Andy C Wareing's Blog

Great audiobook creation - an alien world

For 2024 I decided to turn my back catalogue into bestselling audiobooks.

I am a small business, so decided to have a go myself. I mean, who doesn't want to listen to the dulcet tones and bizarre accent of somebody born on the border of Lancashire and Merseyside, who lived in the deep south of the United States for many years, and then moved to the west country?

It all sounded simple in principle. Buy a microphone, download Audacity, and away you go. Well, bugger me to next Sunday - what a palaver!

Without warning I found myself plunged into a world of pop stands, root mean square values, sibilance, fricatives, and plosives.

Luckily, the audio engineering concepts are well documented and Reddit and YouTube have helped with the rest.

For those who might be interested, here's a quick breakdown:

RMS Values: This refers to the average loudness measured over time. When mastering my audiobook, Amazon's Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) requires that the RMS values for audiobook submission must fall between -23dB and -18dB RMS

Each file must have peak values no higher than -3dB and a noise floor no higher than -60dB RMS.

Luckily for me, somebody much smarter has created a plug-in for Audacity that checks for ACX values. All I need to do is run a few rounds of compression and normalization until it passes.

Fricatives & Plosives: These are types of consonant sounds. Fricatives are noises created by forcing air through a narrow space, like "f" or "s." Plosives are popping sounds from stopping and then releasing airflow, like "p" or "t." Watching my microphone technique will keep these from sounding too harsh.

Sibilance: Apparently, this is a tricky one for me. Who knew I spoke like Daffy Duck trying to say "suffering succotash."

https://youtu.be/-BDnWMwkf6g?si=BRSh-rnABjiHCniS

Still, there are a few techniques to remove these harsh and distracting sounds, including noise reduction and "De-Ess" plug-ins.

Follow the blog to keep posted on progress, or the lack thereof.

Juggling with jelly - a self-publishing journey

Everything you never needed to know about getting your book sold on Amazon.

It is almost three years to the day since I published my first book on Amazon.

The journey has been a metaphor replete with long and winding roads, learning curves, and rollercoasters. But a few of my readers have shown interest in the process and, after precisely 730 days and nights of research, trial and error, mistakes, and missteps I can now proudly claim to be a (somewhat) financially successful author.

So you want to write and sell a successful book?

Many of us have an idea for a book. The trick is getting that idea down on paper and then finding a way to get your bestseller into the hands of the eager proletariat.

My time came after I had retired from a well-paid job in the United States and attempted to move the family to Altea in Spain. The idea itself was sound. The planning was solid. What we had not factored in was the timing. COVID-19 spread like a...well like a virus in front of us. It plagued our every move, closing airlines and frontiers in equal measure. Our journey from the USA to Spain suddenly spawned into quite the adventure.

We fled Spain to shelter in the UK and the idea for my first book was born. I always thought that I might be able to write a book. It was time to put my money down and prove I had it in me.

Well, I wrote my bestseller - what next?

Manuscript done! Several rounds of editing and proofreading later, I was ready to publish. In my early, wonderfully naive, and youthful days of becoming a writer, I used the tools that Amazon provides. They have a basic file convertor that takes a Word document and creates the ePub file you need for Kindle, and even a cover creator to get your title, image, and author name out there amongst the other 32.8 million other titles that Amazon serves up to the waiting public.

A few mouse clicks later and there she was. My first book — published. You can see my first attempt below.

The cover wasn't awful. But it's not great either. The fonts are simple and the picture is a home-taken snap.

I ran some adverts on Amazon and threw some money away on Facebook Ads. In the first three months, I sold a few copies. 14 to be precise. I added the book to Kindle Unlimited and got a couple of thousand-page reads. I was thrilled! I would sit in my study hitting the refresh button on my Amazon sales dashboard again and again, and either groan in deepening despair when the numbers had not changed, or whoop in wild ecstasy if I got a new sale.

Three years later on, the book is the same book. It has a new cover but other than that, the only updates to it have been to correct a couple of typos that stoically avoided a thousand rounds of editing.

Three years later I have sold close to a million page reads and nearly 3,000 ebooks and paperbacks.

