Fun times and steep learning curves

So as you probably figured out, I got an offer to do the audiobooks for Broken Knife.

I truly had no idea how this worked, so when my publishers said, "They'll do $XX per book", I thought that was what I was supposed to pay them. As it turns out, they want to pay me for the privilege of making and releasing the audio books, which is pretty darn cool.

But the next step is telling them who I'd like to narrate the audiobooks (with the codicil that if the artist is too expensive or unavailable, I have to pick again, and I only get three picks, after which they're going to choose for me). So I spent this weekend (in between sneezing half a Pandy out of my sinuses) listening to narrators. All of them. (Okay, 275 of them.)

Then I sent a list of my favorites to my publisher, and felt very accomplished.

But no, that's not how this works. I'm supposed to pick LitRPG narrators, because nobody knows me, but if I have a popular narrator, people will want to listen to them. Which makes sense. So the romance narrators and people who'd only ever done one book were non-starters.

So today, after volunteering at the kiddo's school book fair, I listened to another 135 narrators (I've streamlined the process, so it was much faster this time) and picked my favorites. They are:

1. Graham Halstead and Angela Lin

2. Ryan Kennard Burke and Reba Buhr

3. Adam Gold and Diana Richardson

All of them have done at least one LitRPG series before, and most have done several. Graham Halstead is safe, at least, since he did 'Underworld', and hopefully that'll be enough to allow me to slip Angela Lin by, even though she's only done one book of 'Scathing Reviewer'.

Ryan Kennard Burke did 'Symbiotic Ascension', 'Cozy Guides to Fantasy Living', and 'Shattered Gods', among others. Reba Buhr voices 'Cinnamon Bun' and 'Melody of Mana'. Adam Gold did 'Legends Online'. Diana Richardson did 'Odyssey of the Ethereal', 'The Dragon's Soulmate is a Mushroom Princess', 'In Another World with my Smartphone', and others.

So, now we wait and see if I did a better job of picking this time around, and if any of these people are within budget for my project and willing/able to do it. If you get the chance to pick narrators, though, don't be like first me 😅