I’ve been asked so many times recently if I plan to release audiobooks of my cosy Scottish contemporary fantasy series. And if not now, when? It’s a question that warms my heart because it shows how much my readers enjoy my stories and want to experience them in new ways. Audiobooks are a wonderful format—they’re convenient, joyous, immersive, and allow us to dive into a story while driving, multitasking or relaxing.
I would have done NO ironing and far too little dog-walking for the last thirty years without audiobooks. 😂

TL;DR
Audiobooks for the Gretna Green Series aren’t any part of my current plans
However, I’d like to explain where I’m coming from both two and a half years into my new author career and as a long-time audiobook listener.
The full answer is in several parts.
It’s long because I want to direct people who ask about audios to as long or short an answer as they’d find useful.
Pick and choose your parts. There are headings 😀
Obviously, as always, I can’t speak for other authors—we all have our own paths.
I’ve been a passionate audiobook listener for almost 50 years
So where I’m coming from is the 1970s.
Yes, the 1970s really were fifty years ago isn’t that a kick in the you-know-what!?
When I first started listening to audiobooks at college, last century, (aaaargh!) we used to get them from the library. They came in these enormous boxes with anything from six to 12 cassette tapes in. They were utterly wonderful and transported me away to other worlds.
Later I was a founder member of Audible back in the 1990s. I have hundreds of audiobooks in my library, from Dick Francis, Mary Stewart and James Mitchener to every single Liaden audiobook. Remember when Steve Miller and Sharon Lee’s entire series dropped almost at once – oh happy day – apart from that one annoying narrator?
I have most of Pratchett’s and many of Anne McCaffrey’s. They’ve all pulled me out of the bad places on some dark days. And as we can all now guess, thanks to Ties that Bond in Gretna Green, Susan Ericksen, who narrates Eve and Roarke, is one of my favourite narrators.

I’ve listened to tens of thousands of hours of terrific audiobooks over the years. And a few really lousy ones. I plan to continue being a listener. However, there were things I didn’t know about audiobook subscriptions and only learned when I became an author and wanted to create audiobooks of my series.
The first thing:
Somebody has to pay to make those audiobooks happen. And that used to be publishers.
But moving to 2024—things have changed

Traditional publishers often sell the audio rights on behalf of their authors, and the audiobook just arrives. Often the same day the book is published. Because they have up to a year to plan for that to happen.
But as an indie author, the person who has to make those audiobooks happen is me.
Indie authors can sell their own audiobook rights if the audiobook publishers are interested. Several of them have approached me. We’ll find out why that wouldn’t currently work for the Midlife Recorder series later in this article.
If an author wants any control over the quality of their audiobooks, they have to find the right narrator/s, book a slot in their often-busy schedules, commission the entire series (because we all know what happens when a narrator changes in the middle of a series … right? 😒) and pay for each audiobook.
I’m pretty sure you all know me well enough by now to guess that I will give you an idea of the possible returns. But let’s just establish the principles first.
As you might have guessed, if you know me at all, it’s not all about money. It’s about my characters and my love for them. But money is important … if it’s what might prevent the rest from happening.
So let’s deal with the beginning of the money principle.
While I’m incredibly grateful for the warm reception the Gretna Green series is enjoying and the love my readers have for this crazy retirement project of mine, the sales volume for audiobooks rarely justifies the initial investment—especially for a new author in a smaller genre like contemporary fantasy.
If I wrote romance or thrillers or shorter books or was ten years further into my author career, this answer might be different.
It’s important to weigh costs against potential returns, and at the moment, audiobooks simply aren’t a viable option financially.
But lots of other indie authors manage it?
They do. And if I’d been sensible enough to write much shorter, more straightforward books without diverse characters from all over the seven realms, I could too.
See that elegant hour-glass?
If I wrote normal-length books—cosy mysteries or fun small-town romances—that’s what my book would look like to audio narrators.
Clean, short, easy to narrate.
Hold that thought. We’ll be coming back to it.

So let’s talk about what makes my series different. To do that, I need to share what I’ve learned about the audiobook industry.
Fair warning, this may be more than you wanted to know.
How are audiobooks made?
Narrators narrate about 9100 words an hour.
It might take them many more hours of work to have a finished hour, allowing for fluffs, breathing, retakes, etc.
But that completed hour of audio will be about 9100 words of published text. So the average 50-80,000 word, that’s your normal 200-320 page novel, will end up being something between five and nine hours as an audiobook.
Some are lengthier. And as I’m sure we’ve all noticed, some narrators speak more slowly or quickly than others.
But we need a principle to work with and that principle is 9100 words an hour.
How do they set the costs?

