Proudly Serving the audiobook community since 2017

ON-BOARDING PROCESS

CONTACT:

845-405-5540

You can call the above number 24/7, but return calls are typically made between 6:00-8:30 PM EST, seven days a week.

If you are new to Skywire and would like to get set-up in our system, please give us a call. Likewise, if you receive an email from us, saying that an invoice has been submitted on your behalf, reach out by phone. We feel a voice-to-voice conversation is not only more secure than sending your personal information over the internet, but more personal. We strive to make the paymaster experience customer-focused. YOU are our customers. Respect, and friendliness are core components of the Skywire business model.

When we speak, you will be asked for your legal name, or the name under which you file taxes (if you have a corporate entity of some kind). If you are an individual, Sole Proprietor, or LLC, you will be asked for your mailing address, tax-id number (SS#, or EIN). Even if you have an EIN for your corporate entity, we will still need your SS# for reporting your earnings to SAG-AFTRA. You will be asked if you are willing to receive a 1099 electronically, as an encrypted PDF attachment to an email, or if you prefer a paper copy snail-mailed to you. 1099s are issued at the end of January, each year, for earnings of over $600 in the prior year.

And, lastly, you will be asked how you would like to be paid. The options are:

ACH/Direct Deposit

Paper Check

If you would like Direct Deposit, please have your banking information handy when we speak.

Please be advised that, with all electronic forms of payment, it can take 1 to 2 business days to get from our bank to yours, and another business day to clear in your bank. If you are getting paid by check, it can take approximately 7 business days to get from our bank to your mailbox.

For narrators living outside the U.S., Skywire uses Wise (Formerly TransferWise) to send payments. If you fall into this category, there's no need to give us a call. You can just email your bank information, along with your home address. If you have a bank account in the U.S., we can send USD to that account.

REPORTING TO SAG-AFTRA

In the first week of each month, Skywire uploads a report to SAG-AFTRA. This report contains all union projects processed in the prior month. At the same time, Skywire then pays all of the P&H contributions collected for those projects. The union records your earnings for the month in which the project was invoiced, not the date of the report upload. For example, if your project was invoiced on August 29th, and you were paid on September 20th, and the report was uploaded on October 1st, your earnings will be recorded for August.

SKYWIRE FEES

Skywire operates on a three-tiered, flat-fee system to process union audiobook jobs, which includes paying the narrator, reporting the earnings to SAG-AFTRA, paying the collected P&H contribution, and issuing a 1099 in late January for tax season.

$60: If the narrator earns $1200 or more.

$30: If the narrator earns under $1200.

$15: If the narrator earns under $600.

UNION STATUS OF PROJECTS

A PROJECT is either union, or non-union, regardless of the membership status of the narrators. So, if one person is going union on a multi-narrator project, ALL narrators must do the same. The only exception is if a non-union narrator lives outside the U.S. This is NOT just for Skywire projects, but for ANY project in our industry.

Conversely, a union narrator can elect to do a project as non-union without penalty, providing the hiring company is not on the DO NOT WORK list.

CURRENT MINIMUM RATES FOR INDIE UNION JOBS AND P&H AMOUNTS

Traditional ACX Projects

$250 PFH or $100 for Royalty Share Plus

P&H is 13.75%

The ACX signatory agreement is designed to have their rates be "all-in," meaning that the P&H and paymaster fee are part of that rate. Collaboration and Dialogue Assembly bumps are not currently a part of the ACX signatory agreement. The above said, you are free to negotiate with your author for them to pay P&H and paymaster fees, along with bumps.

Skywire Projects

$281.22 PFH + P&H + Paymaster Fee for clean, punch and roll files only. This rate will go up to $289.65 on 1/1/27.

$350 + P&H + Paymaster Fee for Full Production (edit/master).

P&H is currently at 14%, but will go up to 14.5% on 1/1/27.

If you are doing a Dual or Multicast project, and there is collaboration on shared character voices, each narrator, as long as they record more than one finished hour, will also need to get a flat, $100 bump.

For Duet Narrations requiring dialogue assembly, the bump is $200 per narrator.

Bumps are not required if the actual runtime is under an hour.

The Different Ways To Calculate Rates

There are three ways that rates can be calculated:

1. The Pension and Health contribution (P&H) and paymaster fee are part of the narrator's PFH rate. This is referred to as, "All-In."

2. The P&H and Paymaster fee are paid by the hiring party, on top of the Per Finished Hour (PFH) rate. This is referred to as a "Straight Rate."

3. Only the Paymaster fee is paid by the hiring party, on top of the PFH rate.

If you choose to use "All-In" rate, please make sure to calculate it properly. If you don't already have our all-in rate calculator, please email us to request one.

Bumps With All-In Rates

If you are using all-in rates on a project that is not through ACX, and you have either the collaboration bump, or the dialogue assembly bump, you'll need to account for the P&H. So a $100 bump becomes $114, and a $200 bump becomes $228. these extra amounts will increase when Skywire's P&H goes up to 14.5% on 1/1/27.

Projects Where There Is Another Signatory Besides Skywire

Minimum rates, P&H percentages, and bumps may vary depending on the contract.

Minimum rates and P&H amounts are subject to change, based on the directives of SAG-AFTRA

PROJECT INFORMATION

If you would like to run an Indie project through Skywire, we will need the following information:

Project Title
Author/Rights Holder Name
PFH Rate
Final Runtime, expressed as 00.000, rather than hours and minutes. For example, 8 hours and 15 minutes would be expressed as 8.25 hours. If you need one, click below to download a PDF Minutes Conversion Chart. You can also take the total number of minutes for the audiobook and divide by 60 to get the same number.
Project designation: Either ACX or Skywire.
If it is a Skywire project, and there was collaboration between narrators on shared character voices, please indicate "Collaboration." On top of your narration pay, you must also get an additional, flat $100 bump for the collaboration. For Duet projects, where there is dialogue assembly, it is an additional, flat $200. Please indicate "Duet." Additionally, you must be provided with an annotated/highlighted script.
Please note that bumps cannot count towards meeting the minimum PFH rates.

Skywire does not do invoicing for indie projects, such as ACX, or certain types of Skywire projects. If an invoice is requested by your author/RH, that should come from you. You can then direct your author/RH to the homepage of this site for payment options and instructions. If they have any questions, they can reach out to us.

If your author or rights holder will be doing a run of CDs, this may increase the minimum rate you must get to qualify as a union job. If this is the situation, which is rare, please contact us to find out what the minimum rate would need to be. Press-On-Demand does not affect rates.

It's also important to distinguish between the different types of Indie projects, as it affects the minimum PFH rate you must get, and the amount of P&H.

ACX

You receive and accept an offer through the platform and upload masters from your side. If you deliver files directly to an author/rights holder, and THEY upload files from their side, that is not an ACX project - it is designated as Skywire.

SKYWIRE

If you have contracted with an author/RH, or rights holder, outside of ACX, and you will deliver the files directly to them, please designate the project as Skywire.

OTHER

If you have contracted with a signatory Indie Publisher or Producer, the project will be classified under that company's name, and their minimum rates and P&H percentage will oversee the project. In most instances, those companies will send me the project information, but that's not always the case. Please check with them to see if they are already a Skywire Publisher/Producer client.

PAYMASTER AGREEMENT AND EXHIBIT A DOCUMENT

For all Skywire projects, there are two, or, possibly three documents that must be signed. Please carefully read the section with this same title on the homepage of the website. If you have questions, please let us know. This process should occur when you first book the job, rather than when it is completed.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, SUGGESTIONS, OR CONCERNS, PLEASE LET US KNOW.

info@skywirepaymaster.com