So I haven’t posted for a while about audiobooks… because I was in Christchurch, NZ!
I haven’t managed to pull my photos off the camera just yet, but below are some pics of places I’ve visited in the South Island.
I shall post an update on-topic in a few days!
Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear
~ George Addair
I was so excited after buying the microphone that I registered an account with ACX so I could upload to Audible as soon as I had my book ready.
I read the terms and conditions. My jaw dropped.
Being from Australia, I can’t upload my audiobook.
Um… what?
In fact, I couldn’t select anything other than US, UK, Canada and Ireland. ACX, which feeds into Audible (which then feeds into Amazon and Apple), won’t deal outside of those countries. So generally, their world map looks much like this:
I stared blankly at my screen. Then I refreshed the page in my browser. The words stayed the same. I tried again. Nope, they weren’t going away. Damnit.
My brain kept going around and around the same information: ACX and Audible are Amazon companies. What’s the difference between an eBook and an Audiobook? They’re both digital files that can be uploaded from ANYWHERE.
The shock ran so deep it took me ten minutes to pull my brain out of that loop.
I’ll spare you the seven hours of grief I had as I trawled through all sorts of audiobook websites for a glimmer of hope.
Gradually, I learnt:
I promised myself if I found a way to get with Audible, it would not be a monogamous relationship. They’re all take, take, take with very little give. You can tell a lot about someone about how they treat you when they have the power.
Anyway, I remembered Draft2Digital and how they help put eBooks out for independent authors. I hoped they had the same thing for audiobooks. They didn’t, per se, but they were partnered with someone that did.
Oh boy, it’s only now I believe in love at first sight. Because their slogan – their SLOGAN! Their slogan is: “Your Audiobooks. Everywhere.” They have a reasonable fee as well, being 20% of the royalty share, so they get 1/5th of what you get, rather than taking that off the retail price (which wouldn’t leave you with much).
And as for their slogan… can they distribute your audiobook everywhere? Yes. Yes, they can. They deal as aggregates to everyone, including Audible, and even show what the royalty payout is for every company they deal with. Some are 50%, and you-know-who are 25% and there are others everywhere in between.
Most importantly, my little audiobook project can get the chance it needs.
The first thing I did was type “best microphone for audiobook” into Google. I kid you not.
I might have lost the advantage of an early entry into audiobooks in terms of sales, but my later entry gives me the opportunity to review what everybody else has done and pick and choose what’s best for me.
So the results that came up were a bunch of different microphones, but they all said “cardioid”. Okay. Now I’m imagining crooning a love song into a heart-shaped microphone and I’m pretty sure that isn’t what they meant… but its a starting point.
Along with the ‘cardioid’ keyword, I spied a few vlogs. So I clicked one and went down the rabbit hole of YouTube’s AudioBook Microphone Review land. I clicked and watched, and clicked and watched… well, you get the drift. I recommend doing this for yourself. Most review videos were between 4-6 minutes long and there were many available. Some reviews felt sponsored, but you still get all the specs and detail about them.
I believe the best vlog review was the first one I clicked because ‘Open Book Audio’ reviewed many different types of mics and explained the differences between them.
Eventually, I focussed on the RODE Procaster. Why? RODE is an Australian company (and I’m in Australia) and is a brand I’ve heard of. I then found a review that directly compared RODE’s Procaster and Podcaster microphones side by side. While the Procaster came out slightly ahead in quality, I decided that the Podcaster would be best for me. The reasons for that are:
I brought it home, played with it, then realised I was going to need the studio boom arm after all (that’s the thing in the pic above, it clamps onto the desk and will save me from holding the mic while I read). A quick drive and $99 later, I have all the equipment I need to get started comfortably.
Okay, so now you’re all caught up. My next post will feature the very nasty surprise that thankfully has a happy ending… but boy was I freaking out and railing at the unfairness of the world at the time.
Yes folks, the drama has already begun.
I’ve been thinking about producing an audiobook for a couple of years now.
While I knew pioneers were taking advantage of the early market in audiobooks, I wasn’t willing to put $4K+ of my money on the line when I had other outlets that cost me almost nothing to produce – the eBook.
