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Michael J. Sullivan:
When is the audiobook for Rhune coming out? Surely there will be an audiobook?? Audible doesn't have any mention of Rhune, it's not possible to pre-order it. That must mean that it's not even being currently recorded. How long will it take? I don't want to be the last on the planet to experience Rhune, after everybody else has read it and talked about it for ages.
Michael J. Sullivan
Yes! There will be an audio book for Rhune, and all the books in The First Empire series. The plan at the present time is to have it released simultaneously with the ebook and print editions. I actually signed the contract for these books last year, even before the print/ebook publisher was determined. We will be getting pre-order pages up as soon as we firm up the release date.
As for not even being recorded...you are correct. As the book isn't yet finished being written ;-). Right now there is a version that is essentially the one that was submitted to the publisher for consideration. That version has gone through quite a bit of editing, but there are still the following that has to be done to it.
1. The second beta is finishing up now, and there will be changes based on it.
2. There will be changes based on how the series "finishes out." As soon as I have the fifth book finished (scheduled for April or May), then I'll know what those changes will be.
3. My publisher's editor will provide their feedback and structural changes which I'll weigh and implment.
4. My publisher's copy editors and line editors will go over the whole book to ensure consistency, fix clunky sentences, and ensure perfect grammar.
At that point the book will be "done" and the manuscript can be given to the audio book producer to do the recording.
Generally audio book recordings can take a few weeks to record. Usually twice as long as the "finished" version. The narrators generally don't do more than 4 hours a day as they can't strain their voices. Then it can take a month or so to do the "editing" (fixing multiple takes) and "mastering" - where things like levels are smoothed out.
No worries...you won't be the last. We'll have the audio book available for per-orders about the same time as the print and ebook, and again, they will "go live" simultaneously.
Thanks for asking, I'm glad you are enthusiastic about the new series.
As for not even being recorded...you are correct. As the book isn't yet finished being written ;-). Right now there is a version that is essentially the one that was submitted to the publisher for consideration. That version has gone through quite a bit of editing, but there are still the following that has to be done to it.
1. The second beta is finishing up now, and there will be changes based on it.
2. There will be changes based on how the series "finishes out." As soon as I have the fifth book finished (scheduled for April or May), then I'll know what those changes will be.
3. My publisher's editor will provide their feedback and structural changes which I'll weigh and implment.
4. My publisher's copy editors and line editors will go over the whole book to ensure consistency, fix clunky sentences, and ensure perfect grammar.
At that point the book will be "done" and the manuscript can be given to the audio book producer to do the recording.
Generally audio book recordings can take a few weeks to record. Usually twice as long as the "finished" version. The narrators generally don't do more than 4 hours a day as they can't strain their voices. Then it can take a month or so to do the "editing" (fixing multiple takes) and "mastering" - where things like levels are smoothed out.
No worries...you won't be the last. We'll have the audio book available for per-orders about the same time as the print and ebook, and again, they will "go live" simultaneously.
Thanks for asking, I'm glad you are enthusiastic about the new series.
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