The Voices Told Me To!
First off a public service announcement – wrap your kids in bubble wrap and spray them down with Lysol on a daily basis. Germs spread at preschools, schools, daycares, and other such venues are horrible things. Especially when an unsuspecting 4 year old returns from a birthday party and infects the entire house with a nasty flu bug. Wiped my house out this week and prevented me from going to work one day and killed 3 planned workouts. The only good thing is that even though it hit us like a full loaded semi-truck it was a hit and run, it was gone within 36 hours.
And in spite of being miserable I still managed 7,300 words between the two days my illness spanned and finalized the third deal for having some of my stories turned into audio books. And that brings me around to the voices.
My friend and business partner, J.E. Taylor, got into audio books a little bit before I did. A few months, but she’s seen some moderate success with them and encouraged me to give them a shout. I’ve had a few readers that have expressed similar interest in hearing audio versions of my books, whether that’s due to age or disability. So at last I looked into it and found out it looks like it’s not as scary as I once thought.
I’ve met three producers (narrators) thus far, one for each of my initial audio books. Each one seems as good or better than the last and the first one knocked my socks off. I’ve been surprised and amazed with each performance and after a conference call with one of them last night I came away feeling extremely pleased with how things were progressing. Oh sure, we just started this, but I’ve got a great feeling about it.
Which books am I talking about? Wanted, Dark Earth, and Child of Fate. Last night’s call was over Child of Fate, and even though it might be presumptuous of us, the producer and I are already looking ahead to books 2 and 3 in the series (and beyond, even though I haven’t written those books yet). The same can be said of Wanted. Dark Earth, reluctantly, will need a different producer for books 2 and 3 – the man doing the reading is very good, the problem is that Devil’s Advocate and Soul Mates are told from a woman’s point of view.
There was something else that was very satisfying to me in this process. How it works is I put out a blurb for the book and chum the waters with info on why somebody should be interested in producing it, then I upload a sample of text for the producer to read and send back to me as an audition. Upon listening to these auditions I was amazed not only at how well the producers handled the text but also at how good the words sounded. They flowed nicely and really delivered the impact I wanted them too.
As a writer I’m very close to my product. My art. That prevents me from seeing it objectively. It also makes me very critical of my own work. I hate editing my own writing even though I try my best to do at least one thorough self-edit of every book in addition to having third party editors / proofreaders go over them. I expect to find mistakes and to find problems that scream my weaknesses as a writer. Creating audio books out of my stories means I’m going to have to listen to them and I’ll hear all these areas I fall short in. Sure, my book sales have been great over the past 14 or 15 months now and just keep getting better and better but sooner or later the truth has to come out, right? Eventually people will stop taking pity on me and the 4 and 5 star reviews will go away.
Does it sound crazy? Maybe, but not in my head. It’s a fear that I suspect every writer or artist lives with. The fear that we’re not good enough and soon enough people will wake up and realize it. Hearing my books being read out loud gave me a big confidence boost and pushed me firmly away from feeling that way. Maybe it’s silly but reading reviews and fan mail has only taken me so far. Hearing the words and feeling the impact of them gave me a boost and made me feel that I am doing what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m not faking it. I really am a writer.
You’d think that after writing and publishing 30 books and helping others with their own stories I’d know this by now. Maybe I did, but there’s knowing and there’s feeling. Now I’m feeling it. So with that in mind I guess it’s time to get back to working on the next great story! My current production effort is geared toward Voidhawk – The Edge of Forever. I’m still targeting a mid – late April release date for it. Soul Mates, the third book in my Dark Earth series, should be available sometime next week.
The audio books of Wanted, Dark Earth, and Child of Fate are tentatively scheduled for early to mid May release on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes.
To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .
