What’s Involved?
You Get Paid a Lifetime Royalty
How Much Does That Actually Mean?
How Do I Know Which Books Will Sell?
What Type of Files are Preferred?
What Help and Support Will I Get?
What Choice Do I Have in Terms of What I Produce?
How are the People I’m Dealing With?
How Does Prospero Make its Money?
Yes.
We do not want any money from you at all,
ever.
You don’t even need to buy any equipment (if you live in/ around London or Brighton and have a half decent computer - coz then I can lend you the other bits that you’ll need - please be trustworthy!)
Any organization that asks you for money in order for you to join and subsequently earn money from is one that I would always walk away from (or possibly even run).
In order to become one of our voice artists producing audio books you do have to have certain qualities, but handing over cheques is not one of them – that’s what we do!
OK now that’s out of the way we can explain what we want and how this works.
In short we work with a number of voice artists to produce audio books. These audio books are sold in both digital download (i.e. from websites) and in pre-loaded MP3 players.
We do not pay an hourly rate or salary.
We do pay lifetime royalties to voice artists on all the audio books that they have produced (subject to copyright and all the usual legal stuff).
In short this is what happens:
- We provide you with a choice of books to record.
- You record and edit an audio book.
- We adapt it for sale, sort out the cover design, distribution and all the complicated technical, sales and marketing stuff.
- We pay you a royalty EVERY time that book sells.
- See number 4.
- See number 4 again…
You get paid a lifetime royalty on all sales of books that you record.
The actual amount you get paid depends on the following factors:
- How much the book sells for.
- How much commission is taken by the retail outlet - usually a website.
- How much author and other commission fees are due.
- The ‘lifetime’ of the audio rights arrangement for each individual book - this varies from a few years to for ever.
How much does that actually mean?
You can reckon on earning approximately 5% to 10% of the retail price. This is almost exactly the same amount that the author earns - but your time input is far less than that of the author!
So if a book sells for £10, you will earn about 50p for every single sale.
What’s more, there is no limit to the amount you will earn. That’s worth repeating:
There is NO LIMIT to the amount of money you can earn off each audio book that you record.
The more copies that sell, the more money you make. So if earning money is your priority then the key is to record books that have the best chance of selling.
Example 1
“The Naked Trader”
Time taken to record – 3 days
Time taken to edit – 6 days
Actual earnings for artist in first full quarter £112.31
Projected annual earnings (£112.31 x 4) £449.24 for nine days work
Example 2
Sex and Seduction: Erotic Stories Collection 1
Time taken to record – 1 day
Time taken to edit – 2 days
Actual earnings for voice artist in first full quarter - £76.14
Projected annual earnings (£76.14 x 4) £304.56 for three days work
Example 3
“Being Positive and Staying Positive”
Time taken to record – 1 day
Time taken to edit – 2 days
Actual earnings for voice artist in first full quarter £19.62
Projected annual earnings (£19.62 x 4) £78.48 for three days work
How do I know which books will sell?
The sales on each book will vary considerably and cannot be predicted. Books of a ‘How to’ nature, especially when concerned with sensitive or private issues such as depression or low confidence, have performed reasonably well. Similarly books about making money and, inevitably, sex also sell quite well.
But it’s not an exact science which is why we recommend that you build up a portfolio of a dozen or more books as quickly as possible. Not only does that increase your chances of getting a good performer, it also means that you will become much quicker at producing audio books.
Ultimately you shouldn’t do this if you are expecting to become a millionaire overnight. If you stick with it and produce enough books then you stand a good chance of bringing in several hundred pounds a month.
Payment is made by the online digital sales websites quarterly in arrears. As soon as they send us payment we forward it to the respective voice artists.
This means that there is an initial delay of up to 6 months before you get your first payment. But after that you can reckon on a payment every three months.
For example, if the websites pay us by 30th June for the period 1st January through 31st March, then we will have despatched the payment to you no later than 15th August.
