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Word of the Year: Surrender

Do you have a lesson God keeps teaching you over and over again?

In my younger days, I remember learning about the Israelites in church and giving them a major eye roll. I mean, how hard is it to NOT make a golden calf while Moses is meeting with God to receive the Ten Commandments? I remember thinking, God just rescued you by parting the Red Sea and you’re already turning on him? When you read the Old Testament, you can’t help but face-palm over how quickly the Israelites forget God’s commandments and his goodness.

And here I am. How many times has God taught me this same lesson? And how many times will He have to remind me in the future? To understand the lesson, you need to know a little about me. If you’re a birth order enthusiast, I’m the third. I’ve been fiercely independent since before it was cool. I’m not afraid to go places alone if no one else is interested in joining me, and I like to blaze my own trail.

The closer I walked with the Lord the more I realized that something I’ve always taken pride in is a problem. God didn’t make me to be independent. He wants me to be dependent on Him.

I basically wrote a book about the first time God taught me to depend on Him! In Finding Gideon, I left home to chase a dream as a believer in God, but I had never needed nor understood how to rely on Him. You’d think after living that insane experience (and reliving it several times in the writing and editing process), I’d remember.

But then we forget

All of January I waited for Audible to approve Finding Gideon so I could launch my audiobook. People were lined up to announce it to the world. It was going to be epic. But Audible didn’t approve.

By Feb 1, I decided I needed to just go ahead and announce it. After all, it’s available from 10 other retailers including Spotify. I rush-ordered graphics, made some of my own, and threw it out onto the internet on the 2nd to a pretty lackluster response. Just being honest here. I’m not sure what I expected. Maybe for the skies to open and confetti come pouring out? Maybe for it to hit some audiobook bestseller list I don’t even know exists? For the New York Times to call?

Friday afternoon, my brain was spinning. I was on the constant cycle of pick up my phone and check all my social media accounts. Disappointment weighed heavy. The skies did not rain confetti. The New York Times didn’t call, text, or even email. “God? What am I supposed to do?” was my prayer.

And I heard it. The thing I’ve heard so many times before. Trust me.

God has been pretty clear with me in this book writing and publishing process, that I can only do what I can do, (And I’ll do my best at it). HE will take care of the results. In other words, I need to surrender it to Him.

The panicky feeling of things not going how I want has quickly become the roadsign to my heart to pause and adjust perspective. I walk with God, I pursue the calls He puts on my heart, but the results are all in His hands. Life is a lot less stressful that way.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that a lot of the world’s anxiety issues might come down to this one thing – a lack of surrender.

What do you hold onto with white knuckles? What fears do you refuse to let go of and trust God with?  

Maybe it’s time to surrender; to cast all our anxieties on Him because he cares for us <3

Soli Deo Gloria,

Sarah

P.S. Audible did finally approve Finding Gideon. Here’s the link if you have credits burning a hole in your pocket! Finding Gideon

 

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How to Publish Your Own Audiobook – hiring a narrator

The audiobook market has exploded over the last decade. According to Publisher’s Weekly, it has experienced double-digit growth every year for the past eleven years! As a self-published author, the idea of producing your own audiobook can be daunting. I’m regularly asked how I did it, what were the costs, etc. 

There are three options for producing your own audiobook, and I’ve got a blog post for each.

Narrate your own audiobook (click here to read this article)Hire a narrator and pay up front (what we’re talking about here)Hiring a narrator through royalty-share with little to no up-front cost (coming soon)

 

J.K. Divia on Hiring a Narrator and Paying Up Front

Because I’ve never hired a narrator before, I asked my friend and fellow author J.K. Divia to share her experience. Here’s what she had to say:

“Hey everyone,  J.K Divia here to share some of my experience with creating my first audiobook. When it comes to audiobooks, there are many different ways to go about producing your book. The way I did it is by no means “the only way” or “correct way”, but it was a positive experience for me.

For my book, Berja, I started looking at narrators on the website Fiverr. Once I found someone who I felt fit my book, I began conversations with them on the best way to produce the book. 

 I considered two options with my narrator, both involved the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX – owned by Audible/Amazon). I could either purchase the files through Fiverr and upload the files to ACX myself, or do the entire process through ACX. I opted to do the entire process through ACX.

