Making an Audiobook

The first thing to figure out when making an audiobook is whether you have (or can get) the rights. Since my publisher, Kindle Press, owns the rights, I had to ask for a "rights reversion". Check your contract. Many publishers retain the audiobook rights for a shorter period of time than the other book rights. I sent an email and had them back within a week.

There are currently a lot of different options for audiobook platforms, as far as production and distribution. Every author needs to consider the pros and cons of each and decide what works best for them. Everyone is different. I can't tell you which option to choose, but here's a helpful guide that compares the most common platforms.

The publisher of my first novel, Monsoon Season, made an audio version in 2012, but this is my first foray into audiobook creation. Since I have several books, I might try a few different methods and compare the results, but for my first attempt, I chose the option with the least risk.

I didn't want to spend any money up front so I did a royalty split with the narrator. The website allows you to search for narrators based on various criteria: gender, accent, payment options considered, etc. You can listen to sample auditions, then email select narrators to ask them to audition for a section of your book, which you upload to the site. I chose a section that included several characters so I could hear the variation.

The narrator I chose, Kaitlin Chin, is fantastic. The process of making this book was so much fun and she made it a fresh experience for someone who has read the book a thousand times. Kaitlin embodies the two main characters so well and her performance is captivating.

I hope you'll check out the audio book for Finding Charlie.

Tucson Festival of Books: Julia Glass

So, I'm pushing forty and this is the first time I've gotten someone's autograph. Julia Glass is in my top five all-time favorite authors. I've read all her books once, The Whole World Over three times.

In each of my own novels, I make reference to one of the writers I most admire. In Finding Charlie, it's this scene of Olivia reading in her back yard:

"I was reading the latest novel by Julia Glass. She was delving deeper into the lives of characters who had been on the edges of her earlier work. I liked this idea: we are all peripheral characters in someone else’s story and every peripheral character is the lead in their own."

This is the way I write too - standalone stories with overlapping characters. No one does it better than Julia Glass, who was one of several inspiring authors at this year's Festival of Books. (But again, the only one whose autograph I just had to have!)

Print copies

I always get so excited when the box of paperbacks arrive! Blood & Water is my fourth novel, but this time was no different.

Over the years, I've become a reluctant Kindle user. There are definitely times when they're convenient for travel and having a diverse collection of reading material at your fingertips. But, if you're like me and appreciate the feeling of a good, old fashioned book in your hands, you'll be happy to know the print copies are now available.

Here it is with my last book, Finding Charlie. (Kindle Scout is running a 99 cent sale for that one all month.) Don't they look good together? Shout out to Deb, my amazing cover designer at thecovercollection.com.

How many of you are ignoring the ebook "trend" in favor of paperbacks?

KindleScout Anniversary Sale

Just over a year ago, my novel Finding Charlie was selected for publication by KindleScout.

This month KindleScout is celebrating its 2nd anniversary with a sale on over 200 titles currently supported by the imprint.

All KindleScout books, including Finding Charlie, will be available for 99 cents until April 3rd.

It isn't like Charlie to stay out all night without calling, but maybe Olivia doesn't know her little sister as well as she thought. 

When Charlie vanishes without warning, the people who love her are worried sick. Even if the law considers her an adult at nineteen, Charlie's still the baby of her already broken family. Older sister Olivia is determined to figure out what's happened. She finds a lost cell phone, an abandoned car and a shady boyfriend she's never met before. And he's not the only secret Charlie's been keeping.

This disappearance feels uncomfortably familiar, reminding Olivia and her father of another loss years before. But this will be different, Olivia swears. Charlie's coming back.

KindleScout Update

Since my novel, Finding Charlie, won the crowd-sourcing competition back in December, I've written a lot about the publishing process. What I just realized, though, is that I've done most of that writing as a guest for other blogs.

For instance, if you're a writer thinking about entering KindleScout, read this piece that I wrote for Rowena Wise.

My publishing journey started years ago with the success of my first novel, Monsoon Season. If you're interested in the story of that somewhat unconventional path and what it means to be a hybrid author, you can read more here, on BooksbyWomen.

I'm about nine months into the process with KindleScout and I've been really happy. When I signed the contract, I didn't know what to expect in terms of their support - and because of previous experiences with other publishers - I kept those expectations low. But I've been pleasantly surprised.

I was assigned an editor who worked with me to get the book professionally polished. The KindleScout team has always been quick to respond to my emails. In terms of sales, I earned back my advance within the first month and get monthly sales reports so I feel very involved in the process. Last month's promotion had Finding Charlie on the first page of Amazon's best-selling women's fiction, at #19:

Exciting stuff!