But at the last Supanova I attended, where I sat at my table and watched a plethora of cosplayers walk by, a bunch of people milled around and asked me questions.
I have a sales thing where I try to answer “yes” to everything. But half of my potential customers asked me if I had an audiobook.
*stunned silence*
Um, no.
I was amazed at how many people asked. I didn’t think audiobooks would rise in popularity so quickly. I mean – eBooks didn’t take off that fast, but I guess everybody’s listening to podcasts and watching vlogs, so it’s a natural transition.
So… 2019 is the year I’ll be coming out with an audiobook.
Watch this space (subscribe/follow) for a step by step journey of everything I do as I drive down the beaten track towards AudioBook City.
*caution: some bumps are likely to be ahead*
‘Bright’ is available on Australian NETFLIX currently.
In my late teens or early twenties, I would have LOVED this movie.
Orcs, elves and fairies (the latter are better described as imps or sprites), are mixing it up with humans and evolving alongside them, and so there are cultural issues and self-imposed segregation. The brief premise that you’ll learn in the first ten minutes: an orc is the first one serving on the previously all-human police-force and is unwanted, mistrusted and disrespected.
There’s action, pursuit, fast pace, magical realism (that’s when fantasy and/or magic is accepted as a part of normal life) and a dilemma about who to trust. There are hints of depth and of a darker and more political world, and the ending has a conclusion.
The hints remain exactly that – just hints. The events that unfold are kept in a shallow stream so everything can be presented at a breakneck pace. There is very little time to peruse or consider the potential outcomes before they’re declared to the viewer. It’s done in a tidy way but this isn’t a thinking person’s movie. It remains firmly as an action movie defined by pursuit vs pursuer.
‘Men In Black’ had better story simply because they explored more of it.
Even the formulaic, almost generic ‘Independence Day’, that cringe-worthy love/hate-fest of stereotypical characters and incredible dialogue (and by incredible, I mean without credibility)… even that had more story. I shouldn’t compare 90s shtick with current movies because trends and styles change, but Will Smith is the trend between them.
If you like Will Smith, he’s doing his thing like a pro in ‘Bright’. It doesn’t feel forced, he still has impeccable timing and delivery and some of the one-liners hit the funny button pretty hard.
There are still moments where a scene feels unfinished. Perhaps it’s an editing issue? Some scenes felt like there was too much being left unsaid, yet others were too much on the nose, forcing information on us that I could’ve worked out by myself. If I’m going to sit through a quick bunch of newsreels and stills, I can figure out the implied hostility between orcs and humans without having a blatant locker-room confrontation to confirm what I saw about five minutes ago. That time would’ve been better spent developing story rather than using the ‘show’ rule twice.
I liked the presentation of how humans live VS orcs VS elves. I liked the over-friendly compensating try-hard quality of the orc who just wants to be a cop VS those who believe when it comes to the crunch, the orc won’t be a cop when it matters. I liked the use of graffiti to show political and historical events, it was cleverly done. I didn’t love that the elves were so vamp-like at times that I had to remind myself they weren’t vampires. After a very cultural and spiritual scene, necessary knowledge was revealed and the reason for keeping such a secret for that long was flippant and well past the ‘its time to reveal’ expiry. Bad writing, there.
Generally speaking, if you love the genre of paranormal urban fantasy or magical realism and/or you really like it when Will Smith is being Will Smith, then watch this movie. It’s not bad.
And that’s my verdict for now; ‘not bad’ because I’m twenty years out of my twenties and my tastes have evolved. I can talk for hours about ‘Ex Machina’ but ‘Bright’ ends here.
Peace out.
I am often asked this question. Readers (who aren’t writers) tend to just accept it – perhaps they don’t care to think about the process, just the end result. I love them for that – explaining myself is not something I excel at.
There are many co-written books, often marketed under a single name so it’s harder to tell which books have more than a single author.
Off the top of my head:
There are more, of course. Maybe another time I’ll write a proper list.
You only have to write half a book.
If you don’t want to or can’t write a scene, your co-author can either help you write it or write it themselves.
Character types immediately expand with a second mindset and creative viewpoint.
