Thursday, April 21, 2016

Creating an Audiobook

Recently, I decided to investigate releasing my novel, The Hero of Gucci Gulch, as an audiobook.  Frankly, it's something I never thought could be possible.  I imagined the process as being too expensive, or something I'd have to narrate myself with equipment and skills I don't possess.

Still, I came across an invitation from Audible.com to check out their service, called ACX.  I was surprised by what I found.  First, there are tens of thousands of what Audible calls "producers" willing to narrate books, far more than there are books ready for narration.  Second, while you can certainly pay high fees to have your book read by a well-established producer, you can also arrange to pay for narration by splitting the royalties obtained from sales on a 50-50 basis.  If you are able to negotiate that kind of arrangement with a producer, it makes the whole project affordable and, hence, feasible.

ACX allows you to specify the kind of voice you want for your book, including gender, age, regional accent and voice quality in a wide range of  types.  This is very helpful in letting producers know what you are looking for and narrowing down the potential producers from the thousands available.

So, I signed up (free) and created a profile on ACX and uploaded a short piece to be used by prospective producers for auditions.  ACX then notifies me when their auditions have been posted and I can listen to them and decide which is right for my book.

So far I've received three auditions and am expecting at least one more in the next couple of days.  I'll wait a week or so, then select the one that seems best for my book and start negotiations on terms, that is, whether we can agree to split royalties or whether I need to pay a per hour of narration fee to go along with that.  My book is estimated to be 8.1 hours long when narrated and I offered to consider payments of $50-100 per narrated hour.

I have some work to do yet.  I'll need to make notes for the producer on the pronunciation of key words and on the accents I want for key characters.

What will this do for sales?  Frankly, I have no clear idea.  But given that Audible.com is very popular and publicizes its offerings well, I'm hoping that sales may be good, even if the asking price is low.  In any case, it seems to me that it's worth taking a shot at it.

Have you written a novel or a non-fiction book that's suitable for narration?  If so, I encourage you to check out ACX at acx.com

Sunday, April 10, 2016

My Book on Handplanes in the Woodshop Released!

My newest book, Choosing and Using Handplanes, has just been released.  Intended for the beginning and newer handplane user, its 90 pages include nearly 100 color illustrations.  In this book, woodworkers will learn:
  • The types of handplanes, names and functions
  • The first planes you should get
  • How to set up and adjust your planes
  • How to sharpen your plane blades
  • The kinds of sharpening stones
  • The different bevels you’ll want on your blades
  • How to hold your work for planing
  • The body positions that work best
  • How to determine the direction to plane boards
  • How to plane cupped, bowed, and twisted boards
  • How to plane end grain
  • How to buy and restore old planes
  • How to store and care for your planes
  • Sources of new and used handplanes
  • How to solve handplane problems
Choosing and Using Handplanes is now available from Amazon and CreateSpace.

For woodworkers who are hankering to learn how to use handplanes, I think they'll find this a useful guide.

I used CreateSpace to publish it, which automatically also posts it to Amazon.com.  It's a very easy way to publish.  It only requires a properly formatted pdf file.  I chose a glossy cover (which I photographed and designed myself) and color interior on white stock.  The photos and drawings (nearly all of which I made myself) reproduced quite nicely; the color was faithful to the originals.  I'm very happy with the result.  Now my attention is focused on marketing it to the thousands of woodworkers around the world!

Norm