I have a great guest today talking about audio books. Her name is Kathryn Meyer Griffith, so give a great "Hello!" to her. Here is a little about this special woman.
About Kathryn Meyer Griffith...
Since childhood I’ve always been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to write full time. I began writing novels at 21, over forty years ago now, and have had seventeen (ten romantic horror, two romantic SF horror, one romantic suspense, one romantic time travel, one historical romance and two murder mysteries) previous novels, two novellas and twelve short stories published from Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books/Eternal Press and Amazon Kindle Direct.
I’ve been married to Russell for almost thirty-five years; have a son, James, and two grandchildren, Joshua and Caitlyn, and I live in a small quaint town in Illinois called Columbia, which is right across the JB Bridge from St. Louis, Mo. We have three quirky cats, ghost cat Sasha, live cats Cleo and Sasha (Too), and the five of us live happily in an old house in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk singer in my youth with my brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the day I die…or until my memory goes.
All Kathryn Meyer Griffith’s Books available at Amazon.com here: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Kathryn+Meyer+Griffith
Egyptian Heart Audio Book now available at ACX here: http://tinyurl.com/cgyhl66
Novels and short stories from Kathryn Meyer Griffith:
Evil Stalks the Night (Leisure, 1984; Damnation Books, 2012)
The Heart of the Rose (Leisure, 1985; Eternal Press Author’s Revised Edition 2010)
Blood Forge (Leisure, 1989; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition, 2012)
Vampire Blood (Zebra, 1991; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition, 2011)
The Last Vampire (Zebra, 1992; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition 2010)
You Tube Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZU77j_q4S8
Witches (Zebra, 1993; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition 2011)
The Nameless One (short story in 1993 Zebra Anthology Dark Seductions; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition, 2011)
The Calling (Zebra, 1994; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition, 2011)
All Things Slip Away (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2006…Amazon Kindle Direct ebook & paperback 2013)
Egyptian Heart (The Wild Rose Press, 2007; Author’s Revised Edition, Eternal Press 2011) My self-made
You Tube Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cogCNYKzPqc
Winter’s Journey (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition, Eternal Press 2011)
You Tube Book Trailer address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZYCs2DVhHg
The Ice Bridge (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition, Eternal Press 2011)
You Tube Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28HZqu-my1g
Don’t Look Back, Agnes novella & bonus short story: In This House (2008; ghostly romantic short story out; Eternal Press 2012) You Tube Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3q9rZryFMo
BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons (Damnation Books 2010)
You Tube self-made Book trailer with original song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0-U9c2Lwfo
The Woman in Crimson (Eternal Press 2010)
You Tube Book Trailer Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcRBvDI5G4Y
The Complete Guide to Writing Paranormal Fiction: Volume 1 (I did the Introduction)
4 Spooky Short Stories (Amazon Kindle 2012)
Telling Tales of Terror (I did the chapter on Putting the Occult into your Fiction)
Dinosaur Lake (from Amazon Kindle Direct 2012)
Human No Longer (Amazon Kindle 2013)
Scraps of Paper –Revised Author’s Edition (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2003; Amazon Kindle 2013)
My Websites:
http://www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith (to see all my book trailers with original music by my singer/songwriter brother JS Meyer)
http://www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyerG
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1019954486
http://www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith
http://www.goodreads.com/profile/kathrynmeyergriffith
http://www.jacketflap.com/K.griffith
http://www.shoutlife.com/kathrynmeyergriffith
http://romancewriterandreader.ning.com/profile/KathrynMeyerGriffith
http://www.romancebookjunction.ning.com/profile/kathrynmeyergriffith
***
My Great Audio Book Adventure
By Kathryn Meyer Griffith April 18,
2013
I’ve been writing for over forty years and published for thirty of them and have never had one of my eighteen novels, two novellas or twelve short stories put into audio. Always wanted to, but was never given the chance or had even thought much about it until the last few months. Too busy writing my novels and living my busy life. You know how it is. And until recently I’d believed only a publisher could afford/decide to turn an author’s novels into audio books. Then I discovered ACX (a fairly new website company that connects audio rights holders with narrator/producers so together they can create audio books) and all that changed. I write horror, romantic horror, suspense, romantic time-travel and murder mysteries and have always been told my stories would make good movies. I use a lot of dialogue; a lot of suspense, emotion and crisp language. And horror has always been a good genre to convert into film and audio…case in point, Stephen King. But, as I said, I hadn’t thought too much about them because, well, I was never offered either. And I was busy…writing. Trying to get published. Stay published. A big enough chore in itself as all writers know.
