FINDAWAY MARKETPLACE IS “WINDING DOWN”! Here are some other places that indie authors can find freelance audiobook narrators

Audiobooks are the fastest growing format in publishing, and for that reason, the audiobook industry is very susceptible to change.

In September 2021, Findaway Voices announced their new “Marketplace” platform for matching indie authors and rights holders with audiobook narrator/ producers. They predicted that they would take over as the leading matchmaking service for audiobooks, beating out their competitor, ACX, by a large margin.

Two months later, Spotify announced that they were purchasing Findaway.

The marketplace continued to be utilized by many indie authors, especially those who wanted an easy transition to wide distribution when the audiobook was finished.

But Findaway Voices sent emails to their customers on Tuesday (Oct 24th 2023) that said they would be “winding down Marketplace and narrator profiles over the next month” in order to focus more on their global distribution tools.

As a narrator who only yesterday updated my Marketplace profile, I was baffled, so I went to the website for some more information and learned that they are doing a couple of new things with their distribution channel.:

They are partnering with Kickstarter to support indie authors in their efforts to crowd fund their audiobook production expenses.
They have “tailored Spotify promo cards” that authors can use to help generate reviews.

So far they haven’t mentioned any replacement for Marketplace or any new platform for casting audiobooks or getting them produced,

So this leaves many authors to wonder…

“Where do I find narrators for hire”? And “Once I find a narrator, how do I get my audiobook produced”? If you are an author who wants to independently publish and distribute audiobooks, you can still use Findaway (Spotify) for distribution, but to find the perfect voice for your audiobook, you will need to go elsewhere. Here are the 3 most common methods being used in 2023, and some pros and cons of each:

1. ACX

If you have spoken to any other indie authors or published authors who keep their audio rights, you have probably heard about ACX. One thing you may not know is that ACX is not just one service, but two: They are both a match making service for rights holders and narrator/ producers, and they are a distribution service for Audible (Amazon) and Itunes. You do NOT have to use one service in order to use the other. They are also not a producer themselves. That responsibility falls to the narrator/ producer, so make sure the person you choose is experienced on that side.

Pro: They have a huge database of narrator/producers, including many who are highly skilled.

Cons: Since the ACX database is open to anyone, posting an audition on ACX may result in dozens, or even hundreds (if your pay rate is adequate) of narrators, many of which may not be experienced, or might not know anything about the production aspect (like hiring a post production team, etc.).

Most professional narrators who use ACX stop checking for auditions once they start working regularly with publishers or producers.

2. USE AN AUDIOBOOK PRODUCER WHO WORKS WITH INDIE AUTHORS

There are many great producers and many specialize in specific genres and might also help with promotion.

Pros: Producers have the ability to contract multiple narrators and can give you a short list for you to choose from. They also have the ability to handle dual narration and multicast projects, and to easily split payment to more than one narrator.

Cons: You may have to ask around to find the best producer for you. There are quite a few nowadays! Since the narrators and post production engineers they use are professionals, the rates will be higher than many on ACX.

3. CONTACT A NARRATOR DIRECTLY

You can often track down a narrator by googling their website or DMing them on social media. You can make them an offer directly or ask them to record an audition.

Pro: you don’t have to listen to dozens of auditions. You can go straight to the source.

Cons: They might not be wiling to work with an author directly, or even respond to an email, especially if they have been scammed or burned in the past. Also, many narrators, particularly experienced or high demand narrators, have been known to go through production companies exclusively so they can focus more on narrating and less on the production particulars. If that is the case, you may want to go back to option 2 (contact an audiobook producer) and see if they can reach out to them.

What about Fiver and Upwork, or VO sites like Voice 123?

Use these at your own risk. (and make sure you have a contract in place in order to protect your work!)

The benefits of using a producer, or to some extent, ACX, is that you will have built in quality control. Audiobook producers contract post production engineers and QA “proofers” to make sure that the finished audio not only sounds great, but will pass the specifications required to distribute the audiobook to retailers like Audible, library apps, and the 40 or 50 other retailers. ACX, being a part of Audible, has their own QA team that will reject finished projects that don’t meet the Audible technical requirements, but you should listen critically to the audition to make sure the sound quality is good before hiring anyone to record your audiobook on ACX.

Neither Fiver nor Upwork have these kinds of safeguards in place, so while there may be a few audiobook pros that use these sites to advertise, those same pros will likely be on ACX as well.

For more info on audiobook production and the rest of the audiobook creation process, feel free to check out my audiobook production Q and A at https://becksvoice.com/production.

And as I mentioned before, the audiobook industry is changing rapidly. One more thing you should be prepared for when hiring a narrator is an anti-AI clause in the contract.

Nowadays, narrators are being cautious of their voices being sold to AI companies and being used for who knows what? So they may ask for a no AI clause in their contract. Some may take extra precautions by only working through reputable producers who use SAG-AFTRA contracts. (Note, the SAG-AFTRA strike against the AMPTP does not prohibit narrators from working on audiobooks).

Thanks for reading!

Rebecca H. Lee
Audiobook Narrator