestly too scared of the editing
process the technical end and now I’m
excited to learn how to do it thank you
again I’m so excited to take the class
this is from Michelle and I know that
Michelle’s already joined which I’m
really excited about
um it is always sort of a speed bump
to people
even considering audiobook narration
because
they look at it from the outside in they
don’t have all the facts they don’t have
the details they have no process they
just kind of imagine what what it must
be like it must be awful because
audiobooks are so long they’re such big
projects compared to 10 second promos or
30 second commercials and I get that but
the best part about the ACX masterclass
the secret sauce is the process that I
teach you called the stair step method
which makes the tech makes the editing
so easy without any any impact on the
quality of what you’re doing so we’re
very excited about that and you’re going
to find that out Michelle it’s going to
be just great all right just wanted to
say thank you for the encouragement and
service that you provide what about
character voices and a person’s
insecurity about being consistent over
time any advice Michael asks this
question so with this comes up a lot how
do you stay assistant from chapter to
chapter how do you know that your energy
is going to be the same
we show you some things
to do in terms of listening to the prior
content just a little tiny bit to get
into the energy that you had if you need
it
but as I said in the answer that I gave
uh when Michael first asked this
question this is one of those things
that you can safely move from the
category of things to worry about
over to the category of things not to
worry about because it doesn’t happen we
as performers are always matching our
energy think about when we’re on set or
when we’re doing pickups
to any other category of work like
commercials or narration or animation
we’re always constantly matching our
energy and matching our pace and the
other thing that people don’t know is
that audiobooks are kind of like roller
coasters their their energy doesn’t
remain perfectly constant there’s ups
and there’s downs and there’s uh
hardcore sections and easy going
sections and sexy sections and and
mysterious sections and it always
changes
I wouldn’t worry about it that’s my
that’s my real advice to you
uh we have a question from somebody who
would choose to remain anonymous hello
David how much time in general can one
expect to earn their first paycheck upon
completing the course thank you well
listen if you ask this question of
anybody and they give you a definitive
answer
that’s your cue to turn around and walk
away from them because the answer should
be I have no clue I don’t know
I don’t know how uh persistent you’re
going to be in terms of pursuing work
I don’t know how much you’re going to
engage with our content or our process
frankly I don’t know how good you might
be I don’t know and with so many
unknowns and so many variables in the
process who could possibly say what your
what is essentially a a question about
return on investment might be
um I think it’s one of those mistakes
that that performers make in general
they are like how quickly can I make my
money back I don’t think you can make
that calculation and do it accurately or
on an informed basis because our
business is so crazy our business is so
weird you know we certainly have a lot
of people who get booked on books during
class we have people getting booked on
books uh and starting to make money but
I can’t guarantee that and I wouldn’t
know even on average what that might be
I hope that makes sense
uh how expensive is this class and how
much time and work is it I work full
time for a non-profit we have lots and
lots of students who work full-time
either in survival jobs or in jobs
outside the industry or in other areas
of performance like on camera
or other areas of voice over and it is
entirely up to you the amount of work
that’s needed is the amount of work to
cover the content in the course and it’s
about three to five hours a week
and then the amount of time that you
want to spend doing this work well
that’s entirely up to you there are
people who turn to doing it full time
and then there are people who do it
part-time there are people who only do
it late at night after the kids have
gone to sleep uh that uh you do it on
the weekends it’s entirely up to you but
what you want to have is a process that
you can rely on no matter how much time
you spend practicing or actually doing
the work so and I think Mary joined as
well I’m not quite sure hello when will
enrollment open and do you have the
schedule confirmed dates and times that
you can share for planning purposes
thank you Elizabeth read my mind so we
gave you that at the beginning I’m going
to review it again at the end again
class starts this coming Monday the 6th
of February we’re going to give you all
those dates and times one more time at
the end
uh I’m new to audiobooks and I have two
questions one is there a way to Market
myself as being a family-friendly
audiobook reader without meaning that
I’ll only read children’s book self-help
guides and Technical manuals absolutely
you do that
with how you create your profile on not
only ACX but we talk about all the other
platforms that you can be on how you
describe things and the samples that you
include really help to Define your brand
and we actually go pretty deep in the
course on how to do that effectively
second question that Anthony has is is
there a way to review a project
completely before signing to do it I
imagine the answer is a very simple yes
read the book well close uh it isn’t all
that simple and we actually spend a lot
of time talking about how to judge the
potential of projects on ACX look ACX
has been around now for over a decade
and because there’s no barrier to entry
there’s no fee to be on it there’s no
you know uh any sort of certification
needed to be on it there’s no you don’t
have to be in the union you can be Union
or non-union anybody can be on there and
that means everybody ends up going there
and some of those people
you know they’re scammers and there’s
all kinds of scammy projects on ACX we
show you how to judge those projects not
just to see if they might be scams
but also to see if they’re worth your
time
and if they would provide you not only
money but also exposure or a demo to use
for your profile so there’s lots of
different ways to judge it but it’s not
about reading the book that would take
way too long Anthony that’s just that’s
crazy stuff
uh Michael says one of the main reasons
for staying away from audiobooks is that
it seems like it would take a long time
to record or a lot of time to record and
produce so what is a normal time frame
