M.J. Oelkers's Blog, page 5
October 4, 2024
Live!
Shikaree is officially live and available for purchase! Has been for about a week now. You'd think that might take some weight off my shoulders, but it really does not. I'm at the hardest part of the process right now: getting people interested enough to read the thing.
Has not been a lot of movement in the first week. That really is to be expected, though, as I've got hardly a lick of presence in the literature world. This first week has been a matter of creating social media posts to garner eyes. That takes the form of things like pestering immediate friends and family through Facebook posts, offering free review copies on social platforms like Imgur, and hunting down review groups willing to take a new soul into the fold.
This part of the process is probably what feels the most like work. I have a particular distaste for social media in a general sense. The fact that I chronicle my thoughts here (somewhat) consistently is nothing short of a miracle. Wading into cesspits like Facebook feels like... well, I guess that's a pretty apt description without more qualifiers.
Regardless of my distaste for these platforms, this part of the process is second in importance only to actually producing the material. Getting attention on these platforms is what will make or break 'Shikaree'. That attention (hopefully) turns to reviews. Those reviews bump engagement, thus (again hopefully) getting more people interested enough to read and review. It's a part of the process from which I CANNOT get discouraged. No matter how much I'd rather just hope and pray 'Shikaree' can carry itself on its own merits. That's just not how the system works.
For now, I just have to take deep breaths and let people read. I've handed out a healthy batch of copies for free review. There are people who downloaded through NetGalley that need a tap on the shoulder. All in all, 'Shikaree' is not a short book. Most people are going to need more than a week to read and drop their review (if they manage to finish the book at all). I probably won't seen many (if any) reviews pop up in the wild until near the end of October. Here's to hoping my nerves can survive the wait.
Toodles.
Has not been a lot of movement in the first week. That really is to be expected, though, as I've got hardly a lick of presence in the literature world. This first week has been a matter of creating social media posts to garner eyes. That takes the form of things like pestering immediate friends and family through Facebook posts, offering free review copies on social platforms like Imgur, and hunting down review groups willing to take a new soul into the fold.
This part of the process is probably what feels the most like work. I have a particular distaste for social media in a general sense. The fact that I chronicle my thoughts here (somewhat) consistently is nothing short of a miracle. Wading into cesspits like Facebook feels like... well, I guess that's a pretty apt description without more qualifiers.
Regardless of my distaste for these platforms, this part of the process is second in importance only to actually producing the material. Getting attention on these platforms is what will make or break 'Shikaree'. That attention (hopefully) turns to reviews. Those reviews bump engagement, thus (again hopefully) getting more people interested enough to read and review. It's a part of the process from which I CANNOT get discouraged. No matter how much I'd rather just hope and pray 'Shikaree' can carry itself on its own merits. That's just not how the system works.
For now, I just have to take deep breaths and let people read. I've handed out a healthy batch of copies for free review. There are people who downloaded through NetGalley that need a tap on the shoulder. All in all, 'Shikaree' is not a short book. Most people are going to need more than a week to read and drop their review (if they manage to finish the book at all). I probably won't seen many (if any) reviews pop up in the wild until near the end of October. Here's to hoping my nerves can survive the wait.
Toodles.
September 25, 2024
Admin
Hayaaa has it been a busy couple of weeks. Last week's post got thrown under the bus because of a prescription issue. Gotta love it when your motivation and ability to focus take an unexpected vacation. Wasn't able to do any recording because of it. This, in turn, means the audiobook won't be ready for the initial release of 'Shikaree' this Friday.
That said... I'm not too bummed about it. Gave me some time to reflect and realize that I've been rushing the recording process. It built a huge lump of stress in my gut. Having accepted I won't make the initial release, I now feel comfortable pivoting toward a focus on quality.
The decision also allowed me to focus some bandwidth on admin tasks that needed doing. For one, reaching out to my old publisher to change the author name listed for 'Spellseeker'. That has allowed me to contact Amazon in order to get both books put together into a proper series. Further still I recently found out that 'Shikaree' had a couple reviews here on Goodreads, but they were stashed in a version under my full name rather than M.J. Oelkers. Folks here were able to get those two editions combined and now everything looks good.
In summary, am I sad that I won't hit my audiobook target? A little. Am I happy that I was afforded time to correct some admin issues before 'Shikaree' hits shelves? Very much so. We're just a couple days away now, so here's to hoping everything goes well.
Toodles.
That said... I'm not too bummed about it. Gave me some time to reflect and realize that I've been rushing the recording process. It built a huge lump of stress in my gut. Having accepted I won't make the initial release, I now feel comfortable pivoting toward a focus on quality.