Deep POV for characters will feel dramatically different (this could also be a drawback depending on how it is managed).
You can bounce ideas off your co-writer, which is so much fun!
It’s a wonderful experience to have another writer completely understand a story in all of its complexities that you want to write. If you want to talk about your book or your character to someone who understands, they will ALWAYS get it.
Every move you make feels like you have a supportive player cheering you on. Writing a book doesn’t feel so overwhelming when someone is literally writing it with you.
Obligation and responsibility to write the book are great motivators. Slacking off is fine if it’s just you. When slacking off affects a friend and/or co-writer, that horrible anxiety will keep you honest.
Co-writing is built for outlines. Every scene is best plotted so you don’t go in different directions. Leave wriggle room for creativity in the execution but every scene and chapter should have an objective. A big change in direction or a wrong turn will set back months of writing for you AND your co-writer.
Control must be shared but one writer is best having the last word on the final pass, and that person should be agreed upon at the start. Whoever can assess writing while being emotionally detached from the book is the better candidate.
If the writing style is vastly different, the book won’t feel smooth unless you can combine it into a third style (or make the two styles work with different characters).
If you are friends with your co-writer before you took on the project, your friendship might end up becoming a project friendship.
If you can’t let go of your idea to embrace another writer’s idea AND are unable to assess which idea is better between the both (or more) of you, don’t co-write.
Money. If you and your co-writer are both writing with big dreams about earning an income from your writing, it’s always best to have a written agreement about how that money is split (especially if you’re going the indie published route and only one person is taking on the costs of a publisher). A 50/50 split is usually best.
Wow, it’s dusty in here.
A quick summary of my time spent away; I’ve written a couple more books towards the Wanderer of Worlds fantasy series. And using my imprint 1231 Publishing, I’ve actually published other writers in my first multiple-author anthology release, last year.
It was way cool! I got such a buzz from the end result.
It’s a quick story, about how and why I got started on doing this.
There is a group local to me who publishes anthologies and charges writers to appear in it. They use a process of submission, and if you’re good enough to get in, you win the rewarding experience of having to pay for a copy of the book your work appears in, when they launch it. It’s a compulsory purchase at full retail price, and–get this–they call it a ‘complimentary copy’. When they sell the books, the writers don’t see royalties.
That is so, freaking, wrong. The worst of it is the arrogance that the person organising this mind-fuckery actually believes they are helping writers! WTF? How demented is your world perspective that charging a writer for publishing their work is helping them? Don’t even get me started on the exposure BS.
When I challenged them out on it, I was told that they were covering “editing costs”. I asked who their editor was and what they specialised in. I was told that the organiser and his ‘committee’ of cronies (those who ‘judge’ the stories) were the editors. They work on the stories you see, and should be paid for their time.
SHOULD THEY? WHAT ABOUT THE FUCKING WRITERS, YOU DOPE?
So I decided that I would make my own damn anthology. I was limited by a tiny budget so I simply figured out a way where I could break even and set it up so that the writer could actually earn money for their story.
I set the theme (twisty turny stories), sent out word that I was doing this. My idea was:
Open submissions. No charges for submitting. Because, you know, I’m not an asshole.
Accepted stories would be published and the author would receive a complimentary copy of the book as their payment. An ACTUAL complimentary copy, not that weird one that requires a fee.
If they were interested in buying more copies of the book for sale, they would get a massive discount so they earned WAY more than I did for every book they sold. All I did was recuperate printing costs and earn about a dollar per copy for my time and organisation.
Those who didn’t want to sell the book didn’t have to – and for their effort, they received a free book with their story in it.
My requirement was that if they DID buy books for resale, they had to buy a minimum of ten copies. That made my printing requirements achievable and afforded me some breathing room for a launch.
I didn’t get many submissions for the first anthology. I had to hound my writer friends to submit. I took submissions WAY after the deadline just because I didn’t want 5 stories in the book. I worked hard to make sure it didn’t fail.
And I did it, I succeeded. I managed to get enough stories to fill 150 pages without stupid tricks like large font sizes and extra wide margins. 150 pages was my printing requirement to make the book thick enough to have adequate perceived value. I also broke even because the extra dollars I made on the copies I sold all went towards the launch catering (I use the term loosely, I bought stuff at Costco and set it all up myself). Everyone enjoyed themselves and I have the photos to prove it.
