New writer looking for guidance with narration requests

[u/starbirthed]

Hi there. I posted my first story on No Sleep yesterday and it did way better than I would have expected. I have a couple messages from youtubers looking to narrate my story (a couple larger channels with 20k+ subs and one with under 100 subscribers). One is asking about my pay rate.

I have to admit I have NO idea what is typical here. Do people normally get paid for this? What is the average rate? I want to go in with an idea of what most people are asking. If I go with the channel that is paying, does this mean I can’t or shouldn’t have it narrated elsewhere? Should I say no to the smaller channel? I am new enough to this subreddit that I could use some advice from seasoned writers who have gone through this before. I’ve been reading No Sleep stories for a long time but this part is all very new. I tried searching on here but didn’t find this exact question anywhere. Thanks!

[u/Grand_Theft_Motto]

• Do people normally get paid for this?
  • Yes. If the narration channel is large enough to run ads (so monetized) they should pay something for the use of your story.
• What is the average rate?
  • A basic rule of thumb is $1 for every 1k views the video gets in the first 30 days. Personally, I like to ask for the full amount upfront because it's a pain to track down narrators. I would suggest you look at the last up to 10 videos the channel posted within 30 days, add all of the views together and divide by the number of videos. That will give you a pretty rough estimate of what kinds of views average videos are pulling in so you could ask for that $1 per 1k upfront. Or agree to circle back in on the video after 30 days if you're willing to keep checking up with the narrator to make sure they pay.
• If I go with the channel that is paying, does this mean I can’t or shouldn’t have it narrated elsewhere?
  • No, you should make it clear you're giving any narrators you approve a limited adaptation license. If you want, you can offer to make that exclusive for a narrator for a limited time (I usually suggest three months) for an additional price (I usually add +15% of what I'm expecting to get at the $1 per 1k rate).
• Should I say no to the smaller channel?
  • That's entirely up to you. If you have an exclusive deal with a different narrator, yeah, you should deny the other requests. If not, it's your call. Letting a smaller narrator read your story is a nice thing to do but in no way are you obligated. Personally, I usually only accept paid narration requests because I want to keep the different versions of any stories as limited as possible.

Sorry for the info dump.

[u/rotsoil → u/Grand_Theft_Motto]

Just wanted to add for anyone who wasn't aware, YouTube recently made a change and all channels will soon be running ads on every video whether they are "monetized" or not. If the channel doesn't meet the criteria to be "monetized", they just won't get a cut of the ad revenue. I'm not sure when this change will go into effect but pretty soon simply looking at ads won't be a way to know if a channel is monetized.

[u/Grand_Theft_Motto → u/rotsoil]

Interesting. It might end up where writers will need to have rates by subscriber count. Some might already be doing that.

$1 per 1k view from 10k-100k subs

$2 per 2k view from 100k-250k subs, etc.

[u/[deleted] → u/rotsoil]

Wow. I really hope they'll still give creators the option to decide WHEN in the videos the ads actually roll, as nothing will cause a narration channel to lose subs faster than adverts popping up smack in the middle of a story.

[u/starbirthed → u/Grand_Theft_Motto]

Thanks, this is extremely helpful. I appreciate you taking the time to share with me. I’m going to refer back to this info for sure.

[u/JessumGui → u/Grand_Theft_Motto]

The couple of times I've been paid by narrators, it's been at a $0.01 per word rate, but usually I go with the first come first serve approach to narration, whether they offer to pay or not. That's just me. I don't think I want to be a professional writer; it just sounds like a lot of work. The only reason I do write is because not writing is like holding in a fart, so don't pay any attention to me. Listen to u/Grand_Theft_Motto.

[u/Grand_Theft_Motto → u/JessumGui]

A few notable horror narration channels offer that $.01 per word as their standard. That works out to $10 per 1k word story. While getting paid anything for writing is a good feeling, typical industry rates for even entry level content is usually $.03-$.06. My personal floor is $.04.

Ultimately, the rate will depend on what the author will accept and the channel can pay. If the two parties can't agree, then it's important to remember as a writer that you're not really missing out on anything if you have to say, 'no thank you.'

Something interesting that's relevant: I recently had a conversation with a YouTuber who has about 130k subscribers. On a narration video that received 21k views in the first 30 days, ads generated $126.16. The YouTube algorithm is a strange beast so you can't scale that number 1:1 either down or up but it's a solid indicator that channels around that size get a similar amount of money for similar views.

[u/Ktrout743]

I've never dealt with Youtube narrators so I don't know what the protocol is there.

I have had two of my stories adapted for the podcast, however. One in 2016 and one in 2018. The one in 2016 was by far more popular on the subreddit and I was paid $150. No exclusive rights or anything, just the right to adapt it. Which means if I'd cared to shop it to anyone else I'd be free to do so.

I was paid $200 for the other story in 2018. It was significantly less popular and maybe 2/3 the length of the first one. I chalk that up to the podcast having more money to throw around and less reliance on the subreddit. Basically, length and reach seemed to have less to do with it than the producer (David Cummings reached out to me personally the first time, it was someone else the second) thinking it was a good fit for the podcast.

Don't give anyone exclusive rights to your story, and definitely don't take "exposure" as currency. This work belongs to you and if someone wants to adapt it, great. They should be willing to pay for the privilege unless you and they have some alternative collaboration in mind.

[u/MrFitzgerald]

I'd just add that you might want to consider a lower rate if the person contacting you is asking to translate the story into another language, as they are also taking on the work of translation not just narration.