Every single one of us here at the Scribes’ blog thinks so. And if you plan to come at us with that all lives matter bullshit, you can unfollow right now. Have a nice life, but we’re not here for that. All lives don’t matter until Black Lives Matter. Full stop.
Now, to something a little more cheery. It is unfortunate that it takes hate and violence for that message to be screamed into the universe. And, while it is incredibly important for us to look at the ugliness of humanity, to watch and bear witness to the pain and destruction we cause others, we also need to uplift the good. Don’t look away when a systematically racist society oppresses and kills Black people, but let’s also put value on their contributions to society. Let’s amplify their beauty and art. Let’s hear their voices, not just crying out, but singing.
So, with that in mind, I have a few new release recommendations for you all. If you follow my writing you know I love writing YA and Fantasy and I hope to write an Epic, or Epic-adjacent book sooner rather than later. So all three of these books are right up my alley and they all released last Tuesday right in the middle of the upheaval of the BLM anti-police brutality protests. Which is not great timing. People are rightfully distracted and may not have been looking for entertainment. But, like I said, we need to celebrate the good even when recognizing the bad. So check these books out! And bask in the cover envy with me.
And, if you’re like me, you probably have some Audible credits just sitting around, racking up, not sure what to spend them on. Well, guess what? They are all on Audible!
These are weird and terrible times. There’s no reason to sugar coat it. As I type this I’m also trying to balance our bills against our bank account, like so many of you probably are. And it is insanely hard to focus right now, right?
Like, I see people making jokes about being so bored and I really hope they’re just joking. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I wish I were bored right now. I’m not bored; I’m stressed the fuck out. And I’m pretty lucky–my husband and I have been working from home for years, so we haven’t learned weird new things about each other; we have family and friends who have reached out to offer support if we need it; our bills are going to be covered this month. Realatively speaking, we’re lucky. But, I still am so damn stressed out.
I have not slept solidly through the night since a week before Newsome shut us all down. Last night I woke up at least 3 times, once because I was sleeping so strangely that I knew I was hurting my neck (and I’m paying for it now) and another time (just 1 hour before my alarm) because I dreamed we had slept through 2 virtual meetings and was absolutely freaking out in the dream.
Ugh. Exhausting. How can we be more exhausted now that we’re all at home? I really hope, when we’re on the other side of this, as a whole society, we finally come to terms with the idea that there are better ways for us do to this whole society thing.
But this isn’t a political post. This is a post about not being able to focus. The irony is not lost on me. I know so many people thought they’d get so many things done with this so-called gift of time. Reading, writing. home projects, etc. etc. Not happening right? So I thought I’d help but reading to you.
I started reading chapters of my post-apocalyptic book, WORLD OF ASH. Sometimes reading or watching the genre you’re going to through is cathartic, right? Bad break up? Sad, angsty songs and drama movies. Super, duper sappy in love? Love ballads and romantic comedies. Apocalyptic plauge keeping you locked up at home? Post-apocalyptic lit and zombie movies, obvi.
So, if you’d like to enjoy my Covid confinement story time, you can catch up! The first few chapters are just on FB, but then I started using IGTV and you can choose which you’d rather watch/listen to! As of this writing, I’ve read 13 chapters. I’m reading a chapter a day Monday-Friday if you’re so inclined to join in.
When I originally picked this date for my post, I thought I would be writing something about making history with our first female president and a tie-in to my book Madame Presidentess, which is about Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to ever run for president in the US in 1872.
Yeah, not so much.
The last thing we all need right now is another political diatribe (believe me, I’ve written many in my head in the last 24 hours). So, as they say on Monty Python “and now for something completely different…”
My one-year anniversary of being a published author is coming up on January 1. As with all other things, you learn as you go. Here are 10 things I’ve learned from experience this year.
