fbpx
Menu

Audio Books

herd of mustangs

6 Great Tips for Writers Today

, , , ,

Research on my iPad. 1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton

In these new and different times, most of us have needed to use our imagination for things besides dreaming up intriguing characters and compelling plot lines. When I started my prequel to my Loyalist books, no libraries were open. No historic sites were open and no bookstores were open. My speaking gigs were all cancelled with no more being booked.

My life had drastically changed.

Here are some of the decisions that have kept me sane and able to write:

  1. The first and best decision was to put aside the new book about the one-room schoolhouse I attended as a little girl. This was a new genre for me and I waffled between writing a children’s book, a young adult book or an adult memoir book. When COVID-19 came along I realized my need to write what I know and not to reinvent myself; hence, my as yet unnamed prequel to the Loyalist trilogy. To date I have over 45,000 words written and the book is coming along well. And so am I.
  2. I soon realized that as much as I wanted to be informed about what was happening during this world pandemic, I had to spend 99% of my day NOT steeping my brain in the non-stop facts and factoids being spewed my way by various media. I thought about the influenza disaster during WWI and realized we have much more information coming at us today than they did. In some ways this is good. We can learn about the pandemic, the disease, and the ways to protect ourselves very quickly. The trouble comes when we allow the negative stories to take up all of our time. Our peace of mind disappears. That happened to me. Until I stopped watching the news, started working on jigsaw puzzles, spent the mornings in my office writing and started calling people I knew were alone and helping them in their loneliness.

    I finished 8 puzzles of an artist’s beautiful paintings.
  3. Rather than focusing on the things I couldn’t do, I began to look for alternate ways to fill the rest of my day (after my writing mornings). Prior to COVID-19, I had just finished recording my fourth book as an audio book. With my technician I got the files ready to send to ACX. This turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. With my previous 3 books, all on Audible, the process was quite speedy and only slowed down when I had not done something just right. With this book I thought I had straightened out the learning curve and I guess I have but I am still waiting to have my files approved  and it is about 3 months since I started this. Part of this was my fault in the beginning. My file was finally ready for them to review 3 weeks ago but I do not expect that to happen soon. Another writer friend of mine says it took 2-3 months for several of his books. These days, I log in and check but, so far, I keep seeing Pending Audio Review.  Feel free to check out my first three books in audio format!

  4. Though I love doing library research, I found that online research could work well. One thing needed was to always cite the source on any material I printed out as I know the day will come when I write that Sources I Have Used section at the end of this book. Giving credit for others’ ideas is important, especially in this world where shysters, thieves and others try to use writers’ works. I spend part of every month sending Cease and Desist notices to people who try to steal my books and sell them on their sites. There is also a case pending in Canada where certain credible institutions are using writers’ work for nothing. This is stealing and I sincerely hope that the higher courts stop this practice.

    Pages of research (and sources) that I’ve been excited to find on the Internet.
  5. Finally, I’ve been doing more reading of other authors. My bedside table pile has shrunk considerably, to the point where I will soon have to replenish it. A lot of my books I get from my daughter who shares my love of reading. I take her books and she brings me books. That practice is difficult just now as she lives on the other side of the country and we cannot visit. Thank goodness for FaceTime! I just wish I could send her books by using that platform or a similar one.
  6. The final thing that is helping both me as a person and in my writing is that my husband and I get out in the car whenever we can. We are careful about self-distancing–I even had to hold up my hand in traffic cop mode to stop a young lady from invading my space in a busy store one day. She just had not been thinking. She did stop immediately and I was able to leave the store without feeling compromised. I take pictures with my iPhone–thank goodness for phone cameras!–and concentrate on our beautiful world. Spring came late this year where I live but has been so much more appreciated because of it.

    A lovely herd of mustangs a few miles from where we live. Gorgeous!

Keep reading and writing or doing whatever is your special thing!

 

 

 

The Ultimate Author Reading—An Audiobook!

, ,

Elaine:  “Can you hear me?…Jack?…Are you there?”

………

Jack:  “Elaine?…We can start now….GO!”

