Audiobook Narration and production:

AC Andrews narrates and produces audiobooks for projects with LGBTQ+ inclusive content under the name Adam Andrews.

Whether your book is M/M Romance, Dark, Urban, Paranormal, Epic, or even YA fantasy, whether it’s spicy or vanilla, I can help bring it to life!

How I Select Projects: I select projects based on method of payment (Per Finished Hour, or PFH + Royalty Share), partly on the quality of the writing, and partly on whether or not the book, or the author’s body of work, includes meaningful LGBTQ+ representation.

Information for Book Rights Holders:

If you are interested in having me narrate and produce an audiobook with you, the first step will be to reach out to me and provide me with a copy of your book that I can review, to determine if I am interested.

Audition: I’m happy to read and record a 5 minute sample from your book, to help you determine if I’m the right fit for you, if you would like me to. You can choose which 5 minutes I record. It may help if you choose a passage that includes dialogue with characters whose voices and personality are especially important to you.

ACX Narrator Profile (with audio samples): https://www.acx.com/narrator?p=A15C6AKV6ZGBLF

Scheduling: Whether we produce through ACX or not, we will need to agree on due dates for the first 15 minutes of the book (a chance for you to hear and approve the narration style, or ask for changes), and then for the complete audiobook. My availability to work on your project, and timing, will depend on how many other projects (narration and my own writing) I currently have in queue.

Contract: If producing through ACX (which is owned by Amazon/Audible), we’ll complete a contract online through ACX. If you prefer not to produce through ACX, I’ll ask that you sign an agreement before work begins. The author retains all copyrights.

Paying me: Obviously, I can’t work for free. There are two main ways that narrators get paid: either by a share of earned royalties (paying reduced or no production fee up front, the author splits 50% of earned royalties with the narrator – this option is only available if publishing through ACX exclusive distribution); or by paying a “Per Finished Hour” (PFH) production fee (in which case the author pays out of pocket, but retains all subsequent royalties earned). Authors opting for the PFH route can expect to pay more, while those on a tighter budget can opt for a mix of royalty sharing and a lower PFH fee (but then must publish through ACX). I will generally only waive a PFH fee entirely (i.e., a Royalty Share-only project) under special circumstances or for authors I have an established relationship with (*ahem* or whose writing I fangurl over).

Rates:

$100/Finished Hour + Royalty Share (on ACX)
$150/Finished Hour (Author retains all royalties, any platform)

To estimate production cost: For a mixed PFH/RS project, I narrate at about 8,500 words per hour, so a 70,000 word novel would be about 8hrs and 15min long, or $825. A pure PFH project of the same length (where the author retains all royalties) would cost $1,237.50.

Deposit and Final Invoice: All PFH clients must pay a non-refundable deposit of 50% of the estimated PFH fee, after the initial 15 minute checkpoint has been completed and approved. After production is complete I will send an invoice for the remaining balance. The final invoice will be based on the actual finished audiobook time, which may differ from the estimate. Payment will be due upon receipt of the final invoice.

I will accept payment via PayPal or Venmo (credit card or bank transfer).

Artistic Things and Author Satisfaction: Audiobooks are an artistic collaboration between the writer and the narrator. That means that, whatever the writer imagined in their head, the narrator is going to put their own spin on it. The way I bring your book to life might not perfectly match what you imagined, and frankly, it shouldn’t. Between narrators and writers there is a degree of compromise: I will do my very best to honor the writer’s vision and wishes, and the writer accepts that the book is no longer wholly their own (at least in audiobook format).

I’ll ask you about pronunciation on any names or fantasy words. It may be helpful for us to have a video chat to go over words, names, and pronunciation if your book is particularly long or complicated, or if you need specific accents for certain characters.

If you have ideas about how a certain character should sound, please let me know your ideas before recording begins. That way I can model what I can do for you, and you can decide if it’s a good fit before recording begins. The fifteen minute checkpoint is a good opportunity to be sure things are going in the right direction, and you can ask me to prepare a specific section of the book for the check-in if you are especially concerned about a particular character’s voice.

When I start recording, I will give you access to finished files as I complete each chapter, so that if you discover something that needs to be changed we can change course while I’m still actively recording your project.

However, once recording is finished, I will entertain only up to three rounds of edits/revisions in order to protect my own time and labor. If an important word or name is mispronounced, or if I’ve flubbed a line and the narration does not match the text of the passage, I am happy to re-record those lines and edit them back into the finished book at any time. If you request major changes (like re-recording all of the lines for a major character):

I reserve the right to deny changes that would require me to re-record and re-master more than 1/3rd of the production’s total length.

I 100% want you to be happy with your audiobook (because if you aren’t, you definitely aren’t going to recommend me to your fellow writers, right?).

Audio Mastering, Editing, and Publishing: I do all of the editing and mastering myself, including removing extraneous sounds, editing or re-recording over mistakes, and making sure that the volume/peak/floor requirements for ACX/Audible are being met.

Once I am satisfied, I will provide you with finished .mp3 files that have been mastered to ACX’s specifications (which will also be suitable for any other audiobook platform). If publishing through ACX, I’ll upload directly to ACX. If we have contracted this project outside of ACX, then I will withhold the end credits and retail sample until the invoice is paid, and then provide you with the files so that you can distribute them through your preferred platforms.

Audiobook Covers: Obtaining or creating the cover for the Audiobook version of your book is your responsibility, and is not part of what I do. (See ACX’s cover art requirements.)

Click Here for my Statement on Generative AI:

Statement about Generative AI: If your book has been partly or wholly created using generative AI, I will not produce it. I define “generative AI” as any program or LLM (like ChatGPT) that produces images, writing, music, or narration that mimics skilled human creative output and thereby replaces human skill and creativity. Note that there are many AI assistive technologies that support humans in their skilled and creative endeavors, but which do not seek to replace them (e.g., tools for creators with disabilities, or tools that can reduce the time/labor for specific tasks).

If you are using software that writes sentences for you, produces “art” based on text input, what you are using is not assistive, but rather generative. Even if you “tweak” or improve on it afterward, you are still basing something you are claiming as your own on dishonesty. There is no ethical use of generative AI to produce artistic works you are claiming as your own, especially for commercial purposes. That includes the cover art.

Assistive AI is fine; Generative AI is not. I reserve the right to cancel production contracts with any author that I discover is using Generative AI. By signing an agreement with Dragonfly Bookworks, you are stipulating that Generative AI has not been used in any way for either your book’s creation or the cover art.

Inquiries: Please email all audiobook/narration inquiries to dragonflybookworks@gmail.com.

Updated 12/15/2024

Dragonfly Bookworks is a trademark of Dragonfly Waterworks LLC.