Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing EP 101 - Will Dages from Findaway Voices

On Oct 17, 2019, Mark Lefebvre and Kevin Tumlinson from Draft2Digital hosted a live webinar "Ask Us Anything" Q&A about audiobooks, relaying questions from authors to Will Dages, head of Findaway Voices.

This is a slightly abridged version of the audio track from this video, which you can see on YouTube.

Discussion includes the following topics:

• Findaway Voices Giveaway Codes, how they work, how authors can request them and track their use
• StoryOrigin promotion site for audiobook giveaway codes
• How to get started with setting up an audiobook via Findaway Voices
• Standard calculation for determing finished audiobook hours (9300 words = 1 finished hour - or, for easier math, assume that 10,000 words = 1 hour)
• Typical studio production hours based on word count of the original manuscript (Most audio producers work on a 3 to 1 or 4 to 1 ratio - it, if the manuscript is 100,000 words, that'd be 10 finished hours and would most likely take 30 to 40 hours of production time
• The Voices Share royalty share program and how it works (50% up front payment for production hours and a 60/20/20 split for author/narrator/Findaway) - and how the buyout works if you want to get out early
• The recent Audible text transcription controversy
• Whether or not an author can narrator their own books (spoiler alert: YES, you can, with the right setup/equipment/software)
• The origin of Findway Voices and the back story about the company Findaway, that has been around alot longer in the audiobook industry
• The built in pricing suggestion tool in Findaway Voices
• How easy/difficult it is to update your audiobook (both metadata and audio files)
• The cost and benefit of using Findaway Voices for distribution VS going direct (spoiler: Findaway keeps 20% of your royalties)
• A little bit about how exclusivity with ACX to Audible works
• Thoughts about loading audio samples to YouTube or other ways of promoting their audiobooks
• And more...

You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

Links of Interest:

• Draft2Digital's Blog Post: Everything Audiobooks with Will Dages from Findaway Voices (Full Transcript)
• The YouTube Video of the Webinar
• Episode 5 - Global Audiobook Opportunities for Authors
• Episode 15 - The Process of a Writer's Life with Kevin Tumlinson
• Episode 52 - The Three Co-Founders of Draft2Digital
• Findaway Voices
• Patreon for Stark Reflections

The music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0