March 14th is fast approaching and finally ‘The Album’ will be released. It’s been a busy week this week. I’ve started taking my laptop in to work and writing in my lunch breaks. Looking at my last blog, ‘The Wedding’ was sitting at 14,854 words. It’s currently at 27,610 words now.
It’s been really interesting writing with immediate feedback from people who have read ‘The Album’. One of my biggest fans is my mum *insert “Awwwww!” here* and she is very invested in my characters. She’s reading ‘The Wedding’ chapter by chapter as I write it and the other day we had a 45 minute, very heated conversation about how the book was going and what the characters’ motivations were. It’s nice that there’s someone out there who loves my characters and their world as much as I do!
In other news, I got the fully edited manuscript back from my editor with over 3,000 changes in it! Mostly things like comma splices, extra spaces in the document, etc. I’m told that 3.5-4.5% changes is fairly normal in a manuscript so I was bang on target. It’s now been sent off for proof reading and formatting before I get to upload for sale, it’s going to be tight but I’m confident we’ll make it.
Last week, I got back a selection of audiobook narrators to choose from. I got to listen to a sample of works from each and decide who I wanted to audition with a sample of the book. I chose to ask for auditions from all 9 options because I’m greedy and my friends convinced me to, saying that it would allow me to hear my words instead of someone else’s.
I’m glad I did because four haven’t responded at all, two declined to audition and three sent through auditions. One of which was my favourite (and the one I considered hiring on the spot from her samples). I’ve spent the day playing the auditions for people and getting their opinions. So far, everyone likes one particular one and I like another one which is everyone else’s second choice, neither of these people are ones I would’ve initially asked for auditions!
Oddly enough, my previous favourite is everyone’s least favourite, myself included. She read it with a really sarcastic tone and my book isn’t sarcastic. I kind of want to push my luck and see if she’d consider re-doing it with a sweeter tone because I really feel she could do it and be amazing. I don’t know if that’s an option, I’m going to message my liaison and see.
Meanwhile, the one everyone else likes just doesn’t do it for me. She clips her words off and it just doesn’t feel right, some of the inflections are off. The one I like…wow. She hits it out of the park. Every line of dialogue is exactly as I expected it to be said with the correct inflections and pauses, etc.
The scene I chose for the audition is in the middle of the book, has all the main characters in it and includes some back and forth between the band. To take that scene, with no surrounding information and nail the characters’ personalities so well is impressive. I could probably coach the other narrators to hit it but I feel like she got it straight away, which I like.
Apparently, I’m the only one that thinks so, though. I’m unsure how much of a diva “I’m the author” move, I should pull (though, I’m the one that has final choice, so is it really a diva move?). I have explained it to a few people and they’ve kind of come around once I explained my thinking. A few also only listened to the first thirty seconds or so instead of the full four minutes of each and it really becomes apparent to me further on. Mum was one of the people who liked the other one, listens to exclusively audiobooks and loves my book as much as me. So, I did wonder if I was right but she’s come around but still likes the other one.
Dilemmas! Anyway, exciting things are happening. I can’t wait for you to read the book and hear the audiobook, regardless of who I choose!
