{"id":2184,"date":"2014-10-26T15:49:38","date_gmt":"2014-10-26T22:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/?p=2184"},"modified":"2014-11-06T20:37:37","modified_gmt":"2014-11-07T03:37:37","slug":"audiobook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/audiobook\/","title":{"rendered":"Why make an audiobook?"},"content":{"rendered":"

How we Write; a series of guest posts about the art, craft, and business of writing<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"SeymourHamiliton\"<\/p>\n

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Today my guest is Seymour Hamilton, author of the Astreya Trilogy<\/a>, an historical fantasy adventure in a maritime setting.<\/p>\n

Seymour and I have been discussing the pros and cons of audio formats.\u00a0 My novel,\u00a0Looking for Redfeather<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0 read by Aaron Landon,is for sale as an audio download from Audible.\u00a0 Seymour has taken a different approach with his audio format — he is giving away<\/em> downloads through Podiobooks<\/a>.\u00a0 Read more about his process:<\/p>\n

Should I make an audio version of my book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Short answer: Yes.<\/p>\n

Here are some reasons to record, then some of the decisions you need to make before you start.<\/p>\n

Reason #1<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reading (and recording) your novel is the best investment you can make in editing<\/p>\n

your work. As you read — and as you listen to the playback — you will notice infelicities<\/p>\n

in phrasing, awkwardnesses in order, accidental repetitions, purple flourishes,<\/p>\n

unconscious mimicking of other writers, and occasions when you are beating the<\/p>\n

dead horse of too much detail. You will be doing what good and great authors alike<\/p>\n

have done for centuries, and as a special benefit, you will understand what is meant<\/p>\n

by \u2018finding your voice.\u2019<\/p>\n

Reason #2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some people like hearing books as opposed to reading them. Some want to listen as<\/p>\n

they drive long, boring distances. Some are visually impaired. Some just like hearing<\/p>\n

someone read them a story. They constitute an audience that isn\u2019t served by print or e-
\nbooks.<\/p>\n

Reason # 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

People who listen to books sometimes buy them. The jury is out on how much this<\/p>\n

is true, but my preliminary analysis is optimistic: in the two months after Astreya:<\/p>\n

The Voyage South was available in podcast audio, sales of the physical and ebook<\/p>\n

improved significantly, some of the bump being sales of volume two of the trilogy,<\/p>\n

presumably purchased by people who wanted to know what happens next. Moreover,<\/p>\n

I received fan mail asking me when they would be able to listen to the next book in the<\/p>\n

trilogy.<\/p>\n

Reason #4<\/strong><\/p>\n

Audiobooks offer instant download, just like e-books, but with audiobooks, you can track<\/p>\n

where you\u2019re selling as well as how much. Podiobooks.com and its technical provider<\/p>\n

LibSyn provide detailed analysis of when and where your podcast version is being<\/p>\n

downloaded and read. I discovered that (as I expected) my major market was the US,<\/p>\n

then Canada, then the UK, New Zealand and Australia. However, I was surprised and<\/p>\n

delighted to find that I also had listeners in Norway, Germany, and a long list of other<\/p>\n

places including (!) Thailand. Why? — My guess is the ex-pat community of people who<\/p>\n

speak English in countries that don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

OK, you\u2019ve decided. What\u2019s next?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before you start, you should know that you are about to invest time (for sure), money<\/p>\n

(a little to a lot) and effort (above and beyond what you have already put into your<\/p>\n

completed manuscript).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sell or Give?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Decide whether you want to sell your audiobook version, or give it away. I give mine<\/p>\n

away, free. Podiobooks encourages listeners to \u201ctip\u201d the author. So far I\u2019ve received<\/p>\n

nothing, but I\u2019m encouraged by Reason # 3, above, to believe that far from hurting<\/p>\n

sales, my audio version is encouraging them.<\/p>\n

You can make your audiobook available through your website, but you need a server<\/p>\n

\u201cbehind\u201d your site. At SeymourHamilton.com you can click on podcasts of my books,<\/p>\n

chapter by chapter and either listen, or download to listen later. The recordings<\/p>\n

themselves are not on my site because that would cost far too much beyond the cost<\/p>\n

of standard site, because there is no \u201croom\u201d on most sites to store, provide access and<\/p>\n

manage the recordings and the accessing needs of people all over the world. You need<\/p>\n

a specialized sound service such as SoundCloud or Podiobooks. Podiobooks.com<\/p>\n

specializes on books. Its servers contain and manage, my books and many, many<\/p>\n

more by authors old and new. Podiobooks offers people in search of free audiobooks a<\/p>\n

