I do not over-intellectualise the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.
Tom Clancy
At the time I’m writing this, I’m going over the draft of Rogan’s Robbie.
Draft? Isn’t it already published?
Why yes. Yes it is.
The draft I’m going over is the audiobook format. There may be glitches that I have to find in the now gazillion chapters that I wrote. So I’m reading with my ears. And Excel.
I had decided long ago that if I had decent sales of my book which is in e-book and softcover formats (and available from your favorite online retailer), I’d take the gamble (in Vegas. Get it?) and have it published in audio format. Well, I’ve had decent sales – NYT Bestseller List is still a dream – so I took the jump.
Audiobooks are my favorite way to “read” most books. I can read while doing something mindless. Frankly, I suck at multitasking, but the closest I come to it is by listening to audiobooks while, say, cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, ironing, or other mundane household tasks. Sometimes, if a story requires my concentration, I’ll sit with a glass of wine or cup of coffee and focus on the story. Or if I don’t have time to do either of those, I will simply listen to music and put the book aside until later.
Naturally, I don’t like everything about audiobooks. Sometimes I feel the price may be too much. Well. I used to feel that way before I paid for my own audiobook. It’s not cheap, and now I understand, especially if you hire good talent.
My main gripe with a few audiobooks is if the voice(s) match the story. Are the narrator or narrators talented? Can they “act” the characters in the book or do they just drone on and on? Can you understand what they’re saying? This one is personal because there’s an author in the same genre who writes amazing books, but her narrator is pretty terrible in that she has an accent – which is nice but doesn’t translate to American characters – and doesn’t do male voices well. So I sit down to read her books instead because her writing is awesome.
While in the process of writing Rogan’s Robbie, I was also making a list of preferred narrators. I knew I wanted two: a man for the male main character and a woman for the female main character. These two also have to have the ability to do a variety of voices and “act.”
Did I find these otherworldly people?
You bet I did!
When I’m closer to publishing the audiobook, I’ll release the names of my crazy talented narrators. They brought my beloved characters to life! All of them!