Audiobook Creation Exchange Blog (ACX)

Audiobook airwaves are all a-flutter with a spectrum of sweet-to-sizzling love stories for the month of February. Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward have dozens of individual NY Times best-selling romance titles between the two of them, and together they have co-authored nine novels and counting that have gone on to capture the ears of audiobook listeners with the voices of Sebastian York, Andi Arndt, and other top narrators. In celebration of their gal-mance and gal-mances everywhere, we got them to tell us (and romance writers looking to learn from their success), what they love about each other’s audiobooks. Take it away, ladies!

Authors Vi Keeland (l) and Penelope Ward (r)

Vi Keeland: Just One Year is one of my very favorite audiobooks for so many reasons. It starts out as a light and fun story about a British college student coming to the United States to study abroad, but turns into a heartfelt story exploring why we sometimes need to travel far to find ourselves. One reason I loved the audio of Just One Year, and it might just be at the top of my list of reasons to listen to this book, is the hero’s sexy British accent. So, when I sat down to ask Penelope some questions, I was curious to know how she decided which narrator was the right fit for her character. Penelope, before you decided on casting, how many narrators did you listen to?

Penelope Ward: I actually listened to several! I had a pretty good idea whom I might want to cast as the hero, but I wanted to keep an open mind before finalizing my decision. I’d never written a British hero into my solo books before, so this was my opportunity to branch out and use a new-to-me narrator. I’d listened to Shane East several times before, so it felt comfortable casting him.

VK: How did you find narrators with a British accent to listen to?

PW: I knew a few because I’m an avid audio listener myself, but I also checked out Audible’s Accent on Love page. They list books with all different accents.

VK: Did you write the “British” into your book or give the narrator free rein to decide how to make the character sound like a true Brit?

PW: A bit of both, actually. I incorporated some British terms into the written book to give the narrators something to work with. But the narrator also had free rein to determine which words to play up with the accent more than others when speaking. If there are special notes about pronunciations, accents, or any other concerns, I make them known to the narrators when I send them the manuscript. However, since I’m privileged to work with very experienced talent, I pretty much let them do their thing with little guidance. They always message me if they have questions along the way.

PW: Okay Vi, now I have some questions for you! I recently listened to Inappropriate and loved it. It’s actually my favorite book of yours. One of the things I loved was the dual narration of Sebastian York and Andi Arndt. They just became Grant and Ireland, and their performances were amazing.  Sebastian’s deep, sexy voice was perfect for the alpha CEO, and true to the typical Vi Keeland heroine, Ireland is strong, independent, and feisty, and Andi nails that side of her personality. Why did you choose dual narrators over a single narrator?

VK: I think dual narration allows listeners to connect to the individual characters more. It also provides a nice break of voice, which keeps the material feeling fresh. I’ve been dying to try duet narration, and I think Inappropriate would have also been perfect for that.

PW: What’s the difference between dual narration and duet narration?

VK: In duet narration the female reads all the female parts and the male reads all the male parts—they’re acting it out together. Whereas in dual narration, one person reads an entire chapter based on which point of view is being presented in the text, so that each narrator must read both the female and male roles at times. Lauren Blakely does a ton of amazing full-cast and duet narration audiobooks.

PW: I think you should definitely try that! Okay, here’s an unrelated question. If you could choose one actor to voice one of your characters in an audiobook, who would it be and why?  You have no budget constraints!

VK: I think I’d have to pick Sam Elliott! I’m in love with his voice. It’s iconic and memorable, and his delivery is just so dry and on point with sarcasm.  Same question for you…who would you dream cast?

PW: For a male, I would have to say Josh Duhamel. I was watching a movie with him once and couldn’t help but think how good his voice would be for an audiobook. For a female narrator, I would say Claire Danes. I recently listened to her narrate The Handmaid’s Tale.

