Quick Audible/ACX Update

As most of you know, Finally Home went up as an audio book the end of June.  The first week it went up, 5 copies were downloaded (Yay!!!).  This evening I went to do laundry and having not checked my mail all week, I went to the post office first.  Upon opening there was a large, oversized but thin envelope from Audible.com and I was thinking it was more paperwork that I might not have filled out, but no my first royalty check from audible for 5 downloads of Finally Home and 1 download of State of Successes.  Royalties are paid monthly as long as you have earned at least $10.  Since the first of July, I have had 2 more downloads of Finally Home and 2 of State of Successes, one of which I believe occurred today or yesterday as I haven't checked my ACX dashboard in a couple of days and the last time I looked there were only 3 total for State of Successes. 

For those of you who have downloaded the audio books, I thank you very much.  I hope you all enjoy listening to Sienna narrate the story.  Just a reminder too that there will be a second in Kelly Watson mysteries.  I'm workig on The Ties of Time and hope it meets your expectations.  E :)

One Week ACX Report

Finally Home has been live for 1 week now and there have been 4 downloads not including my own from using my credits.  Remember this is available on amazon.com as well as audible.com and itunes.  Hope those of you who have downloaded the audio book have enjoyed hearing Sienna reading.  Drop me a line if you have gotten an audio copy and let me know what you think. 

Just to let you know that when there is a second book, hopefully Sienna will be available to do the reading again.  Right now, I'm leaning towards The Mysterious Bookshoppe: A Kelly Watson Mystery and go from there.  This, of course, is a work in progress and may end up changing as I  progress, but I do know that the bookstore holds many mysteries, not of the book type though, perhaps of the ghostly type or some otherly world type.  See you all in the postings - E :)

Finally Home is Available on audible.com

A week earlier than expected, but Finally Home is now available on audible.com.  The email stated that it would go up on itunes and amazon.com in the next few days. 

If you are a new member to audible.com and make Finally Home one of your first three purchases, I get a little bonus.  If you are not new to audible.com and have the credits and/or would like to purchase your copy of Finally Home, it is retailing for $13.96 or 1 credit. 

It looks like I will have to use my credits to get my own books, which is fine, as I will then have them in my library and can play the sample file which is clearer than the download I did from the ACX site.  Please pass the word that my books are starting to go out as audio books. 

As stated last week, I have started a second Kelly Watson mystery, tentatively calling it The Mysterious Bookshop,  so hopefully by the spring of next year it will be available in all formats - ebook will probably be the first format and then print and audiobook.  When I have a title and cover, I'll share with you all; of course, I have to write the story before I can really think of having a cover made up.  See you all in the postings - E :)

Finally Home Audio

I've approved everything, gotten the cover for the audio books and now it is in the hands of ACX to finalize everything.  Here is what the audio cover looks like:

I'm trying to figure out how to add the sample audio file so that I can start promoting the audio version, but have yet to figure that out.  As soon as I do, the audio file will be on the sidebar of my blog.  Once you hear the sample file, how about dropping by Sienna Beckman's website and leaving her a note on what a great job she has done.

Audio books are available through amazon.com, audible.com and itunes.  So hopefully within the next day or two this will go live.  See you all in the postings - E :)

End-of-School Year Freebie

So here it is the end of the month and summer is upon us, although everyone is saying the beginning of Summer was last weekend.  If you haven't picked up your copy of Finally Home for you Kindle yet and would like a copy, this weekend (today, tomorrow and Sunday) you can download a copy for free.  If you like Nancy Drew mysteries and would like to try a new story on the lines of a Nancy Drew mystery or know a middle grade/young adult reader who is into mysteries and Nancy Drew, please direct them here for their free copy.  Hope you all will get your copy and enjoy the read.

