Last few days to get in as early bird members to the TSK website! come on I know you want in!

It has been a busy week and I’m posting this side of today first. I did blog about my personal life earlier, but I’m scheduling that post for later.

The title really says it all, and as director of TSK Productions,  I’ve been looking for the right people to bring onboard for us since the beginning of January. They say good things come to those who wait and it’s so true. At first I was a little over excited about the possibilities of hearing TSK read by someone else. Then the task of finding that voice overwhelmed me.

The world of Audio Book is so different I hadn’t expected any of the process.

So for those who don’t know anything this was my journey to now. My friends pointed me at first in the direction of ACX. This is part of Audible and Authors (Rights Holders) can post their projects for potential Narrators to Audition for.

Here’s where I got a little lost. ACX ask you to fill in your profile and ‘sell’ yourself. I’m not very good at that but I tried my best, then they suggest you try and find a voice you like. I tried that and found someone, send them an offer and it lapsed without even a reply. I guess that is the nature of hunting for any partnership.

I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere and one of my friends pointed me to a facebook group. Which I joined and have been so happy with, I’ve learned much more about not only the process of ACX but also more about Narrators and how the system works. How they essentially do their job.

On ACX you can post your work with two options-

1 – A royalty share deal where the author and narrator split the profits.

2 – A PFH rate system which can range from anything like $100 – 400 an hour.

Now we RH’s don’t know how long it take for one person to get to that ‘finished hour, and the confusion seems pretty wide spread from chatter in the facebook group and amongst some of my Author friends.

The fact is it can take 10 hours to make 1 finished Audio Hour and although some narrators do all the work themselves, the fact is getting a producer to do the work frees time and means two ears are on the project not just the narrator and RH. A better win. But, narrators can’t pay for a producer out their own pocket, no matter how much they love a novel. Money doesn’t grow on trees, and so a lot of narrators try and negotiate for a Hybrid deal. Which ACX at the moment doesn’t have as an option for.

I was very lucky to start talking to a wonderful guy, Steven about the whole process, and we talked about what I needed for TSK and of course budget etc. I’m a big believer in paying people but I’ve personally only got so much cash coming in. And it’s taken me time to get that together with my savings. TSK’s been growing in a huge rate this last few months, in design and in everything we as a team do. I’ve backed everyone as I know I should and I will continue to do so.

Sorting out payments in advance for things like editing on book 2 trying to get ahead of the game and not worry about suddenly having to find a huge wad of money when I need the job done. I try and have a business head on, at all times, but yes of course I get excited and spend stuff I shouldn’t. lol

This last two weeks we’ve had Steve find and start negotiating with two very talented narrators. Of which I’m totally excited to say have now joined with us as Team TSK’s voice.

More than excited to welcome Greg Tremblay, who is taking on Book 1 and our short snippets. 🙂

His Audio books can be found at if you want to listen to his amazing voice –

http://www.audible.co.uk/search/ref=a_listener__cco_1_1_1_n?searchNarrator=Greg+Tremblay

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/GTremblayVoice/posts/1224970447520737?fref=nf&pnref=story

and Holly Adams –

Audible link for her sweet voice is – http://www.audible.co.uk/search/ref=a_search_tseft?advsearchKeywords=Holly+Adama&filterby=field-keywords&x=0&y=0

and her facebook fan page

https://www.facebook.com/hollyadamsnarrator/?fref=ts

I know this project has a lot coming up.  We could keep these guys nice and busy for a bit, with book 2 set for release (sept, I’m hoping) our short snippets live each month and three of our writers working on other stories and novels set in the TSK world, we’ve lots to do in the next year or so.

Greg and Holly were both honest with me, and that little bit of ‘RH and Narrators’ don’t mix kinda thing I found wasn’t true. Greg told me that he found the language side of things exciting and daunting at the same time. I contacted Trent and they had a chat, which really helped, and I’ve since heard Greg’s proof for the story,  and so has Trent. Greg’s fantastic and Lacria sounds just fabulous.

I can’t wait for you guys to hear these two amazing voices, TSK will be brought to life on a whole different level. Which has left me totally awestruck this week.

Nothing else to do but, squeeeee.

🙂 talk later.