Audio Books: Self-publish or Traditionally Publish

~ Kristina Stanley

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve sold the audio rights for DESCENT to Auspicious Apparatus Press.

aap

What does this mean?

Sometime during 2017, DESCENT will be available on Audible.

There are so many choices for an author to make during the journey to publication. Self-publish? Traditional publishing?

The decision applies to audio books as well as printed and eBook editions. If you self-publish, you control most things about the publishing process.

If you publish via a publisher, you want to be careful what rights you sign away. My print and eBooks rights are with Imajin Books. But I didn’t sign away my rights for foreign language or for audio books.

I sold the German language rights for DESCENT to Luzifer-Verlag.

This means I now have the ability to sign with a different publisher for audio books.

Why did I decide to go this route?

For me, I want to spend my time writing and not publishing. Hence, I chose to use another publisher for audio books. This means I share the royalties, but it also means I’m free to write more. You’ll have to decide what’s right for you and what fits your skill sets.

If you have an audio book out, let me know in the comments below. I’d love to listen to it.

Thanks for reading…

31 thoughts on “Audio Books: Self-publish or Traditionally Publish”

  2. Helpful column,, because audioi publishing has me baffled and yet I’d like to see my books made available to that audience. Hoq so I go about submitting my books to an audio publisher? fiddled with Amazon’s audio program, don’t know enough to choose a narrator, etc. I’d rather split royalties and let someone who knows how to do it handle the audio production.

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  4. Interesting as I’m going the audio book route as well. Being Canadian means hurdles for doing it yourself as Audible only publishes audio books from the U.S. and Britain, not Canada. Always something new to learn in this business.

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    1. Hi Elaine, Great to hear from you. And yes, it’s true. There is something new to learn every day in this business. I’m looking forward to hearing what Auspicious Apparatus does with Descent. It’s exciting.

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    2. I think you can use Authors Republic rather than ACX I know I worked with a South African author who used that. Not quite the same as ACX but distribution is to audible, amazon, iTunes as well. They don’t provide the baked in narrator finding tools, so you have to bring your own.

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  5. Congratulations!

    It’s interesting because part of the reason I self-publish is so I can do my audiobooks! (Though it is something I enjoy quite a bit and do narration work for other authors as well.)

    It is great to hear the other side as well. Thank you.

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      1. I must think I do. But I’ve also had radio experience, and do other voice over work. I really enjoy bringing the books to life with audio.
        The short way to listen is my podcast. (All the episodes are 10 minutes or less.)
        https://itun.es/us/l5MOab.c or just right from my webpage http://insani-x.com/

        http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Oak-Stream-Hollow-Audiobook/B01LW7LH1I/
        Oak Stream Hollow is an urban fantasy novella
        http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Dangerous-Metal-Audiobook/B01IBUBWS4/
        Dangerous Metal is a cyberpunk novel

        Thanks for asking!

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  6. Great news Kristina! You’re joining me. Auspicious is set to release Skeletons in the Attic by March if all goes well.

    A note for US authors: Most of you likely self-publish with ACX. This option is not available to Canadian authors at this time, so unless we have a US tax # we can’t self-pub with ACX. I personally looked at 3 publishers. Auspicious had the fairest terms without any capital outlay from the author (One publisher quoted me $4,000).

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    1. HI Judy, Thanks for sharing the information about the US tax #. I have many Canadian followers so I’m sure this is helpful. I’m glad to be hearing the same publisher for a second time with you! Can’t wait to HEAR Skeletons on the Attic. Let me know when it’ out in audio.

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  8. Hey, Kristina! Thanks for blogging about the journey on the road to audiobook production. We here at AAP are looking forward to bringing DESCENT–and the other Stone Mountain mysteries–to life this year. I recently did an interview with fellow Imajin Books and Auspicious Apparatus Press author Donna Galanti in which I talk about audiobook production. Check it out!

    http://www.elementtrilogy.com/an-insider-look-at-an-audio-production-company-meet-owner-todd-barselow/

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    1. Super congratulations Kristina! I am so thrilled to be on board with you at Auspicious Apparatus Press! This was my first venture into audio books as well and have thoroughly enjoyed the process and APP’s production is top notch. Can’t wait to hear your book! I hope your entire series gets done.
      EXCITED FOR YOU! And Todd is amazing to work with. It’s great to read his interview and get an insider look into audio book production.

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  10. Wonderful news, Kristina. Congratulations. As a Canadian, I was discouraged to not have direct access to ACX, and hadn’t looked further. Your post is a good kick in the pants for me to check out other options. Thanks for the info.

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