Audiobooks are also priced by the narrators. They charge Per Finished Hour or PFH. So if you see an eight-hour audiobook on Audible, that is eight finished hours. The PFH rate varies from $250 per hour SAG-AFTRA’s (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) minimum allowed rate. Equity, the British equivalent’s minimum is £300 PFH.
The most experienced narrators who can do complex books and a wide variety of unusual accents can rightly charge far more. £500-£750 PFH ($550-$850)
There isn’t a ceiling on the rate. Someone like David Attenborough can ask thousands per MINUTE 😍
So realistically, an average length 5-9 hour audiobook costs between $2000 and $8500, depending on the narrator’s experience and skills. Additionally, there may be proofing and the production and mastering of the sound files to add to that or it may be included.
My shortest book (by a long way), Midlife in Gretna Green, is ten hours long.
Code Yellow would be just short of twenty-four hours long!
I saw a promo the other day from a great author in a popular genre and she was promoting a box set. “Hey, I put my whole series into one boxset. It’s terrific value. You get all four books, which will be almost 600 pages for $x.”
I bet she has audiobooks for all of them.
If I wrote books of that length, we wouldn’t have this problem. But apart from book one, I don’t think any of my books is much under 600 pages. Most are much longer.
My finished series with the novellas included will be approximately two million words. Divide that by 9100 words per hour and it will last 200-220 hours.
Multiply that by the lowest rate I can probably reasonably expect to pay given how complex the accents in the series are. Which is currently around 600 PFH, and I would be looking at something around £130,000 or about $170,000 for the entire series. .
Because of the current dreadful exchange rate, that dollar amount doesn’t truly convey the buying power of the British pound amount. What does a three-bed starter family home cost in your area?

Because I’d like to point out you can buy a house in many areas of the Scottish Borders for that. A small three-bedroom family home. So when I consider that amount of money in the real world, it would be a serious business investment on which I would sensibly expect a good and fairly predictable return.
Gives a whole new meaning to shock and awe, doesn’t it?
But it’s not even the biggest problem!
Truly!
Astonishingly, there are two bigger problems than the up-front investment:
The first is finding the right narrator, which is stupidly hard for a series like Midlife Recorder.
The Challenge of Accents and Authenticity
The biggest factor that makes producing audiobooks for my series particularly difficult is the wide variety of accents and the varying ages and origins of the major characters featured in the stories.
Starting with Niki, my protagonist from Manchester, and moving to the diverse range of characters from different realms, regions and backgrounds, the dialogue in my books is rich with unique voices that I hope add depth to the narrative. Finding a narrator who can credibly perform these accents without losing authenticity would be no small task.
Niki’s accent alone requires someone with a nuanced understanding of how to make her voice feel genuine and relatable, especially since her identity as an English woman forced to move to Scotland is central to the story.
BUT they mustn’t make her too authentically Mancunian or overseas listeners might struggle. Have you all listened to Peter Kay? 😂

Add to that the need for accurate portrayals of other characters’ accents, ages and vocal quirks, and the challenge grows significantly. Can the narrator do different male, female and child voices in that same not-too-broad Manchester/Lancashire accent for Aysha, Autumn, and Ben?
Will they grasp that a character they are introduced to in book one will be a very different person by book ten and prepare the voice accordingly?
Narrators are super talented, but they can’t read a whole series before they narrate the first book.
Most narrators can do a Scottish accent. But can they do a variety of them? The Borders/English accent for Jamie? A broad Borders dialect for the Hobs? A Highlands accent circa 1000AD for the Picts and Hugh MacAlpin? And an everyday Edinburgh accent for the Metal Maven staff? Because me and all my Scottish listeners will know if they can’t!
If they can’t, they may end up making the Picts sound Irish to differentiate them, which I suspect won’t please readers. And Caitlin might come running with a sword.
OK but … someone can do it, right?

Do you remember this simple, elegant hour glass that represents how narrators view a cozy mystery or many excellent romances?
This rather darling Tiffany-style one (that I’m sure Mags Hob would love) seems to be more in line with how they view my series. It’s complicated and multi-faceted.
The Welsh terrify them. Not just the accent, but the ages and variety of characters and, oh, yes, the dragons! 🔥
All with that Welsh accent.
The Galicians?
The Fae?
The Vikings without making them all sound like a caricature of a vaguely Scandinavian /Russian villain?

