Drakenscroll seal — a gold dragon coiled around a film reel

For hosts, editors and programmers

The Rostrum

The house comes to your microphone as a subject, not a sponsor. No fee is asked and none is offered; you are never required to promote anything. Everything below is ready to lift — the angles, the bios, the introduction, the questions, and the figures you can quote on air without checking them.

Write to the hearth

Six angles. Choose one, or ask for another.

Why a book should be priced by its word count, not its finished hour

Authors are quoted per finished hour, which means they cannot know the price until after the work is designed. Word count is knowable on day one — and the whole rate card can be published.

  • The arithmetic in the open: a $15,000 studio floor plus $0.25 per word beyond 30,000 for a film book, a $5,000 studio floor plus $0.08 per word beyond 30,000 for an audio book, add-ons drawn off the word count and never off the base price.
  • What per-finished-hour quoting hides, and why the trade prefers it that way.
  • What happens to a negotiation when the author can do the sum before the call.

Author podcasts, publishing-trade shows, business-of-writing newsletters.

One minute for every 155 words: the runtime measure the trade never publishes

Every author asks how long their audio or film edition will run and gets a shrug. There is a working measure, and it holds for both vessels.

  • Where the measure comes from and why 150-words-per-minute narration math misleads.
  • A 90,000-word novel: what it actually runs, and what that means for scenes, chapters and pacing.
  • Why a runtime estimate changes what an author writes next.

Craft shows, audiobook narration communities, writing-tools newsletters.

A film of a book is not a book trailer

Book trailers are a marketing asset. A full film book is a different craft with different labour — casting, scoring, illustration, cutting — and the confusion costs authors money.

  • The line between a 60-second trailer and a cast, scored, illustrated film of a whole book.
  • What the work is made of: registers, sound effects blocks, score selection and mix, illuminated art.
  • Why the matching audio edition rides with the film rather than being sold twice.

Publishing-industry shows, film and audio production podcasts, rights desks.

Giving away seventeen tools your competitors sell

The house publishes free instruments that answer the questions agencies charge to answer — estimators, casting benches, retail sheets. It is a strategy, and it is arguable.

  • What the free bench contains and who uses it without ever buying anything.
  • Why publishing the rate card and the arithmetic wins more work than gating it.
  • The cost of the approach, honestly stated.

Marketing shows, small-business and founder podcasts, indie-author communities.

Casting a book: choosing voices the way a director casts a film

Most audiobooks are one voice reading everything. Casting a book by register — who carries authority, who carries grief — changes how a listener holds the story.

  • Registers versus narrators, and how a cast is matched to a manuscript's characters.
  • The economics of a cast: 1% of word count per 2 voices, rounded up, so an author can price their own cast.
  • When an author should clone their own voice and read it themselves.

Narration and voice-acting shows, audio drama podcasts, craft columns.

Running a production house the way a sovereign runs a house

A founder who built this over three decades on conviction rather than capital, governing by published law instead of negotiation — how that shapes the terms clients actually get.

  • Why every rule of the house is written down and public, including the discounts.
  • Non-exclusive partnerships by principle: no agency is ever offered exclusivity.
  • What patience buys that funding cannot.

Founder shows, women-in-business podcasts, leadership newsletters.

Figures you can quote on air

No awards, no rankings, no audience claims — only published arithmetic and published house law.

A film book is a $15,000 studio floor plus $0.25 per word beyond 30,000; an audio book is a $5,000 studio floor plus $0.08 per word beyond 30,000.

Published rate card. A 90,000-word novel: $30,000 base film production, $9,800 audio-only; film companion audio is 33% of film production.

Both vessels finish at roughly one minute of runtime for every 155 words .

The house's own delivery measure — 90,000 words runs about nine and a half hours.

Voices cost 1% of word count per 2; effects 1% per 5. Blocks round up.

Add-ons are always drawn off word count, never off the base price.

A chosen, cut and mixed score is a flat $1,500 — selection and mix, not original composition.

The house licenses music and says so plainly rather than claiming a composer.

The matching audio edition rides at 33% of film production, excluding Bench services and marketing.

One manuscript, two vessels, one build — not two invoices.

A build begins on a 50% deposit, or paid in full.

No retainer, no agency contract, no minimum term.

Seventeen production instruments are free to anyone, with no account.

Estimators, casting benches, retail sheets and rights ledgers, open in the Workshop.

Referring houses earn 10% rising to 15%, and are never offered exclusivity.

The Alliance is non-exclusive by published law, at every tier.

The introduction, to read cold

My guest today is the Founder of Drakenscroll — Strength and Solidarity LLC — a production house that films books. Not trailers: full cinematic films of whole novels, cast by voice register, scored, illustrated and cut like film, each one shipping with its matching audio edition. She has carried this vision for over thirty years, and she has done something almost nobody in this trade does: published her entire rate card as plain arithmetic, and given away seventeen production tools free to any author who wants them. She's here to talk about what a book actually costs to film, how long it runs, and why the industry would rather you didn't know either number.

