# Question about Tantor Media and selling audio rights



## verityblue (Jul 23, 2013)

Have you or anyone you know signed or considered an offer with Tantor Media? I've been offered a small, quite small, advance for exclusive audio rights for seven years and 10 to 20% of profits. Seven years seems like a long time and 10 to 20% kind of piddling. Do they promote authors well? I've researched the company but am confused about their markets. Any info greatly appreciated!


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## 555aaa (Jan 28, 2014)

Tantor is a legit company that does quality production. 

Why don't you do your own production via ACX?


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

555aaa said:


> Tantor is a legit company that does quality production.
> 
> Why don't you do your own production via ACX?


From what I can tell, doing it yourself is a good idea if you have a large fan base and your ebooks sell well. It isn't necessarily if not because you can end up investing hundreds of dollars and make very few sales. There aren't a lot of ways to promote indie audiobooks yet. If Tantor has a good promotional strategy, I'd be tempted to go with them. However, I've never done business with them--or heard of them, actually.


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## 555aaa (Jan 28, 2014)

Go pick up a copy of audiofile magazine. Tantor is one of the largest independent audiobook production companies. They are apparently part of Recorded Books now, and they (Tantor) has over 4,000 titles. They have been pretty actively shopping indie titles it seems. Recorded Books, Naxos, Listening Library, and Blackstone (downpour) are probably among the remaining larger independent producers. All the big publishers produce in-house.

http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/


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## verityblue (Jul 23, 2013)

Thanks for the info. I've always been an indie and like the control (and the higher royalties). This is the first offer I've received and thought it might be a good way to get my feet wet since I've never done an audio version of anything. Am checking out ACX though right now.


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## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

Okay, I'm resurrecting this as it's the most recent one I can find on Tantor. Hope that's okay.

The above sound like ringing endorsements, and since I've been saving up to hire a quality narrator I'd rather spend that money on other things if Tantor is a good option. 

They contacted me recently so I'm certainly interested. Do they do their own marketing, that sort of thing?


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## Lady Runa (May 27, 2012)

ADDavies said:


> Okay, I'm resurrecting this as it's the most recent one I can find on Tantor. Hope that's okay.
> 
> The above sound like ringing endorsements, and since I've been saving up to hire a quality narrator I'd rather spend that money on other things if Tantor is a good option.
> 
> They contacted me recently so I'm certainly interested. Do they do their own marketing, that sort of thing?


They link their version to your Kindle book and they also sell them on their site and probably also in other places, I don't know. We've been working with them for a few years now. They seem perfectly legit. The sales are quite good. Their reports arrive on time and they pay promptly. Their narrators are very professional, they contacted me about every new book to find out how to pronounce certain fantasy names, etc. I can't think of anything negative to say about them.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

Lady Runa said:


> They link their version to your Kindle book and they also sell them on their site and probably also in other places, I don't know. We've been working with them for a few years now. They seem perfectly legit. The sales are quite good. Their reports arrive on time and they pay promptly. Their narrators are very professional, they contacted me about every new book to find out how to pronounce certain fantasy names, etc. I can't think of anything negative to say about them.


That's good to know. I'll give serious consideration to an offer if I'm ever approached by them.


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## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

Thanks very much. I'll more than likely give them a go. I can use the time to write


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## reneepawlish (Nov 14, 2011)

Bumping this. Anybody have any feedback since April 2017? Anyone use them recently and want to share your experience?
I received an email from them about one of my books. Thanks.


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## anotherpage (Apr 4, 2012)

verityblue said:


> Have you or anyone you know signed or considered an offer with Tantor Media? I've been offered a small, quite small, advance for exclusive audio rights for seven years and 10 to 20% of profits. Seven years seems like a long time and 10 to 20% kind of piddling. Do they promote authors well? I've researched the company but am confused about their markets. Any info greatly appreciated!


I've turned them down 4 times.