World Building - On writing fiction

"World building" is term I've heard used mostly in the context of science fiction or fantasy writing. It refers to the way these writers create an imaginary place and all the elements within that place conform to a certain set of rules: the character's histories, the basic physics of the environment, what's at stake in the storyline.

In a way, all writers of fiction are world builders. The imaginary world that I constructed for my first novel, Monsoon Season, is the same world that exists in A Long Thaw and Finding Charlie. Characters overlap because they're inhabiting the same space.

The forest fire that was central to Riley and Ben in 2003 is remembered by Charlie in 2016. This same event had different meanings to the different cast of characters, as is true in real life. What was symbolic of the end of a relationship in one book is a reminder of maternal abandonment in the other.  In the parallel universe I created, these stories were going on simultaneously, unbeknownst to the characters involved.

Practically speaking, this can be a lot of work. I don't just need to maintain a timeline for each book; I need to be sure each one works in relation to all the

others. I've started keeping spreadsheets.

The stories in these books exist on their own and can be read in any order, independently from each other. I don't write sequels, but because all of my characters live in the same world, there's an opportunity to revisit the past. Readers of Monsoon Season will find a familiar face in Finding Charlie, a partial answer to the "where are they now?" question I've gotten since the first book came out.

Winning!

Finding Charlie has been selected for publication by KindleScout and I'm over the moon. The journey toward publication can get grueling at times and this feels like the culmination of a lot of hard work - and not just the last 30 days with the campaign.

I am so grateful to everyone for their support - their votes and facebook shares and retweets and thread bumps and good vibes!  I am lucky to have amazing people in my real life and a writing community that means so much to me. Through this process, I really felt like ya'all had my back. Thank you so much.

In the coming days, I'll be writing an article about what I learned from the KindleScout process for my fellow writer friends eager to give it a try.

For the fans: Thanks for the votes! I'll let everyone know when the book is out and for those of you who get advanced, free copies, I hope you'll leave a review on Amazon. It's the best way to spread the word.

At some point, I'll get back to my NaNoWriMo project. I'm about a third of the way through and feeling a new burst of energy from this win. Finding Charlie was a Nano project from 2013, so it's proof that it works.

NaNoWriMo 2015!

This is the third year I'm participating, and like the other two, I'll be a "nanorebel". I'm less focused on meeting the 50,000 word goal and more on setting aside writing time every day. I've started with a project that already has 18,000 words and I added 1,000 words today. If I keep up this pace, I should finish with a solid first draft.

My last novel, Finding Charlie, was my nano project in 2013, so I know it works.

Looking back over previous blogs, I found these helpful tips for time management:

• Skipping the news: I'm kind of obsessive about this, so it is going to free up a lot of my time, but it's also going to be really hard. I'm alerting all those close to me that I'm going to need an email or phone call if some huge news event happens. I already don't have cable so I got all my news off the internet.
• Pajamas all day: Okay, not every day, but some days. I'm kicking off day one in my yoga pants... that I slept in.
• Easy dinners: I don't pretend to be a fancy cook, but this month I'm going even more bare bones. No cutting meat or chopping veggies. If the recipe requires more than 20 minutes of prep, I'll save it for December. 
• No more reading: I finished a book yesterday that I may blog about, but that's it. 

That's a good list to start. I just reactivated my account at nanowrimo.org and may have to limit the time I spend there. They have forums and twitter links and pep talks and notices for local events. It's like Facebook for writing nerds. You can connect with me there- I'm Katie78.

Finding Charlie - Rationalizations

Before Olivia leaves Carmen, she finds one more piece of information about her sister's disappearance:

            I rubbed my palms against the top of my thighs. They were so clammy. I was worried for nothing, I told myself. She was nineteen and I hadn’t heard from her in a day. A day was nothing. “If you hear from her, tell her to call home, okay?” I stood up.
            Carmen nodded.
            Before I left, I tried the door to the car, but it was locked. I cupped my hands around my eyes and peered through the window. There, sitting in one of the cup holders, was Charlie’s cell phone. 

If you'd like to read more, check out the full excerpt on my KindleScout campaign:  https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1ZEZ9K2DLCYOB

Finding Charlie - "This isn't like her"

When Olivia goes to Carmen's house, she gets a few clues about Charlie's disappearance. For one thing Charlie has left her car in the driveway. Carmen tells Olivia that Charlie was at her house the night before and had been up talking with her new boyfriend, Isaac, when Carmen went to bed. Olivia didn't know Charlie had a boyfriend, so this is news.