Why didn’t I just write nice short small town romances instead? I love reading them and it would have made everything so much easier.

I’d want any audiobook version to reflect the full vibrancy of my cast. But as a fellow Mancunian Noel pointed out in Supersonic, I would have to want it a LOT. And right now I want to finish the first part of the series arc (10 books and the novellas) far more than I want the other things until the time, money and narrators are right.
Because it will take time to find a narrator with those skills—and book space in their schedule. Even then, there’s no guarantee it would meet the expectations of readers who already have my characters’ voices clear in their minds.
Are you sure you’re not making mountains out of molehills??
I might be.
But this is the problem with being an audiobook lover. I know all the things that can go wrong. And the difference between a mediocre narration and an awesome one is hard to quantify in advance.
So, I commissioned a narrator I’ve always admired to record Midlife in Gretna Green. She’s a consummate professional who’s done many terrific narrations and even won a prestigious audio award. I was pretty sure she could do Niki, and it’s kinda important that your main character, who narrates the series through her own eyes, comes across authentically, isn’t it?
It wasn’t too bad.
We worked together.
There was feedback
And changes.
It got much better.
Mabon wasn’t great but … we battled on.
Once we got to the big scene in the Gateway at the end of Midlife with all the royals, it really wasn’t good.
Breanna came out sounding like an Irish chambermaid. Mabon sounded like Yoda in truth rather than just with his quaint speech pattern. And don’t get me started on Ad’Rian or Fionn’ghal.
I won’t tell you all who it was because it was absolutely not her fault and I still admire her work enormously. But two years ago, I was far more naïve and inexperienced as an author than I am now. I didn’t understand the complexity of the multiple challenges I was presenting to one of the best narrators I know.

But when I asked for voice samples of the characters in Painting the Blues in Gretna Green, the second book to see if we could salvage this and Caitlin sounded like a perky cheerleader with a boy problem. (Because in fairness, the narrator hadn’t read the whole series and had no idea where the sulky ‘princess’ in Blues was coming from or who she would grow up to be.)
Finn sounded like he had developmental difficulties.
Breanna still incomprehensibly came across as an 18th century Irish washerwoman rather than a Scottish queen from a thousand-year line of queens.
We both realised it wasn’t working. I paid her for the first book and I’ve buried the recording.
You mentioned selling the rights?
I did. Several companies have approached me. They typically purchase the audiobook rights to an author’s work, which means they take over the production process entirely—including casting the narrator.
While they work with experienced professionals and often deliver high-quality audiobooks, and offer advances, the author has little to no say in casting decisions or creative direction.
Given everything I’ve said about the many and varied accents in my books and the experience I had even with a great narrator, I’d find it hard to let go of that control.
Especially as all six narrators one of the companies suggested were, without exception, American!
That told me no-one in their organisation had read even a single chapter of my books. They were making their decisions solely based on the series’ sales rank on Amazon.
Now, no offence, I like loads of American narrators (Susan Ericksen is a fave remember? But Niki is no Eve Dallas and Gretna Green is a long way from New York.)
While most non-Brits probably think that those ‘fake British accents’ are what we really sound like, they’re truly not. They’re fine for a walk-on part but not for an entire series. I know my British, Australian, New Zealand, South African and possibly even Canadian readers wouldn’t be happy with it either.
I shiver in my shoes to think what my Scottish readers would say because I’ve all too frequently heard my neighbours’ opinions of the narrators of too many books with apparently ‘Scottish’ accents. Och aye the noo Mrs Mcgregor! Send wee Wullie aroond for his jeely piece.
I want the audiobooks to sound right. So, I wasn’t comfortable leaving those choices to someone else and they wouldn’t give me narrator approval – so we’ve reached stalemate.
There must be another option, surely?
A multi-cast production, maybe?
Yes, that would be my choice. But even they’re not infallible. Have any of you listened to the latest multi-cast versions of the City Watch books by Terry Pratchett? I mean, I know Stephen Briggs occasionally had a bad day, but the new ones make Sam Vimes sound weird, about 30 years old and like someone from a Guy Ritchie movie! Not that I dislike his movies, but Sam Vimes?
Sorry, if you’re not a Pratchett fan, then imagine Mr Darcy sounding so totally unlike everything Jane Austin wrote about him, you’re left scratching your head why anyone would want to marry him, let alone Elizabeth Bennet.
I’m just not popular enough—yet
This is a real problem. I might be in a few years. 🤞
But right now, while the 200,000 of my books that people have read thrill me to the bone, companies like Graphic Audio “A movie in your mind” are looking for million and multi-million copy bestsellers. Authors like Ilona Andrews, Sarah J. Maas, Michael Anderle and K.F. Breene.
So I need to keep growing my readership instead of deciding right now to settle for less and having it come back to haunt and depress me in a year or three.
Because there is NO profit in doing it myself.
I can hear you all, you know! You’re muttering, aren’t you?
BUT and I only found this out last year – so please don’t feel bad if you didn’t know it. There is no predictable profit in most audiobooks.
Your chances of getting your investment back, never mind making a profit, are pitifully low in any reasonable time period.
An author told me the other day they’d made almost 30,000 last year on their audiobooks. That sounds great until you consider they’d made eight times that from their books with a far lower cost to produce.
We all agree skilled editors and talented cover designers aren’t cheap. But at least when they’ve done a great job for us, and we’ve swallowed hard and paid them, we know exactly what our return will be.
NOT so with audiobooks—they’re a crapshoot.
That cannot be true!
Truly, as a voracious listener, it astonished me. But it is correct.
The audiobook market is heavily dominated by one major player: Audible. While they have made audiobooks widely accessible, and I’ve always loved them as a customer, they pose an enormous challenge for independent authors and an almost insurmountable one for those of us with ‘non-standard books’.
Why?
Because Audible takes the majority of the royalties from audiobook sales, which means authors only see a fraction of the revenue generated by their work.