for producing an audio book and what is
the average work time per day for that
normal time frame also are clients
looking for quicker turnarounds and how
long is too long to turn in a finished
project so or product so this is all
around your efficiency your pace how
many work hours does it take to do a
finished hour so if a book is 10 hours
long when it’s all said and done all
edited and mastered and produced and
everything how many hours of work did
you actually put in that and audible
actually
surveys its narrators every single year
and says how long does it take you to do
your average book and you’d be surprised
the response is between 6 and 10 hours
of work for every finished hour of the
book that’s on average
based on their survey now
our students the the process that I
teach the the stair step method is
designed to cut that way down
my rate won’t necessarily be your rate
but I can tell you that almost all of
our students experience a rate between
two and four
hours of work per finished hour most of
them in the two to three hour range
and it’s mostly because we give you all
these fail safes in the process so that
you don’t have to go back and listen to
everything that you did which is one of
the big time wasters uh whether or not
people are looking for quicker
turnarounds depends entirely on the
project and you can spend whatever time
you want if you want to do an hour a day
that’s fine because usually you get 60
days to do a book and so if you have 60
hours to even if you’re doing six work
hours for one finished hour that’s a 10
hour book and usually it’s a lot less
than that it’s it’s again one of those
things that it’s good to think about but
you don’t really have to worry about it
because you can always ask for an
extension as well so the the business is
built to help you it’s built to help
facilitate these projects so just know
that that’s the case but great questions
all right I have a concern
this is Ken writing there’s been chatter
online about audible seeming to take
advantage of narrators and authors
over the issue of returns of audio books
you may have heard about this as
audiobook gate or audible gate with any
royalties clawed back for each audiobook
return for whatever reason whether
listened to in part or even in whole
with no time limit how is audible
currently treating its narrators and
authors in this respect well I would I
would also remind you that they have
customers
and how they’re treating their customers
is the exact same way that Audible and
Amazon their parent company treats
customers all the time you can return
things and I don’t think it’s an
unlimited time period I think there is a
limit I don’t know exactly what it is
but here’s the anecdotal evidence first
of all it’s a great way to treat your
customers I’ve returned audiobooks that
I thought were going to be great and I
you know like got a chapter in and I’m
like this this is awful
um but I get your concern
I get that like you know if somebody is
working on a royalty share basis what
happens if people go and grab a book and
and constantly are returning books and
grabbing new books well first of all
audible tracks those people you can get
away with that for only so long
and uh it’s it’s not a very common
practice to be honest
and I can only speak for myself and for
my clients and my students so which
there’s about 2600 I have not heard
anybody going that’s it forget it I’m
done I’m not doing this anymore because
everybody just buys my book quote
unquote buys my book and then returns it
and I have to give the money back I
haven’t seen people suffering but either
rights holders authors Publishers Etc or
narrators
the way everybody thought would be a
problem when this issue first came up
and you really have to look at this sort
of from a 30 000 foot level audible also
deals with their customers and they’re
giving their customers a reason to come
to the site buy a book
and if it’s reasonable return it you
know they’re not they’re not letting
people get away with serial returning
everybody was concerned about that when
this first came up but that chatter has
largely died down and just from my own
personal perspective
I’m earning more money now than I ever
have on Audible and it would have been
severely uh impacted if this was
actually a thing so I’m gonna say I
really wouldn’t worry about it good to
be aware of it good to know that their
policy exists but know that they also
they’re losing money too if they have to
refund everybody’s refund people’s money
it’s not just the authors and narrators
it’s Audible right they’re they’re
giving their money back as well all
right so
those were the questions that we got
that we included I just want to go over
this one more time the registration
details for the ACX masterclass again
registration is open right now at
acxmasterclass.com join that’s the URL
you see at the bottom of your screen the
early action bonus price is only good
through tomorrow night as this is being
released so if you’re watching this on
Monday the 30th or Tuesday the 31st
that’s how much time you have is about
48 hours until that price goes away it
goes from 16.95 up to 19.95 that’s
available through Friday and then
registration closes completely you can’t
even get in now if you do wait until it
goes up to 1995 we have a payment plan
but man the 1695 is such a bargain it is
so good so again registration ends
Friday 2-3 February 3rd at 9 00 PM
Pacific time and then class starts next
Monday a week from today as this video
is being released February 6th and then
that’s it there you go uh we’ll do
classes all through
um the uh the weeks of February Monday
nights will be classes Thursdays will be
q and A’s and every single day pretty
much I think there’s one day where we
don’t send out new material is all the
content that’s being released during the
class so it’s not just the live teaching
on Monday night and Thursdays q and A’s
but there is loads and loads of text and
images and diagrams and processes and
videos that show you how to do
everything demos it’s just great and I
would love to be your teacher I’d love
to hold your hand
and help you do what I’ve done with my
audiobook career on ACX and really get a
great foothold and see what you can what
you can accomplish
I’m David H Lawrence the 17th I thank
you so much for watching and for
listening if you’d like to hit the like
button or register for these uh or or
get notified you got all that available
to you and if you want to pass this on
to another uh actor or voice Talent who
you think might benefit please go up to
the the link and send it over to them I
thank you so much again for watching and
for listening and I will see you in the
next episode of the vioheroes podcast
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