            I looked at my watch. My father would have gotten home by now. No phone call. “This isn’t like her.” I said it like a statement, but I was looking for reassurance.
            “I know.” Carmen wrapped her bare arms tightly around herself. “She always texts me back. Even if I text her in the middle of the night. She always keeps her phone with her while she sleeps and she will just text me back a smiley face so I know she’s listening.”
            Among a group of framed photographs on the surface of a dresser, there was a shot of the two girls with their faces pressed together, grinning. They were both missing their front teeth, which would make them, what, six or seven? Their faces were painted like butterflies, caterpillar middles along the bridge of their noses, antennae on their foreheads. It had been taken at the 4^th Avenue Street Fair; there was a copy of that photograph at my dad’s house.
            I turned back to Carmen. “How well do you know this Isaac?”

If you'd like to read more, check out the full excerpt on my KindleScout campaign:  https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1ZEZ9K2DLCYOB

Finding Charlie - What does Carmen know?

Are you getting worried about Charlie? Here's the end of what I posted last time:

            It was Carmen who came to the door. I could just make her out through the mesh of the security screen: dark hair flat on one side, wild on the other. She was wearing baggy shorts that hung low on her tiny hips and a red tank top.

            “Olivia,” she whispered. She reached to unlock the security door and I pulled it open. Her face crumpled and she stepped back. “Oh, god.”

And here's more:

            It was not the welcome I had expected. I tried to hold my voice steady. “Where’s Charlie?”

            Carmen blinked and her face smoothed. “You don’t know?”

            “No, I don’t know!” I was yelling. Suddenly, I felt like I wanted to hit her, this girl I’d known forever who was nearly as much a sister as my sister was. She knew something; she was hiding something, taunting me.

            Carmen put a hand to her chest. “Oh, you scared me. I thought you were coming to tell me something had happened.”

            “Something like what?”

            “I don’t know. I’ve been texting her all day and she hasn’t texted back. I’m worried.”

            “Her car’s in your driveway.”

            “I know. She was here last night.” And then, finally: “Come in.” She shut the door behind me and led me into the living room.

            “My dad was calling the house all day,” I said.

            She sat in the oversized recliner in the corner and pulled her feet under her, making herself even smaller than she already was. “My parents are away. I don’t answer the house phone. It’s never for me.”

            I sat down on the couch across from her. “Carmen, if you were worried about her, why didn’t you try to get a hold of me or my dad?”

            She looked startled by this suggestion. “I didn’t want to get her in trouble.”

            I sighed. Kids. “So she was here last night?”

            Carmen nodded, warily.

            “Did she sleep here?” 

            “Well, I thought she did. But, I’m not sure.”

If you'd like to read more, check out the full excerpt on my KindleScout campaign:  https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1ZEZ9K2DLCYOB

Finding Charlie - Who saw her last?

In the previous excerpt, Olivia poo-pooed her father's worry and to further placate him, she's gone to see Charlie's best friend:

            Carmen lived in one of those developments with three different housing plans repeated a few dozen times and painted in HOA approved pastels. It would be easy to get lost if I didn’t know the neighborhood by heart, having spent all the years since I got my license picking up or dropping off. I took the corner onto her street and was awash with relief: there, in the stubby driveway, was Charlie’s yellow Volkswagen bug.

            By the time I rang the doorbell, my relief had already turned to anger. What was she thinking? How could she let us worry like that- especially my poor father. He’d missed a day at work, something he never did, indicative of just how scared he’d been.

            I banged on the door, righteous adrenaline behind every thud.

            It was Carmen who came to the door. I could just make her out through the mesh of the security screen: dark hair flat on one side, wild on the other. She was wearing baggy shorts that hung low on her tiny hips and a red tank top.

            “Olivia,” she whispered. She reached to unlock the security door and I pulled it open. Her face crumpled and she stepped back. “Oh, god.”

 To read the full excerpt and vote for my book on KindleScout, please go here:  https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1ZEZ9K2DLCYOB

Finding Charlie Excerpt

Part One - Olivia

Tuesday, April 22nd 2016:

It was the neighbor’s dog that woke me.

The curtained window was outlined in sunlight. The thick fabric had been advertised as “black-out curtains”, but there are some things that are simply too much to ask for. Even this early, there was no keeping the day outside.

