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Translators and Narrators: Royalty Share

Royalty Share for Translators and Narrators
Translators and Narrators: Royalty Share

Working For Royalty Share (part two)

Why work for commission only?

(intro) (part one) (part two) (part three) (part four)

So, now you have books and links to them to promote. This is where most translators and narrators (and even many authors) become a cropper, because if you don’t actively promote your URL(s), then no-one will know about them.

Amazon has millions of links. They will not do anything special for you, and nor will any of the other aggregators, unless you pay for their assistance. However, that is called paid advertising.

Promo

Promotion (promo) is the responsibility of ALL those with a financial interest in the book – the author, the translator, the narrator, and possibly even the cover designer. In my experience, very few complete series are translated or narrated by just one translator or narrator. This means that everyone involved is relying on everyone else to help, or, in most cases, do ALL the selling.

Another note on series, most series are progressive. By that, I mean that they are meant to be read in order starting at book one. If you worked on book six, promoting that will not get anyone anywhere. You need to push the first volume and encourage the reader to move through the series.

Co-operation for greater earnings in royalty share

One of my series has 24 volumes, so that sounds tough on those who worked on the last few, but in reality the whole team, perhaps 35 people, is working together to make success available to everyone. Contrast this to working on a stand-alone, where you might be working only with the author.

As you can see, this type of book translation and narration, ie royalty share, is not a simple gig. I understand that most people would prefer to get paid per job and be done with it, and that’s fine. However, that is not what most authors want, and it is not what you signed up for, despite the wishful thinking of many. Mostly because indie authors usually can’t afford to be paying for editing, formatting, cover design, translation and narration. However, it is not only that, if you work with an honest author, you will be earning for 70 years after his or her death, which is when the copyright expires. You can actually leave the right to these earnings in your will!

Commitment

It all comes down to commitment. If nobody promotes the book, earnings will be poor. So, how much do you have time to do? Five or six Tweets and posts per day plus an occasional article or review? Or per week? Or weekends only? Any less than that and you are wasting your time, to be honest.

Somebody once told me how disappointed she was that her Tweet had not produced a single sale. Of course it didn’t! A single Tweet!!! That’s not how it works. Think about how difficult it is to get money out of you! You need to build trust and reputation, which means that people have to be familiar with your name or brand. Marketers say that a potential buyer has to see an advert at least seven times before there is a chance of converting him or her into a customer. Add to that the hundreds of millions of other people trying to sell that same person something else.

It is not easy.

However, most people don’t know how to do it properly 🙂

We will continue in part three. The resources below are those that I find most useful for selling books.

Please leave your comments and questions about royalty share below.

Translators and Narrators Resources

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