SIA Showcase for Readers and Writers discussion
Member showcase N through T
>
Marie Silk: the value of permafree?
message 201:
by
Amie
(new)
Feb 05, 2017 12:11PM
Truly amazing and thoroughly deserved! ❤️️
reply
|
flag
That's a crazy awesome accomplishment!! Congratulations!!
An inspiration to us all, Marie. Many congrats.
Marie wrote: "Never thought I'd see the day. *cries tears of Thank you so much, reviewers!! ♥♥♥"
That's incredible! Congratulations!!
Wow!!!! 100 reviews is amazing......*bowing in awe*
WOW that is completely and totally amazing! Congrats Marie!!
What an amazing story, and an incredible accomplishment! *wild applause* *wipes away a tear*
Holy smokes, Batman! Here I thought I was hopping on here to wish you a happy book anniversary (as in publishing anniversary) and you go and whip out the one year since conception!!!!Whaaaa?
Did you get electrocuted in that flood/tree incident? Lose consciousness in your pneumonia recovery and wake up with X-Men super powers?
6 books..... (sorry, my head is exploding, Marie!) LOL
Okay. I'm definitely a firm believer that distress spikes creativity. I had bad scenarios spike my need to write too. But still...w-o-w-z-e-r-s. When I saw that your books all came out in 2016, I assumed you wrote them and sat on the first few so you could release them in a tight sequence.
Did you never try to query agents before you launched? They, alone, take three months:P Or did you just know you always wanted to go indie?
This is way cool. I'm super curious.
Dang, Marie! That's pretty darned impressive.
You've done SO much in just one year. Congrats, Marie! Crazy year, but you should be so proud!
Amie, your comment made me laugh! Well my fever got pretty high some days...maybe it knocked something loose in my brain :D it was just a really awful month and every time I turned around, something else would go wrong! I honestly never thought about sending my story to be trad published, but I had heard that self-publishing was a thing and that Goodreads was a thing. After I finished writing the book, I started reading about how to self-publish. The first image that came to mind was one of those plastic spiral bound notebooks with a laminated cover...like a step up from a report I might turn in at high school. I had no idea an author could self-publish a book that looked just like a "regular" book! As soon as I learned that, I started wondering if there might be anyone else in the world who might be interested in reading my book. I was originally just going to print it for myself so I could look at it and think, "hey, I made this" lol. I started out with the bar set pretty low :D.
Well you've done great with the designs and your marketing plan so far so I'd say you saved yourself a ton of time by just jumping in there and taking the reins. Nice job!
Congrats on the amazing year, Miss Marie! Only gonna get better!!
Hugsss,
Ann
Wow, it just sunk in that your Davenport books have only been out a year. Congratulations on all that you've accomplished so far! I wish you much luck with Mystery Thriller Week, as well. :)
Thank you for your words of encouragement, everyone!I hope your Valentines Day was filled with love and tacos ♥♥♥
Best kind of valentine's day to have! ;)
A tacocat driving a racecar...#MindBlown
Thank you for the tacocat racecar insight :D!! Update: I've been telling myself for awhile that I need to get my books set up on Audible, but it's pretty intimidating stepping into completely new territory that I know nothing about. I guess I already did that with publishing in the first place so this shouldn't have been so difficult. At any rate, it took me until today to finally sign up with ACX. So now my book is open for auditions, yay! I'm hoping the rest of the process goes smoothly and that my books will be available for Audible soon :).
I had a good promo yesterday and a fun time hosting the Facebook QandA. Then I had a jaw-dropping moment when I checked my royalty report and saw 700.00 made in one day on Amazon.in. Well, once I converted the currency I could see that it worked out to be the equivalent of 5 sales :D. I've had royalties from Amazon.in one other time and the EFT deposit that month was a total of $ .01. So I'm not really sure how all that works but it's always exciting to see my books reach an international market <3.
Thanks for sharing your story, Marie! And congratulations on a hundred (and two) reviews! Your story is indeed inspiring and it's great to know how well you're doing. Keep it up!
