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Hudson Audio Publishing

CaoPaux

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Hudson Audio Publishing is a boutique service company that specializes in assisting:

Self published authors
Unpublished authors
Seminar speakers
Owners of quality audio material​

to get their works converted into audio books and sold through the three largest audio book distribution platforms in the world - Amazon, Audible and iTunes.

We are fast, affordable and work on a simple revenue sharing agreement with content owners.
Vanity publishing for audio books. Pass.
 

AnnaC

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I got an email from this place just the other day. It sounded skeptical so I came here to find out. Suspicions confirmed.

I appreciate all the information Absolute Write offers!
 

adamhudson

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A response from the owner of Hudson Audio Publishing

Hello all.

My name is Adam Hudson and I own Hudson Audio Publishing.

We started this business simply to help authors earn more money from their work by selling their books as audio books through iTunes, Amazon and Audible. We are a service business, not a traditional publisher.

We understand that authors are skeptical about companies asking for money upfront and that's why we don't charge you anything unless you elect to hire a professional voice over actor to record your book - but this is not compulsory. The reason you pay for the actors is because we only work with the digital file and you retain ownership of the audio book once it's made. You can then sell it on CD or cassette through your website or another company who distributes physical product.

Rather than charging anything for our services, we share the royalties we create 70/30 in favor of our client but we get nothing unless and until those royalties are earned. You could do it yourself, we just make it easy and get it done much faster because we have all the contracts in place already. We also offer valuable tips that will greatly improve your chance of success in the digital space.

We do not guarantee a level of sales or income - we simply do the leg work to get your work into audio book format and then sold through the three largest platforms without you having to go through the whole process - which is rigorous and time consuming. Many authors have thought about doing it but simply haven't gotten around to it.

If you read our blog and FAQ's you will see that we provide a great deal of free advice and support for authors wishing to enter the audio book world.

Please be careful not to label a company 'a scam' until you have fully researched what we do and how we work. My direct email address is [email protected] and I am happy to answer any questions any of you may have or I will call you anywhere in the world for a chat if you like.

Respectfully - Adam Hudson
 

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I did decide to go with Hudson Audio. They have been very upfront and accessible for any questions I might have. I researched other audiobook publishers and Hudson offers the most bang for your buck. Most audiobook publishers that I found charge $5,000 and up. Hudson is considerably lower than this.

I would also like to echo Adam's words, don't automatically assume something is a scam without researching it. I put in the time and energy to research Hudson Audio and was satisfied enough with what I found to go with them.
 
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adamhudson

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Another brief note

I also wanted to let you know that we are currently working with the Voice Over community to identify talent that are willing to waive their reading, recording and editing fees in exchange for a share of the royalties from the audio books they produce. As far as I know this is a world first and will enable authors to pay absolutely nothing upfront even if they do need their book recorded. These readers will take a slice of the royalties but even with them involved in the long term earnings, the author is still the highest paid participant in the deal.

Kindly,

Adam Hudson
 

Giant Baby

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...I would also like to echo Adam's words, don't automatically assume something is a scam without researching it. I put in the time and energy to research Hudson Audio and was satisfied enough with what I found to go with them.

Wha? Only one person in this thread used the word scam.

Is anyone familiar with Hudson Audio Publishing? They approached me about publishing one of my books as an audiobook, but they smell like a scam. Anyone dealt with them before?

Glad you're happy with what you found. Best of luck to you!
 

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I also wanted to let you know that we are currently working with the Voice Over community to identify talent that are willing to waive their reading, recording and editing fees in exchange for a share of the royalties from the audio books they produce. As far as I know this is a world first and will enable authors to pay absolutely nothing upfront even if they do need their book recorded.
World first?!? Don't Full Cast Audio and Oasis Audio and Red'n'Ritten and Alcazar and hundreds of other audio publishers already do just that -- pay all the costs AND pay the author royalties?

