Managing Audiobooks

 In addition to my own audiobooks, I have also managed them for several of my clients. They are time-consuming but fun to work on. It is different to hear your words spoken by others. As an author, I often see something unexpected when someone else interprets my stories.

My first venture into the world of audiobooks was Ghost Writer back in 2015. I was fortunate to get a very good producer off the bat. The producer is the narrator of the book. This is NOT just a reader. The person had to have the right tone and be able to act out the story using only her voice. Jean’s audition sounded perfect. We have since worked together on three other books, and I am currently working with her on another. She has agreed to produce the last three of the romance anthologies.

The next audiobook was The Memory Keeper. We actually started this project in 2014 before Ghost Writer and had several people audition for it. The person we chose was a teacher born in Wisconsin who lived in the south. However, we wanted the story told by someone who had a slight Spanish accent. This was also a challenge because we had several Native American (Acjachemen) words. Aaron worked very hard to get them just right. The effort was worth it because we ended up with a terrific audiobook as a result. This one took quite a while to complete.

Aaron went on to record Larry’s short story collection, Lakeview Park, as well as the first two books in his sci-fi series, The McGregor Chronicles.

Our memoir, 31 Months in Japan: The Building of a Theme Park, proved to be a major challenge. It contains Japanese words, and we really wanted two people to produce it. I had worked with a couple on the terrific recording of our friends Leonard and Luanna Rugh’s book, Promises Kept: How One Couple’s Love Survived Vietnam. (They were technologically challenged, so I took care of the production process for them.) We waited for the producers to complete the Rugh’s book before they started on ours.

When they were about thirteen chapters in, I suddenly had no contact from them. They did not answer emails and wouldn’t respond to messages on Facebook. After a year, we gave up and cancelled their contract. (I still don’t know what happened, but the guy got a divorce, and his subsequent posts on Facebook were a bit strange.)

We tried putting the book back out for audition with little success. The couple of people who auditioned could not pronounce the Japanese words correctly. Finally, we found Andrew. He had lived in Japan for a year and aced the language. After a long wait, this one was finished in 2018, and we are pleased with the result.

In the meantime, I had edited an anthology of short stories set in Hawaii called Passion, Paradise, Murder. I worked with a wonderful producer on that audiobook. So, when it came time to turn our mysteries into audiobooks, I turned to him.

Since he lives on Maui, Paul knows how to pronounce all the Hawaiian words. He recorded Murder…They Wrote and Murder in Paradise, and we are delighted with them.

By the time we were ready to record The McGregor Chronicles: Book 3 – Alien Invasion, Aaron was no longer available. So, we hunted for another producer. We found one we liked very much. He did about nine chapters, then we didn’t hear from him for quite a while. When we did, he wrote that he had been in a serious auto accident and could no longer manage the recording. We were sorry for him and wished him well. So, the hunt began anew.

Finally, Dan auditioned. He was truly the answer to our prayers! He had a warm and engaging voice, and we have enjoyed working with him. Our most recent audiobook is The McGregor Chronicles: Book 4 - Kaùsan’s War.

A fun experience was working on the production of our grand-niece’s YA fantasy novel, A Wolf’s Magic. This book was published on her twelfth birthday, so we needed a young-sounding voice for it. We were lucky to get Traci, and she did a fabulous job!

 In addition, I have managed the production on several other audiobooks for my clients, and I’m currently working on two more for them.

 Audiobooks are challenging, both for the author and for the producer, but they are also very satisfying when they are finally completed after all the hard work!

 Do you listen to audiobooks? What do you look for in an audiobook?

Audiobooks

I just finished working with the producer (voice actor) on the audiobook of our book, Murder...They Wrote (Agapé Jones Mysteries). We are awaiting approval from ACX on the release. It should be available soon.

Now, nine of our books are completed. The producers (voice actors) don’t just read the books. Instead, they act out the characters to bring them to life.

I worked with Paul Janes-Brown on a Hawaiian anthology I edited several years ago, Paradise, Passion, Murder: 10 Tales of Mystery from Hawaii. He did a great job on that one, and I was thrilled when he agreed to do this one. He lives in Hawaii and knows the Hawaiian pronunciations. He also enjoyed Agapé. All proceeds for Paradise, Passion, Murder go to Read Aloud America.

I also worked with Tracy Arlene on the audiobook for Savannah Angel’s A Wolf's Magic, published on Savannah’s twelfth birthday. Tracy had the perfect young voice for this YA fantasy.

I just started working with Jean Ruda Habrakovich on the romance anthology Snowflake Secrets, the first book in the Aspen Grove Romance Anthologies series.

She recorded ...And a Silver Sixpence in Her Shoe (Book 6 in the series). I loved her voice on this one, and the sample she recorded for Snowflake Secrets is dynamite.

We have some codes for free audiobooks on Audible. If you’d like to know more, let us know.

31 Months Goes Audio

I am currently in the process of creating the script for the audiobook of our memoir, 31 Months in Japan: The Building of a Theme Park.

I find it hard to believe how much I’ve forgotten!