I would rather go through ACX ( royalty share ) or (payment upfront)

You can at least control and see what is going on vs handing it over to someone who says one thing but does another.


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## Tim C. Taylor (May 17, 2011)

Tantor are fine to work with in my experience and narrators top notch. They have a presence in the US library market and I find about 15% of my revenue comes from library downloads. It's not much, but I don't get that from Podium (my other audio publisher). To be honest, I went with Tantor rather than ACX for my first audios because I wanted to concentrate on writing the next book. I don't regret that. Hope it works out for you.


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## Rick Partlow (Sep 6, 2016)

Tantor publishes five of my novels as audio books and so far, they've been great to work with.


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## The Bass Bagwhan (Mar 9, 2014)

If Tantor has approached you with an offer, it must see potential in your books. That suggests that a royalty share deal with an ACX narrator wouldn't be so hard to get. But it also suggests that you might see a comparatively fast ROI if you pay upfront...


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## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

My release was late last year and royalties are eating slowly through my advance (haven't earned it out yet). 

They were brilliant to work with throughout the summer and my narrator was very professional (he even pointed out a couple of typos I and my editor(s) missed, which was nice). They gave me a choice over narrators, etc, and took care of all production costs. 

While I haven't been buried under an avalanche of cash, the audiobooks are plainly selling, and I'd expect to start earning on top of my advance fairly soon. 

If you have money for narrators or top notch marketing skills for a co-pro, doing it yourself is great. But if not, and Tantor take an interest, it's probbaly worth considering it. That they're willing to make the investment in advances, production, and marketing means they think your books are worth marketing.


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## RD (Dec 19, 2015)

I got an email from Tantor today, they were curious who own the rights to one of my series


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

RD said:


> I got an email from Tantor today, they were curious who own the rights to one of my series


I went with Tantor for I Bring the Fire. I'm not rolling in money from audiobook sales, but the production value was very high, they do pay promptly, and I didn't have to invest anything in audiobooks, plus the bonus was nice even if it wasn't huge. Doing the series myself would have cost a lot in time and about $30,000 ... I needed that money for my family. I am not unhappy with my decision.


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## anotherpage (Apr 4, 2012)

verityblue said:


> Have you or anyone you know signed or considered an offer with Tantor Media? I've been offered a small, quite small, advance for exclusive audio rights for seven years and 10 to 20% of profits. Seven years seems like a long time and 10 to 20% kind of piddling. Do they promote authors well? I've researched the company but am confused about their markets. Any info greatly appreciated!


Just because they are the largest it doesn't mean they can work wonders.

I've heard some people have seen few sales with them through to folks who have done well with them.

If i was you i would go through ACX and just have a narrator do it if you don't have cash. At least that way you will end up with 20% instead of some smaller amount. And you can then track things better that way. They only report quartlery i believe.

I went with podium and it was a crap experience.

I've turned down tantor about 4 times. Didn't like their pitch.

But do what you think is best.


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## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

I'm satisfied with both my Tantor and Podium experience. No problems at all with either in terms of prompt payment. Tantor is bigger, but both did a good job. In both cases I was given high-quality narrators who came with their own followings. 

I never, to be honest, would have gone through with ACX. All that listening for a plane going overhead, a cat meowing, a bad line reading and asking a person to re-record? Seems to me it would have cost me a full new book's worth of time to do one old audio book.  And I never could have afforded the narrators my books now have. Nice to know there are engineers doing all that quality control for me. Audio fans don't cross over much with ebook fans, so you get a whole new group of readers.

Ditto with foreign language rights. I'm not going to ever work through that job myself--just too many other tasks on my endless to-do list, so I've talked about licensing those rights too.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

If Tantor asked me, I'd say yes. I've heard nothing but good things about Tantor.


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## Azalea (Mar 22, 2014)

I got an offer for my Seeds of Chaos series from Tantor at the end of last year. They offered me a small advance and 20% after that. I was very flattered, and all my research pointed to them being a reputable company that produces high-quality audiobooks.

