Tag Archives: writing

My publications, Writing

Making an Audiobook – Author point of view

It was three years since the publication of Enemy Immortal, and I had not seriously considered making an audiobook because my research in 2019 showed that making audiobooks cost two to four thousand dollars and up. That changed in early 2022 when I heard a podcast from The Writing Coach about a zero-cost way to make an audiobook. The answer was ACX, where you can publish an audiobook on Audible, Amazon, and Apple for zero cost by giving half the royalties to the narrator.

You can do this—however, it may not be the best option for you. But I’m getting ahead of my story.

I put my book up for auditions on the ACX website. I had to provide a list of chapters, genre, blurb, payment options and price range, desired narrator characteristics such as gender and accent, and a sample of the book for the narrator to read. In my case, I posted a three-page audition text of selected passages to show multiple characters, including some alien species.

That was enough to start auditions rolling in, but I also browsed samples by narrators and solicited auditions from several low-to-medium-cost narrators who perform science fiction and whose voice and style I liked.

This brings me back to payment options. For zero down and 50% royalties, I would get a first-time narrator who is trying to build their portfolio. The auditions showed these folks still had a few rough edges in their performance. However, for a superior performance by an established narrator with a following of their own, I’d have to pay $200-$400 PFH (Per Finished Hour—part of the new lingo I learned). For a twelve-hour book like mine, that’s the $2,000-$4,000 price range, which was above my budget.

Fortunately, there is a middle ground for up-and-coming narrators with experience, but still learning. (Sort of like my cohort of up-and-coming writers!) I found a moderately experienced narrator I loved (A. C. Oliver) who would work for a modest PFH payment up front plus half the royalties. The extra expense is worth it to me because I want to project a quality image for my author brand, and A. C Oliver’s renditions of alien voices are phenomenal.

I made an offer. Offer accepted. Now the production process began.

First, I sent the narrator a longer (15-minute) sample text with more alien dialog. After a couple of iterations, we agreed on character voices that I thought projected the right personality and attitude of each character.

Next, he performed each chapter, and I did something akin to line editing whereby I listened carefully for mispronounced or dropped words. He made a few minor corrections, and we had the finished product.

Meanwhile, I had to upload a square audiobook cover—like for a CD. I knew enough Photoshop to do this myself from the source file for the book covers, so no problem—except that when I tried to upload the jpeg, ACX had an additional requirement. They wanted me to leave the lower right-hand corner devoid of text so they could slap on an advertising promo if they so desired. Rearranging the text to meet this requirement was actually the hardest part of making the audiobook cover since the cover needed to look balanced with or without the ACX promo, but I managed.

I gave the final approval and paid the narrator. AXC did a quality review and then published our new audiobook on Audible, Amazon, and Apple. Whoo hoo!

But, as with any book publication, the job is not done yet—time to market and promote.

One useful thing from ACX is that they provide you with free promo codes to give away to reviewers or as freebies in marketing campaigns.  

Another great thing about audiobooks is that the narrator will (ideally) do his/her own marketing, reaching channels you might not otherwise.

In the end, I was happy with the audiobook creation process for Enemy Immortal, and I am already working with A. C Oliver on the narration of Umlac’s Legacy. Look for our next audiobook release at the end of August!

Science, Writing

Unblocked AI

Recently, I was a beta user for Unblocked.ai, a writing aid that uses the CPT3 open AI interface to write fiction based on a sample you feed it. In other words, it writes the next paragraph for you. Sort of. Read on.

Not knowing what to expect, I first tried using the tool to write a complete short story on its own. Mega failure. The text meandered around randomly–the AI did not understand plot. Writers are in no danger of being replaced by AI.

But in all fairness, that’s not it’s advertised use. I was in the early stages of writing of Vishnar’s Revenge at the time, and I felt rather insecure in writing romantic relationship scenes, so I used the AI to help find my way through.