Once I had an agreed-upon Price Per Finished hour with my narrator, I went ahead and created the job, hired my person, and the process began! I did have to have the ebook available on Amazon to create the order on ACX. This created an issue when trying to marry up my ebook release date with the audiobook. I also opted to go exclusive with ACX for a higher royalty rate. Overall it was a really good experience!!”

But How Much Will It Cost?

I spent a few minutes perusing Fiverr and doing some math. Most narrators are offering their services on a “per word” basis. I saw rates ranging from $.10 per word to $35 for 1000 words. Based on a word count of 60,000, a complete book was adding up to anywhere from $1200 to $6000. My book Finding Gideon came in around 120,000 words, and frankly I’m glad I narrated myself. My Stories from the Barn Aisle book is only 10,000 words. That’s a much more affordable project.

 

However, in my experience with Fiverr, most people offer a deal if you are sending them a large project. Don’t be afraid to ask. I also saw some narrators offering payment plans. And if sticker shock is really getting you down, check out my post on narrating your own audiobook, and stay tuned for my post on hiring through royalty-share with little to no up front cost.

Thank you J.K. Divia!

Thank you J.K. Divia for sharing your experience on hiring a narrator! When you’re choosing a narrator for your book, don’t be afraid to ask for voice samples and tell people if they aren’t a good fit for your story. The perfect narrator makes all the difference! Another thing I’ve learned through watching friends go through the process is to do your best to get an entire series commitment upfront if you have a series with a consistent main character throughout. Nothing seems to upset listeners as much as a narrator change mid-series.

You can follow J.K. Divia on Instagram at @j.kdivia

Check out her books on Amazon! Berja and A Sea of Blood and Tears 

Her stories are hauntingly beautiful tales grounded in Norse and Celtic mythology

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Authors Corner: How to Publish Your Own Audiobook

Have You Ever Wanted to Produce Your Own Audiobook?

Audiobooks are taking the world by storm, but for a self-published or independent author, it can be daunting. I’ve heard so many authors ask – how does it work? What’s the investment? How can you narrate yourself? Or how do you hire a narrator?

I have officially produced two audiobooks on my own, and this blog post series is here to help you navigate the muddy waters of producing your own audiobook.

This blog is about how to narrate and produce your own audiobook. In future blogs, you will learn to:

Hire a narrator for your audiobook paying up front. (coming soon)Hire a narrator through royalty-share with little to no up-front cost (coming soon)

 

Should You Narrate Your Book or Should You Hire Someone?

I personally believe that most autobiographical stories should be read by the author. There is something truly special about the person whom the story is about, telling you the story. As a memoir writer, this was a no-brainer for me. Obviously, if the narrator is sick, difficult to understand, or some other situation, hire a narrator.

If you write fiction, most listeners expect a narrator who is not the author. There is no pressure to narrate your own story, but if you like to save money, enjoy talking into the microphone for hours, and like bringing stories to life, why not?

Recording in a Studio

Studio time can get expensive, but for my first book, Stories from the Barn Aisle, it was a great option. The book is barely over an hour long, which meant the cost was affordable for me. If I remember correctly, I paid $150 for the studio time. Even better, the owner of the studio/sound engineer was there to help. When I made mistakes, we just back tracked and rerecorded. It made the editing process so much easier!

The sound quality for Stories from the Barn Aisle was incredible, plus it was a lot of fun to be in a real studio! That being said, the fun would have worn off quickly had I been recording a longer book, like my memoir, Finding Gideon. 

 

After studio time, I loaded the sound files provided by the sound engineer into my computer and used the Mac program Audacity to edit and prepare my book. I’ll be honest. This was the most painful part for me. I had never done audio editing, and even my one-hour and ten-minute book took hours upon hours to edit. When I thought it was completely ready I realized audiobooks don’t have breathing sounds in them. Then I had a few more hours of torture to remove those.

Since this incredibly fun experience (sarcasm here), I have learned about an editing program called Hindenburg. I have not tried it myself, but it sounds incredible and when I priced it, it was fairly affordable. Two important things to know when you record that will make editing MUCH easier:

1. When you load your book into whichever company you choose for distribution, you will load it by chapter. So when you record, make each chapter a separate file.