The decision also allowed me to focus some bandwidth on admin tasks that needed doing. For one, reaching out to my old publisher to change the author name listed for 'Spellseeker'. That has allowed me to contact Amazon in order to get both books put together into a proper series. Further still I recently found out that 'Shikaree' had a couple reviews here on Goodreads, but they were stashed in a version under my full name rather than M.J. Oelkers. Folks here were able to get those two editions combined and now everything looks good.
In summary, am I sad that I won't hit my audiobook target? A little. Am I happy that I was afforded time to correct some admin issues before 'Shikaree' hits shelves? Very much so. We're just a couple days away now, so here's to hoping everything goes well.
Toodles.
September 12, 2024
Another Week
Not a whole lot to say from a recording standpoint. The process continues to chug along, though certainly not as fast as I would have liked. Losing those couple of weeks to technical issues really did take some of the wind out of my sails. Trying to push through regardless. I really want to have this thing recorded, edited, and ready to go for launch day... which is just a couple weeks down the road!
Apart from the obvious reasons of wanting to be done recording, it means I can get back into writing. I put a hiatus on editing the sixth book while getting the audio stuff figured out. A good thing, too. I would have been drowning in frustrations if I tried to do both at the same time. Both would have suffered from the combined effort.
The edits have been dancing around in my head for the last week or so. I'm eager to get back to the sixth story. It's going to be the largest overhaul of any of the stories that I have created to date. Just thinking about it makes the first draft feel almost like a placeholder for what it's going to become. The whole thing is an intricate puzzle waiting to be played with, and boy do I love to play with puzzles.
Toodles.
Apart from the obvious reasons of wanting to be done recording, it means I can get back into writing. I put a hiatus on editing the sixth book while getting the audio stuff figured out. A good thing, too. I would have been drowning in frustrations if I tried to do both at the same time. Both would have suffered from the combined effort.
The edits have been dancing around in my head for the last week or so. I'm eager to get back to the sixth story. It's going to be the largest overhaul of any of the stories that I have created to date. Just thinking about it makes the first draft feel almost like a placeholder for what it's going to become. The whole thing is an intricate puzzle waiting to be played with, and boy do I love to play with puzzles.
Toodles.
September 6, 2024
Back to Recording
With the final run of edits out of the way, I am at last back to recording audio. The break from recording was much needed in retrospect. I was fumbling with equipment and programs and getting nowhere in a hurry. Taking time to step back from the process gave my head a bit of room to breathe.
Having jumped back in, I was able to narrow down some of the problems and get them more or less squared away. One of the big ones was sounding pitchy. This was also probably the most straightforward aspect to fix. I put some time into learning how equalizers work rather than just letting the audio on a flat frequency curve (sounds like an oxymoron). That has helped keep some of the higher registers, like when I'm trying to make distinct female voices, a lot more palatable to listen to.
The other major problem I had been running into was a mid-recording gain drop. I would be recording for a few minutes and then notice the recording volume make a sharp drop. Having a new headset to listen back to my voice while I record helped me notice the problem for what it was. Ended up banging my head against a wall for the better part of a few days before stumbling on what seems to have fixed the problem: power settings for Windows. Seems like background processing on my laptop was occasionally throttling power. Walked through the UAD manual to grab better settings and we were off to the races.
I feel a lot better about the process now that I've got the main culprits pinned down. My mic still occasionally drops gain, but I'm able to notice with my headset and pause recording. A quick toggle on the preamp gets me back into shape. Hoping I'll still be able to get everything recorded and cleaned by time Shikaree hits shelves. Fingers crossed.
Toodles.
Having jumped back in, I was able to narrow down some of the problems and get them more or less squared away. One of the big ones was sounding pitchy. This was also probably the most straightforward aspect to fix. I put some time into learning how equalizers work rather than just letting the audio on a flat frequency curve (sounds like an oxymoron). That has helped keep some of the higher registers, like when I'm trying to make distinct female voices, a lot more palatable to listen to.
The other major problem I had been running into was a mid-recording gain drop. I would be recording for a few minutes and then notice the recording volume make a sharp drop. Having a new headset to listen back to my voice while I record helped me notice the problem for what it was. Ended up banging my head against a wall for the better part of a few days before stumbling on what seems to have fixed the problem: power settings for Windows. Seems like background processing on my laptop was occasionally throttling power. Walked through the UAD manual to grab better settings and we were off to the races.
I feel a lot better about the process now that I've got the main culprits pinned down. My mic still occasionally drops gain, but I'm able to notice with my headset and pause recording. A quick toggle on the preamp gets me back into shape. Hoping I'll still be able to get everything recorded and cleaned by time Shikaree hits shelves. Fingers crossed.
