AGENT ROUNDUP
Other terms to negotiate include your royalty, if the
project is not a buy-out. A buy-out means you are paid
a fl at fee for the rights and have no further economic
interest in the project. For a contract which includes the
possibility of royalties, however, the royalties need to
be defi ned so that you know what the percentage is and
what it is based on—a percentage of what?Audio Rights
If your publisher acquired your audio rights, it’s their
prerogative to publish the audiobook or license those
rights to another publisher. If they don’t do either, see if
they’ll revert the audio rights to you.
If you have the audio rights, whether via reversion or
retaining them from the start, talk to your agent about
pitching independent audiobook publishers. To encourage
a sale, have ammunition to entice a buyer, such as how well
the book is doing or expected to do, because a success-
ful book will likely make for a successful audiobook. Will
there be a big fi rst printing of your book? Is there a market-
ing and advertising campaign planned or underway? Any
good thing about the marketing of your book will help
make the audio rights attractive to an audio publisher.
If you don’t fi nd a traditional audio publisher, you
can self-publish the audiobook. Many authors use ACX,
which is a part of Audible, which is owned by Amazon.
Th rough ACX, you make your book available for narra-
tors to audition, and you and your chosen narrator can
record it under various types of contracts: a fee, based on
the running time of the fi nished audiobook, or with no
money up front but a royalty share. Some authors and
narrators opt for a fee plus a royalty share.
Th ere are other companies that also pair authors with
narrators. Most require an out-of-pocket cost to the
author, though. Resources include companies such as
Author’s Republic, Deyan Audio, Findaway Voices, John
Marshall Media, Lyric Audioooks, and Mosaic Audio.
Th ey, or any independent audio producer, can give you
a bid to produce your audiobook. You can fi nd contact
information by taking a look at the membership list of
the Audio Publishers Association, the trade organization
for the audiobook industry, at AudioPub.org.
Once you have a fi nished audiobook, you need to dis-
tribute it. Th rough ACX, you can choose exclusive or non-
exclusive distribution. Th e exclusive distribution will pay a
higher royalty but limits your venues to Audible, Amazon,
and iTunes. With a nonexclusive deal, you can also dis-
tribute through other companies to broader venues, suchas libraries and other retail download sites. Th at includes
my distribution company, Big Happy Family, LLC.
Don’t forget to license cover art. Downloadable audio-
books still have a “cover,” typically a thumbnail JPEG
representing the jacket. Take a look at any downloadable
audio site for examples.
For self-publishing, it’s important to know the tech-
nical specifi cations, or specs, required by the download
sites. Th e companies which produce audiobooks for
indie authors know these specs, but you may want to
have your contract state that the master recording will be
provided to you ready for uploading to download sites.
I have a client whose contract refers to this as “market-
ready fi les.” Th e download venues also have specs for the
JPEG cover art, so whoever prepares your art will need
to format it accordingly.
Fewer and fewer audiobooks are being published in
hard copy, such as CDs. If you want your audiobook to be
available on CD, you either need to license to a company
that does still publish in that format, or you need to fi nd a
manufacturer for the CDs and the CD cover. You may also
need an ISBN. To fi nd CD and cover manufacturers, use a
search engine or, if you see a type of packaging you like on
an audiobook, contact the publisher to ask who manufac-
tured it. Th ey are likely to share that information with you.
To purchase an ISBN, go to ISBN.org.
Register the copyright to your audiobook with the U.S.
Copyright Offi ce. Th e copyright in the recording is sepa-
rate from the copyright to your print book or e-book. It
is easy and inexpensive to register, and the protections
registration off ers are well worth the extra time and
eff ort because if your copyright is infringed, you’ll be
glad you have the statutory protections of registration.
You own the copyright even without registration, but
the courts have ruled that you cannot sue for copyright
infringement without fi rst having registration. It’s best
to register within three months of publication because
that entitles you to statutory damages in the event of
infringement. A tardy registration limits you to actual
damages. Statutory damages are likely to provide you a
greater fi nancial recovery. WDJessica Kaye is a writer, attorney, award-winning audiobook
producer/director, and the owner of the audiobook distribution
company Big Happy Family, LLC. She is the author of The Guide to
Publishing Audiobooks from WD Books. She lives in Los Angeles.48 I WRITER’S DIGEST I October 2019