It was such a buzz, publishing other people and helping them not only to feel good, but to actually earn something (even if at the very least it would only be a little something) for their writing. I happen to know a few of them have gone on to sell copies, because a $10 book is a good price for market stalls and author events. I also know of writers who earned their money by selling to family and friends. So yeah, they earned a payment for themselves, and I gave them the opportunity to do so. Feeling chuffed about it.
That was Obliquity.
This year I’m doing Futurevision. This time I had more submissions and have ended up with more stories. The word is getting out. I’ve proven myself.
Next year I’ll theme it something else – something a bit darker, I think.
So yeah – if I hadn’t been appalled at the BS from this other mob and thought ‘there has to be something better out there’, then I likely would not have ensured that something better WAS out there.
And for me, it’s win/win… because I’m in the business of helping indie authors build their books for sale, designing covers, formatting e-books, beta-reading… these are things I do charge for… but I won’t charge a writer for writing.
What if instead of one world, there were many?
What if you were able to effortlessly travel between worlds?
What if visiting those other worlds meant someone would be sent to kill you?
If there was nothing but misery in your world… would you risk leaving?
Daeson of Cloverlea has the ability to know when people are lying. He thinks his gift makes life simple except he can still be deceived. Forced out of his home and lured out of his world, Daeson finds himself trapped in a city where he doesn’t understand the language and everyone is hostile.
Synjan Walker is a fixer. She’s the person relied upon to solve the problems that crop up in the criminal underbelly of Gredann. She is strong-minded, capable and loyal to a fault. If the Authorities ever manage to arrest her for her crimes, she wouldn’t go to prison but to a laboratory. She is a Wanderer Navigator and the Authorities would love to get their hands on her blood.
Hawke Aron of Donovan Court is destined for a mundane noble existence but his desire to rebel puts him in the sights of a rogue group of Wanderers. Torn from his home, he discovers that he has Wanderer blood too. By the time he learns to control his power, he is at the mercy of a more ruthless enemy.
The Authorities are innovators, technological giants and tireless explorers. They are the guardians and the gatekeepers, charging a fortune and enforcing a strict regimen for Interworld travel via their manufactured portal. Wanderers have no understanding of the biological warfare their illegal travel represents. Those who defy Authority rule will risk attracting the attention of an Authority Hunter – whose mission is to assassinate.
e-Book: Amazon : Smashwords : iBooks : Kobo
Paperback: Amazon : Barnes & Noble
Signed Paperback: DeliaStrange.com Online Shop
What if instead of one world, there were many?
What if you were able to effortlessly travel between worlds?
What if visiting those other worlds meant someone would be sent to kill you?
If there was nothing but misery in your world… would you risk leaving?
Synjan and Daeson meet by chance in the back alley of the Queen. Their short discussion reveals that they have been purposefully kept apart but to what end, neither of them know. Daeson spends the day at the Queen seeking information about Synjan while she infiltrates the Authority base at its most chaotic–minutes after a terrorist attack. They both make shocking discoveries that lead to the death of friends and Daeson has to reveal his Healer ability in order to save a stranger.
Once Hawke turns thirteen, he is considered mature enough to return to his home world on the proviso that he keeps the secret of other worlds. His sponsor, Cayden, acts as his guide and travelling companion and Hawke discovers that going back home isn’t what he expected. As his fourteenth birthday looms, Hawke is under increasing pressure to make a decision that will impact the rest of his life. He finds a way to exact revenge on those who’ve made his life difficult at Willets Academy, makes a connection with one of Cayden’s contacts and reaches out to Ellis.
When the Hunter arrives to join the chase, he finds his prey has already been captured but he learns something about the imprisoned Wanderer nobody expected. On return from his mission he takes the time to revisit the woman who’s haunted him for years… and realises he has a lot to say to her.
e-Book: Amazon : Smashwords : iBooks : Kobo
Paperback: Amazon : Barnes & Noble
Signed Paperback: DeliaStrange.com Online Shop
Strange Writer 