Toodles.
August 23, 2024
Final Checks
Ended up putting audio recording on hiatus for a bit. Two reasons behind that logic. First, and the more complex of the two, is that I'm struggling to make the audio sound good. The finished product (after final processing) either has some nasty compression on the peaks or just straight sounds like I recorded through a tin can. Neither of those outcomes are what I would call desirable. Instead of pushing through the whole book and praying for the best, I'm going to take some time to properly understand the tools I'm working with.
The simpler of the two reasons was that I caught a handful of leftover typos while recording. If it had been a lone occurrence I might have written it off. Unfortunately, in the five chapters I had recorded at the time, I found eights mistakes. That felt unacceptable. Because of this I decided to read Shikaree front-to-back one more time and nip any errors I found (of which there were several).
On one hand, it was annoying to see how many flubs were left. I figured there would be a couple leftovers after the copyedit, but not this many. Forty-five when all was said and done. Averages out to about two errors per chapter. I'm immensely happy that I was able to go back through and make changes before the book is publicly released.
At the same time, I found myself enjoying the process of going back through Shikaree one final time before launch. There were not enough errors per chapter to make it feel like a chore. For the first time, I got to just... have fun reading one of my own books. And I DID have fun. That's the best part. Makes me just that much more excited to share it with anyone willing to take a peek.
Toodles.
The simpler of the two reasons was that I caught a handful of leftover typos while recording. If it had been a lone occurrence I might have written it off. Unfortunately, in the five chapters I had recorded at the time, I found eights mistakes. That felt unacceptable. Because of this I decided to read Shikaree front-to-back one more time and nip any errors I found (of which there were several).
On one hand, it was annoying to see how many flubs were left. I figured there would be a couple leftovers after the copyedit, but not this many. Forty-five when all was said and done. Averages out to about two errors per chapter. I'm immensely happy that I was able to go back through and make changes before the book is publicly released.
At the same time, I found myself enjoying the process of going back through Shikaree one final time before launch. There were not enough errors per chapter to make it feel like a chore. For the first time, I got to just... have fun reading one of my own books. And I DID have fun. That's the best part. Makes me just that much more excited to share it with anyone willing to take a peek.
Toodles.
August 16, 2024
Riding High
Not a super long post today. The big hit is that one of the editorial reviews came back a day or so ago, and it was far warmer than I had expected. Five whole stars. Along with that comes a neat badge that would have looked nice on the cover should I have started this process a couple months earlier. That's the singular tiny rain cloud that hangs over the experience.
With the positive review comes postings on the Readers' Favorite site, as well as on their Facebook page and various other socials. What excites me most is that that I'll be included in a the newsletter they send out to bookstores and libraries every month. Even if just a couple folks take note of that listing, it's already further than I'd been able to climb with Spellseeker. Hopefully this is the first of a handful of positive mentions for Shikaree.
Cautious optimism, though. There's any telling what the future might bring. Just have to keep knuckling down and strive for the best.
Toodles.
With the positive review comes postings on the Readers' Favorite site, as well as on their Facebook page and various other socials. What excites me most is that that I'll be included in a the newsletter they send out to bookstores and libraries every month. Even if just a couple folks take note of that listing, it's already further than I'd been able to climb with Spellseeker. Hopefully this is the first of a handful of positive mentions for Shikaree.
Cautious optimism, though. There's any telling what the future might bring. Just have to keep knuckling down and strive for the best.
Toodles.
August 8, 2024
The Voice Thing
So I've started doing the recordings for Shikaree and... man have I forgotten how much of a pain this process is. For starters, the tool itself (Audacity) has changed considerably since the last time I hopped in. It took a few hours just to figure out how to process files for ACX alone. Thankfully, that endeavor is out of the way and I'm able to produce files that meet their requirements.
One thing I noticed in the first chapter was a tendency to find some messy peaks in the audio. They came and went, only starting partway into the recording. I think the culprit was me unconsciously moving while making the recording. Leaning toward and away from the mic and such. I made an effort to quell that behavior while recording the second chapter. Hoping that will prove to make a difference once I sit down and edit the second chapter.
If this proves to have been the problem, I'll be glad to have caught it now. It would mean I only need to rerecord the first chapter. An awful lot better than having to go back through a dozen chapters or more of recordings. If this doesn't fix the problem? Well, I'll probably have to start fiddling with my recording volume and post-processing. One of those things is a lot more gracious than the others. Here's to hoping it was just me getting excited and leaning into the mic.
Toodles.
One thing I noticed in the first chapter was a tendency to find some messy peaks in the audio. They came and went, only starting partway into the recording. I think the culprit was me unconsciously moving while making the recording. Leaning toward and away from the mic and such. I made an effort to quell that behavior while recording the second chapter. Hoping that will prove to make a difference once I sit down and edit the second chapter.
