What do we do?
Hudson Audio Publishing provides a service to make it easy for authors to get their books converted to audio books and sold worldwide through the three major audio book channels - iTunes, Audible.com and Amazon.com.
Why would an author use Hudson Audio Publishing and not just do it themselves?
Getting audio books made and then sold through these platforms is not simple at all. First there are technical considerations in regard to making the audio books themselves. Next you need to apply to the platforms, establish contracts and royalty accounts, organize your tax credentials and learn the admissions process and ensure you supply the platforms with all of the items required for a successful listing of your work. Our first title took nine months to navigate through all the steps and even then we made some fundamental errors which caused our sales to suffer. Hudson Audio Publishing makes this whole process very simple for the author - handling every step of the process.
How do Hudson Audio Publishing make money? Do you charge fees upfront?
Hudson Audio Publishing charges $285/book to handle all of the technical and administrative issues associated with getting a title successfully submitted and listed for sale across these three platforms. We do however forego this fee upfront allowing authors to pay only from royalties earned through sales - in other words we work on a 100% speculative basis which should of course tell you that we are confident that every title we work with will in fact create income for its owner. If you struggle with this, please read this blog post. We recognize that this business model is different to traditional publishing but digital publishing is a very different industry.
Aside from this administrative fee we share the royalties 70/30 in favor of the author. This 70/30 split is calculated on royalties, not the gross sale price of the book. You can learn more about how much of the sale price the platforms take and how much royalty is paid here.
If you would like to read our standard agreement you can download it here.
What is involved in submitting files to these three platforms? Why do we need you? Can you explain that a little more?
Sometimes people think that all you have to do to get digital products sold into platforms such as these is send in a CD with the files on it. Nothing could be further from the truth. To submit an audio book in a compliant fashion, the content provider is required to include a whole host of very specific information about the work as well as several media files such as the thumbnail image and the audio files themselves. These all have to be to specification. For example, image files have to be a certain pixel size and DPI. Audio files have to be a certain bit rate and format - not to mention quality. Not only do we compile all of these items for our clients to spec, but we also attend to the qualitative and marketing issues. If you read our blog you will see how detailed we get on the non-technical issues such as how to design audio book covers that sell or how to write product descriptions that make people want to buy your audio book. This $285 (which we only get in the future when your audio book generates royalties) enables us to keep a staff of people who can work for you for free upfront on a broad range of issues.
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