Audiobooks - Why Has It Taken Me So Long to Publish?

 

I have been a writer for more years than I like to remember. Let’s just say I’ve been scribbling for decades. I’ve won major book awards and published eleven books, nine fiction and two nonfiction, and a lot of people like to read them.

I publish both paperbacks and eBooks, so why has it taken me so long to think about audiobooks.

Well, when I say I hadn’t been thinking about this, it is not actually true. You see, I have been thinking about turning my books into audiobooks for quite a long time. I even at one point tried to narrate my own audiobook.

How difficult can it be to narrate my own book?

Now, as you know, I have a technical frame of mind, even to the extent I build my own computers. So, the technicalities of producing an audiobook weren’t beyond me. However, my confidence in the narration side of things was a totally different matter. So, although I narrated one book, I never had the courage to upload it. I had to think of my other options, and that was when it became difficult.

Job done - the computer build is finished

So, apart from doing it myself, what are the other options? Only two spring to mind:

• 1)    Pay a narrator to narrate the book; quite a costly exercise, particularly if you have several books and want to finance the audiobooks from the money you make from your business as an author. And believe me, unless your name is Stephen King or JK Rowling, you don’t make that much money from writing. Most authors don’t even earn the minimum wage from their writing.
• 2)    Or enter into a royalty share deal with a narrator, which is the cheapest way to do it. But, of course, you then have to split the royalties you earn from the audiobook with your narrator, plus it ties you to ACX for seven years, and it was that last bit I baulked at. I never like to tie myself to exclusive contracts. I prefer to go wide even though Amazon and Audible are the major sellers of books of all kinds. I just don’t like to be tied down. That was probably the main reason I parted from my traditional publisher as well. I prefer my freedom. Freedom to make my own decisions, whether they turn out to be right or wrong.

Several years passed after I first thought about producing my own audiobooks and it was always the cost which got in the way. And there was no way I was going to finance this with a loan. I have an abhorrence of debt!

Then Covid struck, and we all went into lockdown. All my conferences were cancelled so I had fewer expenses. Conferences can be quite costly each year, particularly when you frequent the bigger ones, like Crimefest at Bristol, Theakston’s at Harrogate, Bloody Scotland at Stirling, and the CWA conferences. You can spend a ton of money going to all of these and now I had an excess of funds going spare, so you can guess how I invested them.

Yes, you are right. I found a lovely narrator, Angela Ness, and got my first audiobook commissioned, closely followed by the next two. So, now I have three audiobooks on sale and waiting for my readers, or should I say listeners, to find them. And I’m saving up to get the next one done.

In the end, it wasn’t too difficult to make this decision. I had far fewer expenses by staying away from my usual conferences and I didn’t miss them as much as I thought I would. As a result, I’ve sworn off conferences until I make all my books into audiobooks so that my readers/listeners can reap the benefit.

In conclusion, I’m glad I took the leap into audiobooks and if you happen to have an unused Audible credit lying around (hint, hint), it would be great if you gave my audiobooks a try, and don’t forget to let me know what you think of my narrator.

Until the next time.

Chris Longmuir

Website

Amazon author page

Audible author page

 

 

Breaking News - Val Penny has Written a New Book

 

Most of you who know me are aware that I’m an avid reader. I gulp books down like there is no tomorrow, and it’s no wonder because at the last count, I had 1,422 eBooks in my Kindle and 133 audiobooks lodged in my phone and I daren’t count the number of paperbacks and hardbacks that seem to be holding up the walls of my house. I’ve never been really good at maths but even I know I’ll need several lifetimes to get through that lot.

That makes prioritisation important when selecting my next read, and that means I turn to my favourite authors first. And, when one of my favourite authors publishes a new book that tends to increase my stock of books to get through and I never know whether to cheer or cry. All I know is that I’ve got to get it.

So, why am I telling you this? Well, it’s simple really, Val Penny has just published her new book The First Cut and I really, really want it.

If you would like it read it as well, you can buy it at Amazon

Here is the blurb to The First Cut and I’d lay bets it will whet your appetite.

It's hard to escape a brutal past.

A vicious killer is on the loose and victims include an academic and members of Edinburgh's high society.

DS Jane Renwick is banished to the sidelines of the case and forced to look on impotently when the hunt for the killer ramps up, because the Murder Investigation Team finds out that the killer is her relative.

Has someone from Jane's birth family returned to haunt her? Is one of her relatives involved? Where will the killer strike next?

This gripping police procedural is set in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The exciting novel is the first in Val Penny's new series of Scottish thrillers.

Edinburgh

Now you’ve had the taster, here is a wee excerpt:

“Don’t know that name, but there’s nobody else here right now. I’m working. Please just go away.”

He felt the blow of dismissal, like everybody had always dismissed him. How dare they? How dare he? This foreigner didn’t even belong here. None of them did. None of them deserved the time of day, never mind the air they breathed. He would soon stop all that.

He smiled and took a few steps into the room.