\u201cbookstore\u201d where they can browse, knowing that they will find an acceptable technical<\/p>\n

quality of recordings and the electronic delivery thereof. Behind Podiobooks is LibSyn,<\/p>\n

the server\/technical service, which is system of servers \u201cwhere the recordings are\u201d and<\/p>\n

where I go to find constantly updated statistics on how my books are doing.<\/p>\n

Free is fine, but on the other hand, who can argue with a royalty check? However,<\/p>\n

before you go to an on-line company that will pay you per download, consider both your<\/p>\n

percentage of the take, and your up-front costs. There\u2019s a saw-off between a turnkey<\/p>\n

approach wherein you send someone your manuscript and wait for the money to roll in<\/p>\n

(don\u2019t hold your breath); and taking control of the process in one of more of the roles of<\/p>\n

producer, reader and technician.<\/p>\n

Cost\/Quality decisions: Hire a reader or read it yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are lots of out-of-work actors out there who would love to read for you — at a<\/p>\n

price. Don\u2019t decide only on the basis of how the actor sounds to you — still less on<\/p>\n

how he or she looks. Work \u201cblind\u201d by email, listen to recording samples. Have the<\/p>\n

actor audition by reading a page or so of your book. Insist on credentials, preferably<\/p>\n

in podcasting, radio or voicing animated cartoons. Find out if he or she is sufficiently<\/p>\n

qualified and experienced to do the electronic technical work. If not, either get yourself<\/p>\n

a producer or do the sound-editing and processing yourself.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, do it ALL yourself. The cost of recording at home is low. You need<\/p>\n

a quiet room and a good microphone — not just the one that comes in your computer. I<\/p>\n

use a Blue Snowball for around $200. A friend loaned me a more expensive mic, but<\/p>\n

it was so sensitive that in the context of my reading, it was like putting a gold link in a<\/p>\n

copper bracelet. Software to record and process is free-to-inexpensive. I use Audacity<\/p>\n

to record and Levelator to process, both of which are free.<\/p>\n

Recording your book takes time. A lot of time. I\u2019m on my third book and getting better,<\/p>\n

that is, more efficient, but I find that every hour of completed, published podcast of 45<\/p>\n

minutes to an hour requires at least five hours of recording, editing and processing at<\/p>\n

my desk with a microphone and my trusty MacBook Pro.<\/p>\n

Caveat: this isn\u2019t my first rodeo. I acted in plays at school, was subjected to singing<\/p>\n

lessons, did free-lance work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in the 70s, and<\/p>\n

lectured at universities about Dead English Poets for more than 20 years during which I<\/p>\n

always read the poems out loud.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now go back to Reason #1<\/strong>. Whether or not you go audio, decide to read your book out<\/p>\n

loud into your computer, and then listen to what you have recorded. Once you get over<\/p>\n

the fact that your voice sounds completely different from what you\u2019ve been listening to<\/p>\n

for years while you were talking, you\u2019ll find that you have a secret weapon for improving<\/p>\n

what you write. So, read what you write BEFORE you send it away to be published! If<\/p>\n

nothing else, your descendants will be able to hear you reading your stuff, long after you<\/p>\n

are no longer punching away at your keyboard.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Seymour<\/p>\n

Seymour Hamilton<\/strong> was born in 1941 during an air raid on London, England.\u00a0 After the war, his family moved to Mauritius for three years, where he was home schooled, and read books by Ransome, Kipling, Henty, Marryatt and Slocum.\u00a0 In 1949, his family moved to Canada, where\u00a0he remained, apart from trips and holidays and one horrible year at school in England. \u00a0He studied English, because he liked reading, which led to a BA, an MA and Canada’s first PhD on Science Fiction. He spent half his working life as an English teacher at Canadian universities from east to west coast, and the other half as a writer\/editor for government and industry.\u00a0 He retired in 2005, and by 2011 completed The Astreya Trilogy, which features\u00a0a mysterious inheritance,\u00a0sailing ships, treacherous relatives, night escapes, knife fights, secret passages and a long voyage to a lasting love.\u00a0 The Laughing Princess, twelve stories involving dragons, was published in 2012 and a translation by Jessica Knauss,\u00a0La Princesa Valiente a year later.\u00a0 A new edition of The Laughing Princess, illustrated by Shirley MacKenzie, appears in time for Christmas, 2014.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
You can listen to him reading his books (free!) at\u00a0Seymour Hamilton.com.<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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