2015 Audiobook Wrap-up

Karen Commins — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 20:14:18 +0000

As we count down to a new year, I wanted to take a moment to update you on some of my activities this year. Much of this article originally appeared in my profile earlier this week on the Eargasms Audiobook Review site. I appreciated the great questions from audiobook listeners and encourage you to read them.

During 2015, I’ve drastically increased my efforts to help authors and publishers with a backlist understand the audiobook production process and get more of their titles into audio! I wrote a number of articles and created some videos, which I will detail in a moment.

New Links In My Discography

Rest assured, my writing and video production activities are mere extensions of my greatest passion, which is audiobook narration! I’m delighted to announce I released 8 new audiobooks in 2015!

My first release of 2015 was BLY VS BISLAND: BEATING PHILEAS FOGG IN A RACE AROUND THE WORLD, which the talented Melissa Reizian Frank narrated with me. It was a very special narration project, and the story behind the story still gives me chills!

In addition, I performed:

cozy mysteries — DEAD PAN by Gayle Trent and ONE HOOF IN THE GRAVE by Carolyn McSparren
suspense and romantic suspense — DEADLY BLESSINGS by Julie Hyzy and WHAT SHE DOESN’T SEE by Debra Webb
history —THE STORY OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY by Benjamin Levine and Isabelle Story, THE TRIAL OF SUSAN B ANTHONY by Ann D. Gordon (I edited the text to make it more suitable for an audiobook), and Susan B. Anthony’s famous 1873 speech IS IT A CRIME FOR A US CITIZEN TO VOTE

You can hear samples of my 2015 releases in this Soundcloud playlist:

Articles and Videos

I started the year by creating and, of course, narrating a 41-minute video Setting Sail In Audiobooks that explains reasons every author should have audiobooks and offers concrete suggestions for writing with audio in mind and using ACX.com to create audiobooks. I also created and narrated a 3-minute video that demonstrates Amazon’s Whispersync between the Kindle ebook and Audible audiobook.

In June, my friend and fellow narrator Ann M. Richardson and I had the great joy of launching InD’ear, our featured column about audiobook production, in InD’tale Magazine, a celebrated publication for indie authors and publishers. My articles appeared in the June, October, and November issues.

I’m currently developing a new web site AudioForAuthors.com as a home for even MORE of my articles, as well as a curated resources list! I expect it to go on-line within the next few weeks.

Even with the expanded assistance to authors, I continue to develop content to help my fellow narrators.

I added 18 new articles to this blog, which continues to serve as a resource to other voice talent and narrators. One article that has been particularly popular with both narrators and authors is How to Afford Your Editor, Proofer, or Narrator TODAY.

Narrators have also appreciated these 2 videos that I created and narrated this year:

Finally, I started and maintain an FAQ for the very active Facebook Group ACX Narrators and Producers.

This year has been fulfilling in every sense of the word, and I’m excited about the projects already on tap for 2016! Best wishes to you for continued health, prosperity, and success!

The post 2015 Audiobook Wrap-up appeared first on Karen Commins.

Stray Post Roundup

Karen Commins — Sun, 14 Jun 2015 00:04:26 +0000

Howdy, pardner! Welcome to my first stray post roundup! I don’t always confine my writing to this blog, and some of my critters have wandered off hither and yon across the ‘Net. I thought I’d rein ’em in here in case you missed seeing them.

In this roundup, I’ll link to my new magazine column and responses posted on other sites about my thoughts on setting boundaries in your voiceover business, how audiobooks allow you to read more books, which audiobooks about technology are best, and whether to read fiction or non-fiction. I’ll also unveil my latest video, which shows how to use the iAnnotate app during the audiobook corrections process.

Big news!

I am thrilled to announce that my friend and fellow audiobook narrator Ann M. Richardson and I are now writing a monthly column about audiobooks for InD’tale Magazine! InD’tale is a gorgeous and well-established on-line magazine that, to borrow Ann’s perfect phrasing, offers great information for anyone interested in writing, reading, or now listening. We call ourselves Narrators Helping Authors. Our goal is to help indie authors and publishers learn about the industry and inspire them to create successful audio editions of their books!

Our column is called InD’ear, and we’ll alternate authorship each month. I wrote the first one, which appeared starting on page 30 in the June, 2015 issue of the magazine.

In Other News

If you run a voiceover business, chances are great that other people constantly ask you how they, too, can become a voiceover talent. I shared my thoughts about unpaid consultations in this update on LinkedIn titled Setting Boundaries in Your Voiceover Business.

I’ve answered a few questions about reading and audiobooks on Quora.com:

Here’s my answer to the question How can some people read so many books, do they actually read and understand or just briefly browse? You’ll note in the comments that a previous respondent took issue with my interpretation of the question.

As a former IT professional, I was happy to reply to What are the best audiobooks for computer science and programming?

I also responded to the question Are there any benefits to reading fiction over nonfiction?

Finally, audiobook narrators, this video is for you! I show you how my editor and I use Branchfire’s iAnnotate PDF app on our iPads instead of a spreadsheet during the corrections phase of the project.

Please leave me a comment if you found useful info in this article or have ideas about other topics you’d like me to address. My work is my passion, and it’s a joy to sit a spell and share it with you!