Ten questions worth asking

  1. 01What is a film book, and how is it different from the book trailer everyone has seen?
  2. 02You price by word count instead of by finished hour. Why does the rest of the trade do it the other way?
  3. 03Walk me through the arithmetic on a 90,000-word novel — filmed and in audio.
  4. 04You say a book runs about a minute for every 155 words . How did you arrive at that, and where does the usual narration math go wrong?
  5. 05You give away seventeen tools your competitors charge for. What does that cost you, and what does it buy you?
  6. 06How do you cast a book? What is a register, and how do you match one to a character?
  7. 07When should an author narrate their own book, and when should they absolutely not?
  8. 08You refuse to offer any agency exclusivity, at any commission tier. Why is that a hill worth standing on?
  9. 09Thirty years carrying one vision before it was buildable — what kept it alive?
  10. 10What should an author have ready before they commission a film book, so they don't waste money?

Bios, at the three lengths you will be asked for

One line

The Founder of Drakenscroll (Strength and Solidarity LLC), a production house that turns manuscripts into cinematic film books and audio books, priced openly as a percentage of word count.

Short

The Founder of Drakenscroll — Strength and Solidarity LLC — builds film books: full cinematic films of novels, cast, scored, illustrated and cut like film, each shipping with its matching audio edition. She has carried the vision for more than thirty years and runs the house on published law rather than negotiation: the rate card is public, the arithmetic is public, and seventeen production instruments are given away free to any author who wants them.

Long

The Founder of Drakenscroll — Strength and Solidarity LLC — produces film books and audio books for authors: not trailers, but full cinematic films of whole manuscripts, cast by register, scored, illustrated and cut like film, each one shipping with its matching audio edition. She has carried the vision for more than three decades, and she governs the house by written law instead of negotiation. Production is priced as arithmetic an author can do before the first conversation — a $15,000 studio floor plus $0.25 per word beyond 30,000 for a film book, a $5,000 studio floor plus $0.08 per word beyond 30,000 for an audio book, add-ons drawn off the word count and never off the base price. Runtime is quoted against a measured rule of 155 words to a finished minute — 9,300 words to a finished hour — rather than narration guesswork. Discounts are published as earned favours, one per contract, never stacked. She also gives away seventeen production instruments free and without an account — estimators, casting benches, retail sheets, rights ledgers — on the argument that a trade which hides its arithmetic is protecting itself, not its authors. Partnerships with agencies, publicists and publishers pay a standing commission and are permanently non-exclusive by principle.

The recording

Format
Remote video or audio. Zoom, Riverside, StreamYard, SquadCast or a phone line.
Audio
Own microphone, treated room, wired connection. Local backup track supplied on request.
Availability
Weekdays and weekends, US Central time. Same-week bookings are usually possible.
Terms
No fee, no sponsorship ask, and no requirement that the house be promoted.
Materials
Emblem art, cover images and a written pre-brief supplied on request.
Contact
hearth@drakenscroll.com

Show notes

Point your listeners anywhere here — every door is free to walk through.

Pitching on the house's behalf

If you know a show that should hear this, name it and choose an angle. The letter forges itself; send it as your own.

Subject: Guest idea for your show — Why a book should be priced by its word count, not its finished hour

Hello,

I'm the Founder of Drakenscroll (Strength and Solidarity LLC). We film books — full cinematic films of whole manuscripts, cast, scored and cut like film, each shipping with its matching audio edition.

I'd like to offer myself to your show as a subject, not a sponsor. One angle I think your audience would use:

Why a book should be priced by its word count, not its finished hour
Authors are quoted per finished hour, which means they cannot know the price until after the work is designed. Word count is knowable on day one — and the whole rate card can be published.
 - The arithmetic in the open: a $15,000 studio floor plus $0.25 per word beyond 30,000 for a film book, a $5,000 studio floor plus $0.08 per word beyond 30,000 for an audio book, add-ons drawn off the word count and never off the base price.
 - What per-finished-hour quoting hides, and why the trade prefers it that way.
 - What happens to a negotiation when the author can do the sum before the call.

I publish the whole rate card and the arithmetic behind it, so nothing I say on air needs to be taken on trust: a $15,000 studio floor plus $0.25 per word beyond 30,000 for a film book, a $5,000 studio floor plus $0.08 per word beyond 30,000 for audio, and roughly a minute of runtime for every 155 words. I also give away seventeen production tools free, which is worth arguing about on air if you'd rather push back than agree.

No fee, no sponsorship ask, and no requirement that you promote the house. Remote recording, own microphone, treated room. A full one-sheet with bios, questions and quotable figures is at https://drakenscroll.com/rostrum.

If a different angle suits you better, say so and I'll build the conversation around it.

— The Founder, Drakenscroll
hearth@drakenscroll.com | drakenscroll.com

A Strength and Solidarity house