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Interview with Terry W. Lessig, AudioBookMan Interview by Mary Deal
What types of queries or submissions do you wish to receive when people are interested in publishing their books on CD?
If they are publishing the title, all I need is the online form filled out and submitted so I can give them a price, and budget the time to do it. If they want me to publish any books on CD, I need a synopsis emailed. If it's a story I think I'd be interested in, I'll ask for a manuscript by snail mail.
I need reading material for my cigar and cognac times. I usually don't take a long time to decide; there's no editorial board here.
What do people need to know prior to contacting you to get their books onto CD?
My name, my email address. I know the rest of the stuff.
Terry, prior to this interview, you sent me one of your 4-CD set audio books. I remember receiving it and sitting there with my hands trembling. Your package was so professionally put together. Once I listened to the CDs, I realized that everything meshed-- the cover art, the colors. Your product is outstanding.
Thanks, Mary, but I can't take all the credit. My passion is the sound, and I'm very careful to know what I can and can't do, so I use other professionals to handle the graphics. What I will take the credit for is being able to find the best people.
For instance, printing on paper is quite different from printing on plastic, so I work with a certain printer exclusively, and I have the CDs professionally silk-screened to match the cover. These operations are performed thousands of miles apart by people who don't know each other. They were chosen by me for their reliable color matches.
Do you ever reject someone's book for audio? That is, are certain topics unsuitable for books on CD?
Cookbooks and books that are heavy with charts and graphs are difficult to translate into books on CD. In those cases, it is more convenient to have a printed book rather than fumble around trying to find a recipe, or a chart that goes with what the narrator is telling you. Audio is meant for convenience, but having it all on a page is sometimes more convenient.
Keep submitting. Use all the feedback you receive to improve your work. Look for a publisher that fits your work. Use common sense-- don't submit your cookbook to a house that publishes only vampire stories unless all your recipes call for blood.
Oh, Terry, that's hilarious! Is there any kind of book content that you prefer not to work with?
I'm not a big fan of horror, or the dark side. I'll spend a minimum of sixty hours working on a title, and that's just too long to feed darkness to my brain.
Are you working on any audio book projects that you would like to share with us? We'd love to hear all about them!
I just finished Waldo McBurney's My First 100 Years. He's 104 now and I'm checking to see if he's the oldest person ever to record a book on CD. I spent four days with him in his hometown of Quinter, Kansas to record the book. There wasn't a studio nearby, so I used a quiet room in the town's library. I thought that was fitting.
What is it about his life…?
His story is important because it contains information that, if followed, will help us live long, fruitful lives. He was a joy to work with. I don't talk about books I'm working on for other publishers. If they want people to know I did their project, it's up to them to say. In my opinion, confidentiality is best.
You do seem to choose wisely for books on CD. Any others?
My next title is still being written. It's called Chasing Hope by Christine Walker. It's an informational book for parents of an autistic child. The people who need this information need it now, and don't have the time to read.
I'm also interested in a story called The Magic Gameboard, which I will publish if I can find a ten-year old boy who can perform it. I'm auditioning one in a week or so. It has time-travel, a three-legged dog, an artist, and a pair of fifth-graders who push their fears aside and go on an adventure. When a story begins with a ten-year old writing his will, I'm hooked. It should do well because it mentions farts a few times.
How do you put out a call for submissions for books on CD?
I believe the stories that I'm supposed to do have a way of finding me. I haven't formally sought submissions. I have a few places I look for rights postings, and I contact authors if their story seems interesting to me. Sometimes, manuscripts mysteriously appear in my mailbox. In the case of Waldo McBurney, I saw him on TV and wrote him a letter.
What type of copyright, if any, do you require for your part of the business?
Obviously, I can only deal with the owner of a work. You can't make books on CD unless you have the necessary rights. The copyright always stays with the author. I buy the audio rights and pay royalties to the author on the books I publish on CD.
I do take a copyright on the finalized sound recording because that is my creation, except in the cases where I'm producing a book on CD for a fee. Then it is a work for hire, and the sound recording belongs to the party who hired me.
Once you record books on CD, do you also help the authors with promotion?
I promote the titles I publish, but it's up to the publisher or author to promote their books on CD if I've been hired just to produce them. They should seek professional marketing assistance, which I am not. I can steer them in a direction, but I don't have the time to actively engage in their marketing efforts.
I will say this, though. If I'm also chosen to manufacture books on CD for them after I've produced the master, they will likely find me more helpful with distribution ideas.
You promote yourself as an "on-demand" audio book producer. Would you explain what that means when a writer wants additional copies of the CDs? I imagine CDs can go into second and third printings just like books do.
By "on-demand" I mean to say I'm a publisher's audio department, and when they need a title produced, they can use me like I am part of their organization. Once finished, I'll support them with large or small quantities of their titles. I'm not a place where someone can order one copy of something and have it made, like print-on-demand (POD) books.
I'm in the process of building an online store to sell single copies of the titles I publish. It will be up to my clients, though, whether or not they allow me to sell their titles as well.
How can readers of books on CD purchase any that you've produced?
Amazon.com, direct from the authors, or soon, my store online. When it's functional, there will be a link from the blog and the website.
I have very few interests outside of work because I love what I do. I even use work to relax-- I'll sit and review a manuscript while I have a cigar and a cognac. For me, sometimes life interrupts work, and it annoys me.
If you could leave your readers a legacy, what would you like it to be?
Go your own way. Forge your own path. Lead; do not follow. Find your bliss.
What advice can you give to writers just starting out that would help them understand the benefit of books on CD?
People are busy and are accustomed to multitasking. Books on CD give them a way to ingest the pleasure or knowledge from a book while performing mundane tasks, or during their commute to work. It makes them feel productive, and when the conversation demands to know if they've read a certain book, they are able to discuss it intelligently.
A certain segment of people are intimidated by the thought of reading a book. It seems like too much work for them, so they listen. Then, there are people for whom reading is a chore. They didn't learn the skill well, or they must overcome dyslexia to enjoy reading. These people benefit, too.
Terry, it's always an enlightening experience talking with you. Thank you for consenting to this interview about yourself and books on CD. You are in a promising niche at the moment because books on CD are in great demand.
It's my pleasure, Mary. I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts with your audience, and I invite them to contact me if they have any questions about audio publishing.
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Books on audio is a run-away phenomena. If you wish to publish your books on CD, it's important to connect with one of the few top people in the industry.
Audio book publishing is no simple task. But Terry Lessig, as AudioBookMan, is my choice for publishing books on CD.
A native of Walnut Grove, California, Mary Deal lived in the Caribbean and England before settling on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. The Tropics, set in the Caribbean and Hawaii, was her first published novel. It is fictionalized from some of her life-threatening escapades at sea. The Ka, a paranormal Egyptian fantasy, is also published. Her next two novels are thrillers. River Bones takes place in her hometown area of the Sacramento River Delta and is due for release in April 2008. Down to the Needle will be published in 2009. Mary's website: http://www.writeanygenre.com. Her blog: http://www.writeanygenreblog.com.
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