Audiobook Empire is a full-service production and publishing house catering to independent and self published authors. Its goal is to provide these authors with a traditional production experience, while allowing them to retain all the perks of being an indie author (i.e. rights and royalties).
Being a full-service production house means that the Empire takes care of everything, with very little effort needed from the client. What makes the Empire unique is the inclusion of promotion as part of the production process, as well as the additional marketing packages offered to all production clients.
Audiobook Empire's ideal client is one who longs for a streamlined, simplified, and convenient production experience. DIY can be great, but who has time for that these days?
Audiobook Empire removes the hassle from the equation. We coordinate your production and oversee everything, while checking in with you periodically with updates. Our concierge service production style is the opposite of what you'll find at large, corporation-owned studios.
The Empire is open to all. We aren't genre-specific, although genre imprints may form in the future.
We recently acquired a smaller audiobook production house that specializes in producing "clean reads". Check out Cats Meow Productions for more information.
The average audiobook we produce costs between $2500 and $3500, but each audiobook is different. That's why we refrain from advertising "one-size-fits-all" pricing. Instead, we prefer to give you a custom estimate based on your book, budget, and preferences.
The final cost of your audiobook will largely depend on two things: The length of your book and the narrator(s) you choose.Â
With that information, we can provide you with an official estimate for the final cost.
Free to reach out to us requesting a custom quote. Email Jess with your word count and budget.
On average, a narrator can read about 9,300 words per hour of audio. You'll need to divide your book's word count by 9,300 to get an estimate of how long your audiobook will be and how much you will be paying per finished hour (PFH).
Absolutely! Educating and guiding authors is our favorite part of production. We have informational packets, flow charts, and resources coming out of our ears.
Schedule a chat with Jess to learn more.
Absolutely! We have a wide variety of incredible performers in our Talent Legion. You can choose your narrator from there or use our casting services to have a few hand-picked options presented to you for final selection.
We can also work with the narrator from outside of our Talent Legion (subject to our approval).
Dual, Duet and Multi-cast projects are always fun and we'll be happy to produce them for you. However, you may want to consider how the addition of multiple narrators will impact your overall budget. This is something we'd be happy to discuss with you.
No. That is not something we encourage or accommodate.
Having worked with hundreds of audiobook reviewers over the years, we've seen too many well-intentioned authors receive unfavorable reviews over self-narration (actually, unfavorable is putting it mildly). This results in abysmal sales and almost always results in the author pulling the title from retail sites and paying to have it professionally re-recorded.
This type of situation is not something we wish to have a hand in and we would strongly encourage you to reconsider that decision. We are more interested in working with authors who value the professional talent available through us.
Audiobook Empire partners with a stellar post production team that handles all of our projects. We prefer to let dedicated sound engineers handle your post-production work for three reasons:
- They are specialists. We believe allowing sound engineers to do the post-production work on our titles results in higher quality audiobooks.
- It's more cost-effective. Overall, sound engineers do post-production work for less than a narrator would charge for the same work. This often allows you to work with narrators for a much lower rate than if they were narrating and providing the postproduction work themselves.
- It supports another area of the audiobook industry. Sound engineers are integral to the audiobook production process, yet their work is often overlooked. Some of them have even won awards for their contributions to particular titles!
We can facilitate the distribution process on your behalf, but we are not a distribution platform. What we can do is handle the uploading, metadata, etc. and send your title safely off to retail via a third-party distribution platform.
We can discuss your distribution options, such as being exclusive to Audible or "going wide" to an array of retailers. Either way, Audiobook Empire can guide you through the process or handle it entirely on your behalf.
No. For production projects, Audiobook Empire operates operates based on a flat rate. However, publishing options are available.
Promotional support will always be part of the deal at Audiobook Empire. Marketing is at the heart of what we do. We start promoting your audiobook the day you sign with us. We have an entire marketing department devoted to helping you launch your new release and additional marketing packages available for even more fun!
With Jess's promotional contacts, a virtual army can be raised to support the Empire, its Talent Legion, and its titles.
Please note that our marketing packages are offered exclusively to our production clients and are not available à la cart. In other words, if we did not produce your audiobook, we will not promote it.
Yay! We're delighted that you're picking up what we're putting down. If you haven't already, consider scheduling a preliminary consultation with Jess. This isn't mandatory, but we like to start things off with a personal touch.
Our full-production service is the usually most cost-effective way to work with us, but we understand if you only need part of the process handled for you.
We offer the following stages of production à la cart (independent of the rest of the process):
- Casting
- Post-production
- Distribution facilitation
The only part of the process that is not offered independently is marketing. Our marketing resources are reserved for our full-production clients.