I'm in the process of having Finally Home narrated as an audio book. I contracted Sienna Beckman as my narrator; the minute I heard her sample narrations, I felt connected and hoped she would be one of the ones who auditioned and would be able to do the book justice. Looking at her pictures, she almost looks like what I had pictured in my mind of what Kelly looks like, so I think definitely a good fit. I'm supposed to have the final version around the 2nd of April. I've already received the first 15 minutes, which turned out to be about 11 minutes' worth of narration and covered the first two chapters. I've listened and made notes following the manuscript that I sent the narrator and sent her a message with all my notations. I don't mind if she's not exact word for word but there are some places where she changed the wording slightly and it actually changed the context of the sentence. Sienna also has a podcast via her twitter
Once I get the full narrated copy, then it is back to listening, but I'm sure that will be a several day process as the final version is supposed to be roughly 6 hours' worth of narration, and making notes and hoping that there won't be anything major and can be fixed quickly. The process of going from print book or ebook to audio book reminds me a lot of that old Heinz Catsup commercial - "Anticipation - it's keeping me waiting" - I know if I want it done right I have to sit on my hands and wait it out.
In honor of going audio, I've taken Finally Home off Smashwords and Nook and placed it in the KDP Select program and have set up my first free day promotions in honor of tax day - April 15 and 16. I've also set up the second free days, May 31 through June 2. Hopefully this will help get the word out about the audio version of the book and that will lead to more sales.
See you all in the postings - E :)
5 comments:
Thank you, Elysabeth. I've been thinking of turning one of my Kindle books into an audio book. And your post today has helped me further along in my planning. May your new week go smoothly. :-)
Will you be turning your other books into audio books? Good luck with the waiting/editing process.
Roland, Thanks for stopping by. If you would like more information on the process for audio books, you can find some more information on the Writers on the Move blog (http://writersonthemove.com), posted on February 12. I'm also posting an update to last month's posting tomorrow.
Susanne, I haven't decided yet. I'm thinking about possibly my short stories and see how that goes but I don't know. Do you think I should put other stories as audio books? Were you thinking of the state books as audio? The reason I can think of not to do audio for the state stories is that they are illustrated and in the FAQs on ACX they say that books that are illustrated, reference books, picture books, and the like don't really make good audio books for that reason - the pictures can't be narrated. Let me know what your thoughts were on other books as audio books and I'll think about it. E :)
Yes, I was wondering if you were thinking of turning the state books into audio books. I can understand about the problems with illustrations.
When Finally Home is available as an audio book, it will be interesting to see how sales compare to print copies of the book. Have you started thinking about how you will be promoting the audio book?
I've claimed all my books but I've not gone further than that. Still debating about the state books as audio books. I think they can be done even though they are illustrated because my imagination for them is the game talking and the picture was just to enhance the clue. We shall see.
As far as promoting the book once it comes out in audio, not sure yet. There are several ways suggested on ACX and a good many of them I already do but I'm sure I'll come up with something outside the box for promotion ideas. I'll keep everyone posted as the book is released. Right now it's waiting time. E :)
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