A Writer's Week #36: Listen for The Deliverers on Audio Book

We may not realize it, but we live in a great age. Technology has opened up new opportunities in every facet of our culture. This is especially true for all of us who write. When I came up with the idea for The Deliverers: Sharky and the Jewel almost ten years ago, there was one way to get published--try to get an agent or a publisher to notice you, become interested in your manuscript, and publish your book. Or you could go the vanity publisher route. You know, pay thousands of dollars to a company to print hundreds of copies of your book for you so that you could store them in your garage and sell them out of the back of your car.

Well, times have changed. For one thing, I turned my garage into a bedroom and a bathroom. For another, print on demand (POD) came along, meaning you no longer have to lay out any cash at all to have your book published. Then along came Createspace, which gave you an instant sales platform on Amazon and Kindle (oh yeah--e-books were another big development).

Is it a perfect situation for writers? No. But every month new things come down the pike which make it better and better. Like Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX), for example. It gives authors, narrators and producers a chance to connect and produce professional audio books. You can either pay the narrator a negotiated hourly rate or you can partner with a narrator for no initial cost and split all royalties 50-50. Royalties start at 50% of the purchase price, so that means the author and narrator each get 25%. Not a bad deal. You get full creative control. The key is to find a narrator who's talented and easy to work with.

So that's what I decided to do. For the last week and a half, I've been auditioning narrators to produce an audio book version of The Deliverers. I used Chapter 9 of the book as the audition script, and received a number of audition files and they were all good in their way. However, one stood out. I listened to it a bunch of times, had my wife listen to it, had people at work listen to it, and they all liked it. There were a couple little tweaks that I thought needed to be done, so I asked him if he could incorporate those into another audition. He was very accommodating and made the changes.

In fact, Jimm is very easy to communicate with and extremely professional. So, I submitted an offer to him. Before accepting, he wanted to be sure that I was willing to communicate with him--by phone if need be--if he had a question or needed to talk through anything during production. That told me that I had made a good decision. So, the narrator is going to be Jimm Singer, a professional narrator, actor and voice over performer with over 15 years' experience.

Needless to say, this is very cool. I never dreamed that I'd be able to make an audio version of The Deliverers. This gives me access to an entirely new market and revenue stream. This will be the perfect thing for children going on long car rides, for teachers to use as a tool in their class rooms, and for those children who are visually impaired. I am very excited.

The audio book should be out around December and will be available on Audible.com, Amazon, and iTunes. I'll be giving you updates as I receive them. I should be receiving the first 15 minutes in a couple of weeks, and I'll let you know how it sounds and what the editing process is like.

Oh dear, I've rambled on again. Blogging 101 says that posts should be short and sweet. It's hard, though, when you're writing about something so cool. Anyway, during all this hubbub, I still managed to get some writing done. I did not make my 2,000 word weekly goal, but at 1,800 words I came close. That puts The Deliverers 2 at 46,200 words and 205 pages. This book is going to be more pages than the last one, but will probably be the same number of words, because the chapters are shorter and more numerous--52 right now compared to only 27 for the last one.

The plan is to have this first draft finished by the end of the month, then begin rewriting and editing. I'm shooting to have it out in January some time, but it may not be until March, depending on the artwork. I'll check in next week to let you know how things are going.

It's Heeere...

Well, I told you yesterday that today I would have an announcement. I wasn't lying. The book is out in paperback!!! It's available on Amazon and CreateSpace. Please buy it for yourselves, your children, and/or your grandchildren. It makes a great Christmas/holiday present!

So please buy it, and, if you like it, go back and post a review. Tell your family and friends, pass along this blog link. Okay, that's my sales pitch, I'll keep this post short. Sorry I don't have any streamers and balloons. Confetti would be nice... Thanks for checking it out.



The Proof Is In the Pudding

Good evening all! I want to apologize for not posting yesterday. I had good intentions, but it just did not work out. Yesterday was my birthday (shameless plug) and I was so busy with the family and phone calls, that I did not get a chance to post.

Today, I actually received a late birthday present. A couple days ago, I wrote that I had received the final files for my book. After reviewing them, I uploaded them to CreateSpace. Today, I received an email telling me that my files were useable, and that I should order my proof copy, which is exactly what I did.

For those of you who don't know, a proof is a test printing of the book. When I receive that, I'll go over it with a fine tooth comb to see if I can spot any printing inconsistencies, such as the cover color not being right, etc. After I give the final approval, my book will be ready to go!

Wow, it's hard to believe it's getting so close. Right now, getting it published is the goal, but then it will be sharing it with as many people as possible. It's really a great story, and I know you and your children will love it. More on this in the days to come! Have a great night!

Monday Evening Musings

Today is Monday--already. The weekends go too quickly. It seems like only yesterday that it was Friday. The weekend went well. We had a tag sale and did all right--made some money and cleared some space. On Sunday, my wife Stephanie took me out to dinner as an early birthday present, just the two of us. Unfortunately, my Dolphins found another improbable, embarrassing way to lose, but hey, it's just a game! So all in all, it was a good weekend.

Among the other things I did this weekend was review the book interior that I received on Friday. I caught a few inconsistencies, Why, no matter how many times I check, are there always inconsistencies?! I think I'll have to have a contest once the book is published. Spot something that's incorrect, win a copy of my next book, or something.

So, I sent the interior back.with the changes. Now, I'll just sit back and wait for the final version to come back. Then, I'll send it in to CreateSpace and wait until they send me a proof. Then I'll be able to announce that the book is available! I'm getting excited just writing about it.

This has been a long process--about eight years to write the book, rewrite the book, rewrite it again, polish it up and polish it some more. I'm not a very patient person, but this baby has taught me patience. If I don't sell one copy, it's already been a profitable experience. But hopefully, I'll sell a lot of copies. We'll see what happens when it comes out.

Oh well, not much to update you on today, so I'll keep it short. Please check back here regularly, or subscribe to the feed at the bottom of the homepage. Have a great night and I'll be back with something better tomorrow--promise!

The Cover Is Here!!!!

Well, here it is, the first post of the blog. Welcome! I'm really excited about this. My book is almost ready to be submitted to Createspace to be set for printing! But there's something I'm even more excited about, and that's the cover! Here it is:

Isn't it a thing of beauty? I can't thank Daniel Vogel enough for the artwork, and Ana Vogel for the titles not to mention the layout of the entire thing. Thanks to you, this is going to be one beautiful book!

In the coming days and weeks, I'll be giving you previews of the book, insights into the writing process, and a glimpse into what it's like to be me--banker, writer, father, and husband.

That means I could wind up writing on just about anything. If you have any suggestions, I'd like to hear from you. Any feedback at all will be welcome. Is anybody out there? Probably not yet--we just got started! I'll talk to you soon.