Talking books – Listen up! by Ruth Bonetti

Word is out that audio books are hot sellers. (Tell me, is it so?) 

Word is out that, like bookshops, Amazon Audible shun small fry accounts. Authors should enlist a third party company to fast track. 

So I outlaid. Speak Out-Don’t Freak Out joined the clamour of audio books. But last week, I realised my audio book had become Phantom of the Audible. Terse phone calls and emails resulted in links to other sites while the go-between negotiates with Amazon Audible to reinstate.

Listen Up and Speak Out!

A lightbulb moment brightened recent gloom. With time on my hands, experience of speaking, of training and coaching speakers to confident performance polish and even the book (but sorry, no T-shirt)... 

Why not narrate my own books? 

Cue self-sabotage...

I'm a bear of limited tech brain. 

But, aha! I know a savant who revels in such. Musician colleague and former student Kathy is paying off the Classical clarinet I no longer play. She has some time on her hands and welcomes a project. Hear her on Soundcloud, a site she led me to. Rather than borrow her kind offer of tools of trade equipment, we went to an audio shop and I bought the most user-friendly device possible, a Zoom TN1. Too easy!

The mic sports a “dead cat” to block extraneous noise, so I can record out on my deck. I begin narrating Burn my Letters, the first book of the Midnight Sun to Southern Cross trilogy. 

Cue a Molotov cocktail of self-sabotage, frustration and reality check

Have I bitten off an elephant of words! Perhaps it's enough to narrate a chapter of each book as PR teasers? 

And what to do with male Swedish voices who predominate in the book? Its main protagonist hero is a Finland-Swede, and my book includes magical realism conversations with him. I begin to regret this clever trick which enables me to go inside heads and explore motives. 

Northern Light and Sound

Email a friend of 50-years with decades' experience as a music journalist with Swedish Radio. Now retired, he has time on his hands. Professional but humble, Carl (“Calle”) sounds caution. Any mispronounced colloquial words would shriek unprofessional. Feel free to ask another friend of 50 years. But hear Calle in this narration, round 3'40". after an intro précis) reading lines from Kalevela. What say you? 

Email Jan Westerlund, a flautist with whom I performed in Regionmusiken 50 years ago (see pp 47-46 of Burn My Letters). He's interested. 

Sound circles around the globe

So my team consists of two Swedes and we two who live streets away in Brisbane. After recording takes, I drop the SD card into Kathy’s letterbox, she edits and uploads. 

LISTEN UP! Enjoy our team work Introduction and Chapter 1 of Burn My Letters 

It includes an excerpt of Grandad's 1960s radio interview 2'30".

 

Opportunity: Do you dream of your own titles morphing into audio books? Would a teaser audio chapter boost your book sales? As I finesse my narrative skills and eventually learn editing expertise (meanwhile supported by Kathy's brilliant savvy) I'll offer these to other authors. Contact me if my voice suits your book. 

You, too, could enter a new genre, the talking book.

RUTH BONETTI is author/editor of a dozen publications, firstly in her primary field of music and performance. Her passion is a heritage trilogy Midnight Sun to Southern Cross, of which Burn My Letters won the Omega Writers Nonfiction CALEB award in 2017. 

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Thank you for reviews on Goodreads.  They're gold to authors who hate blowing their own trumpets. Though this one is so excited by her new foray into tech, please forgive the many links!

Antics of Engagement

Being an author brings frequent opportunity to engage with readers and the community. Engagement can take many forms, from e-forums, school and library visits, signings, to writer/reader specific events and festivals. As a YA author, I’ve also learned never to assume who will be in each audience.

Writing a book is a very different activity to presenting a practical writing workshop or delivering an encouraging theme related talk. Given the YA tag, for general author visits I often see a high proportion of children attending, along with older young people and their parents, which is really cool. There’s also an equal likelihood that a range of adults up to (or beyond!) eighty may be present. This also is fantastic, as I have a lot of adult readers too, but it presents me with the challenge of engaging a vast range of reading levels, attention spans, and interests.

