Proudly Serving the audiobook community since 2017

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

Zelle

Venmo

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 us to you, 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 in the UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, Skywire uses TransferWise to send payments.  

PUBLISHER PAYMENTS

If you are getting paid by a publisher, please be advised that it can take, approximately 3 1/2 weeks, or more, from when we submit the invoice until we receive funds from the publisher.  Skywire has no control over their accounting flow processes.  However, they will notify me ahead of time that funds are on the way.  At that point, we'll send you an email letting you know.  

On the day the funds clear in our bank, your payment will be sent, and you will receive a receipt via email.  

REPORTING TO SAG-AFTRA

On the first 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 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.

$50: If the narrator earns $1200 or more.

$25: If the narrator earns under $1200.

$10: If the narrator earns under $600.

Traditional ACX and Findaway Voices Projects: $250 PFH

(See PROJECT INFORMATION below to determine if your project is "Traditional.")

The ACX and Findaway rate is an "all-in" rate, meaning that the P&H and paymaster fee come out of your end.  Your author is always welcome to pay your P&H and paymaster fee themselves, but they are not required to.

Skywire: $240 PFH + P&H + Paymaster Fee

P&H Percentages

 ACX:  13.50%

Findaway Voices:  13.00%

Skywire:  13.25%

(Skywire's P&H will be going up to 13.50% on 1/1/2021.)

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

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.

If your author or rights holder will be doing a run of CDs, this will 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 effect rates. 

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

If you have received, and accepted an offer through ACX or Findaway Voices, and you will upload your finished files from your production tab on one of those platforms, please note the project as ACX or Findaway.

If you have contracted with an author, or rights holder, outside those two platforms, and you will deliver the finished files directly to them, please note the project as Skywire.