Anyway, in January 2013 I’d just spent the last three years exhaustingly rewriting and rereleasing all my fifteen older (and a few were new) novels going back to 1984 through my publishers Damnation Books/Eternal Press. The owner, Kim Richards, when she’d contracted my fourteenth and fifteenth novels, had asked me if I’d like to revise and republish my other older works. She’d discovered them on the Internet – my old Leisure and Zebra paperbacks and a few others, most out of print – and had thought it’d be great to bring them all out again. I was thrilled and quickly said yes. My earlier novels needed rewrites and new covers and most of them had never been in eBooks, which we would also put them into. So with Kim and her editors’ help we rewrote them and brought them out again between 2010 and 2012. Dawne Dominique did my amazingly stunning new covers. I’m really happy, proud, with how they turned out.
After that, deciding to try something new, I self-published my sixteenth (Dinosaur Lake, a sf/horror), seventeenth (Human No Longer, a vampire story) and eighteenth (Scraps of Paper, a murder mystery) novels. An experiment still ongoing. Though Dinosaur Lake, so far, is selling extremely well and has gathered over fifty good reviews on Amazon Kindle.
Then, as I was trying to decide what to do next – write a new book or take a well-deserved rest – a writer friend of mine sent me an email. “Have you heard of a website called ACX?” she asked. “They’re new. They’ll put your books out in audio. Take a look.” Hmmm. I took a look and the website, the whole concept, really excited me. You offer up your book/books/stories (if you own the audio rights) and ACX will connect you to a narrator/producer who’ll work with you to produce a first-rate audio book of your novel. But in the end, the choice is up to you. It looked easy enough. Offer on the website a four to five minute audition script, a section of your book you believe is a good sample of the book’s heart, and other details of your novel and wait until a narrator/producer makes an offer to produce it. I thought, “Well, I own total rights to my three self-published books and all the audio rights to my fifteen books with Eternal Press and Damnation Books, so I can do that.” Then I had another idea…ask my publisher if I could use their cover art. It would save me a fortune on getting new art for the audio editions. She and the cover artist agreed that if I put a disclaimer on the audio book cover referring the customers back to its publisher for the eBook and print, I could use their art on my audio books. My cover artist, because she’s a friend of mine, also said she’d reformat them to the required square 2400 x 2400 pixel size I’d need. What a deal. So generous of them.
So I offered up seventeen of my novels (and one short story collection) on ACX in January 2013…and was shocked and pleasantly pleased when within a month’s time eight were accepted! Five narrators/producers quickly sent me five minute audition MP3’s through ACX for all eight. And the quality of the narrators and their voices, their professionalism, was incredible. It was so neat hearing my words come to life after so many years with only the written version. I accepted each one, though I was a little overwhelmed at knowing I’d be juggling eight audio books at once; so I spaced out the final deadlines to fall between the end of March through the end of July. With the largest books later in the summer. Together, my five producers and I set a 15 minute section deadline and the completed book deadlines. Emailed back and forth getting to know each other. My first novel written, over forty years ago now, and my only historical romance, a so-called bodice-ripper (I know, I know… a horror author writing an historical romance…but I was young and hadn’t found my genre, my voice, yet…that came with my second novel in 1984) was even narrated by a woman using an English accent. I’d almost forgotten the book was 15th century England so the narrator would have one. So I smiled when I first heard her audition. My words, my characters, came alive. As I listened, I couldn’t believe, at times, some of the things I’d written. The years had faded the memories and the words. But always, I knew they were mine.
The other narrators/producers were excellent, as well. Two men and three women. Some of them are actors/actresses or voice over specialists. One woman produced audio books for the blind for many years before she came to ACX. All of them have their own in-home studios and know what they’re doing; most have many years of experience. Each has been a joy to work with. So far all have met our agreed on deadlines. All have stories of their own to tell. Over the months some of them have even become sort of email friends. They’re interesting, talented people. I’ve had so much enjoyment listening to their renderings and helping them edit the final product. I’m so please with what they’ve produced.
My first audio book, my 2007 ancient-Egyptian paranormal time-travel Egyptian Heart, was finalized on March 31 and I okayed it for release. It went up for sale on ACX (which is Amazon.com, iTunes and Audible.com) on April 18 – and it is already selling well.
The other audio books will follow one each month until all eight are up for sale. I still have a lot of listening to do, but it’s been fun, so I don’t mind. I’m just thrilled that my novels will be out there for people to listen to. And if I’m lucky, soon the other ten will be snatched up by producers as well and every one will eventually become ACX audio books. Well, that’s the story of my audio book adventure…so far. Stay tuned for further updates.
Egyptian Heart Audio Book can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/cgyhl66
Author Kathryn Meyer Griffith’s books and stories can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Kathryn+Meyer+Griffith
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