Set a realistic publication schedule. Don’t try to publish four books in seven months like I did. I am living proof that is possible, but you will wear yourself to your breaking point. I set that schedule because I didn’t know what I didn’t know – namely, that even if you indie publish like I did, all the rounds of editing and cover design and layout take a lot longer than you think they will – especially when you’re juggling them with a full-time job. My suggestion is one book every six months at the most. That way you’ll have time to take things slowly and carefully, as you should. That being said, releasing several books in a short time frame is great for marketing and sales because it gives people more things to read once they find one book they like.
Have some kind of a marketing and production budget. I did not because I didn’t save before I decided to publish. I also had no idea how much things cost. You can do some/all of these things yourself, but I know my skills and what I have time for. There are also ways to save money on some of these (don’t sacrifice the editing or cover!), so your mileage may vary. Here’s a run down of approximate cost ranges:
Editing = Can run you $1,000-$3,000+ depending on who you hire and how many rounds you do
Cover design = $250-$500
Layout = $1,000
Audio books = varies by length of book and cost of talent but mine were $2,000-$3,00o each
Printing/distribution = There will be a setup fee in IngramSpark (Createspace is free, but bookstores won’t order from them) and you have to pay for your own copies that you hand sell. You’re looking at around $50 for setup and $4-$6 per book you order depending on length.
Marketing = This is totally up to you. I went overboard, but I’m glad I’ve tried just about everything. That just means it will take a while to earn that money back and pay off my credit cards. 🙂
Audio books are worth the cost. Yes, they are expensive and time consuming, but they are also great passive income once they are done. I’ve sold more audio books than print and ebook combined. They are also a ton of fun to be involved in, and many sources say audio is the next big thing in books. As soon as I can afford to get Madame Presidentess made into audio, I’m going to, and it will be part of my publishing budget for every book I write.
Your book will find it’s audience. No matter what you write, there are people out there who want to read it. You can help them find you by blogging even before you publish and by attending events related to what you write. And of course, through targeted marketing. Most writers are niche writers, so don’t be disappointed if you start out small. Indie publishing is not about the overnight success; it’s about the long tail career. You never know what may happen that will expose you to a wider audience over time.
Marketing is hard. I say this as someone with 15 years of professional marketing experience and a master’s degree in public relations. Marketing a book is unlike any other kind of sales/PR/marketing you will ever do. And it is harder than ever to break through the noise, regardless of whether you are traditionally or indie published. But you have to try. I learned a lot through what didn’t work.
Don’t drive yourself crazy over sales. There is more to life than your sales numbers. Yes, we all want to make the big bucks, but if you focus solely on that, especially as an indie, you will drive yourself mad. Some authors take the perspective of “if it doesn’t translate directly into sales, it isn’t worth doing.” I respect that mindset, but it isn’t mine. I started out writing because I have to, not for the money. So I look at how creatively fulfilled I am and how things are working from an exposure/branding/PR perspective in addition to sales.
The writing community is incredibly supportive. I knew that already, but man will indies join together. This year I have experienced so much love from the community and little to no competitive ire. I even got the best support from a man who wrote about the same subject I did. I think a lot of the reason for this mindset is because we know what it’s like to go it on our own and we don’t have to worry about being dropped by a publisher/agent.
You get better at everything as you go along. Whether it’s writing or marketing, you hone your skills with practice. Just keep going.
Keep writing. The best type of marketing is another book. It gets your name back out there and draws attention to what you’ve already written. This is why it’s so important not to get caught up in too much marketing. We have to remember that our #1 job is to be writers.
Take breaks when you need them. Says the girl who hasn’t taken one in four years. But this is how I know how important they are. If you don’t refill your creative well, you won’t have anything left to give. I’m taking at least the rest of this year off to do just that.
I feel like given other subjects I could have covered today, this is a pretty generic post. But it’s honest. And this is all I have in me at the moment.
I’m very excited that for my third audio book,Been Searching for You, I just signed an amazingly talented narrator in Ashley Clements. We start production late next week. Meanwhile, the audio book of Camelot’s Queen (Guinevere’s Tale Book 2) is about halfway through production, with Serena Scott Thomas as narrator, and the one for Daughter of Destiny (Guinevere’s Tale Book 1), also with Serena Scott Thomas, is on sale now.