We published the book in 2005 from lots of source material, collected during the construction of the Universal Studios Japan theme park.

I saved all the emails we sent home from Japan during our time there as well as other emails sent to and from the team. When we wrote the book, we used much of the material to present an accurate picture of our adventure.

Reliving those experiences fifteen years after park opening has been a great deal of fun. I’ve laughed and cried and been transported back to the actual events. I have also mourned the colleagues we’ve lost in the interim.

Although I remembered most of the events, I had forgotten the details. Reading them again transported me back to the great times in Osaka.

We wrote the book for ourselves, and also for the team (American and Japanese) who made the park a reality. Seeing it again, when we returned five years ago for the tenth anniversary of park opening, made me thankful to have been a part of its construction.

When we published the book, we thought only our fellow team members would be interested in it. However over the years, it has continued to sell.

People doing business with the Japanese and expatriates living in Japan discovered it. For a number of years, it was on the Forbes recommended reading list.

People going to Japan to teach English also found the book and recommended it to others. Interest spread through word-of-mouth, and books have sold in Australia, New Zealand, England, and Canada as well as in the US to these teachers.

Since it is the only book ever written about a Universal Studios theme park, junkies like us have been attracted to it. The title appears on several theme park aficionado sites.

We are excited about it appearing in yet another form. We are also considering doing a second edition with a chapter on our return to Japan ten years later.

This period in our lives is certainly a highlight, mostly because of the wonderful people we met who remain friends to this day.

Arigato gozaimasu, Universal and Japan, for giving us the sweet gift of wonderful memories.

31 Months in Japan: The Building of a Theme Park is available in paperback, hardback, and ebook through www.Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble (www.bn.com), as well as other online books stores and through our website, www.lornalarry.com. The audio version should be available later this year through www.audible.com and Amazon.

More About Audiobooks

 Read all about the process of making our audiobooks.  I was interviewed on the Library of Erana blog. I also talked a bit about our terrific producers, Aaron Miller and Jean Ruda Habrukowich.  Stop by and read all about it here: http://tinyurl.com/nl5v269

And read about doing research here: http://tinyurl.com/npw7y8y 

Adventures in Audiobooks

My first audiobook just came out this week, and I’m thrilled! ACX (now owned by Amazon) made it pretty easy to do at no up-front cost.

I first checked with my publisher about the project, and she was completely behind it. She said she’d wanted to see how the process worked. However, for several of our other books, the publisher owns the audio rights, so we are unable to create audiobooks for them.

ACX is like a dating service for authors (rights owners) and voice artists. Authors can choose to record their own books, but professional equipment is required. The final book is reviewed to make sure it meets ACX’s standards.

Here’s how it’s done:

1.   Create an account and add a book. Then designate how you want to record it.

2.   If you choose to use a vocal talent (producer), indicate your book is available for audition and upload a selection from the book.

3.   When you receive an audition, listen to it and decide if this is the right person to read it. We had three auditions for our three books. Two were fabulous, but the third wasn’t a good match. (Even she agreed.)

4.   Once the sample is approved, negotiate the payments. In the case of both our books, we chose to split the royalties, but it is also possible to agree on an up-front payment to the vocal talent. The royalties on the audiobook then belong to the author. (We agreed on a royalty split with both our producers.)

5.   Create a contract. This spells out when the first fifteen minutes of the book and the final book are due. Both parties must agree.

6.   Provide the manuscript to the producer. And wait.

7.   The producer creates the first fifteen minutes of the book for approval. The process is one of dialogue between the parties.

My book, Ghost Writer, is set in Laguna Beach, California and contains quite a few Spanish words. The ghost has a pronounced British accent. I had to correct the pronunciation of a couple of words, but her voicing of the ghost was spot-on.

The producer for The Memory Keeper had me on the third sentence with his pronunciation of San Juan Capistrano. He used just a hint of accent, and the correct pronunciation rolled off his tongue as if he had lived here at the time of the book. However, we threw him lots of Spanish and Acjachemen words as well. We located an expert on the Luiseno language, who recorded a guide for the producer to use. This book took longer, in part, because we have had to discuss how certain words are pronounced.

8.   After the first fifteen minutes are approved, the producer has time (usually several months) to complete the recording.

9.   Meanwhile, the cover art has to be addressed. ACX requires a square image, but it cannot have any colored borders or frame. The book cover is rectangular:

The CD cover must be square. So it took some work in Photoshop to create the one for the CD, and some of the cover art had to be eliminated:

     10.   Finally, the producer began to upload the chapters. I reviewed each of them and found a few minor issues. A flurry of correspondence took care of the problems.

11. At last, we both agreed on the final version. Then we waited while ACX reviewed the project.

12. After a couple of weeks, they approved the audiobook for sale, but it took another two weeks for it to appear on Amazon.

13. Now we wait to see how many copies we sell.

I’m excited because I have several friends with macular degeneration who have not been able to read our books. Now they can listen to them.

Ghost Writer is now available and The Memory Keeper should be finished in June.

Do you like listening to audiobooks? When and where do you listen to them? Please let me know if you have listened to the book and how you liked it.