Elaine:  “Chapter One………On October 15, 1979, Ron Calhoun received a surprising call…”

On December 10, 2019, I sat in my good friend Jack London’s recording studio and we started to work on my fourth book. We had already recorded and posted with ACX Audible the three books of my Loyalist trilogy and I was anxious to put this one in the can as well.

In the photo above I am sitting in the tiny sound booth, my iPad open to The Man Behind the Marathons resting on the music stand before me and all connected to headphones in front of a great mic. The room is cosy this night, the little heater silently warming me as I sit on the high-backed stool and immerse myself in the story.

My iPad sticks magnetically to the metal music stand so that we don’t have to worry about me dropping it to the floor. A fresh water bottle is waiting for me when I arrive each night, and I take sips often to keep my voice lubricated. We take breaks when needed.

I’m excited. Jack is, too. We both know the drill. He runs the recording equipment, a bank of screens and squiggly lines that he somehow understands exactly how to operate.

I sit in the studio and try to keep my thoughts focused on the words before me. I imagine I’m performing at an author reading. There are real people out there and–ever the entertainer–I put life into the voices of the different characters and the narrator who is telling this wonderful story.

I keep self doubts at bay by remembering how audiences seem to love my reading; in fact, one librarian told me that, when I had left them one night after a reading, everyone agreed they could listen to me read the whole book! That gave me the courage to record all of my books myself. My hope is that listeners will have an extra bit of enjoyment knowing that the author is doing the reading.

Here is Jack posing for the photographer before we start the actual recording one night. You can see some of his recording equipment but certainly not all of it.

Jack is a singer/songwriter himself as well as the owner and master of his recording studio. He’s a little like me that way. When he wants to do something he just figures it out and goes ahead. He is a tireless worker and quite the perfectionist, both as a singer and a technician. He hears every little snuffle, strangely pronounced word, motion of my foot on the stool, clearing of the throat and I don’t know what all. And he stops me. He wants the recording to be perfect. It is Jack’s voice you hear doing the intros etc. on all of my audio books. Have a listen. It’s the most mellow sound you’ll ever hear!

A great big thank you always goes out to Jack!

In this final photo we have set up the shot to show where we both are during recording. Of course when actually recording, the sliding door is closed tightly and the sound muffling curtains are closed. I am shut into my booth and no sound gets in from outside. That is what makes the recording so clean. Thanks to my husband, Ron, who took these shots before one of our recording sessions a few weeks ago.

There are other ways to get your books out on Audible which, by the way, is connected to Amazon so that your audio books are listed as options just as Kindle ebooks are. Here is one of my books (The Loyalist’s Wife) where you can see that.

Audible and ACX are connected so that when you want your books on Audible, you go through ACX. You can upload your own files or you can search for someone on their site who will read/record your book for you. Apparently you can hear demos but I’ve not done this. Choose whichever way makes sense for your situation.

My message to other authors and performers is obviously that you may very well be able to do this. Of course there is a cost and I’ll let you talk to your audio person about that. For the listener having the author read her own books is kind of exciting people tell me. That coupled with my desire to live up to that old 4-H motto I learned so many years ago–Learn to do by doing–has helped me through much of my writing journey.

The Man Behind the Marathons audio book will be coming in the next weeks. In the meantime here is a link to my trilogy audio books on Amazon. Notice that if you are a new Audible member, you can get your first book free! Pick mine, please! And don’t forget to write me a short review on Amazon and Goodreads.

fob from Beth

Motivation: Staying Positive to Reach Your Stars

, , , , , ,

Potential For Greatness Fob www.pyrrha.com

Over the past twelve years, I’ve learned a lot about the writing world at conferences in large cities, at various writers group meetings and sitting right in my desk chair in front of my own computer. My journey has taught me to mostly count on myself and to always be true to what I want, to what I need and to what I am continually seeking.

One of the things that has helped me along the way to launching the three books of The Loyalist Trilogy and very soon  The Man Behind the Marathons is using positive thinking. Oh, I do experience those middle-of-the-night doubts as most of us do, but I’ve learned to recognize them for what they are–my subconscious wanting to have a bigger say in how I lead my life. No way should we ever let that happen.