With all this activity, one of my fellow Spellbound Scribes asked me what goes into the making of an audio book. The following is based on my experience, and is only meant for indie authors, as traditionally published authors would work with their agents to sell audio rights and likely would have a different process. It also covers only digital files, as CDs are only produced for big-name authors nowadays (according to the studio I’m working with) and are usually cost-prohibitive for indies.
Which Distributor? One of the first choices you’ll have to make if you decide you want to make an audio book is what company you want to partner with. Indies have several choices:
Blackstone Audio accepts submissions.I’m not sure if they handle distribution or if that’s on you.
You can work directly with a studio and then use a company like Author’s Republic to get your book out there. (There are other companies that do audio distribution, but this is the only company I’ve researched that I would be comfortable using.)
ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange), the indie arm of Audible, which is owned by Amazon. I’m going to focus most of my post on their process because they are the ones I use. With them you have to decide if you want to grant them exclusive distribution rights (which means your book will only be available on Audible, Amazon and iTunes) for which you get 40% royalties or if you want non-exclusive (which means you can sell it wherever you want), in which case ACX pays 20% royalties. I went with exclusive because that covers the three main places people download books from. The down side is that you can’t get into Overdrive and other library programs that way.
Cost I will say up front that producing and audio book isn’t cheap. With ACX, you have the option to either do a royalty share with your talent, where you get 20% of royalties from sales and your narrator gets 20%, or you can pay an up-front fee based on your talent’s cost per finished hour. This could range from $50 per finished hour to several hundred, depending on who you choose. ACX has a handy tool that lets you input your word count and then gives you an estimate of the number of finished hours so you can estimate your cost. It could be in the hundreds or several thousand depending on the length of your book and your narrator’s fee.
Here’s a hint: if you have a series and want a consistent narrator, put that in your job description. Some narrators offer discounts for multi-book deals. You’ll still have put each one into ACX’s system, but the subsequent times you wouldn’t need to do the audition process.
Auditioning Narrators
The audio book cover of Daughter of Destiny. You will need a separate cover (they are a different size & you should credit your narrator), so you can either do it yourself or have your cover designer make one, as I did.
Once you’ve listed your project on ACX (a fairly straightforward process that involves “claiming” your book from Amazon’s listings and following on-screen directions for things like what your project is about, how you will market it, what your deadline is, etc.), your next step is to audition voice talent. Many authors choose to narrate their own books, but I wouldn’t do this unless you’re a trained actor. The difficulty of controlling and changing your voice to the extent needed for a quality audio book should not be underestimated. These people are called talent for a reason. Some authors choose to wait for people find their audition listing and come to them, but I would advise against this. ACX gives you access to its full listing of talent, complete with samples you can listen to, for free.
You can even filter the thousands of actors/actresses by gender, voice age, accent, and other criteria that may be important to you. For Guinevere’s Tale (all three books in the trilogy), I chose a general British accent because my POV character is a British Celt, then noted in the job the other accents I thought I may need (Irish, Welsh, Scottish, Breton French).
To me, listening to the auditions is the most fun part of the process. I knew pretty much immediately if someone was a no or was in contention for the part. Make a list of the people you like and contact them, asking them to audition (an audition script, a short snippet from your book, is part of what you upload when you set up your project). They will be more than happy to audition for you, I promise! Be sure to write back to each person, even if you don’t choose them, so they aren’t left in limbo. (Plus, it’s good business and polite.)
When you’ve settled on your first choice, you will make an offer through ACX’s system. Your talent has 48 hours to respond. You may negotiate or come to an agreement immediately.
In the case of Been Searching for You, since I had Ashley Clements in mind, knew she’d done audio books before, and I was familiar with her work, I contacted her directly. She said yes, but because she doesn’t have her own studio, she works with Deyan Studios in LA. So I talked with them about their services and fees. Once we had a signed agreement, they contacted Ashley and extended an offer and she agreed. In this case, no audition was necessary, but they have a casting service and large pool of talent if that’s something you choose to pay for.
