Who doesn't like free samples?

 

When I got my rights back from my publisher in November, 2021, the edited audio files for A Wider World were also returned. I had done the original edits when the audiobook was recorded, but it still needed mastering so it could be uploaded to ACX (the company behind Audible) and Findaway Voices (the other big audiobook company, which supplies every vendor except Audible). 

I meant to tackle those files before now. I did. But I didn't.

I thought mastering them would be too hard, and I bookmarked blog posts and YouTube videos about how to master audio files but never got around to watching/reading them.

Then, about a week and a half ago, I got annoyed with myself. This is not only a book that I love, and an audiobook that the actor and I worked very hard to produce, but it's a viable source of income that I've just allowed to sit on my computer for months. 

Enough, already.

I won't say it was easy, but it also wasn't anywhere as difficult as I expected. ACX has very specific standards for upload quality, but if something's wrong, they're also very specific about what it is and how to fix it. I did the entire book in four days, got it uploaded, and it cleared quality control in a day. Now it's up on Audible and Findaway is distributing it to all the other vendors as I write this (it's not so much that they take their time, but each separate vendor takes its time, and it's cumulative).

I've attached an audio sample here of the first chapter. Let me know what you think, and if it would intrigue you enough to listen to more!

It's a process

There is a strange intimacy with preparing an audiobook. Not only my own words, but the reader’s voice, in my ears, saying words I’ve worked so hard to make right. It’s disorienting, in a way—the feeling those words no longer belong to me.

Which is only right. They don’t. Once a book is published—I won’t say finished; books are never finished—it no longer belongs to its author, but to the people who read it, and who bring their own thoughts and opinions and life experience to bear upon it.

Despite how much effort I’m putting into making this audiobook as good as it can be, I’m not a big fan of the form. I like to physically read a book, and let my mind supply the voices and the pictures. Having someone read it to me takes away a bit of that, and if I’m honest, I also find it hard to keep my attention focused. I’ll hear a good line and start to think about it, and realize suddenly that I’ve missed half a chapter and have to go back and re-listen, ignoring this time the line that distracted me in the first place.

But A Wider World’s audio is coming along so well. He’s finished 66 of 70 chapters, and I’m up to chapter 64 on the edits. I can actually see it being completed by the end of July, which means it will be in the hands of my publisher for final mastering, and will be up for sale sometime (hopefully) in the fall.

 

Fun with audio

It's a busy time right now. 

I just finished the final edits on the third book in the Tudor Court series and submitted it to the publisher. While I wait for them to look it over again, I'm working on the audiobook for A Wider World. As I work, I am ever more grateful for my years of volunteering with local theater, because it has given me a pool of actors to barter with. 

This book is turning out to be easier than Songbird, probably because it's more recently written and edited, and I don't have to read along at quite the same level this time. I know these words; I've been over them half a dozen times in the last year. Some parts of Songbird were so old that they surprised me when I heard Jen read them out for the first time. 

The actor and I have a system going. He records several chapters and uploads them to a shared Google drive. I download and listen to them through Audacity, which is a fabulous free audio recording/editing software. I do basic cleanup then, looking for background noise or breath sounds, but what I'm mainly listening for are mistakes or mispronunciations or incorrect emphasis. 

I make notes of the sentences that need re-recording and send them back to him. When he does those edits, I can then cut and paste them - just like in Word - into the original audio file. After that, I check the levels to make sure that they're even, divide the files into chapters, and put the correct, Audible-mandated amount of blank space at the beginning and end. Then I convert them into .wav files.

Once that's done, I upload the files into another shared folder (this time with my publisher), and they'll take it from there for final mastering. It's more of a process than many authors with publishers go through, but they understand my control freak tendencies, and I really enjoy being involved in all levels of the production process. 

Eventually, when I self-publish my 1930s book, I want to be able to do all the steps myself - other than logical things like paying for cover art, etc. I might know what I want, and I might know the trends, but I don't have the graphic design background to make it good enough. My time is better spent on words than pictures. Part of being an effective control freak is knowing when somebody else does something better than you do. 

I guess that's also called delegating.

The Audiobook is (almost) everywhere!

And by that, I mean it's everywhere but Audible. Because...Amazon. It takes its time. Like the Grinch's small heart, no one quite knows the reason.

Although - of course - Audible is the chief method of audiobook listening out there, can I make a few recommendations? Chirp is a relatively new audio provider. There's no fee to join, and by becoming a member, you get discounted audiobooks.

Discounts are good.

Also, Scribd is a program very much like Kindle Unlimited, except that you can also get audiobooks through them.

Either way, if you're interested in giving Songbird a listen, there's a free audio sample on any provider's website. If you give a listen - much less buy - I'd love to hear what you think!

Listening to myself

I'm working away on on my next novel, but there are still things to do with Songbird. One of them is the audiobook.

My publisher could have arranged to have it recorded, but I wanted to take a stab at it myself. I took a stab. I took several stabs. I never got beyond chapter 3. For some reason, hearing my own words in my own voice made me want to do nothing more than rewrite the whole book. It's a little late for that.

When I first announced my brilliant idea of self recording, an actress friend volunteered to read if I decided I didn't want to do it. I finally decided - intelligently - to take her up on her offer.

Because she's an actress, and because I sew, this is going to be a convoluted barter job. Somewhere down the line, she'll get a Shakespeare level costume out of this. In the meantime, she's recorded 12 chapters out of 24, and while it's still difficult to listen to my words read out, it's much easier when I'm not doing the reading.

Sometimes we're just too close to our own work.

Once the audiobook is done, given a final polishing by my publisher, and uploaded to Amazon and all the other usual venues, I'll have one or two copies to give away. Keep an eye out for that, sometime in the not too distant future.