If this proves to have been the problem, I'll be glad to have caught it now. It would mean I only need to rerecord the first chapter. An awful lot better than having to go back through a dozen chapters or more of recordings. If this doesn't fix the problem? Well, I'll probably have to start fiddling with my recording volume and post-processing. One of those things is a lot more gracious than the others. Here's to hoping it was just me getting excited and leaning into the mic.
Toodles.
August 1, 2024
So Many Things
The first draft of the current story I'm working on is done! Things morphed and changed a bit along the way, but the thing is now officially on paper. I've got a litany of edits and revisions in mind. Whole chapters being combined or removed entirely. Shifts in certain character moments. On and on, the list goes. This will probably be the most heavily revised story I've written to date. Not because what hit the page was bad, but because what came to mind after makes it so, so much better.
That said, I'll be taking a bit of a break from the story before revisions begin. Listings for Shikaree, in both paper and digital formats, have now gone live! The book is a tangible product that can be queried online. I've got a couple physical proofs on the way that should be arriving by the end of the week. Cannot overstate exactly how excited I am to hold the fruit of these labors in my hands.
My break from the sixth story is not merely born of excitement, however. I'd held off on starting the audio recording for Shikaree until after the six story's draft was finished. It felt like trying to both at once would have been too much. Now that the draft is done, I plan to convert my normal writing time into recording time. Revisions for the sixth story will begin once I've gotten all of Shikaree's formats squared away and ready for consumption.
That's all for now. Time to go start holding out my hat in search of editorial or otherwise legitimate reviews for Shikaree. Hoping I can something put together in time for the launch on September 27th. Until next time.
Toodles.
That said, I'll be taking a bit of a break from the story before revisions begin. Listings for Shikaree, in both paper and digital formats, have now gone live! The book is a tangible product that can be queried online. I've got a couple physical proofs on the way that should be arriving by the end of the week. Cannot overstate exactly how excited I am to hold the fruit of these labors in my hands.
My break from the sixth story is not merely born of excitement, however. I'd held off on starting the audio recording for Shikaree until after the six story's draft was finished. It felt like trying to both at once would have been too much. Now that the draft is done, I plan to convert my normal writing time into recording time. Revisions for the sixth story will begin once I've gotten all of Shikaree's formats squared away and ready for consumption.
That's all for now. Time to go start holding out my hat in search of editorial or otherwise legitimate reviews for Shikaree. Hoping I can something put together in time for the launch on September 27th. Until next time.
Toodles.
July 18, 2024
All Dressed-Up
A quick one this week to commemorate more good news. While I was not able to get the book listing up in time for this post, I did receive the final wrap-up file for the paperback today. It looks just as wonderful as I had hoped. More importantly is that the Ingram file editor accepted the PDF and everything seems to be smooth on that front. All that remains to be done is finalize the listing for both eBook and paperback. Once that's done, I can get the listing for preorder up and start the marketing campaign. Oh boy if we're not about to be in for another rollercoaster.
Toodles.
Toodles.
July 12, 2024
Good and Bad
Good news first. Cover files were delivered on time and fit quite nicely into the Amazon tools for making an eBook. I basically just to need to update the pricing and hit 'Go' to have the listing go live. I'm so close to having the pre-order available to point to that I can practically taste it. From here, it smells like it'll taste great.
Not as great news. There was a hiccup with the files. I received everything promised (eBook covers, separate title, blank art) except for the wrap-up version meant to go on the physical copy. A fact I only noticed when I went to update the listing on IngramSpark and realized the cover was missing a spine. Had a bit of a heart attack when that realization hit, if I'm being entirely honest.
Back to good news. The artist, who has been delightful to work with, guided me to the files she needs in order to create the wrap-up. I produced those about a week ago. If all goes as planned, she should have the wrap-up wrapped up in time for my next post. Wouldn't it be lovely if my next post was about the listings going live? Here's to hoping.
Toodles.
Not as great news. There was a hiccup with the files. I received everything promised (eBook covers, separate title, blank art) except for the wrap-up version meant to go on the physical copy. A fact I only noticed when I went to update the listing on IngramSpark and realized the cover was missing a spine. Had a bit of a heart attack when that realization hit, if I'm being entirely honest.
Back to good news. The artist, who has been delightful to work with, guided me to the files she needs in order to create the wrap-up. I produced those about a week ago. If all goes as planned, she should have the wrap-up wrapped up in time for my next post. Wouldn't it be lovely if my next post was about the listings going live? Here's to hoping.
Toodles.