Early in my writing journey my adult daughter sent me a wonderful gift. She sent me the same necklace (pictured above) that she bought for herself, so I suppose it’s no surprise that today she is writing her first book and plans to have the rough draft finished by the end of June. Here is the descriptive note included with the necklace:

Potential for Greatness: The oak tree is an emblem of strength, endurance and prosperity. The acorn signifies potential, power and luck.

What a rewarding message that was when I was starting out and still now as I am launching my fourth book. I come back to it over and over.

Another positive message I have on my desk is my coaster for my water glass. As you can see it’s been with me long enough to be stained and worn but I rely on this message. I’ll never toss it out into the garbage. This quote from 19th century writer, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) means more and more to me as the birthdays pile up.

You might think I put this one in just for a laugh. “She shines in beauty” might have been more apt a lot of years ago, but this mug was a gift from my nephews when they were very young. It tells me about my name, mostly, but also makes me think of all the people who love me. This is a certain mood lifter!

On the top of my credenza my mother, as she looked a few years before she left us, reminds me to always do my best. She was a perfect role model, a woman who gave her life to other people and taught me and my many siblings to do the same. I only wish she were here to see and read my books as she was a voracious reader; she died before I started down this wonderful journey of writing so she never knew about this joyous writing path I’ve taken. Reading was one of the things we loved to discuss. I treasure the books I got from her library after she died; it’s like a little of her essence is on them still.

When I was talking this post over with my daughter, she told me about this message on her desk: Say no to everything that doesn’t make your heart sing. What would our lives be like if we did that? Staying positive would be a lot easier, I think. After all, we are meant to be happy, or didn’t you read The Secret?

Because I’ve learned to keep my focus on my dream, I’m looking forward to my new book launching in June.

Note: The title became The Man Behind the Marathons: How Ron Calhoun Helped Terry Fox and Other Heroes Make Millions for Charity.

I’ve spent the last two years interviewing Ron Calhoun and writing three drafts of this book. It’s creative non-fiction so that was a new type of book for me. Writing this has been a struggle at times but, overall, a really great experience. I learned so much about Ron Calhoun and each of the journeys he masterminded. I also learned a lot about creative non-fiction and the nuances it allows the writer to put into a true story. Very cool.

The launch is in June. More about that later. For now here are my three books from my Loyalist trilogy. Seeing them completed and out in the world as print, electronic and, most recently, audio books helps me keep going on those difficult days. They are another positive influence, helping me reach my own stars.

Click to purchase on Amazon.

 

 

The Loyalist Trilogy Audio Books

What I Learned On My Audio Book Journey

, ,

The Loyalist trilogy audio books, about those settlers who opted to stay loyal to Britain during and after the American Revolutionary War and who found their way to Canada, are finally available for the world to hear.

The Audio Book Journey

Once the books were available in print and in Kindle and Kobo e-books, I started thinking about audio books because of the number of people who told me they could not see well enough to read any more. They needed to listen to audio books. The mother of one of my friends was just waiting for me to get the audio books on the market. Unfortunately Elsie passed away before that happened.

I also noticed the huge numbers of people driving to and from work every day. Often as not they are caught in traffic jams on major highways. Add to that our delight in listening to books in the car when traveling and I recognized an awesome market just waiting for new stories. Why wouldn’t I take part?

Two and a half years ago I started recording in a local studio right here where I live. My musician friend was keen to embrace this new technology and he already had the studio and equipment for his music business. (Jack is a fabulous singer who records his own songs and sings John Denver and Glen Campbell legend concerts.)

The first book took about four months to record. I had lots to learn and Jack had to fine-tune his equipment. We suffered through motorcycles revving up on the street outside so loud they permeated Jack’s insulated studio. One night a train several blocks away spent about ten minutes shifting back and forth and Jack’s sensitive equipment picked it up. We had to wait again. And summer lawn mowers played havoc with our recording times and, one night, a thunder storm stopped us completely.

Click for Amazon listing.

For all of those interruptions, most of the time our sessions went off smoothly. I had a water bottle to keep my voice from getting too husky, Jack stopped me whenever he wasn’t satisfied with what he was hearing and I kept my pen in hand to mark something that needed to be changed in the revision of that first book. (It seemed a perfect opportunity to fix the few errors that had been driving me crazy whenever I was out doing an author gig. Ah, the life of a perfectionist!)

