Not much to report this week! The waiting for uploads has officially begun *throws confetti*
If you’re not up to date on my audiobook’s progress and would like to catch up first, you can find the whole process here.
Production Notes
As mentioned last week, I got the production notes form late last Thursday. This might sound daunting if it’s your first time, but it’s actually very straightforward. You get instructions and examples with the form, so if you’re not sure what to do, you can just follow those!
In the production notes, you specify things like individual character accents, tones, the pace of the story, the overall feeling you want to achieve, and there’s even room for other notes at the end, so you can make sure your narrator has all the necessary details before they record the extended sample.
Once you’ve filled everything in, you upload the notes to the Audio page for your project. It looks something like this:
I’ve received emails for every bit of progress, but you’ll also be able to see all changes on this dashboard.
One important thing to note is that you need to upload your production notes as a PDF. I tried to upload a .doc and got an error message I didn’t understand (#notechskills) and that disappeared again before I could show my IT SO, so I just tried a PDF and that worked in seconds. It doesn’t mention this when you go to upload it, so I wanted to mention it.
Two Things I Was Confused About
I’m fortunate enough to be enrolled in the Voices Share program, meaning I only pay half and then share my royalties when the audiobook is out instead. It’s not a given that you’ll be accepted – anyone can choose it, but if you don’t have the social proof and haven’t sold enough copies (I don’t know what that magic number is), you might not be accepted.
For some reason, I got it into my head that I had to pay half up front – as in, before my narrator starts recording.
I’ve emailed them – possibly twice, bless their patient souls – and they have confirmed that I won’t pay anything until we’re ready to publish the audiobook.
So, if you also want to apply for the Voices Share program:
You pay half once the audiobook is ready to be published, not before the recording starts.
Not sure where I got that idea from, but I wanted to clarify it in case other people get confused as easily as I do *nervous laugh*
The other thing I emailed them about was the fee in the contract. As I’ve said above, Voices Share means I pay half plus I’ll share my royalties, but the fee included in the contract was the full fee.
FindawayVoices, as always, responded very quickly to my call for help and explained that everything is fine, this is normal, and as long as it states in the contract that I’m enrolled in the Voices Share program, I won’t pay the full amount.
All good, kittens.
I firmly believe that narrators should absolutely be paid what they’re worth. But as someone who doesn’t have a lot of money to spare right now, having to pay twice as much as I expected could have been disastrous for me. So, I’m grateful they replied so quickly and put my worries to rest.
Summary:
- I’ve uploaded my production notes (this needs to be a PDF!) and am awaiting the extended sample.
- In the Voices Share program, you pay half once the audiobook is ready to be published, not before the recording begins.
- If you got into the Voices Share program, the contract will still state the narrator’s full hourly fee. This is normal. As long as the contract also states that you’re enrolled in Voices Share, you will pay half.
What’s Next?
I don’t know how long I’ll need to wait for the extended sample, so for now, I’ll… well, I’ll wait. It’s not very exciting, but that’s all I’ve got this week! Once I have that – and again, I don’t know how long it’ll be, so I might not have news next week! – I’ll listen to it, get any feedback I might have back to my narrator, and then the recording will begin.
We’ll see where we’re at next week, hm?
If you have any questions about this process, leave a comment and I’ll reply asap!
For all entries in The Audiobook Diaries, look here.
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