Busy, busy

Bradley Stoke Christmas lights

I don’t know why I’m so concerned about Unsuspecting Hero’s audiobook? We finished the technical edits yesterday (thanks James) and, via ACX – the recommended site for all Audible and iTunes audiobooks – I started the upload. They do it chapter by chapter, checking for technical issues as they do. All of our chapters passed without incident, I was then asked to fill in some other stuff, but nothing about pricing, and I pressed ‘send’. I got a nice email back saying that the team at ACX would review the submission and, if there were no problems, the book would be released in 10 business days time.

frightening …

Nothing about pricing? Well it seems you don’t have a choice. Both Audible and iTunes set their own prices. Does that mean they market your book? Do they price-offer your book at certain times? Do you have any influence at all? Doesn’t seem so. Am I bothered? In some ways I’m delighted. I worry about overpricing anything I write – surely my work can’t be worth that much? So, if someone takes responsibility for that (like Amazon did when they owned the ebook of Fuelling the Fire) then that’s fine. But, what happens if someone pays £14.99 for my audiobook and they don’t like it? What happens if they don’t think either my writing or my narrator’s reading is worth the money?

Do you see why I’m a bit nervous? Anyhow. I need to sell around 400 book to break even. It’s all a voyage of discovery and it might end up being an expensive one.

At the same time I’ve been trying to compress the size of the Sam Green paperbacks (specifically books 3 – 7, as they are blooming big), so when Jen and I recover them they’re a more manageable size. I won’t bore you (oh, but Roland, you already have) with the details, but it’s not a pleasant experience. And, of course, I’m still writing book 8. I’m pretty much on the last scene (120/130k words). Is it any good? I don’t know. I am always fretful at about this point. I’ll know more once I’ve done the first edit early next year.

I did resurrect this push along for Henry. Two weeks to go!

So it’s all been about writing. Sure, we’ve continued our walk/run regime. C’s been knitting for Europe, although as we’re technically no longer in the EU, that’s probably a misstatement. We are close to putting up our Christmas decorations and, sadly, we have not been away in Doris … for some time. Which is the way things are. I said to C yesterday, ‘did we really have four Christmases in a van?’ We did. The first was on Sicily. It was blooming cold … typical for us. And then three in the UK on various campsites. The whole episode is lost in the mists of time.

And onmicron? What does it mean for us? Well, we’re still steering clear of tight spaces and wearing our masks. I’ve done as much reading as I can. I think the jury’s view is that it is much more transmissible, but no more or less nasty, than delta. A triple jab should help a lot. But we’ll see.

You keep yourself warm and safe. I think the view is that we all need to stay out of hospital as beds remain short. So watch your steps (mum fell over the other day … oh dear). And get those decorations up!

vegan or traditional?