Rick’s arm was heavy across my chest, trapping me in the bed like a stupid metaphor for this relationship. As if I needed it underlined. Officially, we’d broken up three months ago. But, in that time, I’d managed to wake up this way more times than I wanted to count.

---

And so begins the day Olivia discovers her little sister is missing. It starts like any other day, the self-centered worries that will seem irrelevant in just a few hours. She doesn’t know yet.

Read more on my profile page for the KindleScout campaign:

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1ZEZ9K2DLCYOB

Finding Charlie on KindleScout

In September, Finding Charlie won a crowd sourcing contest at Authonomy.com. I've had dozens of positive responses from literary agents who ultimately passed on representation. Before I go the self-publication route, I've decided to do a KindleScout run.

As a hybrid author, I've seen both sides of publishing and know there are advantages and disadvantages to either path you choose. I think KindleScout is somewhere in the middle and I'm excited to give it a shot.

Finding Charlie is commercial women's fiction, told with alternating narrators. When Olivia's younger sister goes missing, Olivia is forced to consider that she may not have known her as well as she thought. Charlie's disappearance feels a lot like their mother's disappearance all those years ago and it opens old wounds, pushing family members to reexamine the past.  

This is a family drama that deals with the repercussions of maternal abandonment.  It takes place during the summer in Tucson, Arizona - the longest season of the year. Readers of Jodi Picoult, Sue Miller, and J. Courtney Sullivan would appreciate this story.

My campaign has just launched on the KindleScout site. I'd appreciate if you coiuld take a moment to give your support: https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1ZEZ9K2DLCYOB

The truth about agent queries

When I got my first book, Monsoon Season, published in 2012, I thought I'd made it. Really, it was just the beginning. After a lackluster release of my second novel, I got out of that contract and rereleased A Long Thaw on my own. Both books have kick ass reviews on Amazon, by the way. Meanwhile, I've been sending agent queries for Finding Charlie and getting the nicest rejections ever.

In fact, I've sent more than fifty queries for this book and I've gotten a really promising response. I've had requests for full reads from about a third of those, many from top agencies, like Writer's House, Trident, ICM, Levine Greenburg, etc. One of those agents called me on the phone to discuss my book.

I keep getting the same response. Here's the remix:

"We’ve determined that this particular project isn’t the right fit for our agency at this time.  As I’m sure you know, the publishing industry changes swiftly now, as do readers’ tastes and trends."

"Given how competitive the market is, I worry I'd have difficulty placing it. I'm going to step aside so you can work with an agent who will give your work the full enthusiasm it deserves."

"Do query others; you deserve an agent who will really fall in love with this, and who has the vision for your work that will help you achieve the career you want."

"We would like to encourage you to consider querying us with future projects as you may deem appropriate."

My debut novel sold over 10,000 copies. Finding Charlie is ranked #12 on Authonomy and is top rated on Book Country. I'm running out of ideas. The other great writers I know, even those with publishing history, are hitting a similar wall. So I think I'll reply to the latest agency rejection. What do I have to lose? Something like this:

"I appreciate your getting back to me. Your response echos the one I've gotten from more than a dozen agents who asked to read the full and then passed. I'm at the end of my list of agents to submit to.

 I have a super thick skin and would love an honest answer to this question: Do you think Finding Charlie is not ready for publication or is it just not right for your list? I'm sorry to put you on the spot but would really be grateful for your insight.

How's that? If I get some clarity, I'll pass it on. 

Book Country

I've been posting chapters of my new book, Finding Charlie, over at Penguin's Book Country site. It is currently top ranked and on the front page of the site.

I don't really know what it means, but the Book County twitter account is tweeting about my book:

Book Country ‏@BookCountry  May 28

FINDING CHARLIE is amazing! http://ow.ly/NfX0o  http://ow.ly/i/aVEqc  @katieorourke78 #TopRated #readinglist

Blog Hop!

Writing can be such a solitary endeavor. It's nice to remember we're part of a larger creative community. Robin Israel invited me to participate in this blog hop as a way to do just that and to shout out to other writers I admire and support.

LIKE: Mary Vensel White, author of HarperCollins' The Qualities of Wood (and a forthcoming masterpiece I've had the privilege of reading before publication).

AND: Juliet O'Callaghan, who has started writing again after taking a contemplative break. You can read about that and you can read her chapters.

BLOG HOP QUESTION:

Why are you working on the project you are writing now? Why is it important? (to you, or to the world, or…)

As of this weekend, I have finished writing Finding Charlie. (I thought it was done a few weeks ago, but it needed another chapter.)