2. You are required to leave a couple of seconds of blank space at the beginning and end of each chapter. It’s much easier to do this when you record than having to go back and add it in during editing. Just press record and wait a second before you start talking. 

Recording from a “Home Studio”

“Home Studio” is in quotation marks, because I live in a small townhome and do not have a proper home studio. My first “studio” was a blanket fort. When the roof kept sagging and my back was hurting from sitting in weird positions, I gave it up for a new idea.

The experts will all tell you to record in a walk-in closet. News Flash, not everyone has a walk-in closet! But I DO have a carpeted bedroom. I set my microphone on a stool in front of my closet and sat on the floor facing the clothes. The idea is that soft surfaces absorb sounds. Hard surfaces ricochet them. So for the best sound quality, you want a good microphone and soft surfaces.

A good microphone doesn’t mean a Blue Yeti. I recorded my entire nearly 10-hour book, Finding Gideon, on a mic that was under $100. It’s the Samson Q2u. Here’s the link to it on Amazon if you’re interested. I learned about it from my favorite novel marketing podcaster Thomas Umstattd

Hiring an Audiobook Editor

After my experience with editing Stories from the Barn Aisle, and with my very full schedule, I decided to off-load the editing onto someone else for the next book. I went to Fiverr, and found a guy who did an excellent job for around $40 per completed hour. There were also gratuities and fees on top of that, so I probably spent $500 total on the audiobook. Here is the link for my editor, who I highly recommend: (https://www.fiverr.com/nauman7766)

I recorded the files into Audacity on my computer, exported them as MP3, and then sent them to my editor. It sounds like a different language when you’ve never done it, but once you start clicking around in these programs it will begin to make sense.

Final Steps: Choosing Which Company to Distribute

When I was looking at who to distribute, I only saw two viable choices: Audible or Findaway Voices. Currently when you publish through Audible you are choosing to be exclusive with them. They hold a majority of the audiobook market, but you are publishing with them and only them (which also means no libraries). OR you could choose a distributor who will send your books to all the audiobook retailers in exchange for a small cut.

I chose Findaway Voices who is owned by Spotify. As of the writing of this blog post there is a lot of drama over pending rule changes, and many of us are considering pulling our books from Findaway Voices/Spotify.

It was a hard decision on going wide with my book or being exclusive with Audible, but ultimately I read another author’s comment who said you can always change it. If you don’t like being wide, pull your book and switch to Audible, and vice versa. You’re not tattooing this decision on your arm for life.

A quick google search brought me to this website comparing distribution services. It’s definitely worth a look. I’ll be referencing it myself in the coming weeks if Spotify doesn’t update the terms and conditions to something that’s more author-friendly. https://scribemedia.com/audiobook-distributors/

Producing Your Own Audiobook is a Labor of Love

Given the popularity of audiobooks and how rewarding it is when people send me messages after listening to Finding Gideon, it’s worth it!

Be sure to stay tuned for how to produce your own audiobook through hiring a narrator. These will be guest bloggers who have experience with that part of the process.

I’d be honored if you gave my audiobooks a listen! Here are the links to them on Spotify:

Finding Gideon (also available on othor audiobook retail sites, but pending approval with Audible)

Stories from the Barn Aisle (available at every audiobook retailer that I know of)

Was this helpful? Do you have any questions? Drop it in the comments!

The post Authors Corner: How to Publish Your Own Audiobook appeared first on LiveRideLearn.

Lesson 1: How to Sell More Books from a Table

Welcome to Lesson 1 for How to Sell More Books from a Table!

I’m Sarah Hickner, your course instructor. I decided to make lesson 1 free so people can check out the course and see if it’s for them. This course is currently in beta. If you’re interested in joining, you’ll need to contact me through the contact form.

Here’s a little video so we can get to know each other:

Here we go!!!

In Lesson 1, I talk about making connections. This is the most important lesson of the entire course, and the most simple! Everything I teach from here will be all about helping you confidently make connections.

I also break down what to expect in the course, and finish with homework. Let’s get started.

Making the Connection

I’ll say it one more time. This is truly the most important part of selling at a table. Most of the things I’ll teach in this course will be methods for connecting with people – ways to draw them to your table, things for them to take home so they remember you, and even ways to stay in touch long after you met.