Congratulations! and may more success come to you!
I keep thinking about doing that, but it's intimidating!! Let us know how it goes! Was it expensive????
Yes! Keep giving us details about the Audible process. I'd love to know more ;)Hearing different people read it aloud must be so much fun! This is for book 1, I imagine? Or are you setting them all up for it at once?
Marie wrote: "I checked my royalty report and saw 700.00 made in one day on Amazon.in. "*SQUEE*
I've never once made a sale in that marketplace so, yeah...
*SQUEEEEE*
Congrats!!!!
(Also gonna stalk your Audible journey. Well, stalk you more. ^_^)
Thank you, everyone :) well, I'm less than 24 hours into my ACX journey but I can tell you what I've learned so far. It can be very expensive to get an experienced/award-winning narrator. You can specify what sort of narrator you are looking for: male or female, age range, voice type, accent, etc. Based on my book's word count of 46K, the estimated "finished hours" of my book is 4.9 hours. Even though it will take a narrator way longer than 5 hours to finish the audio, they are paid based on number of finished hours. I can wait for auditions to come in or I can start searching through samples of available narrators and send a message to the ones I want to work with.I clicked on the profile of a professional narrator I would love to work with, but her hourly rate is $200-$400, meaning the audio for my book would cost $1K to $2K. I don't have this kind of cash upfront for all of my books, so I am opting for the royalty share option...agree to split audiobook royalties 50/50 with the narrator. The benefit is that I don't have to pay upfront and there is less risk if it doesn't bring in much income. But if the audiobooks take off and royalties exceed the flat fee I could have paid in the beginning, then there's potential lost income.
The hourly rate option can (understandably) hold more appeal to narrators than the royalty share option, so it does limit the potential narrators I can work with, but there still appear to be thousands of professional narrators whose profiles show that they are open to royalty share.
That is pricey! (rock, paper, scissors maybe???)
Ha ha, far more brilliant of a plan than what I offered! Although good things can happen from Rock, Paper, Scissors. That's how I got my first date with my husband, LOL.
A friend of mine who has done quite well with his audios started off with the royalty share. Once his name got known, he then had the cash to pick a reader he liked better, but he said the royalty share worked great for him.
Hey, does anyone have thoughts on what to do for dual perspectives with both male and female POVs?Like, would you have two voice actors (wrong term haha)? Or have one person read in a both parts?@Miss Marie: Hope this isn't a total hijack! LOL
I listen to a ton of audio books and usually most books are just one reader, even if there is a dual POV that switches genders. Sometimes there are two readers, but for most books I've noticed just one. (though, lately, the newer books do tend to get the two readers from my experience.)
That's a good idea, Alex. Decisions, decisions! :)Nat wrote: "A friend of mine who has done quite well with his audios started off with the royalty share. Once his name got known, he then had the cash to pick a reader he liked better, but he said the royalty ..."
Good to know, thanks Nat!! :)
Annie wrote: "Hey, does anyone have thoughts on what to do for dual perspectives with both male and female POVs?Like, would you have two voice actors (wrong term haha)? Or have one person read in a both parts?
..."
It's all good, Annie, I wondered about this too! When you go through ACX with royalty share, they only have the ability to split it two ways: between you and one narrator (at least this is how I understand it according to their help page). But you can seek out a cast on your own if you want actors to read for multiple parts and then you would arrange payment with them apart from ACX.
I've got a ton of characters in my novels, both male and female, so I wasn't sure how it would sound as an audio. However, after listening to some of the narrator samples, I really think some of them do an amazing job reading for the different parts. They aren't just reading the book aloud but are truly acting each part with accents and distinctly different voices for the different characters. I think I will be very happy with the right female narrator.
Amie wrote: "Although good things can happen from Rock, Paper, Scissors. That's how I got my first date with my husband, LOL."