So my new project is deciding what to do with it. I'm working up a query letter for literary agents and weighing the pros and cons of self-publishing.

I never would have considered self-publishing my first book, but with two traditionally published books under my belt and a bit of experience with social media promotion, I'm feeling more confident. It's definitely something I'll think about.

In the meantime, you can check out my first chapters. Finding Charlie opens on the mystery of 19 year old Charlie Howard's disappearance.  As the hours turn to days, older sister Olivia tries to put the pieces together.  This is a family drama that takes place in the summer in Tucson, Arizona - the longest season of the year. Readers of Jodi Picoult, Sue Miller, and J. Courtney Sullivan would appreciate this story.

Finding Charlie - "This isn't like her"

When Olivia goes to Carmen's house, she gets a few clues about Charlie's disappearance. For one thing Charlie has left her car in the driveway. Carmen tells Olivia that Charlie was at her house the night before and had been up talking with her new boyfriend, Isaac, when Carmen went to bed. Olivia didn't know Charlie had a boyfriend, so this is news.

            I looked at my watch. My father would have gotten home by now. No phone call. “This isn’t like her.” I said it like a statement, but I was looking for reassurance.
            “I know.” Carmen wrapped her bare arms tightly around herself. “She always texts me back. Even if I text her in the middle of the night. She always keeps her phone with her while she sleeps and she will just text me back a smiley face so I know she’s listening.”
            Among a group of framed photographs on the surface of a dresser, there was a shot of the two girls with their faces pressed together, grinning. They were both missing their front teeth, which would make them, what, six or seven? Their faces were painted like butterflies, caterpillar middles along the bridge of their noses, antennae on their foreheads. It had been taken at the 4^th Avenue Street Fair; there was a copy of that photograph at my dad’s house.
            I turned back to Carmen. “How well do you know this Isaac?”

If you'd like to read more, come back tomorrow. And, if you'd like to start this blog feature from the beginning, go here.

Finding Charlie - She's Missing!

Olivia continues with her normal day, going to the office where she works as a physical therapist. It isn't until she leaves that she learns that this may not be a normal day after all:

            My father was in the waiting room when I left for the day. He looked so out of place- my big, strong dad in a room of broken, old people- and I realized he’d never visited me at work before. As I got closer, I saw he hadn’t shaved, which was abnormal for a week day.  And, come to think of it, he was not dressed for work, wearing jeans and a T-shirt that promoted a political candidate who had run and lost years ago.

            “Daddy?”

            He looked up as though he’d forgotten where he was, lost in the pattern of the carpet. “Olivia.”

            He wasn’t smiling to see me. I touched his arm. “What’s wrong?” I felt like I was bending over him, a little boy cowering over a broken toy. But he was taller than me.

            And then he stood up straighter and put his arm around me and was in charge again. I was relieved to be ushered out the woosh of the automatic door and into the warm evening air under his direction.

            Once outside, in relative privacy, he stood me in front of him and gripped my upper arms. “Charlie’s missing,” he said, ripping the band-aid off.

            “She’s what?”

            “She didn’t come home last night. I can’t reach her on her cell.”

            I let out the breath I’d been holding, smiled warmly, condescendingly. “Daddy. She’s nineteen. I’m sure she just stayed out with a friend. Maybe she turned off her phone.”

            He let go of my arms then. “That’s what the police said.”   

            “The police?”          

            “They aren’t taking it seriously because, legally, she’s an adult.” He said “legally” like it was a made up word. Clearly, she wasn’t really an adult. Unfortunately, I tended to agree.

And so it begins. I'll share more on Monday as Olivia begins to lose her cocky certainty that Charlie's fine. If you want to start this blog feature from the beginning, click here.

Finding Charlie - The Opening

Tuesday, April 22nd 2014:

            It was the neighbor’s dog that woke me.

            The curtained window was outlined in sunlight. The thick fabric had been advertised as “black-out curtains”, but there are some things that are simply too much to ask for. Even this early, there was no keeping the day outside.

            Rick’s arm was heavy across my chest, trapping me in the bed like a stupid metaphor for this relationship. As if I needed it underlined. Officially, we’d broken up three months ago. But, in that time, I’d managed to wake up this way more times than I wanted to count.

And so begins the day Olivia discovers her little sister is missing. It starts like any other day, the self-centered worries that will seem irrelevant in just a few hours. She doesn't know yet.

I finished writing my three pages yesterday, so I'm on target for hitting 100 by the weekend. Tomorrow, I'll share an excerpt from the moment Olivia first learns Charlie has disappeared.