How I Edit for Audio

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Happy Autumn! This past weekend I raked leaves for several hours, and I’m still feeling it now. Ouch. It started out easy enough, but eventually I wanted to plant myself face-down in the leaves and quietly die. Even my Fitbit noticed—it started buzzing wildly on my wrist. I thought, what’s that? Turns out it’s the first time I’ve gone over 10k steps since I got the new model.

My next-door neighbor took pity on me the next day and finished the parts I abandoned when I lost the will to live. This means a lot to me. It’s really hard to do everything myself.

Another thing I’m seeing that I’m profoundly grateful for is the success of the fundraiser I did for Skin After Skin audio production. Between the fundraiser and the first few months of sales, I’ve broken even on the audio production cost. This is a huge relief, and it means a whole lot to me that the PsyCop readership helped me out to this extent.

At GRL this year, several people asked me when the Mnevermind Life is Awesome audiobook was coming out. Turned out Seth Clayton and I were already finalizing our plans for him to record in November (aka right now!)

Looking at the finances, I’m concerned, because the sales numbers for this series are quite low. I’ll be really frank with you guys. The Persistence of Memory came out about a year ago, and I have made a profit on it of less than four dollars. Forget Me Not, which is the fan favorite book of the trilogy, is still about $1000 in the hole after being on sale for almost nine months. I wouldn’t necessarily expect it to have broken even in this amount of time, but sales are low enough that it’s going to take another fundraiser to complete the series without me losing a lot of money on it.

One thing readers might not realize is that I do an audio re-edit of my novels so they’ll provide the most immersive experience possible when you hear them.

[Big Dan] “Better than Life is Awesome?” ~~Dad asked.~~

Elijah shook his head impatiently. “This purported new mnem is not real.”

[Daniel] “I haven’t stacked it yet, but—”

[Elijah] “It doesn’t exist,” Elijah stood up so quickly the syrup bottle tipped over.

So, what does it involve when I do my audio edit?

The most important thing is explaining how I want the characters to sound. If no fitting actors come to mind for me to compare people to, I'll see if I can find hunt down clips of interesting people talking on YouTube. Or maybe I'll just write an analysis of the main characteristics I'm wanting to convey. I told Seth that the bafflingly cheerful doofus character Larry was like Chris Pratt in Parks & Rec. Seth doesn't imitate him, and that's not the point. But it's a great shorthand for his thick but goodhearted vibe, which comes across perfectly in The Persistence of Memory and Forget Me Not.

I then go through the whole novel, reading it to myself in my head slowly and carefully and imagining I'm hearing it, so I can adjust the text.

Dialog tags like "he said/she said" are important. For audio, you don't need to indicate when someone other than the narrator is speaking, because the actor can do it with his or her voice. I particularly love this for multiple-person conversations, they flow so much more naturally, like the one in my example where Daniel, Big Dan and Elijah are all talking. Conversely, though, I often add in "I said" in a first-person narration to help differentiate internal from external dialog. All my narrators are really good at doing this with their delivery alone—I'm not entirely sure how they do it, it sounds a little bit like magic to me. But I try to help them out.

Often when something is spelled or written like a text message or a sign, that part needs to be re-jiggered so it's easier to picture in audio. But sometimes you can ditch descriptors of how characters say things because the narrator can convey that. I'll leave the original in so the narrator gets my drive, but knock it out with a strikethrough. ("That's fantastic," ~~she said acidly.~~) Or I might leave the tag in if removing it destroys the rhythm of the prose.

Pacing is another consideration. I might add paragraph breaks to let the narrator know to start slowing down the delivery. Or I might break up a run-on sentence that's fun to read but challenging to speak. My narrators probably wish I did this more :D

I choose narrators who are skilled enough that they could make the text sound great even if I didn’t do this thorough re-edit. However, it’s important to me to make these audios the best they can be, even if that means putting another few days of work on my plate. But like it would be for most of you, it’s unsustainable for me to work for several days for only $4.

So, if these audios give you hours of pleasure and you’d like to make sure I can continue to create them, how can you contribute?

1. Buy the fundraiser merchandise. Everyone I’ve spoken to with tees from my last fundraiser tells me how much they love them, and that they even get compliments on them. Win-win! Shop the Fundraiser here

2. PayPal donation. Even five dollars helps. (Heck, it would double my profit on The Persistence of Memory). This method is better than Patreon for me because I don’t want to make my supporters commit to a monthly payment. I also prefer to give my bonus content freely to all my newsletter subscribers and not just folks who can pay extra. Donate via PayPal here

3. Leave a review. A sentence or two stating what you liked about an audiobook on Amazon and Audible will definitely influence potential listeners who are on the fence about purchasing.

4. Recommend this series to your friends (either in person or on social media.) I have often whipped out my phone and spent a credit on an audio because my friend is raving about it. I’m sure I’m not the only one!

About the Designs
Since the Sticks and Stones T-shirt was a big hit with my last fundraiser, I decided to create an Adventuretech Mnems shirt. The lettering is a lot like an old Atari console, which is how I picture the high tech gear they use to make their recreational memories. I also wanted it to look like something Daniel's aunt could have whipped up in Microsoft Word, without being too cringeworthy.

There's also an artsier Mnevermind crow logo that's understated, wearable, and distressed.

See all the Mnevermind fundraiser goodies

And a Freebie for You

In the mood for a shy young man looking for love, a sexy window washer, and a hint of magic? If you haven’t yet checked out my anthology Bittersweet Candy Kisses, pick up the first novelette, Hue, Tint and Shade, in the Love is Love giveaway from November 16-26.

There are over 20 more delightful books in this promo, so definitely check it out.

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