Musings of Two Creative Minds

My first 'Voice Actor' performance "Forever's Too Long" is now available as an unabridged audiobook, exclusively through the author's webstore.  You have a choice between MP3 Downloadable Zip File for $12.99, or if you prefer available as a 4 CD set for $20.00 (which includes shipping).                        This book has already been earning rave 5 Star reviews both locally and internationally in audio, paperback, and e-book forms: 5.0 out of 5 stars - Well-crafted and hard to put down  Reviewed in Canada on November 12, 2019  Format: Paperback  "Relatable characters, evocative scenery, and engaging dialogue make this book a lot of fun to read..."  5.0 out of 5 stars - A Great Twist  Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2019  Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase  "This is an interesting take on both hard-boiled mysteries and urban fan...

Finally heard back from ACX. Two issues came up. I didn't leave enough "Room Tone" (silence) at beginning and end of every chapter. They want .5 to 1 second of silence before first word spoken, then 1-5 seconds of silence after last word spoken. Easy fix. The other issue, I included the closing credits and the last chapter in one file. They wanted them separated, another easy fix.  Otherwise, they had no other problems with the files. Volume, clarity, technical requirements of the audios themselves, all of that was fine.  I will be making these corrections, if I haven't already dealt with them on my own. After that... still going to follow our own path at this point and make CD's and downloadable MP3's from our websites.  and  Why? Because Audible has an "exclusive" clause that says only they get to produce the audios, and they do not make CD's. They only produce Audible versions, and as we've been told ...

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...

While waiting for Audible to approve/reject our submission, we have heard back from a number of people who say they don't do Audible. Some prefer CD's because they cannot afford Audible's monthly charges. So this got me an Helen thinking about offering CD's even if Audible accepts our books. We are also considering the fact that some people cannot afford Audible but also don't have a convenient CD Player these days, or may prefer audio files for storage. For them, we are thinking about selling MP3 audio files that people can order from this site so they can download the entire book into their own device of choice. So please take a moment and let us know which of the following options that would be of interest to you. We are simply seeking feedback which would be a huge help to us in deciding what path(s) to take as far as making our audios available to people, so your responses are VERY important to us.  NOTE: you CAN vote for more than one option from...

CAN YOUR HEAR ME NOW? Everyone knows that typing in all caps means the person is yelling/screaming at you over the internet. Naturally, most folks will tell the user to please lower their volume/tone as no one likes being screamed at. This is even more true when it comes to a person listening to an audiobook. If the narrator telling the tale is too loud or too soft it can really take the listener out of the story and annoy them to no end. And don't expect good reviews on Audible either. I've seen reviews that praise the story but tear into the performance with a vengeance. This in turn can ruin your chances to be hired to do audios of other peoples' books.  So today we're going to get into volume and consistency in our recordings. Now if you're renting studio space and have someone else doing your editing, you're probably going to be okay. But if you're like me and doing your recording in the comfort of your own home/studio, as well as taking ...

New Year's is a time for reflection and looking ahead... or so I've been told. My first thought was "I didn't really get that much done this year. I don't have much to say or show for it." Then at the urging of Helen I pulled out a pen and paper and started making a list. The results surprised me.                                              I created not one but three book covers. This is the most art I've done in one year in I don't know how long. Two of them were of course for Helen's new The Forever Detective Series. The other was a new cover for "The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home" which we re-released as the first Young Adult (YA) installment of our Para-Earth Series. Speaking of Helen's new series, we created not one but two book trailers, one for each book.                        ...

This entry may seem to be a repeat but every year I get asked about how to gift e-books to someone. So here you all are and I hope everyone takes advantage since giving someone a tale they will love can be priceless sometimes... Okay gang, the big day is drawing near and you still want to get a few more gifts but don't know what to buy, or don't want to go out into the stores which have already pulled down half of their displays and are lining up Spring stuff. What to do, what to do... how about giving someone a good book to read on their Kindle? It's fast, easy, and you can have it delivered on Christmas Day and know it will arrive on time...                                    Didn't know you could do this? Neither did I for the longest time. I only found out a couple of years ago when we released "The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home". I found myself rewarding some of our beta-readers with a...