“What you busy with? It’s late to be working.” He walked around the desk, took out his blade, and punched it into his victim’s carotid artery with practised precision. He dragged the blade across the neck to slice the artery, a quick second slice to make sure, but the first cut was the deepest. He made no errors, no mistakes. There was no hesitation. His victim stared at him, clutching his throat as the life blood ran out of him. All over the desk, all over the laptop computer, all over the important work that had required his dismissal. The blood sprayed over the desk, spattered the bookcase and into his mouth. That tinny, metallic taste he had come to enjoy. He would need to wipe his face before he left the room. It was a lucky break that he had a packet of tissues.

He smiled as his victim held his neck, the struggle, the gurgle, the death rattle of the man who tried to hold the life sustaining liquid in his body. They all did that. Again, ridiculous. It would never work. Not for long. It splashed through his fingers and onto the floor. That carpet hadn’t been up to much before, and it wasn’t worth shit now.

The man flopped over the desk. He wondered if that action had broken the laptop. Not that he really cared, the computer would come with him anyway. He grimaced. Having to rummage through the bloody pockets to get the phone was nasty, but he didn’t want to leave anything behind. Good! Got it first time. A decent one. It would get a bob or two.

He chuckled as he thought how confusing this would be, because this one didn’t fit with the profiles of the other victims at all. It wasn’t possible, this one had nothing to do with anything. Maybe it was a good thing he had missed her. Good name he came up with too, Joy Tuesday. Pity nobody would ever know or be able to share it. Poor Policeman Plod. This one would make no sense, yet they would have to make it fit.

He left as quietly as he had come, laptop under one arm, phone in his pocket, bloody blade in his belt. Then he saw her, the right fucking woman, whatever her name was, he couldn’t remember now because of the excitement. The green flash at the front of her hair was quite endearing. This evening, she had had a lucky escape, but he would be back.

Edinburgh Castle

And if you don’t know Val Penny, here is a wee bit about her:

Val Penny

Val Penny has an Llb degree from the University of Edinburgh and her MSc from Napier University. She has had many jobs including hairdresser, waitress, banker, azalea farmer and lecturer but has not yet achieved either of her childhood dreams of being a ballerina or owning a candy store.

Until those dreams come true, she has turned her hand to writing poetry, short stories, nonfiction books, and novels. Her novels are published by SpellBound Books Ltd.

Val is an American author living in SW Scotland. She has two adult daughters of whom she is justly proud and lives with her husband and their cat.

 Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll take my leave. I have a new book to read.

Chris Longmuir

The First Cut by Val Penny

Chris Longmuir's Website

Chris Longmuir's Amazon Page

I Lost a Good Friend when Eileen Ramsay Passed Away

 

It was with great sadness that I learned Eileen Ramsay had passed away. Among the many Scottish writers that I now rub elbows with, she was my first friend in the writing community. That was way back in 1989. And she was a good friend who provided me with a great deal of encouragement to embark on my own writing career, but I was not the only writer she helped. There were many others.

Eileen led an interesting and varied life. She was born in the southwest of Scotland and had ambitions to write from an early age. However, like many writers before her, she decided this was an unattainable aim and became a teacher. Once she qualified, she left Scotland to teach in the USA for a year and stayed for 18 years. Her pupils were the children of famous people and politicians, and she was employed by Senator McCarthy and his wife in 1968 to tutor and care for their children while they were away campaigning on the presidential trail.

Eileen always refused to write about this time of her life and the people she knew and worked with, but I loved her little anecdotes, like the time she was travelling in a limousine and had to sit on Dustin Hoffman’s knee because there were too many people in the car. Eileen was a very attractive lady, and I’m sure Dustin must have enjoyed having her perched on his knee.

Apart from this, she spent time in California and Mexico, as well as Washington DC, and she always had a deep affection for Mexico.

On her return to Scotland, she taught in Dundee for several years and wrote novels at the same time. Her routine was to arise at 4 am to write before starting work. She always told a story against herself about her decision to do this. At a conference she’d heard a famous writer say that was how she worked so Eileen thought if she can do it so can I. It was many years later when in conversation with this writer she found out that she had been joking and she had never risen as early as that to write. But it worked for Eileen because she published many novels over those years. To say she was successful is an understatement. She wrote historical sagas and romances under her own name, and novels set during the second world war under the pseudonym of Ruby Jackson.

During her writing career, she won many awards, including both the Scottish Association of Writers’ Pitlochry and Constable trophies and the Romantic Novelist Association’s Elizabeth Goudge Award. She was on the committee of the Society of Authors in Scotland for six years, four of which she served as secretary. She was also vice president of the Scottish Association of Writers for several years and was the Chairman of the Romantic Novelists’ Society between 2015 to 2017.

Over many years, we attended and shared a room at a variety of conferences, and I still treasure the book she signed for me which said ‘My pyjamas are nicer than your pyjamas’. I shall miss her.

Eileen and Chris at SAW Conference at Crieff Hydro

I pay tribute to Eileen Ramsay, a very talented and successful author whom I am proud to have called a friend.

Chris Longmuir

Website

Amazon Author Page