In fact, there's a whole huge list here of publishers who don't charge authors fees, and who pay royalties:

http://www.audiopub.org/about-member-companies.asp#pubs
 

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Thanks for that clarification, James.
 

victoriastrauss

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I believe that what they're claiming is a world first is paying the talent and the technical side out of future royalties rather than up-front fees and salaries.

Taking a leaf from the books of so many small presses, which do the same as a way to cut costs.

- Victoria
 

JulieB

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This whole idea of paying voice artists and technicians out of royalties bothers me. That's fine if you have solid proof that you'll get paid. It never worked out for me. I've been doing voice work on and off for nearly 30 years and have been freelancing for 25 or so. I'll do some projects for the love or for a good cause, but when someone who is clearly making a profit says they'll gladly pay me Tuesday, I've learned to run the other way. I work to pay the bills, just like a lot of other people on this planet.

I don't think they're trying to scam anyone, but it appears to me that there's some risk involved and it seems to me that it's being taken by the talent.
 
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Eirin

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There was a long and illuminating discussion on the business model of paying editors and cover artists this way in the Flying Pen Press thread. I believe some of the arguments against it applies to this situation, as well:

I am troubled by FPP's reliance on freelancers who receive only a royalty on books they work on, and receive it only if the book makes a profit. That's not a workable scheme. In place of the usual slow and paltry payments received by freelancers, they'll instead have to wait far longer, get paid only if the book makes a profit, and receive their payment (if any) in a slow and irregular trickle over what may turn out to be years.

I don't know any professional editors, copy editors, proofreaders, etc. who'll work on that basis. I know that if I were the author, I'd resent having perpetual royalties taken out of my book's earnings to pay for tasks that normal publishers pay for out of their own pockets.

So no, not a new and groundbreaking idea.
 
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adamhudson

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Hi all,

I was referring to the talent sharing royalties as being unique, not the authors not paying for production (as James pointed out). You are right - 'world first' may have been overstating it - I apologize.

In the blog post where we talk about this project it is clearly articulated that this is an "experiment" to see how it goes. We have been very open about that. Let it be noted though that if the reader makes nothing then neither do we. Obviously it is our view that the reader will make money or we wouldn't bother putting in the time to manage this whole process or run the business at all.

Every time we tender a reading job out we get about 50 applicants and have to turn down 49 people. If you look at the comments from the reader community on our blog you can see clearly how they feel.

Many more than this emailed us directly. Nearly all of these people were readers that had bid for jobs we had in the past but missed out because the author chose someone else.

All day we are dealing with authors from around the world who have publishers that have done nothing to earn them money in the digital audio book space or authors that simply don't understand the digital world at all. We are now also working for small publishing houses that don't know how to go about the whole process. We simply open up that channel and spend the time to educate, co-ordinate, re-write poor descriptions, re-do poor covers, assist with key word optimization etc. It isn't just a case of getting a file, uploading it and taking a cut.

Just today I watched one of my staff spend an hour on the phone with one of our elderly clients explaining to him what an MP3 file was and how digital downloads worked. He was amazed that people could now buy his book in digital form off the internet and hear it back via their mobile phone. This is a guy who has written over 100 books and sold more than 250,000 copies of some of them. Now we are helping him to monetize these assets in a format he hardly knew existed which does not restrict him in any current activity. He is delighted, the reader doing the work is delighted and everybody (hopefully) will win.

Anyway, all I can say is that our readers and authors are all busy and happy. We are a small company and proud of that. We are also working very hard for these communities without taking anything upfront - if we make a profit out of that then it was only made after we helped others profit too.

Kindly,

Adam Hudson
Hudson Audio Publishing
 

adamhudson

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Updated home page message

I just updated our home page with this paragraph to better explain what we do. Clearly we are not getting it right yet.

>>>

"Hudson Audio Publishing is not like a traditional publisher in any way, in fact 'publisher' probably isn't an accurate way to describe what we do at all. We simply provide a service that makes it easy for you to monetize your work in the digital audio space on a simple revenue share basis.