So how does one prepare for a child friendly event that will appeal to adults, while holding the attention of young people? I wish I could give you a simple answer. My approach has been very much trial and error. Thankfully I’ve had mostly positive experiences (mostly …), but I’ve found something a teacher friend told me once has been sound advice.

Prepare well, take charge, and don’t be afraid to look silly.

I took this to mean I should target my sessions at the more distractible ages, whilst including elements that can go a little deeper, and ensure I have fun—because if I’m having fun, so will they. This rang true with what I’d learned from many years in tertiary education, with frequent community and school engagement. Over time, this is pretty well how my sessions have developed.

The beauty of having young people at an event is no one thinks it’s unusual if you do a few crazy things. We’ve had scavenger hunts, dressing up with main protagonist look-alike masks, relay-type team competitions etc. (You should come to my book launches!) My most recent author visit was a game show style event with learning on select writing topics, interspersed with related challenges and giveaways. An interactive audience always helps.

Even if people look at me like I’m an alien at first (hey, you can’t please everyone), they generally get used to me by the end. Sometimes they even join in. Yay!

Probably the most important thing I’ve learned from all these shenanigans is to own the session. As my friend advised – prepare, prepare, prepare. But also, have the conversations you need with associated teachers or event organisers in advance regarding crowd management, available resources, timing etc. The other important thing I’ve learned is to have a backup plan. (I’m still developing this skill.) If something’s not working, have an established escape hatch that will lead to a potentially more engaging option.

There’s much more I could share, but if you’re a writer and you’ve not yet launched yourself on some unsuspecting audience (I do mean in a positive way …), be encouraged to put yourself out there—and have fun. It’s a great experience and one that can lead to really positive interactions, for yourself and the community.

Adele Jones is an award winning Queensland author. She writes young adult and historical novels, poems, inspirational non-fiction and fictional short works, along with juggling family responsibilities and a ‘real job’ in the field of science. Her first YA novel Integrate was awarded the 2013 CALEB Prize for unpublished manuscript. Her writing explores issues of social justice, humanity, faith, natural beauty and meaning in life’s journey, and as a speaker she seeks present a practical and encouraging message by drawing on these themes. For more visit www.adelejonesauthor.com or contact@adelejonesauthor.com 

Putting myself out there - Jo-Anne Berthelsen

Each January, or sometimes even late the previous year, I look at my list of speaking engagements and/or book promotion events for the year ahead and usually find I need more. So what to do? Should I wait and pray and leave it to God to prompt people to contact me?  Should I instead be more proactive and think of places where I can offer myself as a speaker? Or is it a matter of combining these two approaches?

Now I know from past experience that God has amazing ways of bringing speaking engagements to me I would never have imagined could happen. For example, a couple of years ago, I received an email from a friend, tentatively asking if I would be available to speak at their church’s women’s retreat. She had been idly chatting with her minister’s wife, as they sat watching their respective sons play soccer, when this lady asked her out of the blue if she knew anyone who might speak at their upcoming retreat. My friend suggested me, despite the fact we had not seen each other for several years and were now in different church denominations. The minister’s wife soon contacted me and, after a few emails and phone calls and a meeting with the retreat committee, we were off and running. It was a special weekend, and, as my friend and I drove home together, we marvelled at the way God had brought it all together.

But I also know from past experience how people often need speakers but don’t quite know whom to contact. So I decided some years back to take the risk of emailing various groups to tell them a bit about myself and my writing journey and let them know I am available to speak. In my email, I always try not to be too pushy. I merely offer myself in what I hope is humility and accept their response. Often I never hear back. Sometimes I receive an email that says something along the lines of ‘Thanks for contacting us. We have organised our speakers for the year but will keep you in mind for next year.’ But sometimes I receive a much more positive response where some lovely person tells me more about their group and asks when I would be available—or even a relieved phone call to organise a date and to thank me for emailing!