Finally Jack presented me with a thumb drive and a number of CDs containing my audio version of The Loyalist’s Wife. I learned about ACX Audible and tried to get my book up on their platform. Oh. I live in Canada and they only took work from authors in the US and the UK. Never mind that Canadians could buy Audible’s books here. We authors just couldn’t sell.

I tried to do a work-around and got my nephew and niece to let me use their US address, but then the IRS became the problem. Finally, I just concentrated on recording book two, The Loyalist’s Luck, and writing book three, The Loyalist Legacy. Believe me, my days were full enough. I figured I’d find another company to host my audio books.

Click for Amazon listing

None of my author friends were spending any time recording audio books. The only authors who were seemed to have big organizations behind them. I concentrated on my newsletter, my website, my speaking gigs, and even took a flying leap into screen plays.

Jack and I finished recording book three in August, 2018, but a couple of weeks earlier I had noticed an article in the newspaper where my daughter lives in western Canada. Audible was coming into Canada. That got my attention. My husband and I came home and I went to my last recording session with Jack bearing that newspaper article. Such a good omen just when we were almost done the third book.

In the third week of August I logged into Audible ACX and uploaded the first two of my audio books. Then we went on holiday for a couple of weeks, expecting to get the go-ahead when we returned.

My Inbox was a disappointment, however, as book two was accepted and placed in ACX’s production queue, but book one was rejected. I immediately forwarded their email of technical mumbo-jumbo to Jack. This started a series of back and forth correspondence between us and ACX as we tried to figure out what they needed. Apparently the volume we’d recorded at was not acceptable. That was strange because it was exactly the same volume as book two (that they had accepted). Jack emailed them for clarification.

Finally, after 2-3 weeks of silence, I found the phone number for their company and managed to speak with a real person. He was very helpful and did his best to solve our communication problems and I grew to love listening to his southern drawl as he and I talked. We figured out that their production people didn’t want to talk with Jack as he was not the person whose book it was. He had no standing in their eyes. I sorted that out very quickly and we got the third book uploaded. By this time the second book had sold a copy!

Click for Amazon listing.

Another week or two went by and I got the longed-for email. Book three was in the queue and had been accepted. In a week or two it would be up on Audible, iTunes and Amazon. Meanwhile Jack was adjusting the levels for Book one in real time, a lengthy process. Finally I got the flash drive and uploaded it. Oops, one of the files was missing. (You have to give them a five-minute sample as well as opening and closing credits.) Jack emailed me the missing files and I added them to my project on ACX, crossed my worn-out fingers and pushed Send.

Since my books were accepted out of order I really couldn’t move ahead with advertising and finding the markets for this new venture. It did not make any sense to advertise without having the first book ready. I did a lot of thinking about it, though, and even a little research on just where I could sell audio books. Last week I got the notice that the first book had been accepted and would be available on all the sites in a week or two. I was ecstatic! And just this Friday morning ACX informed me that The Loyalist’s Wife is up on Audible, Amazon and iTunes.

Takeaways From My Audio Book Journey

  1. Audio books are well worth pursuing as only about 5% of books are made into audio books. That means the competition for readers/listeners is much less stiff.

  2. Depending on the market for your books audio books can be more or less appealing. My historical fiction market appeals to middle-aged women for the most part. It also appeals to those drivers to and from work.

  3. If you’re going to try this, do it sooner rather than later.

  4. Don’t be afraid to do your own recording as I did but only if people tell you they “could listen to you read the whole book” as one of my library groups did. You have to have a bit of the performer in you.

  5. If at all possible, when you are stumped by the online instructions talk to a real person.

  6. Don’t expect to get through this journey without flat tires and running out of gas.

  7. But just as you wouldn’t walk away from your car because of one of those misfortunes, don’t run from your project. Keep at it! You will succeed.

Of course, if you still prefer to hold a book in your hand, try these.

Click on the Loyalist Trilogy books below for great historical stories with satisfying endings:

Back To Top