How do you price audiobooks?
Audiobooks aren’t charged per word or reach. They’re charged PER FINISHED HOUR.
PER FINISHED HOUR DEFINED
Per Finished Hour (PFH) is the total length of the final, edited audiobook, versus how long it takes to record.
Typically, a narrator takes 2 hours to record 1 finished hour. That’s not always the case but a way to estimate how long you’ll spend on a book.
HOW TO ESTIMATE PFH
If someone comes to you with their book but they have no idea how many finished hours it will be, use this formula.
TOTAL NUMBER OF WORDS (in the book) divided by 9300
RATES
SAG Audiobook Rates
$250/pfh – this doesn’t include editing, proofing or mastering
NON-UNION Audiobook Rates
$200-$500/pfh
Production Add-On
$75 – $125/hr – for editing, mastering, proofing, etc.
Additional Options
If you have an author that doesn’t have a huge budget, you could negotiate for $100/pfh + a royalty share OR just do a royalty share but I’d recommend you getting paid something in addition to the royalties.
Wanna get started in Audiobook narration?
Check out our Audiobook Foundation Virtual Class with award winning narrator, Curt Bonnem!