The audio book should be up on amazon, audible,com and through itunes within a week or so.  See you all in the postings - E :)

Just Call Me Slack

It has been 3 weeks since my last post and I have no excuse for it other than to say that I have been slack all around.  I got a new computer in April and about 2-1/2 weeks later had to return it due to the fact that the scroll on the touchpad didn't work and the system was slow, albeit faster than what is in my dinosaur of a computer now, and apparently had the wrong operating system as nothing really seemed to work like it was supposed to.  I did notice there were some Windows 7 files on what was supposed to be a Windows 8 based computer.  Even wor tech support guys said the system wasn't operating properly and that I should take it back.  Now I'm back on my old laptop again and can't take it with me anywhere due to the monitor being broken at the hinges and the slightest movement causes me to lose my ability to see anything on the screen other than a bunch of lines, meaning I have to hibernate the old thing and then turn it back on to get my screen back.

So slack days should be over and I hope to get back to posting on a more regular basis.

UPDATE ON AUDIO BOOKS:  Finally Home has had the once over listen through (and yes, I was very slack when it came to going through the narrations) and I've sent some suggested changes to the narrator.  Sienna did a great job for the most part and as stated previously, if I were to pick a person to play Kelly or how I pictured Kelly, she would be the perfect fit.

State of Successes has been completed and I'm waiting on Heather to get the final cover to me to  upload that so I can finalize the production of that book.  It looks like the state books will be published audio wise before Finally Home but that's okay - all in due time.

I will probably submit the contract to Francene in June to work on State of Wilderness  next.  August will be State of Heights and September or October will be State of Nature.  I'm also looking into a sponsor for the state series to hopefully get them back on track, but more on that when I find a sponsor and the money is flowing in to pay the bills (Heather, printing, et cetera), which will p robably be posted on the JGDS blog when I have updates.

FAMILY NEWS:  Youngest son, who is now living with my parents and my oldest son, got his GED and has finally gotten a job, working in the same plant oldest son is but on opposite days (when oldest is working, youngest is off and vice versa).  The last I heard was when they get established a bit more they plan on moving out on their own.  I don't think it is a good idea due to the fact that my parents' aren't in any condition to really be left taking care of themselves; more or less, my father would have to take care of my mother (she is pretty much in an Alzheimer state) and himself (he has back problems and is having to use a walker to get around and possibly heading to wheelchair or some sort of hoveround craft to get around among many other illnesses).  I would prefer that my parents have someone around to help out but who am I to say what the boys will do in the next few months.  I guess when I go up there for the High Country Festival of the book next month (June 21 at Watagua High School in Boone, NC) I'll find out everything.  Daughter who had moved to West Virginia in November and back home in February finally got a job. She starts next Thursday for training and then goes directly to work at the store she will be working (training is in one town and store she will be working is in our county seat town).  So that is the best news for her since she has been without a job since moving back home and has been driving me nuts - constantly on the go and begging her  father and me for money all the time; I just hope she will be saving her money and not be on the go as much (working second or third shift, she won't have time to go galavanting all the time). 

School is out in Utah and I've not had any classroom visits with them in over a month and I miss them.  Taught my POV sessions and then they had state testing and worked on a project for the town and then end of year reviews and studying.  I look forward to working with the next group of students in the fall.  Just to let teachers and librarians know, I am available for school visits as per my website and I will do virtual classroom visits as well. 

Bring on the Summer and hopefully lots of good news to report and more books being published.  See you all in the postings - E :)

Finally Home ACX Update

I was supposed to have my final copy of the audio book of Finally Home last week but Sienna has been having some technical issues.  She assured me today it would be to me soon - within the next day or two.  Once I get the file, I will go through it to approve or make corrections and send to her.  If there are no corrections to be made, then I will approve it and release the audio version as soon as I can.  Waiting on the updated cover from Heather as well since there are some changes to be made for ACX so right now things are in limbo.

For the release of the audio book of Finally Home, I'll be offering the ebook for free on Kindle next week, April 15-16.  If you haven't already read it or purchased a copy, now is the time to get it for free.  Be sure to tell all your friends so they can get their copies.

Also, Anita and I brainstormed a bit after our Sisters in Crime meeting last week about some situations or stories for Kelly and Emma Louise and there are some things brewing, so I may have a few more stories to make them a series.  I'll add a tagline of "A Kelly Watson Mystery" to the new titles, and I guess I'll have to go back and eventually add that to Finally Home  but right now I'll leave it as is.  see you all in thep ostings - E :)

Audio Books and KDP Select

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 :)