So something happened, what was it?

The biggest and most important factor in those numbers is that most of those page reads and sales came in the previous six months. In order of importance and impact on sales and revenue, these are the changes I have implemented.

#1 — More titles

I know — it's a whopper. But this is the numero uno game changer for any author. It is the one variable in this tangled bowl of spaghetti that makes up the publishing industry that I 100% control. Since January 2021 I have published a further seven books. Two more in the initial travel memoir series. Three books in a series that tell tales of some motorcycle adventure trips I made in the 1980s and two full-length novels. You can check them all out on my website.

#2 — Optimise assets

With multiple books in series you can start to do some clever stuff. I have smart universal book links (UBLs) in the back matter of each book. The UBLs point to the next books in the series. They are smart in that the links know which country you are in so the potential buyer gets auto-directed to their local Amazon store. They each contain my Amazon affiliate code, so I get affiliate revenue as well as the proceeds from the book sale.

Advertising starts to become both scalable and profitable for books in a series. I can afford to lose a few bucks on book one because, hopefully, the reader will also buy book two and three and maybe even look into the rest of my back catalogue.

This year I created box sets, or omnibus editions of the two series. The bundles are priced lower than the individual books so I gamble on giving a pound or two away in exchange for that proverbial bird in the hand.

I now use Canva for covers and Atticus for book formatting - much more professional.

Amazon giveways keep the ball rolling on Kindle Unlimited page reads.

I hate to give a book away, I'm a penny pinching old bastard deep down, but it's the only time that Amazon will step in and promote. For each book given away, I generally get a boost in page reads and hopefully sales from books two and three.

#3 — Keep learning

I have had a website since day one but it has always been a loss leader for me. Recently, based on some advice and research in some author's FB groups I moved from Wordpress to Wix and haven't looked back. Wix offers ecommerce out of the box, and since November I have been adding direct sales to my figures. Direct selling gives me back the 60% royalty that Amazon normally takes from me. Now I can discount in whichever way I choose and still make a bigger margin than sales via Amazon.

An indie author needs to be prepared to be tweaking Amazon categories, keywords, and blurbs. Changing covers and making sure fonts are on target for a given genre all make a difference. Make a change — monitor the effect. Be prepared at all times to change it back.

Running ads, creating A/B tests and tweaking budgets and bid amounts all create change. But, this is key, it all has to be done slowly. Slowly, but with intent.

The graph below gives a visual idea of incremental improvements in revenue generated across the last three years. The colours represent an individual book's contributions.

#4 — Keep innovating

So, what's next? In 2024 I intend to release another three books. I haven't decided exactly what yet but at least one of them will be another travel adventure book based on my experiences in the USA.

I am going to add audiobooks for my collection to the website and offer ebooks for my two novels.

And lastly, at least for now, I am continuing to cross-promote. My goal would be to get the readers of my travel memoirs to read the motorcycle adventure series and vice versa and to get more people to read the novels.

I hope you enjoyed the post. The last three years have been frustrating and thrilling in equal amounts. Email me author@andycwareing.com if you have any questions. If you are not yet a reader give a book a go. If you have tried one series — try the other!

The Indie Publisher's Dilemma: Direct vs The Mighty Zon

Ah, the great publishing debate. Amazon or going solo? Both have their charm, yet also their share of misery. Allow me, your intrepid blogger, to shine a bleam, a paltry glimmer of light through this pea-souper of a fog, with an entertaining exploration of publishing profits and perils!

First off, let me clearly state for the record that, as an author, Amazon has been very good to me. They provide a smooth and easy (and almost entirely free) route to getting a book published. I still enjoy healthy sales and a steady revenue stream from page reads (KENP via kindle unlimited).

But...there is always a but in life, isn't there? Let’s begin with margins. Or, should I say, lack thereof? While Amazon offers a massively wide readership and a flagship storefront, it comes at quite the cost - an eye blisteringly, whopping, sixty percent.

After that mighty cut, measly royalties remain. We're talking cents on the dollar here, folks. Hope you weren't planning for that winter home in Miami! Amazon dictates price points and promotions with all the benevolence of a tyrant king. But at least tyrants provide castle lodging and feasts! Amazon just nabs your earnings as you're left to your own peasant devices.