So this year, I once again prayed hard, then plunged into writing emails to all sorts of places. I was well aware of the danger of doing things in my own strength. But as I prayed, I sensed God was encouraging me to be proactive and put myself out there once again. Now the time has come to wait and to keep praying—and writing my next book! So far, four groups have invited me to speak, but that is only a small percentage of those I contacted. Will there be more? I don’t know. But I know I have done my best, believing God was leading me as I did.

Is this the way you would go about such things yourself, as a published author? People are different, I am aware, but I would be interested to hear your responses.

Jo-Anne Berthelsen lives in Sydney but grew up in Brisbane. She holds degrees in Arts and Theology and has worked as a high school teacher, editor and secretary, as well as in local church ministry. Jo-Anne is passionate about touching hearts and lives through both the written and spoken word. She is the author of six published novels and one non-fiction work, Soul Friend: the story of a shared spiritual journey. Jo-Anne is married to a retired minister and has three grown-up children and four grandchildren. For more information, please visit www.jo-anneberthelsen.com.

But what would you speak about?Jo-Anne Berthelsen

There I was, chatting away to some people who I thought knew me. At least, they already knew I was an author. But when I mentioned something about one of my recent experiences of speaking at a particular venue, they appeared quite puzzled. Eventually, one of them asked a question I have heard several times before.

‘But ... well ... what would you speak about at these places?’

More often than not, this is meant as nothing more than a polite enquiry about the sort of topics I am comfortable speaking on, in which case I am happy to fill them in. Yet sometimes I feel there is more behind such a question. Sometimes these people seem incredulous that I as an author—and particularly a novelist—might have anything to say that could interest or encourage or challenge others.

Now one might well (and perhaps rightly!) put this defensive response of mine down to pride and self-doubt and that slight ‘chip on the shoulder’ attitude some authors seem to display at times. But such a question disturbs me for a different reason as well—and that is that it shows how easily we can pigeonhole people. Fiction writers, these people seem to think, just write novels. Yet most novelists I know have thought long and hard about the themes featured in the fiction they produce and are quite passionate about them. In my own six published novels, I explore such themes as the love and grace of God, forgiveness, becoming the person God created us to be, overcoming rejection, dealing with anger and bitterness, and holding onto our faith in God. I feel deeply about all these and love talking about them when given the opportunity.

Beyond that, however, I believe many people are interested in hearing about how a writer goes about creating a book and about the challenges and rewards of the writing journey and of being a published author. I have spoken about such things in both church and secular settings many times and have learnt to be prepared for all sorts of questions. So we as authors have the opportunity of sharing about both the process and content of our writing and of thus being used by God in a unique way.

Now I know some of you might still cringe at the thought of public speaking. Perhaps you have had bad experiences in the past with this. Or perhaps you have more of a naturally quiet, retiring personality. We are all different. I know too that I am blessed to have had so much experience standing up in front of others and speaking in various capacities. In the past, I have worked as a high school teacher and also as a local church minister. But there is no doubt we all have something to say and a story to share. We would not be writers if we did not.

So I will continue, I suspect, to be disturbed—perhaps even a tad annoyed—when writers are pigeonholed and regarded as having little to talk about. But how about you? Have you encountered such questions in your own writing journey? Do you feel writers have anything to say?

Jo-Anne Berthelsen lives in Sydney but grew up in Brisbane. She holds degrees in Arts and Theology and has worked as a high school teacher, editor and secretary, as well as in local church ministry. Jo-Anne is passionate about touching hearts and lives through both the written and spoken word. She is the author of six published novels and one non-fiction work, Soul Friend: the story of a shared spiritual journey. Jo-Anne is married to a retired minister and has three grown-up children and four grandchildren. For more information, please visit www.jo-anneberthelsen.com.