Findaway Voices Review | Is This Audiobook Publishing Business Worth It?

About this video

Dale gives a full review of Findaway Voices, an audiobook distribution aggregator he compares to Draft2Digital or Smashwords for audio. The Findaway company had been around about 12 years and the Voices platform about two years, reaching over 36 retail and library avenues, including Amazon, Audible and Apple, and accepting authors from all regions, unlike ACX which he says only accommodates account holders in the US, UK, Canada and Ireland. Standard distribution lets you upload once and deselect avenues you do not want. Voices Plus is a one-year exclusivity agreement you cannot opt out of for at least six months, adding piracy protection, priority access to the Authors Direct beta, first-in-line marketing, and 100 giveaway codes instead of the standard 30. Findaway takes 20% of net profit, leaving the author 80%. Retail models include a la carte, subscription and revenue share; library models include a la carte purchases and cost per checkout, paid on checkout rather than purchase. Authors set their own prices, and Findaway recommends charging two to three times retail for libraries. For narration, Findaway uses a matchmaking process rather than ACX-style filtering and negotiation. Per-finished-hour rates are premium, often $150 or more with many SAG-AFTRA narrators, and prices are static with no negotiation. Voices Share lets an author pay 50% of narration costs upfront in exchange for giving the narrator 20% of royalties for 10 years, so the author keeps 60% after Findaway’s 20%, with a buyout option by paying the rest. He praises the Apple deal in particular: he says Findaway gets 45% from Apple and the author gets 80% of that, versus lower amounts via ACX. Cons are no narrator negotiation, no clickable links to each store listing, and no notifications when a book goes live in each avenue.

Key takeaways

• Findaway Voices distributes to over 36 retail and library avenues and takes 20% of net profit, leaving authors 80%.
• Voices Plus is a one-year exclusivity deal with at least six months before opt-out, offering 100 giveaway codes instead of 30 plus piracy protection.
• Library distribution offers a la carte and cost-per-checkout models, and Findaway recommends pricing library editions at two to three times retail.
• Voices Share cuts upfront narration cost to 50% in exchange for 20% of royalties to the narrator over a 10-year term, with a buyout option.
• Main drawbacks Dale cites are static, non-negotiable narrator prices, no clickable store links, and no live notifications for each of the 36 avenues.

Episode details: published October 14, 2019 · 15:57 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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