I see lots of writers on forums claiming that when you reach a certain number of reviews, Amazon takes note and begins to jump in to help. Untrue. Amazon only takes note when you start generating revenue for them—and quite a lot of it. It took me nearly three years for Amazon to start inviting me to participate in kindle deals.

Selling directly means that I get to keep that 60%, I just have to pay for printing. That gives me a huge amount of flexibility. I can run price promos, discounts, bundles, and giveaways even. Lone wolves keep every hard-won penny. But generating sales proves about as easy as convincing an iguana to take a bath. Which, if you were wondering, involves an excessive amount of startlingly aggressive hissing.

But selling directly means I have to do everything. Website design and support, advertising, marketing, book covers, social media engagement, order fulfillment, and organizing book promotions.

Did I mention three of my books have huge Christmas discounts at the moment?

All of this ancillary activity, when what I really want to do, what I am supposed to be doing, is...writing.

Fulfilling orders yourself turns your humble home into a warehouse. Hope you weren't fond of free space or sanity!

Recruiting readers proves endlessly more tricky than that crafty fox outside trying to break into my bins. And don't assume you can pay someone to handle this dirty work for you either! As a little guy, most of your budget gets sucked up by even the most modest advertising attempts.

So who wins this great publishing predicament? In truth, neither path proves wholly perfect or profoundly pestilent. Amazon offers easy access to an avalanche of book buyers, yet minimal monetary returns. Self-publishing grants you the grandest of profits per purchase, but garnering such purchases challenges even the savviest marketers.

For me, at this point in my writing career, a strategic combination works best - I use Amazon to gain initial readers, sales, and reviews and then attempt to transition to direct fulfillment and marketing once I have established an eager audience.

I choose to simply accept both routes’ ridiculous rigors and celebrate every single sale. There is something very special about seeing a direct sale, and even better, a request for a signed copy. I love the thrill of running up the stairs to print a label and put a physical book into a box that will soon find its way into the hands of an eager reader.

I guarantee my hissing iguana will never know such satisfaction...now excuse me while I don some gauntlets and go coax him into a bath.

The Rise of ChatGPT and the Future of Book Writing

OK - I admit it, I hold up my hand. That entire blog, every single word, entirely unedited, was written by Claude the ChatGPT engine from Anthropic.

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Are Modern Motorcycle Adventurers the New Children of the Magenta Line?

The term was originally coined in 1997 by veteran airline pilot Warren Vanderburgh, who came up with the phrase, somewhat caustically, for the new generation of pilots, who he believes have become overly dependent on automation and computer guidance, and thus fail to exercise their own situational awareness and judgment, when they should take control … Continue reading Are Modern Motorcycle Adventurers the New Children of the Magenta Line?

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Why do Indie Authors Price the way they do?

I posted recently on a Facebook motorcycle group that I had a couple of books, recently released, that younger members might be interested in. The books tell the tale of what it was like to ride solo and across closed borders in the days before GPS and Google Maps. I admit, being an author who … Continue reading Why do Indie Authors Price the way they do?

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Insights of the Interstellar Māori Matakite

I have always loved Science Fiction and, when I decided to make my first contribution to this genre, I wanted to blur the edges of two sub genres in the way that Frank Herbert did with Dune. Whereas Herbert's Dune story is a solid mix of fantasy fiction and science fiction, Herbert intentionally suppressed the … Continue reading Insights of the Interstellar Māori Matakite

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Flies on the Visor

A big shout out to Dave Ayers at the fantastic website that pitches itself as "the inane ramblings of the motorcyle obsessed." He was good enough to work patiently with me to put together a promotional article based primarily around the recent release of "A Fast Bike to Byzantium." You can read the full article … Continue reading Flies on the Visor

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“Unlocking the Secret of Sequel Power”

With a series, readers can get more depth and detail about characters and the world they inhabit. For the author it also gives additional scope and reach for marketing efforts.

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The hidden markets of the Antipodean

The additional plus here is that the incredibly intelligent and discerning people who make up the Antipodean nations tend to give me my best reviews.

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