Musings of Two Creative Minds

After our last entry asking about making other options available such as CD's and downloadable MP3 files of our books for audio, we've learned that if we go with Audible they have the "Exclusive" right to produce the audio. It also clearly states in the agreement that neither we, nor anyone else, can create audios of the books in ANY format.                                     And this does not just apply to us. At our local library we found some of Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" on CD. However, it seems they were all made before the books were transferred to Audible. Since then no new CD's have been made. Allan even went as far as to check on Amazon and found the only  CD copies available are used ones for the earlier books. There do not appear to be any CD's for the more recent installments of that series, only the Audible version. So what does that mean for us? That is whe...

Okay now that we've covered as much of the technical that I'm aware of, let's move on to a new topic, namely doing the actual reading aloud. Now the first thing I'm going to say is please do not make yourself sound like Ben Stein. Unless of course your book is about curing insomnia, in which case then you might make a bundle on the open market. People do not want to hear a lifeless dull monotone performance. You put a lot into your work to make it come to life on the written page. Now you have to bring that same life into your reading. Mind you I'm not saying you have to put together a full-fledged performance complete with sound effects, mood music, and an entire cast. But you do need to give your listeners an interesting and gripping experience. Try to get them caught up int he moment with your voice and delivery. But equally as important you have to make sure your speaking clearly, not too fast, nor too slowly. You need to enunciate properly so they don...