But for today, let’s just practice connecting with strangers.

Homework:

Make it a point to connect with 5 strangers. Go to a store, walk around town, get wherever you need to be to see people you don’t know. Then CONNECT. Smile. Give a compliment. Ask a question.

Try all 3 things on different people.

While you’re on this outing, remember to treat everyone like they have a sign around their neck that says, “Make me feel important.”

Then tell us about it in the comments. Was it scary? Fun? Is this your normal way of doing things or did you find yourself stretching your comfort zone? And what was your favorite reaction or connection?

Want more?

The course is currently in beta mode, and you can access it for HALF PRICE! Normally it will be $75, but right now it’s only $37.50. If you want to learn more methods to connect with future readers, click the contact button and reach out or send me an email at sarahhicknerwrites@gmail.com.

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Finding Gideon is Available on Audiobook!

The Finding Gideon audiobook is finally available!

The wait is over. Audiobook lovers across the globe can finally listen to Finding Gideon. So many people have asked about narration. It felt incredibly important to be the voice for the story since I am the one who lived it. The first few chapters were read hunched over my microphone inside a sagging blanket fort before a friend convinced me to sit in front of my closet.

I decided from the beginning that I would give readers the most authentic listening experience possible. I may be a bit of a ham who always dreamed of becoming an actress, so it wasn’t hard for me to add inflections. But I wanted to be honest with listeners. If something was funny, I laughed. If it was hard, I cried. I cringed, got angry, hoped, and prayed all into the microphone.

It really felt like I sliced myself open and bled into the mic. I imagine listeners will either really love it or really hate it.

Where to purchase it?

Finding Gideon can be found at multiple audiobook retailers. Here are the links to everywhere it can be purchased as of Feb. 10, 2024.

Spotify

Chirp

Google Play Store

Kobo

storytel

libro.fm

audiobooks.com

Hoopla

Barnes & Noble

Publishing the audiobook has been eye-opening. I submitted it for publication over a month ago and Audible still hasn’t approved it (as of Feb. 10, 2024). There were multiple warnings that they were taking an unusually long time to approve audiobooks right now.

What has been even more shocking was learning that Spotify pays authors double what the leading audiobook publisher pays. So don’t mind me when I insist people listen to audiobooks on Spotify. I even learned that Spotify premium accounts include 15 hours of audiobook listening each month! 

We also make money every time someone listens through a library app, which is a great way to enjoy the book, support the author, and not spend a dime!

How to Request an Audiobook from the Library

Because Finding Gideon is a brand new audiobook, it’s likely your library will not have it in stock. It is really easy to request it! Either go to your library in person and request a form or google your county’s library to find the page. For instance, I googled “Fairfax County Library.” Every library has a book request form. On the left side of the Fairfax County Library page was a list of links. I clicked “Books, Movies, Audio” and at the bottom of that page was a link stating, “to suggest a title, fill in this form.”

Here is the information Fairfax County Requested:

Item Title: Finding Gideon: A Broken Dream, a Missing Horse, and the Faith of a Mustard Seed

Author: Sarah Hickner

Subject: horses, faith

Classification: biography

ISBN: 9781736750285

Publication year: 2023

 

If you loved it, tell somebody

If you loved a book, tell somebody. Pass it on. It supports the author so she/he can create more books, and it helps enrich the next reader’s life.

I hope you love listening to Finding Gideon, read by me, the author. Here’s the link to listen on Spotify 🙂

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How to Stay Married, a memoir worth reading

The Different Types of Memoirs (as described by me)

I have a real love/hate relationship with memoirs. After all, I’ve been writing one for over a decade. In recent years I took it upon myself to read the genre. It seemed only right to do my research by reading what was out there. It didn’t take me long to pick up on the different types of memoirs. We’ve got:

famous people memoirs (most recently everyone’s been obsessed with Spare which is Prince Harry’s story)smart people memoirs. Ok, I imagine you rolling your eyes at this, but here’s what I’ve found. For much of the memoir genre, if the author isn’t famous, they often are really smart, notable people in the PhD or MFA realm. Most of my favorites come from this category. (Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Everything Happens for a Reason and other Lies I’ve Loved by Kate Bowler)random people who experience something crazy and write about it (This would be me and my book, Finding Gideon and I don’t even deserve to be listed next to her, but Corrie Ten Boom and her book The Hiding Place) The Synopsis for How to Stay Married

