Comments on: Breaking down an audio book rate

By: Paul Strikwerda

Paul Strikwerda — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 12:25:57 +0000

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!

By: Kimi

Kimi — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:01:09 +0000

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?

By: Time required to narrate and produce audiobooks | Voices Of Advertising

Time required to narrate and produce audiobooks | Voices Of Advertising — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:16:21 +0000

[...] wrote a most excellent and thorough analysis of the recording aspect of audiobook work titled Breaking down an audio book rate. He outlines the process for estimating the finished run time and consequently a recording rate [...]

By: Paul Strikwerda

Paul Strikwerda — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:47:09 +0000

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

By: Trish Bell

Trish Bell — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:46:21 +0000

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!

By: Alix Michaels

Alix Michaels — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:51:14 +0000

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.

By: Pete Bunch

Pete Bunch — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:04:48 +0000

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.

By: steve hammill

steve hammill — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:24:44 +0000

…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.

By: steve hammill

steve hammill — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:41:03 +0000

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….

By: Steve Spector

Steve Spector — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:49:56 +0000

Thanks for writing this very useful work. It helped clarify some questions I had had. Had.