A computer that is ideally no more than 2 years old, not used by lots of people, not cluttered with lots of programs and downloads.
You will also need an area at home, for example, that you can use to record. This area will need to be “sound dampened”. Don’t spend any money on this - a drying rack with some heavy towels on it sitting on the desk at which you are working should be plenty good enough.
If, as with most other voice artists, you have extraneous noises (one lives by a railway station, another has a loud family, I personally have a very loud downstairs neighbour who thinks he’s a rap star in the making) then you’ll have to re-record until those extraneous noises are eliminated. I’ve worked out an arrangement with my neighbour so that he knows when I need him to shut up and realize that he’s middle class, living in the South and has very little to rap about. The rest of the time he can indulge himself as much as he likes.
If you live in or around London or Brighton then I can lend you everything else you’ll need.
If you have access to your own recording facility then so much the better, but don’t spend any money up front unless you are going to be using the equipment for lots of other projects as well. This usually consists of a microphone; a quiet, sound-dampened area and (usually) a computer with appropriate software on which to record and edit.
If you are determined to set up your own recording facility (or are outside the London/ Brighton areas) then look at the Equipment page on this site to see roughly how much it’ll cost to set yourself up.
What type of files are preferred?
The files that we require for the finished books are *.wav files.
These files are large and contain full sound quality. This means we can tailor them for DVD distribution (rare) or digital download (99% of purchases).
This is another one to which I can’t give you a definitive answer. So here are some points by way of guidance:
- The first book you produce will take you much, much longer than any other. This will serve as your training book. It will allow you to get your computer and recording set up correct. It will also give you a very clear understanding of how best to record a book in such a way that it is easier to edit.
- Non fiction is quicker to prepare and record than Fiction. The latter requires more character preparation and a more sophisticated vocal performance.
- The fewer mistakes you make during the recording the quicker the recording and, more importantly, the less editing is required.
- A reasonably experienced voice artist can record a 30,000 word non-fiction book in one day.
- Editing time varies between 1½ and 2 times the amount of time it took to record the book. The time taken to edit depends upon:
~ How quick/ experienced you are at editing
~ How much extra editing (e.g. music, effects) the final product requires.
The slower you speak during the recording, the fewer mistakes you make and the less editing time is required. So slow down if you want to take less time producing a book!
What help & support will I get?
You will be given guidance on what books will best suit your vocal ability and give you the best possible return on your time.
Vocal technique guidance – both in terms of using the equipment and ‘artistic’ delivery
Editing – as you can see from this website there are comprehensive training videos showing you how to produce an audio book. The software in question is Cubase but the principles apply to whatever software package you choose to use.
- We have a huge range of books for you to choose from – we work with Pocket Essentials, Accent Press, Hunter Publishing, Summersdale Publishers and loads more.
- Your own material.
- Out of copyright material (the author must have been dead for at least 70 years).
What choice do I have in terms of what I produce?
You have complete independence on what you choose to record. We will advise you according to what we believe will sell fastest and thereby make you the most money. But you can take or leave that advice.
Who are the people I will be dealing with?
Prospero Media Ltd is the company you would be dealing with.
Prospero has a number of relationships and agreements in place with audio book outlets – both online (e.g. the audio book arm of Amazon) and offline. This means that we can ensure first class national and international distribution for every audio book that we receive (assuming that it is legitimate i.e. does not break any copyright rules etc.)
How does Prospero make its money?
We earn a commission on every sale that you make. This is massively advantageous to you for two huge reasons:
- We only make money if you do – so we want to make absolutely sure that you make as much money as you can, as quickly as possible!
- We don’t charge you anything for joining our team (but we are selective about who we are going to invest time, effort and training into).
Go to the Contact page and complete the form. As soon as it arrives with us you will be sent a short piece of text to record and send back to us via email. Once we’ve heard that, if we think you are ready to produce books straight away we’ll get in touch with you and let you know what happens next.
If we feel that you need to work on your voice skills then we’ll give you some feedback to be going on with.