Welcome back to the Extra Edition newsletter! I’m excited to bring you bonus content each month with a special inside look at my novels and the history behind them.

What’s in this Edition:

Sparks Fly Upward Reaches #1 Audiobook

The Making of an Audiobook – Behind the Scenes

Insights from an Audiobook Narrator – An Interview with Tawnya Rollingson

Sparks Fly Upward Reaches #1 AudioBook

A few weeks back, when Larksong Legacy’s audiobook narrator, Tawnya Rollingson, told me Sparks Fly Upward had reached #1 in New Audible Audiobooks, I could hardly believe it. While my sales are good, I’ve never received Amazon’s little orange #1 flag. I’m incredibly grateful to Tawnya for making these characters come alive in a way that resonates with so many readers.

Sparks Fly Upward also reached #6 in Christian Historical Fiction Audio Books, right alongside historical romance authors, Francine Rivers and Lynn Austin. I’m beyond honored to have my book alongside theirs.

Grab your audiobook of Sparks Fly Upward.

The Making of an AudioBook

Today, we’re going behind the scenes of how a self-published author produces an audiobook. For authors who are traditionally published (with a standard publisher), the publisher will handle this process for them. Some small presses, however, may decide not to offer an audiobook, requiring the author to still complete these steps on their own, within the stipulations of their publishing contract.

Decide distribution channels – Normally, I prefer for my books to be with as many retailers as possible, but as mentioned above, audiobooks are expensive to produce. Depending on your narrator, the cost can range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. The audiobook company, ACX, had a royalty share option that worked best for me financially while still retaining a fairly large distribution area through Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. This means that I currently split my profits 50/50 with my narrator while agreeing to keep my book with ACX for 7 years (aka: exclusive distribution). If the author pays the narrator all costs up front, they are free to publish their audiobook anywhere they want (aka: wide distribution).

Choose a narrator – And don’t choose one just because they’re the cheapest. ACX allows authors to hold auditions directly through their dashboard, and it is often apparent which narrators use professional equipment and which ones might be recording on their phone. Every second counts in an audition, so I requested examples of my characters’ accents and ages, with prose narration, dialogue, and even singing (each of my books has at least one song). For Larksong Legacy, I received 13 auditions and narrowed it down to 3 before finally going with Tawnya. Interestingly, she was the first one to submit her audition, but I didn’t want to jump the gun before I had considered all the options. I’m so glad I went with her though!

Negotiation of Contract – rates, timelines, marketing

Scripting – all the character sketches and information

Review the tracks and let the narrator know of any changes

Create the cover art

Send it out into the world.

Insights from an Audiobook Narrator

Welcome, Tawnya! Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I feel so lucky and blessed in my career as a voice artist, working from my personal professional studio in beautiful Castle Rock, Colorado. Collaborating with different clients and authors from all over the world has afforded me wonderful creative expression and learning opportunities. From audiobook narration to animated explainers, E-learning to radio ads, each project has given me valued experience and allowed me to meet wonderful people along the way. My audiobooks include clean, PG, no spice romance, fantasy, teen, historical, self-help, and other genres.

How was narrating Sparks Fly Upward?

Sparks Fly Upward is one of the most rewarding and difficult books I’ve narrated. SO much drama and passion, and SO many characters to voice! I had lots of fun with all the voice acting, but differentiating between all of the male voices, especially when they are all talking to each other and they are all angry (I’m talking to YOU, Lark brothers and shipmates!) was a challenge for my girly throat.

Can you tell us more about how you find each character’s unique voice?

I focus more on the character’s personality and attitude, and let that drive what the voice will be. Larksong Legacy always provides that beautifully; it’s easy to get to know and love (or hate) the characters. The differentiation shows up in HOW they speak: snarky, arrogant, soft, timid, commanding, etc. For example, there was one character in Sparks Fly Upward whose voice I could not nail down. He was a minor character, but he had a big role in picking a fight that turned into a brawl. No matter what I tried, he just was not coming across. So, I took a break and created an entire backstory for him, in order to understand him and why he acted the way he was. Once I did that, his voice came through loud and clear for me, and, hopefully, for my listeners! That’s when I understood that voice-acting isn’t so much about what my throat will do, but about what I can imagine in my head and how I will act it out in the studio.

What do you love most about voice acting?

VOICE ACTING! It is one long, beautiful, never-ending act of creation. I love reading wonderful books of all kinds, making friends or enemies of their characters, and then bringing them to life in my studio. It’s incredibly immersive, and no day is ever the same.

What do you like least about voice-acting?

Nothing. I embrace every challenge. But when doing audiobooks, the production side can be incredibly tedious. Cleaning up all of the raw audio recordings, making sure there are no extraneous noises, and fixing all of my mistakes requires lots of attention to detail and lots of patience. What you may not know is that every breath I take is recorded, and every breath needs to be (mostly) removed. But not all of them. Sometimes when a character is laughing or crying or scared or having a baby the breaths have to stay. Therefore, I comb through each and every minute of audio looking for those breaths and removing them or editing them individually. Can you guess how many times you breathe when reading a book out loud? A LOT. Each hour of finished audio has another hour or two of painstaking editing and production behind it.

How can readers find out more about your work?

My website (https://tawnyarollingson.com/) has information on all my audiobooks, along with a link to free audiobook codes, including the Larksong Legacy series. You can also find me on YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest.

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Until next time, happy reading!

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

Kelsey

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