Harrison Scott Key is a father, writer, and husband who copes with life by being funny. Just when he thinks life is really getting good, his wife announces she’s in love with someone else. Key slices his heart, mind, faith, and marriage open and leaves it on the table for us to dissect. He takes us through what he really thought about Christianity and the rollercoaster of his faith (and lack thereof) as an important backdrop to the story. Then he chronicles how his wife and the man who wears cargo shorts have an on again off again relationship all while Key tries to hold on to a covenant he made to a woman he loved.

I’ll be honest. I know a couple who have been through a version of this. At some point in their marriage, one of them cheated. They decided to stay together and now have a beautiful, strong, happy marriage. Many more couples in my circle have been through this and are no longer together. Before marriage was even a part of my life, I decided that if my husband ever cheated on me, I was out. This story was eye-opening and heart-changing. 

What Made Me Love This Story

Three things made this story stand out to me:

1. In a world where culture says marriage should make us happy all the time, Key takes a stand. He doesn’t give up or give in. He digs into his faith, leans on friendships and professional help, and keeps going when most of us would have been long gone.

2. It was hilarious. There were moments I was laughing and three sentences later I’m crying and then I became this laugh/crying mess which made me laugh harder, and cry harder, and then snot’s pouring out my nose. If that isn’t the mark of great writing, I don’t know what is.

3. The praying friends. There was a scene in Key’s backyard where his imperfect friends from his church filled with broken, messed up people, set down their beers and laid hands on Key. They prayed broken, gut-wrenching prayers over him. All I could do was imagine the Bible story where the friends cut a hole in a roof and lower their friend down in front of Jesus to be healed. I prayed to have friends like this and even more, to be a friend like this.

What I Would Change

Funny story. This book came highly recommended to me when I mentioned to some friends that I’m working on a secret project about healing marriages. Over holiday while we were in Mississippi, I stopped at Lemuria bookstore in Jackson to see if they would carry my book, Finding Gideon. They said yes (so be sure to stop by and grab a copy!), and while I was there I bought a signed copy of this book everyone has been telling me to read. Then I drove to my in-laws house.

That evening I excitedly sat in the living room and *dived into my new book while my husband and his parents watched football. “What are you reading?” they asked. I smiled, “It’s called How to Stay Married!” Cue suspicious looks from my in-laws. For three days I found myself explaining over and over that it was a really great story about someone else’s marriage. And that people I respect recommended it. And no, Joey, nothing is wrong with our marriage and we don’t need to talk.

So if I could change anything, it would be the title. But I couldn’t help but wonder if Harrison Scott Key would laugh at me and cherish the title even more after my story. 

*my autocorrect program says “dived” is the correct usage, so I’m going with it

What’s Your Favorite Memoir?

I mentioned earlier I have a love/hate relationship with memoirs. I find they either annoy me and I don’t get more than 30% through, or I absolutely love it and can’t stop talking about it.

What’s a memoir that stayed with you?

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Last Minute Gift Ideas for Horse Lovers

We’ve got less than a week until Christmas which means if you haven’t ordered something yet, it may or may not arrive in time. What do you do?! Do we trust Amazon Prime? Do you wrap an IOU (or a photo of what should be arriving in the mail soon?)? Never fear. I’ve got some last-minute gift ideas that are sure to delight the horse lover in your life!

1. Horsehair Jewelry

It’s time to phone a crafty friend, look up some Pinterest how-to’s, or post an urgent request for some crafty help into your neighborhood Facebook group. After my horse passed away in January, I ordered a bracelet made from his tail. I had two major takeaways: 1) I could have made that bracelet myself and 2) Why do we wait for our beloved animals to die to wear their hair? 

We should be celebrating and loving the horses we ride while they’re still alive! If you are not an experienced horse person, please get some help in removing hair. The goal is to be strategic so no one can tell that a chunk of hair is missing. Oh, and safety is important too.