However, I'm not in this business (just  ) to get my ego stroked. Receiving only 20% of revenue meant that they would need to be able to sell _five times_ as many copies as I could. I asked about what sort of marketing plan they would have for my audiobooks, and they replied with a non-answer about being able to get my books into libraries.

I made a spreadsheet that looked at my projected earnings over the next 7 years with Tantor, and with paying for my books to be produced through my own business. I ran through as many different variables as I could think of, with data that was as accurate as I could find based on other people's collected experiences.

I calculated that if audiobook sales reached 6.3% of ebook numbers, (with long books and realistically high production costs) I would make money getting them produced myself.

If I took the advance and let them cover the production costs, initially of course I came out ahead. But over longer periods of time it wasn't so appealing. If I had a higher ratio (10%, or 15% if I wanted to be extravagant) of audio to ebooks, the disparity between money in my pocket was even more apparent.

I made them a counteroffer (which you can and _should_ do if you're not happy with their initial offer) and they doubled the advance, and changed the terms of the percentage so that it would increase after a certain number of copies sold.

I thought about it, and said no.

I'm in the process of paying for my first audiobook to be made right now.

If you don't want to spend time and energy on this (and it is a lot of time and energy) or you don't have the money available to invest in it (2-5 thousand per book, depending on length and narrator experience/popularity), then it's probably a good idea. If you think they can sell many more copies than you could yourself, then maybe that's another reason.


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## Rick Partlow (Sep 6, 2016)

I have five books with Tantor, two that I produced with a narrator on ACX.  The Tantor-produced ones far outsell the ACX ones.


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## anotherpage (Apr 4, 2012)

Makes me laugh how people make out working with ACX to be hard.

its fast, simple and you can find lots of decent narrators even on royalty splits. 

Companies like podium and tantor will tell you that its hard and that they can do a better job at marketing but that is just hot air.

As soon as my 7 years are up with Podium, I'm pulling my book out and having it redone through ACX.

In a matter of two months i have seen tremendous sales through ACX.


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## It&#039;s A Mystery (Mar 14, 2017)

Can I ask what sort of sales level got them interested enough to contact you?


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## RD (Dec 19, 2015)

thevoiceofone said:


> Makes me laugh how people make out working with ACX to be hard.
> 
> its fast, simple and you can find lots of decent narrators even on royalty splits.
> 
> ...


So why did go with Podium for so long?


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## anotherpage (Apr 4, 2012)

RD said:


> So why did go with Podium for so long?


7 years is the standard contract.


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## Rick Partlow (Sep 6, 2016)

thevoiceofone said:


> Makes me laugh how people make out working with ACX to be hard.
> 
> its fast, simple and you can find lots of decent narrators even on royalty splits.
> 
> Companies like podium and tantor will tell you that its hard and that they can do a better job at marketing but that is just hot air.


Or you know, maybe not everyone has the same experience as you. The ACX process is long and tedious, particularly proof-listening to the files produced by the narrator and noting mistakes or desired changes.


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## GeneDoucette (Oct 14, 2014)

I went through ACX for my first audiobook, The Spaceship Next Door. I was contacted by one (Tantor of Podium) of the audio groups about the rights for it, about two weeks after I'd hired a narrator, and so, although flattered, I turned them down and told them I was already going through ACX.

If you've been reading my comments around here about how this went, you already know this, but: the TSND audiobook did _insanely_ well. In terms of unit sales, it's been about 110% of the ebook sales.

So that's interesting. It also means TSND is such an outlier it's hard to take it seriously as a reasonable example of how the market will work out for somebody else. I'm only bringing it up because of this: most of the time, when Spaceship has ended up on the high end of the bestseller list, I've gone through the trouble of checking out the other books around it on the same list. What i've noticed is that without exception, every single (other) book has a publisher attached. If it's not one of the big trad publishers, it's Tantor, or Podium, or [fill in the blank]. Self-published through ACX audiobooks don't climb nearly that high.