Understanding Audible royalties: The credit conundrum
If I were to commission an audiobook and opt for Audible’s exclusive distribution agreement, in theory I’d receive a 40% royalty for each sale. Even at first glance, that sounds unfair. Why do I pay bear the cost of production and take all the risks and they just deliver it and take the majority of the money?
It’s a digital product and digital products, while they are varied; apps, software and ebooks all pay close to 70% royalties to the creators.
Now indie print books don’t make any money either, but at least we understand that’s because of the stupidly high cost of wood pulp. Pixels and downloads have a fixed cost, so how do they justify keeping 60%?
But oh, it gets far worse than that …
Most Audible members purchase audiobooks using credits as part of their subscription plans. I certainly do, and I add extra credits when they send me a good offer.
It doesn’t matter what I price my audiobooks books at. When a reader uses a credit to buy an audiobook, the royalty is calculated based on the equivalent value of the credit with a so-tiny it’s almost insignificant allowance for much longer books.

For example, in the UK, a single credit is typically worth about £7.99. As an Audible exclusive author, in theory, I’d earn 40% of that amount, which works out to around £3.20 per sale. Which doesn’t compare favourably to ebook royalties of 70% especially when my much longer audiobooks will cost so much to produce.
For non-exclusive distribution—where I might have the audacity to want to sell my audiobook in other places like Spotify, Apple Books, Kobo, or Google Play—the royalty drops to 25% of the credit’s equivalent value, reducing earnings even further. For a £7.99 credit, that’s just £2.00 per sale.
But believe it not, it can get even worse.

