Creating An Audio Book - "The Case of the Running Bag" a Jonas Watcher Detective Adventure


In The Begining...

I had considered reading my own book, and I may yet one day, but I just don't have the time as a new author. That is a bit of a stretch to say new author, I have been writing for over forty years. I have only been actively writing mystery novels since 2014. Actually they are better described as detective adventure novels circa 1930. Getting into the world of self publishing was a decision based upon expediency. Egotistically I believe I write novels that are worthy of publication and I have had a number of professionals that agree with me. Since I am an old fart I decided to publish on my own. But what does that have to do with reading my own book? As a self published author I thought I might produce audiobooks of my novels all on my own. As I said, I dont have the time. More on that later.

Life As a Self Publishing Amatuer

Jonas Watcher looking over the sholder of his creator
Make sure you grt this part right!
Currently I have three books on Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, iTunes, Kobo and other internet sites.
The first book, "The Case of the Running Bag" was originally published in 2014. I spent some time trying to figure how to market it, while I was writing my second book, "The Case of the Bourbon Street Hustler". The second book was published in 2015. I focused upon paperbacks, because that is what I knew. I like reading a book in my hands and although I created eBooks, I ignored any attempt at marketing them, because I didn't know how. I had some minor success with paperbacks, but the truth is unless one is published by a major or minor recognized publisher, the paperback market is limited to what one can peddle on their own. No way to make a living. Unfortunately, in 2015 I was still focussed on paperbacks and writing. I started "The Case of the Jade Dragon" that summer and published it the next spring.

With three books under my belt, I thought I might get some recognition, wrong! 2016 brought a jewel into my life, actually two, though both would probably want to be refered to something other than a piece of carbon that has been under preasure for a couple of million years. Peter and Pete came into my life about the middle of the year. Peter is a Copy Editor and much more, and Pete is an excellent Narrator who works through ACX. While working with Peter he discovered a class in DIY authors learning how to market their books. While I am just starting the course I am learning how to focus on the eBook marketplace. I will have more about that in later posts.

The one big move for me was to look into how to create an audiobook. Peter introduced me to Pete and I provided him with a copy of my first novel in the series. He liked it and said he would be happy to take it on as a project through ACX when he finished his latest project. I looked into ACX while I waited for Pete to be available.


ACX Does Make It Easy

http://www.audible.com/pd/Mysteries-Thrillers/The-Case-of-the-Running-Bag-Audiobook/B01M0M306Q/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1475305608&sr=1-1
The Case of The Running Bag
I don't know if there are any other sites to create audiobooks, but I am sure there are. ACX is pretty simple and in a couple of areas that are not very intuitional it is easy to contact them and get the information to create an audiobook. You can use a narrator/producer or narrate it yourself.

You can arrange to pay your narrator a flat fee of you can do royality sharing. You get a fifteen minute test run which you can work with the narrator so it sounds the way you want. Afterwards the narrator will complete the final product within an agreed to timeframe. When the narrator finishes you get to review the final product and approve it or again work with the narrator to fix so that you get the product you are looking for. Communication with your narrator is really important. I was lucky. Pete grasped the narrative at the get go and while we talked a bit about the book, he and I were on the same wave length.



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