Usually. I mean, it's a weird thing for me to say because one of my books did that very thing. But it's really rare.


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## BookMagic (Jan 3, 2018)

Bumping this with a question: I’ve been approached by both Tantor and a reputable (according to Kboards) literary agent about turning one of my series into audiobooks. I was going to do audio myself because I earn enough off ebooks to be able to afford the upfront cost, BUT not until 2019 because I’ve got stuff planned with the money. My question is, based on your experience, would it be wiser to go directly with Tantor, with the agent, or turn both down and try it myself next year? Any advice is appreciated!


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## Guest (Mar 7, 2018)

thevoiceofone said:


> Makes me laugh how people make out working with ACX to be hard.


Depending on where you are in the world, ACX isn't just *hard* to work with, they are *impossible*. 
I can't even create an ACX account as I don't live in one of their few approved countries. For many of us outside the US, selling audio rights is possibly the only viable option for producing audio.


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## Kate. (Oct 7, 2014)

BookMagic said:


> Bumping this with a question: I've been approached by both Tantor and a reputable (according to Kboards) literary agent about turning one of my series into audiobooks. I was going to do audio myself because I earn enough off ebooks to be able to afford the upfront cost, BUT not until 2019 because I've got stuff planned with the money. My question is, based on your experience, would it be wiser to go directly with Tantor, with the agent, or turn both down and try it myself next year? Any advice is appreciated!


Is the agent Sarah Hershman? She would get you a deal with Tantor or Podium, but since you already have one, you could go direct and keep the agent's commission.

Sorry if this is nosy... but are you absolutely sure you won't have money for audio until next year? Your ebook sales must be doing well if you have both an offer from Tantor and an agent. If you spend $3,000 for the first audiobook it should be able to earn back its cost within 3 - 6 months, allowing you to re-invest it in the next book's audio.

Audiobook sales are normally tied to ebook sales (normally... not always), so I'd look at getting audio out ASAP while the series is hot. There's no guarantee it will continue to sell in twelve months' time. If you can afford to do it yourself, even just the first one or two books, I'd do that. Otherwise, go with Tantor and negotiate your own contract.

Good luck!


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## morrighansmuse (Mar 27, 2016)

I did PFH for my audiobooks and looking back now, I'd have been better off putting that money into something else or waiting until someone like Tantor offered me a contract. Marketing audiobooks is hard work and even though I already have a marketing budget for my ebooks, marketing audiobooks is a whole new ballgame. I'd let them handle that end and focus on writing the next book.


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## RD (Dec 19, 2015)

Did any of you negotiate with them over their offer?


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## Elizabeth Barone (May 6, 2013)

If either Tantor or Podium approach me asking about audio rights, I'm in. I'd love to do audiobooks but can't afford the out of pocket costs. For me, this is a no-brainer. I get why some authors love ACX, but keep in mind not all of us have thousands of dollars we can shell out. Plus, it never hurts to sprinkle your eggs in different baskets.


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## BookMagic (Jan 3, 2018)

So sorry, I just saw the replies. Thanks to everyone for your advice. 

Yes, the agent is Sarah. She sent me a draft contract, and Tantor made me the offer ($500 advance per book for 4 books) but what bothers me is the term. They want 10 years. I was willing to accept 7, but 10 is just too much. Maybe I'll be able to negotiate that part. 

I do wish I could do audio myself, but on top of the upfront cost, it's going to take time to figure everything out before even beginning the process, time I could really use to write the next books in my series. Maybe if the first 4 do well, Tantor'll make me a better offer for the others (4 more, at least)? Has that happened before?

Thanks again!

ETA: Tantor only pays royalties twice a year so I'm definitely not looking forward to that.


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## Don Donovan (Dec 12, 2015)

I recently signed a deal with Tantor for my Miami Crime Trilogy. The first book will be released on audio next month. We'll see what happens.


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