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It's terrible for the narrator too. In many cases the narrator makes a bad decision to record the Audiobook not for a per-finished-hour rate, but as a "Royalty

It's terrible for the narrator too. In many cases the narrator makes a bad decision to record the Audiobook not for a per-finished-hour rate, but as a "Royalty Share" where they only earn on the Royalty -- that's 20% (50-50 royalty split with the author) on the audiobook version. In most cases a narrator will never earn even close to minimum wage for the effort to create an audiobook. And it's more effort than you might guess. A skilled narrator might produce a finished hour of audio in 5 hours, and a less skilled narrator may take 10 to 12 hours to create that same finished hour. So for a 10 hour audiobook a narrator will have between 50 and 100 hours of work, depending on the material and the production skills of the narrator. It can take literally years to earn $500 to $1000 in royalties -- thats $10/hr -- on a book. And most books never sell enough audiobook copies. And that's why any narrator who understands this should never accept and ACX / Audible exclusive Royalty share audiobook deal. Now with this Audiblegate revelation it's all to clear that we narrators are destined to never make our money back.

napsterbr 5y ago
Out of curiosity, why does it take 5-12 hours to record one finished hour?
- IshKebab 5y ago
  Presumably multiple takes and editing. I think he's ignoring the chance of recording a really popular audiobook though. I'd guess that's why people take royalty deals that they probably know will likely not pay well. Basically gambling.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- abdullahkhalids 5y ago
  You just don't have to read it out loud. You to read it at an even pace, have to enunciate properly, have to decide what words to emphasize in every sentence or how you change your tone etc. Getting this right for every paragraph will usually take multiple takes. Then there is additional audio editing and what not. Just for reference, as a prof, just creating a 30 min video that students can watch on their own time, easily takes 2 hours of work. This is where you just remove the worst errors, to get a just-good-enough product.
  - prepend 5y ago
    When I make my video lectures for my class it takes about two hours for every one hour of video. That includes writing a transcript, edits, re-recording parts, posting, and even the encoding. Obviously this will vary per person but I’m not very good at videos and that’s how long it takes. I don’t get paid for videos it’s just part of my course. If I was a professional video maker, I think it would take me much less time. But if someone is really slow at a task, perhaps it’s not economical for them to do that task. I’m an amazing car washer. I wash a car like no other. But I take three hours and no one will pay my hourly rate. That doesn’t mean that my employer who pays me by the wash is bad, it means I shouldn’t wash cars for them.
playpause 5y ago
My housemate is an audiobook recording engineer. I just asked him about it. He says in the best case, with a skilled narrator, an hour of audiobook can take only 1 hour 10 minutes to record. In the worst case it can take up to three hours. I asked him if it could ever take up to five hours and he said no way, never.
- nigerian1981 5y ago
  “Yes, I can hear you, Clem Fandango!”
- raverbashing 5y ago
  Yeah this is the difference between professionals and less experienced narrators. I'm not buying the 5h/h thing neither. How long is an average audiobook? Booking studio time, etc for that plus the heavy editing that a 5h take would take is just not worth it.
- ohgodplsno 5y ago
  Your housemate doesn't re-listen the recorded book, doesn't make edits, doesn't clear up passages, cut and rearrange unwanted silences? He is either wildly underestimating it by only taking the "talk into a microphone" part in consideration, or I feel terribly sorry for anyone listening to his audiobooks.
  - delgaudm 5y ago
    This is correct.
  - salamandersauce 5y ago
    Does the narrator need to be involved in making edits, re-listen to recorded book, cutting and rearranging unwanted silences? Other than the occasional line redo if something is flubbed or off I don't see how that involves the narrator?
    - delgaudm 5y ago
      In many cases in the ACX world the narrator does it all. All the production falls to the narrator.
pas 5y ago
> it can take literally years to earn $500 to $1000 in royalties but then it goes on forever, right? (as long as copyright lasts) (sure, the NPV probably still sucks due to time value of money)

napsterbr 5y ago

Out of curiosity, why does it take 5-12 hours to record one finished hour?

IshKebab 5y ago
Presumably multiple takes and editing. I think he's ignoring the chance of recording a really popular audiobook though. I'd guess that's why people take royalty deals that they probably know will likely not pay well. Basically gambling.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
abdullahkhalids 5y ago
You just don't have to read it out loud. You to read it at an even pace, have to enunciate properly, have to decide what words to emphasize in every sentence or how you change your tone etc. Getting this right for every paragraph will usually take multiple takes. Then there is additional audio editing and what not. Just for reference, as a prof, just creating a 30 min video that students can watch on their own time, easily takes 2 hours of work. This is where you just remove the worst errors, to get a just-good-enough product.
- prepend 5y ago
  When I make my video lectures for my class it takes about two hours for every one hour of video. That includes writing a transcript, edits, re-recording parts, posting, and even the encoding. Obviously this will vary per person but I’m not very good at videos and that’s how long it takes. I don’t get paid for videos it’s just part of my course. If I was a professional video maker, I think it would take me much less time. But if someone is really slow at a task, perhaps it’s not economical for them to do that task. I’m an amazing car washer. I wash a car like no other. But I take three hours and no one will pay my hourly rate. That doesn’t mean that my employer who pays me by the wash is bad, it means I shouldn’t wash cars for them.

playpause 5y ago

My housemate is an audiobook recording engineer. I just asked him about it. He says in the best case, with a skilled narrator, an hour of audiobook can take only 1 hour 10 minutes to record. In the worst case it can take up to three hours. I asked him if it could ever take up to five hours and he said no way, never.

nigerian1981 5y ago
“Yes, I can hear you, Clem Fandango!”
raverbashing 5y ago
Yeah this is the difference between professionals and less experienced narrators. I'm not buying the 5h/h thing neither. How long is an average audiobook? Booking studio time, etc for that plus the heavy editing that a 5h take would take is just not worth it.
ohgodplsno 5y ago
Your housemate doesn't re-listen the recorded book, doesn't make edits, doesn't clear up passages, cut and rearrange unwanted silences? He is either wildly underestimating it by only taking the "talk into a microphone" part in consideration, or I feel terribly sorry for anyone listening to his audiobooks.
- delgaudm 5y ago
  This is correct.
- salamandersauce 5y ago
  Does the narrator need to be involved in making edits, re-listen to recorded book, cutting and rearranging unwanted silences? Other than the occasional line redo if something is flubbed or off I don't see how that involves the narrator?
  - delgaudm 5y ago
    In many cases in the ACX world the narrator does it all. All the production falls to the narrator.

pas 5y ago

> it can take literally years to earn $500 to $1000 in royalties but then it goes on forever, right? (as long as copyright lasts) (sure, the NPV probably still sucks due to time value of money)