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AUDIOBOOK NARRATORS BUSINESS SURVEY 2015
Respondents' Comments To Question #10:

How Are You Compensated For Your Audiobook Narrations?
5/21/2015

Respondents to the VoiceOverXtra Audiobook Narrators Business Survey - 2015 made the following comments to Question 10. For the accompanying article, please click here.



  • Also barter, trading services
  • Each deal is different.
  • I was supposed to have received a flat fee for the one audiobook I finished for the client through Voice123 but never received payment.
  • Royalty share sucks. Be sure the author is sold on promoting his book before committing to read.
  • voluntarily read during a radio broadcast for experience - no $$ comp
  • Royalty share but it hasn't paid much. For the time I put in to it, it isn't even minimum wage.
  • I have done Royalty Share when I began via ACX in order to build my portfolio. No longer prepared to do this ... so PFH or Stipend is all I will consider now.
  • Unpaid volunteer
  • A mixture of the above
  • No, was doing voluntary audiobooks for the blind.
  • I have done all that I checked.
  • However, will no longer agree to only a royalty share.
  • The only one I haven't had experience with is stipends.
  • I started out doing only royalty share and some stipend and have started to migrate to mostly pfh.
  • I've recorded books for Books Aloud, a charitable organization providing audiobooks at no charge to blind and disabled. My work was a donation and no cash compensation.
  • Through ACX, mainly Royalty Share and some Stipend plus Royalty. Outside of ACX, PFH.
  • When Library of Congress books, fee includes self monitoring and corrections
  • Please note that union rates DO NOT INCLUDE doing one's own post production.
  • I would not do audiobooks for a flat fee only, unless it was over $400/pfh
  • I want fee per finished hour or stipend plus royalty, but only royalty share so far.
  • While I still receive some payments from royalty-only books, I no longer accept them.
  • PLEASE NOTE for questions 9 and 10: I do not record via ACX. I record (less and less!) for established companies, and they handle all the post production. HOWEVER, if I did do ACX, I would outsource, and would NOT ever do a project for only royalty share. As a community, OUR ART and our WORK are being degraded, and we are part of the problem.
  • I think the royalty share option on ACX for many titles is an absolute joke. Some of the self-published authors have inflated ratings and reviews from their fandom on Amazon, but it does not translate to units sold. I did a project on royalty share and we've sold 16 units.
  • I haven't even sold enough to warrant a check from ACX. The amount of time I spend recording and editing was surely a net loss for this project.
  • I would never ever work for just royalty. Never again. It is simply too much work.
  • I did a few ACX titles, but don't do them anymore because I'm continually cast from a publisher PFH.
  • Mostly royalty share, but it certainly helps if there is a stipend as well.
  • Most have been royalty share
  • Still trying to "win" pfh and/or stipend through ACX (where I have so far obtained most of my work).
  • 50/50 split with author on audiobook sales
  • Plus AFTRA P&H.
  • On #9 I didn't answer because for both of my audiobooks the producer who hired me did the editing, and I was not responsible.
  • SO far I have only done work for royalty share, but I hope to do work for fees in the future as well.
  • Of over 100 books, I have done 2 books for stipend plus royalty share. All others are pfh.
  • +12.5% for health/pension
  • Or via the SAGAFTRA Sound Recording contract, fee per STUDIO hour. At this stage, royalty share is minimal, a pipe dream. Residual contracts via a Union must be negotiated.
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