AUDIOBOOK NARRATORS BUSINESS SURVEY 2015
Respondents' Comments To Question #14:
How Satisfied Are You With The Earnings You Make Narrating Audiobooks Vs. The Time You Put Into Them?
6/16/2015
Respondents to the VoiceOverXtra Audiobook Narrators Business Survey - 2015 made the following comments to Question 14. For the accompanying article, please click here.
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It's a time filler
between better paying VO work.
-
I've only done one so far and have
booked two more, but they are all short as I'm building my arsenal to have
credits. I've lost out on one good paying job because I had no credits, so
I've had one pfh project and the other two are royalty share. The pfh was almost a loss because it took
me a long time to get it right, being my first book.
- The vast majority of writers don't have
the resources to pay what should be paid for the services rendered.
-
With all the narrating, editing, and
mastering of the audiobook, I receive 20% of the royalty. Sounds okay until
you realize Audible.com runs specials all the time on free membership deals
or there are books I've done which no one has purchased. Then, it was all for
nothing, which is a lot of time when I could have been doing something
else! But I keep trying!
- I've only just begun doing audiobooks so
the royalties haven't started coming in yet.
- I look at it as building my skills to
work towards the bigger jobs - but it is what it is
- High effort, low reward. This is no way
to make a living unless you are an elite! Unless you have an agent, are
established as a money making elite, why would anyone do this as their sole
means of making money, is insane.
-
With having to outsource editing,
proofing, and mastering, and then self-employment tax being what it is, my
gross-to-net is pretty disappointing. If I could regularly receive $500+pfh,
I'd be much more satisfied with the money I was making.
- time to step out and get paid
- I enjoy recording audiobooks even
though the earnings are a disappointment.
- There is a lot of work involved, and
though I love doing it and this is what I want to do, I do feel that the
industry is not paying narrators a sufficiently high rate and the way that
ACX operates will only drive down rates (and production values) in the long
run.
This is why I rarely accept audiobooks,
anymore. I have to really love the
book to take it on.
-
I make a lot more in other VO genres, for a whole lot less work.
-
ACX reduced its Royalty Share and the
Stipend is too low.
- Without the proper planning and
technical knowledge, narration can be a lot of work for little or no
earnings.
- Very unsatisfied with ACX's royalty
share: 20 percent is too little - especially since these projects require
research, narration, editing and mastering.
- I'm early into this career. I hope to be able to work full-time as a
voice actor.
- The pay does not reflect the skills and
time required to produce the finished product. But it's philanthropic.
- First audiobook. Not selling.
- I'm very satisfied with earnings
if I don't have to edit or master the audiobook. Many union projects are like that.
- I'm satisfied because I know the
potential is there as I improve in my craft.
-
I only do audiobooks when I see
something I like with the rate I want - or if I am asked directly.
- To do it properly for the listener calls
for intense commitment, both in carrying the story and in arriving at a
completely clean recording. Multiple
skills, derisory payment.
However, this is my fault by choosing to
work with ACX and doing royalty shares. Live & LEARN!
-
Unhappy with the current percentages
kept by ACX on Royalties but they really have no competition in terms of
marketing and getting the product sold. Its a Catch 22 but I think 60% is
beyond greedy along with cutting pricing directly after taking a larger cut
considering the time put in to each book. Royalty share will fall by the
wayside at this rate.
- Having just earned an Earphones Award,
and now having over 40 audiobooks, I think it's time for me to ask for a
raise
- Having 'paid my dues,' so to speak, I'm
beginning to ask for more money, and
getting what I ask for. Still, I wish the pay were better, and it is dismal
to calculate out a true hourly wage.
- Still on the low end of the learning
curve: therefore time put in is high (primarily editing) so my earnings are
diluted. I'm thankful to be able to receive my specified rate (300 pfh), and thus have no place to
complain.
-
I just started six months ago and so far
things are progressing well.
The more I learn about editing, the
faster I get, and the more satisfied I am with my time vs. earnings.
- Recently
I completed the BeeAudio Certification Course for Home Studio narration and
production. Through it I learned punch-and-roll as well as editing and
mastering techniques which have significantly improved by work-to-finished
audio ratio as well as confidence in my product. Haven't contracted a book
since then, so my new skills haven't had a real world try-out yet - but the business is gathering a head
of steam and 2015 will be more profitable.
-
I am actively seeking paid assignments.
-
If the majority of the payment was Per
Finished Hour, I would be making a good income. Solely on Royalty Share, the income is not
very good.