What worked best was to get three or four possible continuations of a scene from the AI. Then I picked the one that fit the plot and characters the best and edited in the specifics my book called for. For example, the AI might say “Captain Zernox interrupted with a message from the White Mages,” and I might edit it to “Zephyr interrupted with a message from Hoargrim.”

I will say that the AI has the appearance of a good general knowledge of common fiction tropes and general knowledge. For example, it pleasantly surprised me when it returned a cogent explanation of dark matter.

But frequently it supplied certain tropes that I avoid, like magically sensing and controlling things by thoughts or telepathic contact. I wish I could give it some world-building facts so it didn’t include everything from however many millions of books it trained on.

That said, there are plans to have the AI be more genre-specific, which might keep some elements of fantasy out of my science fiction.

So get ready. A new type of tool is coming to the writing toolbox. We can add AI-written paragraphs to grammar and spell checkers.

But if you hate the auto-complete function in your email, which “predicts” what you will say based on probabilities in a few million emails, this AI might not be for you.

That said, unblocked.ai delivered on its promise of getting this writer unblocked several times and I will be sure to subscribe when it comes out of beta. This website is still in closed beta, but one way or another, I expect this genre of software to be in common use soon.

Events, My publications, Personal, Science Fiction, Writing

Workshop Mania – 3 writing workshops in 4 months

I’ve been extremely busy with writing workshops the last few months. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the writing workshop process, it usually involves (1) writing madly to get your submission in shape and send it in, usually about a month before the workshop, (2) reading and critiquing the manuscripts from all the other workshop participants, (3) going to the actual workshop and getting your writing beat up by guest professionals and the other participants, (4) fix up the story based on the critiques you received at the workshop. (The rewrite (4) can be done right away or put off until later.)

Sasquan

In late August, I attended Sasquan (WorldCon 2015) in Spokane, Washington. Sally and I made this trip into a vacation, visiting our son and daughter who live in Oregon and Washington State the first part of the week, then going to Spokane. Under a black cloud of smoke from nearby forest fires, I received writing critiques on the opening to my book, Enemy Immortal, from pros Mark Van Name, James C. Glass, Laurel Anne Hill and fellow participants. The main take-aways were that my book got off to a slow start (too much setting up) and my synopsis seemed to pack an awful lot into one book. I rewrote the opening and submitted the new version to the Sail to Success workshop in December (more on that later).

ICON
ICON – Cedar Rapids, Iowa

In October, I attended the writing workshop at ICON in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There I received writing critiques on my short story, “Jubilee,” from fellow participants and met with guest speakers Joe Haldeman, Anne Leckie and Tamara Siler Jones. The main critique was that I needed to do more to develop the romance between two of my main characters.

At ICON, the workshop participants also gave short public readings from their works (typically a different work than was critiqued). I read from the opening of Enemy Immortal (revised version). Unfortuantely I had a cold and had to cut my reading a little short. In any case, thanks to Brent Bowen from the Hugo-nominated Adventures in SciFi Publishing, who recorded this session and has released it in his pod cast. I am the last reader on Part 1.

SpaceRangersSmall
Adventures in SciFi Publishing – Part 1

 

Adventures in SciFi Publishing – Part 2

 

 

Sail to Sucess

 

 

 

 

In December, I attended Sail to Success, a writing workshop aboard the Norwegian Sky cruise ship. While cruising the Bahamas, I received writing critiques on my short story “Collisions” from Nancy Kress and on Enemy Immortal from Baen editors Jim Minz and Toni Weisskopf. I’ve updated my stories based on these critiques and they are off to the publisher’s slush piles.

Phew!  After this marathon of workshops (including a fourth, Paradise Lost, last May, which makes 4 workshops in 9 months), I plan to slow down the pace, but most likely I will workshop at this year’s WorldCon in Kansas City. I’ve also volunteered to be presenter on a panel in the KC WorldCon, so I hope something interesting comes of that.