A friend sent me a question tonight asking for some recommendations about ways to get organized. With a day job, her narration work, a husband, an aging parent, and her home all vying for her time and attention, she was understandably feeling a bit overwhelmed.
Since other people might find these thoughts to be helpful, I decided to answer her in this article.
Let’s look at 3 main areas of organization.
In July, I published the Kindle edition and audiobook of Edna Ferber’s classic coming-of-age story Fanny Herself: A Passionate Instinct. On the surface, the task of publishing new editions of a public domain work might seem simple. After all, the author has done the hard part of actually writing the text. As you’ll discover in a short series of articles from several journal entries I want to share, the effort and decisions occurring behind the scenes were almost as difficult and time-consuming as creating a new story.
You may remember from this post that in order for me to publish an audiobook from a public domain book on Audible.com — my end goal — I have to create a new Kindle version of the text. This version must be distinguished from the free version in the Kindle store in 1 of 3 ways:
I had illustrated my first book The Heart of The New Thought and decided to illustrate Fanny Herself.
When it comes easy, you know it’s meant to be, and the Universe was certainly smiling on me this afternoon to make it easy for me to illustrate Fanny Herself!
Last night, I started looking for stock images to illustrate the book. I thought it would be easy to find a Victorian, plush photo album shaped like an acorn. I’m sure I’ve seen such a thing in a magazine. I spent at least an hour and maybe even 2 looking for that one picture but came up empty. As we went to bed, I thought I should plan to annotate my Kindle book instead of illustrate it.
I started researching the famous violinist Schabelitz to see if he really was a violinist or an imaginary character. Ferber mixes real and imagined people and things so easily that I don’t know where fiction ends and facts begin.
I found info about the German influences in Wisconsin and a journalist in Cincinnati named R. E. Schabelitz. These were interesting finds, and I thought of other things to add.
I saw several links to the book and looked at a few. One was the Emory Women Writers Resource Project, which might be a useful repository of future publishing projects.
Another link was the JACKPOT! I found Volume 83 of The American Magazine containing their issues from Jan.-June 1917. Fanny Herself, I quickly learned, was serialized in that magazine starting in April 1917! And guess what?! Within each month’s portion were hand-drawn illustrations by M. Leone Bracker! I found 10 between April and June, which is all I need to offer the book on Kindle. I also found a picture of Ferber and made copies of the magazine cover and some promotional paragraphs.
I looked for volume 84 in Google. They have digitized a number of volumes of The American Magazine, but they weren’t in order. I never could find volume 84. I was thinking about checking libraries to find it.
I decided to look on eBay. I queried “American Magazine 1917” and got 41 results, most of which were for different magazines like the American Magazine of the Arts, Mentor, etc. Someone had the April 1917 issue of The American Magazine for $20.
I about jumped out of my skin when I saw the holy grail: Volume 84, bound like a library copy, of the July-Dec. 1917 issues of The American Magazine!! I didn’t even read the description! I saw the pictures and the price of $18 plus $3 shipping, and I bought it!
I then saw that the front and back covers of each magazine are missing, along with about 12 pages throughout the book. The probability that those 12 pages were the pictures I want is too remote to even consider. It’s coming from North Carolina, so I should have my book later this week.
When I think of the probability of the very book I need being on eBay at the precise time I looked, my astonishment and elation increase. What are the odds?! Obviously the Universe and perhaps Edna Ferber herself want me to have an easy time of bringing new life to this book! I’m soooo excited that I will be able to include the original illustrations from the magazine in my book!!
During the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, I started seeing this wonderful ad from Dell, titled “Beginnings”:
Perhaps it caught my attention because I have my own story about the quiet beginnings for a new business:
Date: 10/6/06
Time: 10:10am
Place: 10634, the cabin number of a cruise ship docked in Mykonos, Greece
Becoming an audiobook publisher has been a rough road, full of potholes, downed trees, and diverging paths that didn’t necessarily lead me in the direction I wanted to go. Only by trudging forward and refusing to give up was I able to eventually reach the destination.
I offer this post as a road map for becoming an audiobook publisher on ACX with a public domain book. If you want to publish a book still under copyright, you may want to skip down to the end for more information.
I recently wrote about how ideas love speed. I did take several immediate actions 7.5 years ago when I had the idea to create an audiobook publishing company. I read several books that hadn’t been made into audiobooks and contacted the authors about obtaining the audio rights.
One author was interested, but the idea seemed to be squelched by her agent’s lawyers, who were reluctant to be involved with a start-up. Another author wanted to narrate her book. It took her several more years, but I see on Audible that she did narrate her audiobook. A third author was someone rather famous. I didn’t receive a response to my inquiries, but I see that her book is now on Audible, too. Perhaps I gave her the idea.
Life intervened. With the loss of my mother and changes on my day job, I put my dream of becoming an audiobook publisher on the shelf. While ideas love speed, some ideas can’t be implemented immediately and often take years to develop.
All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come.
— Victor Hugo
With the advent of ACX, I knew that I could finally see this idea through to fruition!
Rather than start with a book from a contemporary author as I originally envisioned, I decided to start Jewel Audiobooks with what I thought would be a simpler project: a book from the public domain (PD).
On 1 January 2013, I decided to publish the audiobook of The Heart of the New Thought by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, originally published in 1903. I wanted to produce a shorter work that would be new to audio and had a message I want to share. I often find myself in conversations about the power of our thoughts and words, so this little volume seemed perfect.
[Read more…] about How I Started My Audiobook Publishing Company
