When publishing a book, many authors also consider their options for an audiobook. They’re a great alternative for reading on the go, and act as an additional revenue stream for authors, reaching a new set of readers.

Traditional Audiobook Publishing

Like in publishing, there is a more traditional path: A publisher will offer you an audiobook deal, perhaps even paying you upfront to do so. They’ll hire actors to narrate in a professional studio and their sound engineer will mix it. They may put some marketing money behind it as well. When it publishes, it will be available on a variety of platforms. This is a great option should you get an offer, but deals are usually only offered for books that have performed very well or to authors with a built-in readership.

Self-Publishing Your Audiobook

There’s also the self-publishing path. Partner with a platform like ACX to host and distribute your audiobook, and hire a narrator or narrate it yourself: You can book a professional studio or you can record in a closet; you can hire a publicity or marketing team, do it yourself, or forgo this altogether. Read about the experience of an author who went this route here. This is a great option if you want a lot of creative control, and you will receive a higher portion of the royalties, but unless you shell out the money for experts to help you along the way, it’s very easy to create a low-quality audiobook. Additionally, platforms like ACX have exclusive contracts, so the distribution won’t be as wide.

Our Partnership with OrangeSky

SparkPress and our sister imprint, She Writes Press, have recently partnered with OrangeSky, an imprint of Findaway, to create audiobooks for select titles. This created a unique third option, a hybrid path, for our authors.

The OrangeSky team will periodically select books from our backlist and submit the list to our publisher, Brooke Warner, who will in turn reach out to these authors to see if they are interested in a contract. The process is very similar to the traditional path, with the exception of paying for the services with a flat rate of $1,500.

The one drawback of this option is the lack of control on when your audiobook is released. Many authors have a strategy to their timing, whether it be simultaneous, as sales start to drop 3-6 months post publication, or on the 1-year anniversary. There is no guarantee your book will be selected, and if it is, it will be well after publication. While we are hoping to shorten the time between offer and publication in subsequent seasons, the pilot season got their offers in February 2021 and their publication dates range from July 2021 to January 2022.

Publisher Brooke Warner and Senior Editorial Project Manager Samantha Strom are co-managing the process and will be your points of contact should your book be selected.

The Process with Orange Sky

There are a couple forms to fill out for the OrangeSky team. One is a questionnaire to get a sense of who you are and what you bring when it comes to marketing your audiobook. The other is about your narrator and your characters, so the OrangeSky team can get a sense of who will be the right voice for your book. Ultimately, they’ll send over samples from a couple actors for you to listen to, so you can select who you want to narrate your book.

Authors may request to narrate their own book, especially if it is a memoir. However, it does not necessarily mean that the request will be honored. Authors who want to narrate their own book will be asked to send in an audition, and if the OrangeSky team thinks you have what it takes to be a voice actor, they will allow you to narrate your own book.

When possible, we will use the same images from your original cover and resize them for the audiobook. However, on occasion, this may not be possible, or it may be cost-prohibitive to re-license the artwork. In this case, the same cover team who created your original cover will create a new cover for your audiobook.

Once the OrangeSky team has everything they need, they will create your audiobook over the course of a few months with no involvement from the author needed.

Delivery of Materials

A week before your audiobook publishes, you will receive an email with promotional materials for your use, courtesy of the BookSparks team, who is providing a small marketing campaign for the books in this partnership. The materials will include graphics, a press release, and information about a social media giveaway, a newsletter inclusion, and the influencers who will be promoting your audiobook. The team will continue to update you as things move forward in the marketing campaign.

Upon release, you will also receive assets curtesy of OrangeSky. These include more graphics, a list of places you can find your audiobook online, and six giveaway codes. You are, of course, welcome to use your giveaway codes as you please, and many may choose to use one themselves so they can listen to the finished product.

Check out the first season of our OrangeSky deal here and here for She Writes Press.