Saturday, October 25, 2014

Evolution

Originating in the early 17th century, coming from the Latin evolutio(n) meaning 'unrolling'. Current senses stem from a notion of 'opining out' and 'unfolding', giving rise to a general sense of development.

So why am I talking about evolution? Because my writing life has done some major unfolding over the years.

For the first 40-45 years of my life, such a think as writing, by any accepted definition, was the farthest thing from my mind. I was a voracious reader, but writing one of those book - never in a million years.

Seemingly rather suddenly I had a published book, and then there was another. Now I have a trilogy, a collection of two, and two stand-alones. There will be more to come one day soon.

But that's not all. Though I fully expected to be happy, thrilled even, with having published books, friends and family have repeatedly made such comments as, "So when does the movie come out?" What a wonderful idea. I mean, look at the Harry Potter movies, The Erigon movies, and of course, The Lord of the Rings, and now The Hobbit movies - all my favorites. So I had a moment of hope when my first book actually crossed the desk of a movie director, but it crossed very quickly and made it into the hands of a couple girls - there all movie hopes died. Back to waiting.

Well, I have a lot of patience, but really I don't expect to live forever, so I decided to get my butt in gear and see what I could do. Next summer, I'm planning to buy me a book on how to write a movie script. I stumbled across this great site called the Writer's Store, and is that place jam packed with all sorts of things. Not only can I get my book there, but I truly believe I may have a chance of a half-way descent launch into the business as well.

That's not all though. While advertising on one of my forums, I saw a post about a narrator. I have always thought they must be very expensive, but what the heck, it never hurts to ask. George was very approachable. His rates depend on a long list of questions, but even so, they are very affordable. Best of all, I just had a listen to his voice. These kinds of things, videos and such, generally don't work well for me. Too much lag, since my signal bounces through a satellite. I'd hear two or three words, and then there was a pause, and then another two or three words, but let me tell you, he had a very rich voice. I think I will be very pleased.

Because of that, there is no way I will ever be able to download a book. Unlike a kindle book, which might take a minute to download from Amazon, something like a music video can take up to a half an hour to load up enough for me to listen to it all in one piece. Listening to his audio sample tells me that would work about the same way.

There's also the marketing to consider. Just like with my books, I see to it that both a paperback and an e-copy are available. I have always accepted the fact that e-readers are a growing popular item, but also there will always be those who treasure the real book. And since I live out here in the middle of nowhere, there is no way I can sell eBooks from here, so I have boxes of books I can sell to whoever wants them around here. That means guests from the lodge, or friends and neighbors. It also allows me to sell them from my website where I can sign them before mailing them.

It only makes sense to do the same thing with audio books. Have them available to download instantly to those who can and want to, but also have the CDs available for those who are low tech enough to prefer to listen from a CD player. I have one; I love the few audio books I have, and I wish I had more, but I don't have anything like my kindle for audio books. Plus, CDs I can also offer from my website as well as sell here. Since the guests at the lodge where I work all speak English as a secondary language, and therefore don't always read English as well, they might actually prefer the CDs as opposed to the books.

I hope to get that ball rolling next summer too. Maybe I should run a poll and see which book people would like to see go audio first. Which would you like?

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3 comments:

William Kendall said...

I've only listened to a couple of audio books, and just personally, it's not something I can get into. I need to be reading the words.

Anna L. Walls said...

I like to read the words too, but sometimes, when the hands need to be busy but the mind is depressingly idle, an audio book is just the thing to fill the gap.

Willow Drake said...

I love the concept of audio books but honestly I prefer the print. My world is so hectic and full of noise, it is a gift to be able to sit in silence with a cat or two curled in my lap as I read a book.

I think it's an excellent idea for you to pursue though because many people love that format.