Brandon Sanderson wrote a long, thoughtful article about just this two years ago when he did his 41.7 million dollar Kickstarter and declined to put those books on Audible.
If, unlike me, you’re not a Sanderson fan, then there is a much shorter, more recent and to the point update, specifically about changes within the Audible system here.
What Brandon said at the time was “But Audible has grown to a place where it’s very bad for authors. It’s a good company doing bad things.”
He added that while he has plenty of money; he remembers when he didn’t and he wanted to stand up for smaller authors.
Aww, thanks Brando 😍
However, two years after his original article, what I’m hearing is those promised changes still haven’t come in. So authors still aren’t certain about key financial information. Without that data, it’s like putting your chips on a table in the dark, before you’re even sure the table is in a casino. It’s not just a wager, it’s a gamble made wearing a blindfold. I’m amazed HRH isn’t in the audiobook market!
Because the problem in summary (in case you didn’t read Brandon’s article) is that when an author commissions an audiobook, they pay part in advance to secure the slot on the narrator’s schedule and the balance on delivery of the finished audiobook.
None of which is unreasonable.
But it is all upfront, unless you share those tiny royalties with the narrator.
What’s the point … if I allow a narrator who can’t point to Wales on a map to be Mabon’s voice and spoil it for us all?
Now, when an Audible customer uses a credit, Audible pay ‘an amount’ to the author.
- They sometimes pay it months later.
- The royalty statements are often incomplete. (That’s me being polite. I’ve heard other more incendiary words from more experienced authors.)
- They pay the same for an eight-hour audiobook as they do for an eighteen-hour audiobook.
- But of course those audiobooks cost quite different amounts to produce.
- The amount Audible pays isn’t fixed.
- That ‘amount’ can vary so drastically it makes no sense!
- In theory, it should be either 25% or 40% of the price of the book. The latter if the author is exclusive to Audible.
- But in practise by being exclusive to Audible if you want any exposure you give them the right to include your books in their subscription credit program, in their promotions, in Amazon’s promotions (now that they own Audible). In their buy one, get one free promos.
Honestly, in whatever-the-hell crazy giveaway, they want to include it in. - In which case you might get far, far less.
In certain cases, you might get as little as 40 pence — so under 50 cents. - If an author is not exclusive to Audible because they think readers should be able to listen to their books via Spotify or Apple books, it doesn’t get better unless they sell directly to their readers.
- If you’re wondering why I don’t do that yet – READ THIS
- Some authors have done successful Kickstarters, but ideally you should have the audiobooks ready to go. People don’t want to wait up to two years for the narrator to catch up after they paid.
You all know I love the KU lending library because it’s fair to authors and readers. Currently, the same cannot be said about Audible. (There that was polite wasn’t it?)
It gets even worse … truly
Because Audible can do other promotions. So can Amazon. The ones we’ve all used over the years. At least, I certainly have.
You know where Amazon says, “Oh you bought the ebook, have the audiobook for 99 cents (or pence) or 2.99.”
I had no idea the author was essentially funding that discount.
Moving on to the end …
What Matters Most to Me
My books—and the voices of my characters—are deeply personal to me. I want to ensure that any audiobook version of my stories reflects the heart of the series, and I’m not ready to hand over that level of control. I can’t ever guarantee than any audio production will please all of my readers, but if it doesn’t even please the author, then I’m not sure how to proceed.
For now, I’d rather wait until the time and resources are right to create audiobooks on my own terms, rather than rush into a long-term licensing deal for a few (OK, quite a few) quid that doesn’t fully align with my vision.
What’s Next?

Well, hopefully you got that I’d freaking love to listen to audiobooks of the Gretna Green series done well. Just not if they make me cry or want to break things.
Things are changing fast in our world. I’m not ruling out audiobooks forever. As the audiobook market evolves, I’ll continue exploring options that might make this format more accessible for me as an indie author. If an opportunity arises in the future that aligns with both my financial reality and creative goals, I’ll gladly reconsider.
But for now, what’s the point of doing the very best I can with my books, having two fantastic teams of beta readers and proofers and an utterly brilliant editor and cover designer if I allow a narrator who can’t point to Wales on a map to be Mabon’s voice and spoil it for us all?
Dwygyfylchi … Anyone?
In the meantime, I encourage anyone who loves audiobooks as much as I do to keep enjoying them and supporting your favourite narrators and authors. The format itself is a fantastic way to engage with stories—it just isn’t the right fit for my series right now.
And while I’m not giving up my own Audible account, it has hundreds of my audiobooks in it after all; I am testing listening to new ones through Spotify.
Why?
Because their subscription includes 15 hours of audio a month. And it can be from many different books. So if one of them bores you, just move to another. And they do pay authors, but yet again, we don’t know how much!
Read The Guardian news piece here:
I’ll let you all know how my personal listening experiment works out.
Thank you all, as always, for your understanding and the incredible support you’ve offered me since book one. If you have any thoughts, questions, or brilliant audiobook recommendations, I’d love to hear them in the comments!
If you got to the end of this monster of a post, you may be another author, who is searching, as I was for several years, for more information. In that case, you may also find this post useful.
Why I don’t sell direct.
BUT as always, your books and options might be different to mine, so continue that research … please.
Seems pretty clear to me and I must say I feel the same way, if you are going to do a job let it be the best job you can do. I’m not a big audio fan but the daughter is, my belief is in the correct accents wherever possible. It would make a better film than audiobook in my opinion but that is just me, thanks for the explanation.
As an American, I really appreciate your integrity! When I read your books ( or re-read your books), I don’t have strong voices in my mind, for your characters. Someday, when the actual voices meet your standards, and you will financially benefit from the hard detailed work of creating audio versions, I’ll buy them and finally add the richness of genuine voices to my mental pictures of your wonderful stories! Bottom line, I’ll wait and hope for that someday!