VK: While we’re on the subject of iconic voices, do you ever give direction to your narrators using a famous actor or scene that you had in mind while writing dialogue?  For example, if your character is saying “Could you be any more difficult?” you might suggest the narrator make it sound like Chandler from Friends?

PW: Not yet, but that’s a great way of helping give the proper direction for a performance. It’s a little more specific than a direction like “spoken with a Southern twang” or something like that!

Okay…one last question. Who’s your favorite author to co-write with when publishing audiobooks?

VK: I’ll get back to you on that one. 😉

Update 3/12/20: Out of an abundance of caution, VO Atlanta 2020 has been rescheduled. We hope to see you at a later date.

Have you heard the news? ACX and VO Atlanta have teamed up to present a brand-new audiobook-specific education and networking event: The Audiobook Academy! Taking place March 27 – 29, 2020 at the Crowne Plaza Atlanta Airport, this two-day extravaganza offers audiobook narrators a deep dive into technical, business, and performance topics geared towards those who have narrated fewer than 50 titles.

Keynote speaker and Audible Hall of Famer Dion Graham kicks off a conference of over 20 breakout sessions and panel discussions as well as 8 small group workshops (X-Sessions) for a combined 50+ hours of audiobook education! Panelists and session leaders include fellow Hall of Famer Andi Arndt, Andrew Eiden, Joel Froomkin, January LaVoy, Natalie Naudus, and many more.

You’ll also get to meet and read for an Audible Studios producer who’ll give you feedback on your performance and advice on how to navigate important studio relationships.

ACX is presenting four panels on a variety of topics, including:

Chapter One: Intro to ACX, The Audiobook Creation Exchange (3/27/20): If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to launch your audiobook career with ACX this is the session for you. We’ll cover creating a profile that highlights your unique skill set, understanding the audition and production workflow, and working directly with authors and publishers to create awesome-sounding audiobooks.

Working with Authors (3/27/20): In this session, you’ll hear directly from an author and narrator who have established an effective partnership and will share exactly how they get things done. Find out how to communicate effectively about budgets and deadlines, collaborate on text interpretation and character voices, and work together to market your productions and maximize sales.

Marketing Yourself and Your Audiobook Projects (3/27/20): Promoting yourself to authors and publishers and promoting your work to audiobook listeners have more in common than you might think. This discussion will help you understand how to effectively pitch yourself to authors on and off ACX, team with authors to generate interest in your audiobook work, and boost your bottom line by driving sales of your productions.

Making You a Business (3/28/20): When it comes to your audiobook career, you’re the artist and the businessperson, the boss and the employee. In this session, we’ll guide you through the business concerns of freelance audiobook professionals, including time management, budgeting and outsourcing, healthcare, taxes, and more.

Find more details and the full schedule for VO Atlanta’s Audiobook Academy here.

We hope to see you there!

We’re a month into 2020, and now is a great time to check in on your 2020 goals to see what progress you’re making. Didn’t make any resolutions? It’s not too late! There’s still 11 months left to set and meet some big audiobook goals for this year. Not sure where to start? We’ve got a device that can help you figure it out: S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, and Time-Related, and when applied to planning for the coming year, it can help you set goals that you’ll actually attain. Here’s your ACX guide to putting S.M.A.R.T. to work for you.

S is for Specific

Think about any task you set out to complete—it’s always easier to get it done if you have good, clear instructions. Choosing definite areas for your goals makes it easier for you to get to work on them and measure your progress. For example, if you’re an author, instead of setting the goal of growing your fanbase, consider setting a goal of increasing your social media followers on Facebook or Twitter specifically. If you’re a narrator, instead of setting the goal of expanding your repertoire as a voice actor, perhaps you set a goal to master one or two new specific accents or dialects.

M is for Measurable

Setting goals that are measurable is essential to achieving them—otherwise, you have no way of determining whether your goals have been met. That means you need quantifiable indicators of progress. So, if you’re that author that wants to grow your social media followers on Twitter, set an amount by which you’d like to grow them. Or if you’re a producer and your goal is to master a new dialect, maybe your quantifiable indicator of progress is adding a sample with that dialect to your ACX profile, or auditioning for three new titles for which that accent is required.

