Tuesday Tips: Audio Books

Aven Shore

The Audio edition of my most recent novel, Virtues of the Vicious, is now available with the excellent Narrator is Aven Shore.

I get a lot of questions about audio book production from other authors I know. I always point them to www.ACX.com. ACX is an Amazon company that produces audio books for Amazon, Audible and iTunes.

The ACX website has a ton of resources and guidance including the new ACX University.

What's ACX University?
ACX University was established in 2013 to bring free audiobook production education to a community of new producers. Since then, we've grown from classrooms at Audible to an annual series of weekly webcasts for producers and authors to share knowledge of successful audiobook production and distribution.

What's the cost to participate?
Free! ACX University is available to all.

When and where can I watch?
Videos are available on a YouTube channel. Subscribe to the channel or follow on Facebook to keep up with the latest audiobook news.

What's the catch?
No catch! At ACX, they are committed to providing authors, publishers, narrators, and producers with best-in-class training and education to make great audiobooks.

The digital market for books continues to grow. I currently sell more audio editions than paper editions. It's a great feature if you want to read the book yourself or work with a producer.

--Get reading!

Reading: Specops

Last week I read Specops, Expeditionary Force Book 2 by Craig Alason.

Here is the description from Amazon:

The sequel to 'Columbus Day'. Colonel Joe Bishop made a promise and he's going to keep it; taking the captured alien starship Flying Dutchman back out. He doesn't agree when the UN decides to send almost 70 elite Special Operations troops, hotshot pilots and scientists with him; the mission is a fool's errand he doesn't expect to ever return. At least, this time, the Earth is safe, right?

Not so much.

--I am enjoying this series! Skippy!

Trying to tell the future!

Trope Talk: Manly Men

The Fast Friday Interviews: Alaina Stanford

Alaina Stanford

Tell me about yourself, Alaina?

 I'm a Star Trek and a Star Wars freak. I've watched Pride and Prejudice 8 times and You've Got Mail way more than that. I have seven kids and a golden retriever named Jack. I don't watch horror movies, I'm too much of a wimp. I grew up on Grims fairy tales, Stephen King and J.R.R. Tolkien, plus, of course, Star Trek/Star Wars movies and books. I was so shy in high school that I had to force myself to keep my eyes off the floor and set a goal to say hello to at least one person every day. I always wanted to be a flight attendant, but I'm a nervous passenger. I write in multiple genres, but all my books are romantic adventures. Oh, and my hair color changes with the seasons.

Tell me about your current Book: 

Order of Succession, A Science Fiction Romance

When the party planet of Chelyana is invaded by a hostile race, the fate of her people is suddenly thrust into Kaelyn's hands. She races across the galaxy in a small starfighter, toward the only man powerful enough to save her planet, her fiancé, Chord. There’s only one problem, Kaelyn's pilot is the love of her life…

What are you working on now? 

Book 5 of my Archangel Series, Angel From Hell

Where is your favorite place to be when you write?

In my living room during the day when the kids are at school.

What is your favorite lesson you have learned about the business of writing? 

Never give up, never surrender. (Did I mention I'm also a Galaxy Quest fan?) Oh and hire a good editor.

What is your favorite Website?  

My mind is a complete blank. I guess I don't have one or I have too many to narrow the choice down. I'm sure it has something to do with clothes, shoes or writing, maybe music or movies, yes movies or furniture, no movies, probably movies. What was the question again?

Links:  

Web:  https://www.authoralainastanford.com/
Email: 11alaina11@gmail.com
Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Alaina-Stanford/e/B009M6QXG8/
Blog:   https://www.authoralainastanford.com/blog/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/alainastanfordhypnoticjourney/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/awritr

Colony Base Pre-fab

Quotes of the Week

And as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them to shapes...
—William Shakespeare

Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators.
—Stephen Fry

Don’t get it right, just get it written.
—James Thurber

Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.
—Stephen King

Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.
—Pablo Picasso

Imagination is like a muscle. I found out that the more I wrote, the bigger it got.
—Philip José Farmer

A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way.
—Caroline Gordon

I write to be the characters that I am not.
—Joss Whedon

There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.
—Beatrix Potter