Research
The next step after you and your narrator(s) sign on the dotted line is for you to provide them with information that will help them get into character. The most obvious part of this is the script they will read from. This includes any author’s notes or previews of future books you’d like them to read. Some authors re-write their books for audio, adding in extra “he/she said” tags to help the reader follow along, but I don’t think this is necessary. As an avid audio book consumer, I can tell you that a good narrator will be able to change his/her voice so that you can easily tell what’s dialogue, thought and narration.
This is also where you put together a sheet with any words that might have an unusual pronunciation. This can include character names/places/foreign language phrases/unusual words. My historical fiction books had significantly more words on their list than my contemporary did. My mindset is if you think it might be questioned, tell them how you want it pronounced; better safe than sorry.
You also will give your narrator direction about each of the characters (at least the main ones; how much you care what the secondaries sound like is up to you). I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way to do this. I give a bit of insight into their minds, motivations and relationships with other characters, then talk about any vocal requirements I have (accents, certain tones – haughty, meek, etc. – moods). Because I cast my characters in my head, I also give the actor or actress that inspired the role. And in case they want additional insight into my brain, I give them the links to my Pinterest board and playlist for the book. (My theory is that you never know what will inspire people and you want your talent to give the best performance possible.)
Many studios offer research services for a fee, but I like to do it myself because no one knows the book or its characters better than the author.
Recording Process
This will vary a bit depending on who you use. For ACX, your narrator will have to submit the first 15 minutes for your approval. At that point, you’ll listen and offer any notes you have, both on general performance and on changes that need to be made (lines read wrong, things that are hard to understand, etc.) Once you both agree the first 15 mins are fine, your narrator will record the rest of the book.
How you do edits will vary. Serena and her producer upload files in batches so I can listen to them and get notes back to them on both performance and script variation. Deyan Studios is going to have me listen to dailies, which are the recordings done each day. They prefer that I give artistic feedback on the performance first, then once the whole thing is done, listen to it one last time to make sure it matches the script. Either way is fine with me.
There’s not a set time frame on how long this takes. You’ll need to negotiate with your talent up front if you’re on a firm deadline. (Personally, I find it best to work around their schedule.) My first book took three months from start to finish, but part of that was due to my narrator getting sick, both of us going on vacation, the holidays and then issues we had with the Screen Actors Guild paying Serena (they were slow). Ashley plans to record Been Searching for You in three days. So as you can see, it may be really quick or not.
Payment In ACX, once you agree you have finished product, you pay your narrator if you are doing an up-front fee. I don’t know how it works if you’re doing royalty share. My guess is that you reaffirm your agreement and move on to the next step. With Deyan Studios, I paid half the fee up front and will pay the rest when it’s done.
Distribution Congratulations, you have an audio book! After payment is confirmed by both parties, ACX does one final quality check and then handles getting it on Amazon, Audible and iTunes for you. It usually takes about a week for the quality check and another few days for the books to appear on Audible and Amazon. (My book still isn’t on iTunes, even though it came out at the end of January, but I hear they can take up to 60 days.) If you use ACX, they pay you on a regular schedule.
Whew! That should cover the process. I love it. Despite the cost and length of time it’s going to take me to make it back, I firmly believe that audio books are a sound investment in your career. They are the fastest-growing type of book and have been heralded by many industry experts as the wave of the future. It’s easy to see why: we’re all so busy, audio books let you read on the go, whether you’re in your car, on the train, cleaning house, working out, or whatever.
Someday I may do a follow-up post on marketing audio books, but I haven’t had time to put much effort into marketing mine yet, so that’s a subject for another day.
What questions do you have for me about the audio book creation process? I know I missed stuff. Shout at me in the comments and I’ll tell you what I know. Emmie has audio books out as well, so she may be able to talk about her experiences; I’m not sure what her process was.
Spellbound Scribes 