Haha that's amazing :D
Oh man...I think I'd go with two voices. I mean, I could see it working especially if the chapters are neat and tidy and pretty equal in trading off one to the other. With Davenport House, I suppose a female reader would be most natural being that mostly girls are reading it. But honestly, an older, regal sounding gentleman could also work. Like maybe the reader could think of it as her late father's voice, carrying them along :)
One last little diddy...the Rock, Paper, Scissors date actually took place because "said hubby" LOST the game and had to go to Sadie Hawkins with me!!! And.....it gets worse! He lost the first round and asked his friend, "How about best 2 out of 3?" I am not kidding. :P He is, and always has been, utterly ridiculous.
Hm, 6 days listed on ACX and no bites from potential narrators...ACX says that if my book is listed for 30 days with no offers then something happens like it gets archived or something. I'm trying to get this show on the road so I suppose it's up to me to contact a narrator. And here's where me "trying not to sound like a weirdo" comes in...
How do I start that message, exactly? "Hi. You have a nice voice. Can you narrate my audiobooks?" It's just such a weird message that I've never had to write before... I don't know how to say it lol. What is audiobook narrator etiquette?
I'd totally say this. For reals. I think they'd be flattered. But I'm also crazy so there's that.
How about, Hi! I have a bunch of best-selling books sitting here with no narrator. Seems like such a shame. Would you happen to know any narrators interested in making money?Okay, maybe I'm crazy too.
Christina wrote: "How about, Hi! I have a bunch of best-selling books sitting here with no narrator. Seems like such a shame. Would you happen to know any narrators interested in making money?Okay, maybe I'm crazy too."
I like this. And yes, you are ^_~
Haha, thanks Annie and Christina! I'm starting to feel the same kind of anxiety that came about when I was asking book bloggers to please consider reviewing my book...only this time it's worse. I emailed a narrator so I will wait and see what happens. Here's to hoping my books are in production soon :).
Marie wrote: "Haha, thanks Annie and Christina! I'm starting to feel the same kind of anxiety that came about when I was asking book bloggers to please consider reviewing my book...only this time it's worse. I e..."*arrives bearing tranquil thoughts*
Just say. Hey dude. You wanna job?
Marie wrote: "Hm, 6 days listed on ACX and no bites from potential narrators...ACX says that if my book is listed for 30 days with no offers then something happens like it gets archived or something. I'm tryin..."
Wow, what a process! I had no idea. Good luck finding a narrator. It is quite exciting. :)
Good luck, Marie. I personally don't think that sounds weird at all, and I bet there will be bites soon enough!
Thank you for the tranquil thoughts, Jane!! And thank you for the support, Jennifer and Lyra!Well, after all my lamenting, I'm relieved and excited to announce that my audiobook is now in production! The narrator I emailed responded quickly with an audition and it was spot on. Funnily enough, the next narrator who I intended to email (if the first one declined) ALSO submitted an audition just a few hours later lol. I loved both auditions and how they made the characters come to life. So then I "made an offer" to the first narrator, which was the next step, and a little awkward because I had to say when the due date for the audiobook was. Well, I just want these done quickly of course, but I have no clue what the narrators' schedules are like, so I just put in some dates and mentioned in a message that I could be flexible with them. The narrator accepted my offer and now my book is officially in production! I'm still so nervous and not entirely sure why. Really looking forward to this, though, and thrilled to work with the narrator I was hoping for!
*victorious fist pump*Translation: Congrats, Miss Marie!!! x
Exciting news on the audiobook! I'm all a buzz for you. I love audiobooks.
Thank you Annie, Alex, and Nat! I received the first 15 minute sample of the audiobook which sounded amazing, just needed a few adjustments on voices. So the adjustments were made and the audiobook has been in production all this time. I won't hear back until the book is complete, then I get to listen to it and can request up to two rounds of fixes.
SIA Showcase for Readers and Writers
Books mentioned in this topic
Hard Times (other topics)Hard Times (other topics)
Debutante (other topics)
Debutante (other topics)
Davenport House (other topics)
More...