- While I'm neutral about it now, I would
hope that with more projects being completed more income will follow,
especially since I'm approaching my second year narrating audiobooks.
I also have a part-time job, so I cannot
put as much time into audiobook work as I would like, at this point.
- I'm definitely narrating at a higher
level than I'm getting paid for the Library of Congress projects I'm doing,
but I haven't connected with the right people to move up the ladder.
- In home studio, it takes so much longer
doing it all myself. Doesn't always
compute to earnings.
Especially when self recording, it seems
there should be additional compensation as the narrator is also acting as the
engineer. I also think for books that sell very well and break a certain
monetary amount, there should be some kind of automatic royalty scale for the
narrator.
- I do it because I love story
telling. Narrating a book is sheer joy
for me since I do not need the money.
Unlike many audiobook narrators, I make my living in other areas like commercial voice over, promos, video games, animation, political spots, movie
trailers, and corporate films & videos.
Interestingly enough, I used to make $450 per finished hour a decade
ago. Management is kicking our ass
financially and that does piss me off.
- So much work for the pay. Ugh. I do it
for the love of a book.
-
I have concerns that inexperienced
narrators working for below-market rates are driving them down to a less than
sustainable rate for the professional. Also, publishers and production companies are expecting more and more
work for lower rates.
-
I can do 50,000 words of video
narration/elearning work and I charge $5,000. A 10-hour, 90,000-100,000 word
audiobook is anywhere from $1,500-$3,000 plus royalties, which can be an
additional amount, but so far just doesn't equal voiceover income for much less
work!
- I'm getting faster and learning
efficiencies all the time, but I see ACX as good only for experience,
credits, and perhaps notice by authors and/or publishers. At present, I see no way to make a living
narrating ACX books.
- When you're narrating and producing the audiobook via ACX.com, compensation (whether it be royalty share or
$/finished hour) is not reflected in the fee. Only narration is compensated for through ACX.com in my opinion.
- I make from $150-220 per finished hour.
I record about 2 hrs/finished hour PLUS research and reading the book, which
is an additional 25-30% of time. Then there are sometimes over an hour of
punches. That works out to be $50/hr. That's ok, not great. I'm not getting ahead with it, especially since the work
is inconsistent.
-
I spend a great deal of time preparing
and recording what I believe to be an exceptional product, but the authors
need to market their books better than they do.
- Royalty-share only is a bad deal for
narrators. We do all the work and absorb all the risk. The rights-holders
have no skin in the game.
-
I've only been working with this author
for a year. I've been very satisfied
working with her and the amount of work/pay for my first set of books
recorded in home and edited by myself. However, I would like to take it to the next level of working with a
professional studio and possibly living off of the work I find with audiobook
narration. In that, I have not been
successful yet, but I haven't tried that hard - yet.
- I thought audiobooks would be a great
way for me to increase my VO income stream, but it has just not panned out
that way. The amount of work put into a title simply does not yield a
favorable return.
-
I can narrate a 5-minute video for a company from Voice123 and earn $250,
which is already A LOT MORE than I have earned from a 6-hour book that I
narrated off of the ACX platform that has sold 16 units on royalty share.
-
Only now am I pursuing large publishers
in order to increase my income.
- Creating an audiobook from start to
finish, narration, editing and mastering is a monumental task. I don't care
what anyone says, or how many shortcuts they've mastered. It is a very
specialized skill - actually, two very unrelated skills: the artistic interpretation
of narrating, and the technical detail of editing and mastering. Anyone who
can do both should be paid top dollar in my not-so-humble-opinion.
- Per-hour
pay is pennies.
- It depends on the book. Some books require a great deal of
preparation and others do not. For
some books, the money earned is hard earned, for others it's a walk in the
park.
- I have fun recording but editing is
tedious, and I don't get paid enough to outsource it.
- Got to earn my stripes, but there
definitely needs to be more than narrating/producing for ACX.
- The ROI is beyond abysmal.
-
Am new to all of this, so I am building
gradually and enjoying the process. Anything I get for doing something I
enjoy is worth it!! Obviously I have
another job that actually pays the bills right now, but I plan on making more
in audiobooks as I go along.
- The ROI is very low, but it is
understandable as books do not make much profit for the narrator or the
authors
- The pay and benefits and contracts are
not sufficient for time put in. Union needs to step up.
-
As a newbie, the time spent is invested
in gaining experience.
- Of course I'd like to get paid more, but
the company I work for is so easy to work with and they continually send me
work. I'm only in the biz for less than 5 years and although I do have
talent, I'm not a stellar talent. I feel getting $200pfh is fair for now. I
do punch-and-roll and that's it.
