For the blog, in the midst of the Holiday season, I hadn't planned to write about one of my books that had Christmas at its heart. But, then Ranch Boss, who does the marketing, had gotten information on having books also available in audio.
The reason I'd never done it was the cost and the fact the books, especially my smaller ones (novellas) hadn't sold that well. How would I pay for someone to narrate the stories? Why would they want to do it without a proven market for a possible share, which might be of nothing (and there is a lot of work involved for narration).
But Amazon approached us with another way to get an audio book that didn't require money up front, but did take a percentage of the book for Amazon. Since Ranch Boss liked the idea, I left it up to him.
On the creator end, it requires checking the book for where different speeds might be required; then listening to a selection of possible voices, all computer generated. Ranch Boss let me listen to some of them and the one, he had liked best, seemed like it fit the narration.
He said that this is not AI but rather just computer generated. I do understand the difference that the story is mine, not artificially created.
As it turns out, I don't know a lot about the technical end of this, but the woman's voice sounded good. We were to listen to the reading and make sure it fit the story. There was, as was promised, no upfront cost, but a lot of work, which Ranch Boss did, since I've been editing another series. That one we aren't sure if it'd work as well for audio since it's much longer. One at a time is the best process anyway.
The way this works with Amazon is we establish the price, which if the customer has credits can be very little. It also is very little if the reader had earlier purchased the book, where Amazon will have the record, and the price then is $1.99.
It's an interesting dilemma as a writer whether this is a good idea or not so much. I do like this story. It follows after a full-length novel, From Here to There, and is set on the same ranch where most of the earlier story takes place. The second one is about a family needing healing and ranch life around the holidays, plus the now married couple from the earlier romance.
I guess, I am being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century... Is that a good thing?
If you had bought the Kindle, check out this link: A Montana Christmas, where you will find the novella and option for the audio book. There is a sample of the audio to listen if you are curious what computer generated sounds like. Since this is brand new to us, go to the link and Amazon will tell you what price any of it will be for this week since we are putting the Kindles on sale.
The book leading up to the story is at: From Here to There. It's both a romance and about what the American West is all about for those who may not already know. While the story takes place mostly in the modern West, it also is about what that has meant in this country, with much of it impacting values today-- some good and some maybe not so much.
Both books are on sale at 99¢ from the 21st 'til the 30th.
This is a nice coincidence that today is the Solstice. The celebration for that happens to be in the novella/audio book. For those who don't know of such for the Solstice, it involves a fire to bring back the light. We are on our way from this day forward.
image from Stencil
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