A is for Assignable

This one might not make sense for you at first glance—but as self-publishing authors and independent producers, you are your own business, so wouldn’t you just assign everything to yourself? Not quite. Maybe this means taking the time to assess your workflow to see what you can outsource. For authors, that might be cover art or advertising graphics, as a producer, maybe that’s editing and post-production. But it could also mean taking a look at all the different hats you wear as an indie creator, and determining which of your many personas each goal falls under. Is it your writer persona that will be working toward  these goals? Your publicist persona? Your actor? Your engineer? Assigning your goals to the different sides of yourself-as-business can be a good way to make sure you stay focused and on task (authors have told us, for instance, that they separate writing work from marketing work by time of day, so they can better “activate” those areas of their brain to get the job done). If you have too many goals in one area of your business, it might be the time to consider balancing with other goals or outsourcing some work. Which conveniently brings us to our next point…

R is for Realistic

We know you’re dreamers and risk-takers—as independent creators, you have to be! But when setting smart goals for yourself, it’s important that most are things you could realistically achieve. Consider the resources you’re working with—time, skills, finances, outsourcing, and what you’ve managed to achieve in similar periods in the past—and set your goals accordingly. For example, if you’re that author looking to grow your social media followers, look at how your followers have grown in previous terms. If you’re a voice actor mastering those dialects, consider how long it took you to learn similar skills in the past. Maybe that means increasing your goals compared to past years if you’ve gained more resources, or maybe it means pulling back a little if you’ve found yourself overwhelmed. Either way, setting realistic goals is a great way to keep yourself motivated—or put another way, setting a bunch of goals you won’t achieve is a great way to get discouraged fast. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dream big—you can break big goals down into smaller goals so you’re hitting milestones along the way, and you can and should set a few reach goals for yourself outside the ones you know are realistic to give yourself something to keep reaching for.

T is for Time-Related

We all know we start big with the enthusiasm when we set new goals, but it can be difficult to maintain that momentum if we don’t have deadlines. When setting your goals, be sure to specify when you want to complete them by and whether it’s a short, medium, or long-term goal. Maybe you set your social media follower goal at 100 new followers in three months, 300 in six months, and 1,000 by the end of the year. If you’re that dialect-mastering narrator, set a date by which you want to submit your first audition in that dialect. And if you aren’t already, consider using a marketing or production calendar to track your goals and keep yourself accountable. It doesn’t hurt to put a little pressure on yourself to stay motivated, and seeing a deadline in writing can do just that.

Now that you know how to plan your goals for the new year and beyond, we want to hear what they are! Let us know in the comments if you’re setting any 2020 audiobook publishing goals, and what you’re doing to make sure you’re meeting them. Now get to work—you only have 11 months to go!

It’s hard to believe it’s already fall, and the holidays are just around the corner! We know many of you are hard at work on projects and want your upcoming releases to be available to listeners by the holidays, and ACX wants to help you deliver.

These last months of the year are a busy time for the Quality Assurance team—we receive a much higher volume of submissions in the months leading up to the winter holidays, and you may experience longer processing times between submission and on-sale date. If holiday promotions factor into your marketing plans, please submit your project for review no later than Friday, November 29^th  for the best chance of being on sale by the holidays.

And with that deadline just two months away, we’ll let you get back to work!

Need help?  Here are just a few of our favorite resources for making sure your files pass our audio specifications every time.

Here on the ACX blog, we’re hard at work uncovering stories and advice to help you cast, narrate, produce, and market better audiobooks. But even with our powers combined, we know our creator community outnumbers us by the thousands and we bet your great ideas do, too! If there are skills you want to develop, questions you want answered, stories you want to hear, or any other audiobook-related content you think we should be covering, drop us a line in the comments below this article and tell us about it! We’ll do our best to deliver.