Richard Levesque

Over the last two years, I have become a fan of audio books. They’ve saved me more than once, keeping my stress level down as I battle the traffic on my daily commute through three Southern California counties and a few freeway interchanges. What used to irritate me is now no big deal thanks to audio books. Closed lane? Tanker spill? No big deal. Those “problems” just mean I get to listen to another chapter before making it home or getting to work.

So I guess it only made sense that I’d start exploring the possibilities of transforming my own books into audio format. I’ve seen other authors talk about doing it themselves, and I toyed with the idea. People tell me I have the voice for it. But I don’t have the expertise or the studio space or the time or the quiet. There are enough aspects of the writing game that I’ve gone the DIY route with. Recording my own audio books just isn’t going to be one of them.

And because of that, I let the idea reside on the back burner, taking on a low priority as I worked on marketing, writing, blogging, teaching…and commuting.

A few months back, while reading through posts in a Google+ writers’ community I belong to, I saw another member’s post about strategies for expanding his audience. There are LOTS of these kinds of posts, and most don’t lead me to any new ideas, but this one did. One of the people who responded was a voice artist, Steven Jay Cohen, who mentioned that ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange), another arm of Amazon, offered a variety of ways for content creators to connect with audiobook producers, including a path in which there was no money paid upfront; instead, any royalties earned are split between the author and the voice artist.

I was intrigued.

Following some links, I found Steven’s website and discovered that he liked both noir-style narrative and science fiction. Better yet, the noir sample he’d posted was from Neal Stephenson’s Snowcrash, one of my favorite books.

I was even more intrigued.

It wasn’t long before I’d signed up at ACX and launched the project, letting Steven know I was doing so.

The process was simple. I put up a sample of the book and prospective narrators recorded an audition. I listened, chose Steven, and then followed through by posting the full manuscript. Once Steven and I agreed on dates for the work to be completed, I just needed to sit back and wait for the magic to happen. He had the hard part then.

There were a couple of little things I needed to involve myself in. When writing the book, I hadn’t given any thought to how it would work as an audiobook. In the novel, characters wear iyz, a device that’s a few generations ahead of Google Glass (something I thought of before Google launched their product). It’s pronounced the same as “eyes,” but if Steven just pronounced it that way from the get-go, listeners would have no idea of the spelling or the difference between a character’s iyz and eyes. So I needed to write a few extra sentences in which the jaded narrator denigrates the hipster spelling as part of the eyewear computers’ popularity. There were a few other things that needed clarification for the audio version, and once that was done, Steven went to work.

About a month later, I got an email from ACX–the files were ready for my approval.

Now the fun really started. It’s hard to explain how fascinating it was to listen to my book read back to me by a professional voice artist. And not just read back. Steven performs the book; he embodies the narrator, Ted Lomax, and all the other people Ted encounters–his daughter Amy, handicapped hacker Philly,  f-bomb dropping renegade Sonny Ortiz, and more minor characters than I can mention here. Perhaps the funnest part was hearing Steven’s inflection bringing different meanings out of the narrative and dialogue than what I’d intended. It’s the same book…but it’s enhanced now, kind of like some of the characters in the novel.

Once I approved the audio files, they went to review, and then the book went live, where it is now.

Steven put together a nice sample video and posted it to Youtube. Have a look:

Overall, this has been a great experience. The book is out now, and I’m just waiting for reviews to come in.

If you enjoy audio books–to get you through your commute or whatever the reason–head over to Amazonor Audible and have a look. And if you’ve never tried an audio book, why not start with this one?

Thanks for reading.

Like what you see? Please share!

Pinterest

Twitter

Tumblr

Facebook