Unlike traditional publishing there is no requirement for a publisher to invest heavily in printing, storing, shipping and marketing your book. The days of having to get a deal and then the publisher fronts all the costs are gone. In the digital download space the cost of admission is almost zero and what counts is:

- Technical expertise in regard to converting your book into acceptable audio formats for the major online platforms.
- Marketing know how so that your audio book is appealing to online shoppers.
- Key word know how (and a few other online skills) to optimize your chances of success in an online environment.

This is what we do.

>>>

I hope this better articulates our service. It seems from the dialogue here that many perceive our offer to be deceptive - I can see that when it is compared against the very different print publishing model.

Kindly,

Adam Hudson
Hudson Audio Publishing
 

Momento Mori

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adamhudson:
in fact 'publisher' probably isn't an accurate way to describe what we do at all. We simply provide a service that makes it easy for you to monetize your work in the digital audio space on a simple revenue share basis.

With respect, I think that these two sentences are misleading. You are taking audio publishing rights, therefore you are a publisher.

MM
 

adamhudson

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These platforms offer two contracts - exclusive and non-exclusive. We have to get the rights on either basis or we can not do what we do - which is handle the whole process for the author. It is the end-to-end handling that is the value we offer and many folk are very very unfamiliar with the digital world.

On a non-exclusive contract authors can sell their audio book anywhere outside of the platforms we work with in any format without paying us anything, however the platforms only pay 12% of sales as opposed to 20% and those three platforms are the big ones for audio books.

It is very challenging to offer the service we do without referring to ourselves as publishers because in some ways we fulfill many of the jobs a publisher does but in other way we are completely different.

I will continue to try.

Kindly,

Adam Hudson
 

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adamhudson
It is very challenging to offer the service we do without referring to ourselves as publishers because in some ways we fulfill many of the jobs a publisher does but in other way we are completely different.

Why don't you want to refer to yourself as a publisher?

MM
 

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Why don't you want to refer to yourself as a publisher?

MM

what is in a name?

i am sure that if they called themselves a publisher proper then some people would attack them for that. at least they are very clear about the service they provide
 

Momento Mori

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Bushdoctor:
i am sure that if they called themselves a publisher proper then some people would attack them for that. at least they are very clear about the service they provide

Firstly, I find it curious that a company that is anxious to "offer the service we do without referring to ourselves as publishers" calls itself Hudson Audio Publishing in the first place.

Secondly, the distinction between their publishing services and non-publishing services is dependent on the platforms through which the audio book is sold. As a lawyer, that seems nonsensical to me. The act of publishing consists of making a book available to the public at large. I know of no other publisher who would seek to say "if I print your book but only sell it in Barnes and Noble, then I am publishing your book, but if I print your book and you want to sell it through shops that you've organised distribution through, then you're not published through us."

What they're actually doing is drawing a distinction between the distribution methods available to the authors they publish and that has nothing whatsoever to do with your status of publication.

MM
 

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Beware!

Is anyone familiar with Hudson Audio Publishing? They approached me about publishing one of my books as an audiobook, but they smell like a scam. Anyone dealt with them before?

Before you get involved with anything ADAM HUDSON go to www.google.com.au and type in his name.

He has become widely known in Australia for setting up companies like this taking up front fees and then liquidating. His business attempts can only be described as scams as any honest businessman would have known that any chances of success were minimal.

When challenged about his string of business failures in Australia he will admit to them but he always plays the victim. "It wasn't my fault, people should take responsibility for their own decisions......don't blame me". He loves to quote people like Anthony Robins, I guess to give himself some credibility.

I see that he has recently set up a website www.adamhudson.com.au where he discusses one of his failed companies Wealth Essentials and seeks to blame everyone else. However having read over what he has said, it is like all his statements; Full of half truths and fails to tell the whole story.

So is this company a scam?......I really don't know but if he approached me I'd run a mile, simply because people in business like Hudson ring all sorts of alarm bells for me. If you feel you really do have to deal with him, my advice is not to hand over any money until you have the goods and services promised and you are happy with what has been delivered. If you don't, you are likely to see your money go up in smoke like many others have.