2. Horse Experiences

The best thing about this last-minute gift for horse-lovers is you can buy it on Christmas Eve, or even just throw some cash in an envelope with a message, and we’d cry a bucket full of happy tears. Let’s be real. Horses are expensive. Horse experiences are even more so. But as horse people, we want to experience it all!

Here are some ideas:

Go big or go home with an equestrian vacation. An African horse safari has been on my bucket list for a while. Ireland and Iceland are other hotspots for equestrian getaways. If you want to be stateside, there’s the classic dude ranch experience.Clinics. Most horse people love to learn and grow with their animals. From natural horsemanship to riding with Olympic riders, clinics allow us to learn and try new things we’ve only dreamed of.Horse shows or foxhunt fees. This is actually what I was planning to give my daughter until a new saddle came into our lives. This one is simple. Throw some cash in an envelope, or even just write a note explaining that a horse show doesn’t fit under the tree, but for Christmas, you are gifting them with an all-expenses paid horse show or foxhunt!Excursions – horse camping, horse glamping, riding cool trails, visiting other horse friends – there are so many fun things we always think about doing but rarely follow through on. Help your horse lover step out of the regular day-to-day by offering whatever they need to make that happen – whether it’s keeping the kids, organizing an overnight, or taking a couple days off work to go together. 3. The Necessities 

Do you know how many hoses and nozzles a typical barn goes through? They should make monthly nozzle subscriptions for horse people and quarterly hose deliveries. These things just don’t last in a place with thousand-pound animals stepping on and nibbling things. One year I found nozzles on clearance at Wal-mart and bought 3 for my barn manager. Manure forks are another thing that constantly breaks. 

But if you want to spend a little more, consider a trip to your local Home Depot or Tractor Supply and invest in a new wheel barrow. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a barn that didn’t need a new one. They’re expensive and noone wants to spend their horse money on something used to carry poop. But dang it if everyone’s quality of life doesn’t improve when there’s a fancy new wheelbarrow that rolls like butter.

4. Gift Cards

I’ll be honest. I hate buying gift cards. But I love having them when there’s a new pair of overpriced riding pants I want or it’s time to replenish Danny’s supplements or hoof oil. A gift card will be appreciated the next time your horse lover wants something from the horse store (which is every time he/she sets foot in it). These are some of my go-to’s:

Dover Saddlery (for the English horse rider)SmartPak Equine English riding clothes and gear as well as a go-to place for supplementsHorse.com all-around barn equipment and rider gear for English and Western disciplines. Reviews say takes a day to deliver the egift cardTractor Supply for all your farm needsYour local feedstore (you’ll likely have to purchase that one in-store) 5. Ebooks & Audiobooks!

Shameless plug. What kind of author would I be if I didn’t mention BOOKS as a last-minute gift? I LOVE listening to audiobooks while driving to the barn and cleaning stalls. I may or may not have listened to books on trail rides on occasion. The Finding Gideon audiobook is in the final stages of editing and I’m hoping I can have it published by Christmas (cutting it close). 

Here are some pages on how to gift audiobooks. It’s different depending on which platoform you use. Check out how to gift on audible, How to gift via iTunes. 

These are some of my favorite listens this year (affiliate links):

Good Things Come by Linda Shantz – a fiction book about horse racing and romance at the trackThe Wellington Ruse by Sarah Baynum – a clean billionaire romance set on a horse farm in WellingtonWhole Heart, Whole Horse by Mark Rashid (and every other book he’s written. They’re SO good) training tips and stories from an always learning horsemanHorse Brain Human Brain by Janet Jones – a fascinating book about the differences between horse brains and human brains. It brings an entirely new perspective to riding and training horsesIn the Middle are the Horsemen – a heartfelt memoir from trainer Tik Maynard about how he found his path in the horse world

I’m going to drop a link for Finding Gideon in hopes that when people read this the audiobook will be available. I narrated the story myself, and it was my mission to give the listener an authentic experience. From laughter to tears to frustration and joy, experience the story from the voice of the girl who lived it and wrote it.

That’s it! I’m rushing off to the barn, but I would love to see in the comments if you used any of these ideas OR if you have another fantastic idea for a last-minute gift for horse-lovers!

Don’t forget to download your FREE short story, Three Horses and a Wedding! It’s a romantic true story about three noble steeds and my wedding day dreams of riding off into the sunset. Get it HERE

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