- There's no money in it.
- Some authors/rights holders have little
consideration for the work we put into the audiobook, and do not promote them
enough to generate sales.
- At this stage, it is all a learning
process.
-
Simply not efficient use of time
- This is hard to answer! Some books are
just not profitable because of all the prep work, but usually I am satisfied.
I was aware, going into this, that it
probably wouldn't pay well. But,
narrating audio books is something that I really want to do. And I enjoy it. Being paid well would be really nice, but I
am going to keep doing it none the less.
-
If a project demands a lot of research
and is poorly written or is written in a style unconducive to the spoken word
(say an academic book), then the ratio of working hours to pay is relatively
low.
-
Just getting started
- Primarily, I'm not satisfied with the way
the ACX work has panned out. When I started, ACX was offering a 25% royalty;
that got pulled back to 20%. But I also don't think the ACX people make it
clear that the narrator isn't getting 20% of the retail price; they're
getting 20% of a net price that ACX establishes. So a book I completed that
sells for $19.95 gets me a royalty of $1.75, which is 8.8% of the retail
price, not $3.99, which would be 20% of the retail price. As usual, the house
wins.
-
I feel I have to work pretty long hours
to provide the quality both of narration & of the technical raw record to
make the kind of annual income which I do. Perhaps I'm not as efficient as
other narrators of my experience level, or that I'm simply inefficiently
fussy about checking & rechecking my work for the audio quality & the
performance quality. Maybe that's normal? There also seems insufficient time in my week to adequately market myself
to additional publishers, & use FB, Twitter.
-
I have come very close to making 10K in
my first year, and I'm very pleased about that, but wonder how things will go
this coming year.
-
I must speed up my narration and editing
process!
- I try to avoid royalty share. If the
author was top shelf or very popular, that would be different. But when the
sales of a title over a year's time are less than 20, it is not worth it. Even
if I was gung ho, and produced 20 titles a year, the pay does not outweigh
the time and effort. Especially when I edit and master ALL the royalty share
titles. If I were to outsource that task, I wouldn't make anything. It would
end up costing me.
- I am
a part-time narrator and I also own another business that is
unrelated to producing audiobooks or Voice Over.
-
I have just begun my career and I view
my current work as "seat of the pants" training. I have another
full time job, so at this point compensation is much less important to me than
experience. Working through ACX has been a tremendous learning experience.
-
I wish it were different. I do 50+ books
a year to make just a little over 100K. If rates were higher I could relax a
little, and let my voice rest. But I don't see it going that direction. I'm
thrilled that I have the ability to make that kind of money doing acting and
setting my own schedule. So overall, it's a win. I just wish I had more
opportunity for rate advancement. But many of the people ahead of me have had
to bring rates down to union base, so I don't see that happening.
- Grateful for the work, but with the time
and prep work that goes into the book before you even sit down to record, the
per-finished-hour breaks down even less. Especially when you compare it with the fees/royalties received from
other forms of voiceover.
- When I record for audible, I would say
less satisfied - the money is less, I don't have a director, someone to help
with research. When I am in a major publishing studio, I am very satisfied.
-
Would like an avenue for continued
financial growth when coupled with experience and/or the success of the
title. For instance, an extra payment after a title sells a benchmark number
of copies. Or a royalty which would begin after a title has reached a certain
sales profile. This, in addition to payment for production. Narrators are
limited in financial growth by the number of titles they can record a year,
which is finite. Promotion of a title is encouraged, but does not benefit
the narrator.
-
I think we should be paid a little more
when operating from a home studio to help offset editing.
- To earn a decent living, it is working long days, six days a week. I've
learned that the voice has a seriously real limit/capacity. If we were paid
more, it would lessen the amount of work we have to do to make a living and
help ensure longevity and health of the body (vocal chords).
-
The ACX RS is ridiculously low, but the
easiest way to audition for commercial books.
My other work is part time and I'm satisfied with the rate since the
work is constant and I'm not responsible for proofing, editing or
engineering.
-
I know I'm responsible for selecting
projects to maximize returns; I'm not good at that yet.
- At 20% royalty share, compensation for
the work put in is paltry compared to per finished hour rate. Unfortunately,
this seems to be the trend. Authors want us to basically work for free &
get paid at the end.
-
I am still somewhat new as a narrator so
I really need to form more relationships with publishers & authors. I am confident my business (earnings) will
increase once I do this.
- Fees are quite low for the amount of
work required.
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