Published novels / writers life

I’ve published an audiobook!

Chris Hall75 Comments
Photo by Findaway Voices on Unsplash

I’m delighted to tell you that I’ve made my latest novel, Song of the Sea Goddess, into an audiobook. It’s been such a pleasurable experience too. Of course, I didn’t do it all by myself. Nobody would want to listen to me stumbling over my own words, and I have neither the expertise or the equipment to create a professional recording.

By great good fortune my husband, when he was teaching at the International School of Cape Town, worked with the wonderful Terry Lloyd Roberts who, aside from being a teacher, is an accomplished voice artist. She in turn introduced me to Devon Martindale, Director at Audioshelf, a South African company dedicated to the production of audiobooks. All I had to do was send a pdf version of the manuscript and they did the rest.

It wasn’t as costly as I might have imagined – the price of a nice overseas holiday – and we haven’t done and won’t be doing that for a while.

It took a little while to record, as the book runs to over 7 hours listening time, but over a period of about 3 weeks, I received the audio files to check, ten or so chapters at a time. What a pleasure it was to hear Terry read the words I had written! Her voice is perfect for the book and she really made my characters come alive.

She also managed to sail over a number of typos and missed words. I thought that between me and my beta-reading team we’d caught all those. Not so. Apologies to everyone who’s had to suffer those! I’ve since corrected them and reloaded the paperback and ebook onto Amazon. That was the only downside of curling up under the covers on a succession of winter weekends with my paperback copy and read along with Terry. But it’s a great way to proof-read a book! I was slightly placated by Devon, who said: “…with every single book we’ve produced into audio, we have picked up at least a few errors in the text, so don’t feel too bad.”

Once I’d received and read over all of the audio files, all that remained for me to do was to find a platform from which to publish the audiobook. I took Devon’s advice and went to Authors Republic who offer audiobook publishing and distribution worldwide. I emphasise the worldwide, since outside of North America, a range of restrictions can make it quite tricky for indie authors.

After signing up, completing a US tax form, and adding my paypal account details, all that remained was to fill in the book details, load up a square version of the cover and upload the audio files, which had been perfectly prepared by Audioshelf. Much less stressful than Amazon/KDP. Now, just a week or two later, my audiobook is available in all sorts of places – even ones not available to people in South Africa!

You can listen to the short (5 min) sample below and see how beautifully it’s narrated. Would it be wrong of me to say that I loved my own book when I listened to it?

Available on Audible, Amazon, Google Play, Kobo, Chirp and probably your own favourite audiobook store too!

75 thoughts on “I’ve published an audiobook!”

  3. Your narrator has a lovely voice and has done a good job. I agree that there are always small errors in every book, even traditionally published books. Your few errors didn’t bother me when I read the book. Congratulations on your audio book and thanks for the links. I think hubby would rather have the holiday , but one day.

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  5. Congratulations, Chris. The sample is wonderful. I love the narrator’s voice. It’s quite a process and the typos are inevitable, I think. I’ve only done one audio book, so I know what you went through to get it done. I hope you decide to do more of them..

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    • Thanks, Diana – and thanks for your review! I’m definitely planning to make the sequel into an audiobook – I just need to knuckled down and finish it. I might gradually go for my backlist too, especially while travel is so dicey.

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  7. Here, here to your continued multifaceted success!
    As the previous commenters highlighted, the voice and your script is a marriage made in heaven!

    (also as a small side note, it speaks volumes – at least in my book- that you offered a detailed map of how you navigated your audiobook waters.
    Anyone who has any kind of experience in trying to enter ” the art world” knows that this is a rare occasion indeed.)

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  8. Very easy to listen to. It wouldn’t be easy to read unless it had been well written. 🙂
    I like everything I do. So no, it is not wrong to love/like your own material. I’m just happy if one or two people like what I write too.

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    • Oh, I’m so pleased, Debra! Audiobooks are perfect when you’re busy with your hands. Even though you’re already familiar with the main characters, Terry’s voice brings something extra to them, so they really seem alive. 😊

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  30. I have your audio books and I will be reading them really soon! I have the song of the sea godess and the second one too! Thank you for putting your books into audio! As a blind person I rely mostly on audible for my books and I was so glad yours were available!

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