VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[mcm]

A friend who has published a couple of books is interested in putting out audio versions, but it sounds like her relationship with her print publisher has grown unsatisfactory so she isn't going to them for help. Does anybody have any suggestions as to where she should start finding out what is involved?

Thanks for any help.

[SoundsGreat-Elaine Singer]

Maybe she could go to the Audio Book Publishers website and contact some of the members to see what is involved. The URL is www.audiopub.org/
_________________
Elaine
The Youthful Mature Voice (Emeritus)
Senectitude is not for the faint of heart.

[Dennis O'Neill]

Another 'basic' idea is to go to a large bookstore (or library), and check the audio books they have, to scoop the info of the distributor, studio, etc. from the back. There may be one close to your friends' area. Or you could do it for her - on the condition that you'll be the voice, natch!

[AmysVoice]

Hi Mary -

I've been recording the work of an Australian author named Wendy Laing since 2002. She recently went through a similar situation with a publisher, and decided to self publish. She's never looked back.

The key is getting the word out, and what better way than the net? There are scads of public forums to which you can subscribe - one of which is Author's Den (http://www.authorsden.com) - through which you can also sell your work. Do as Wendy and I do - you record your friends books, get them up on eBay and Amazon - put up links on your websites. Start simple and "grow it" from there!

Wendy handled the application process for all the ISBN's, (http://www.isbn.org), we do all the duplicating and packaging in our respective studios, Wendy retains all the rights to her work, and we make money!

The only downside that I can see might be that if you're interested in selling in Barnes & Noble, Border's, etc..., from what I've been hearing, they are not too keen on selling independently published titles. Hopefully this will change, because there's some darn good stuff out there that they're missing. We actually prefer selling on the net - you reach far more customers!

Since Wendy and I live half a world away from one another, we decided to "divide and conquer", so to speak - she handles Australia and Asia, I handle the US/UK/Europe sales. We've been selling on eBay primarily, and after roughly 2 and a half years, we've sold a little over 400 books. Self publishing does involve doing some extra work - well worth it when you start to see the fruits of your labor! >^_^<