Working on the ad for my audio book to go inside the front of the Kindle version. I found these great free mockups here.
The CD one is more obviously an audio book, but the phone is more modern. If you were reading the Kindle book, which would you be more likely to click in order to sign up and get the audio book?
Why did this not work? I’m finally looking into it. Here’s what I’ve been surprised to find:
Also, I was not at all strategic in selecting keywords or categories, and I knew almost nothing about copywriting back then, so the book description isn’t all that good either. And honestly, I’d like to tweak the cover, too. I love the image, but the type isn’t quite right.
Yay, obvious stuff to fix! This book kind of became my poster child for “ugh,” so I just didn’t even want to look at it. But so far, the actual text is much better than I remembered. And you know what? At least for the first few years, it was getting downloaded like 10x as much on iTunes as Amazon—and the iTunes version still has the atrocious cover I designed when I first wrote the book and had no idea about cover design. Lots of potential here!
I think while I wait for my microphone adapter thingy to get here, I’m going to track down what’s wrong with the page map in the Kindle file and see whether I can still upload a new version in Smashwords (which is how I got the book in iTunes). Of course, I also need to redo the sales copy, keywords, and categories, but I’m strangely in the mood for this weird tech detail. That’s the time to do it!
My wise and illustrious coach suggested that I do a test recording–just something tiny–to try out this whole recording thing. Very smart plan, especially since I’m a total newbie to this. One thing I know that I don’t know is whether the “silence” in my recording area is quiet enough to pass ACX standards (must be <= -60 dB). But there are also many other things that I don’t know that I don’t know.
So I set up all the gear. My plan was to use my laptop as the recording studio, although I was a little concerned that it might be making fan noises that I wasn’t aware of. That didn’t work–it would not receive microphone through the headphone jack. So I switched to my phone.
I had to take the case off the phone in order to get the microphone to plug in (too-fat connector wouldn’t go through the small hole in the corner bumper). I also ended up installing GarageBand, not realizing I already had it. (How did this take soooo long if I already had it???)
I did a test recording and discovered:
I’m really glad I was intentionally doing scratch recordings, because, even as it was, I was a bit crushed that most of what I read was lost, being longer than 8 measures.
So, what I learned today:
Project Bestseller update! Lots of reading, lots of research. I will summarize in a later post. Today, I’m buying my audio kit! I was going to try to record the audio book with my headset, which is what I normally use to record stuff. But I happened to catch a talk by a podcast editor, and she pointed out that nobody wants to hear your plosive ‘p’ sounds or mouth noises. True dat! I’ve spent enough time editing sniffles out of my videos to know that when I use my headset, people can hear me breathe. No one wants that, yo.
Here’s her recommended low-budget setup (affiliate links):
EARAMBLE Professional Studio Condenser Microphone with Shock Mount
EARAMBLE Scissor Mic Arm Stand
EARAMBLE Pop Filter
Update: due to Amazon math, somehow “2 days” gets it here on the 11th! Hey Amazon, how about sharing your math with my mortgage company?
Update 2: It turned out that I also needed (affiliate links):
A client hired me to make his book a bestseller AND a long-term seller. I’m going to do the same to one of my books (and then the others). Anyone want to join the club?
The way this all came about is I watched this webinar where this big phony-pants bragged about his program and how 100% of his students become bestsellers, but then when I looked up his success stories, none of them are selling now. This guy gets $4000 per client for guaranteeing that you will be a bestseller, even if it’s only for five minutes. I thought, “If this guy can guarantee that everyone will become a bestseller, there must be a system, and I will find out what it is!” So I did, and now I’m going to do it. Rarrr! It’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be awesome. It’s gonna be a-maze-ing.
I’m starting with my free book, and I’m thinking of recording it as an audio book. “They” say that’s the best freebie to offer people so that they want to sign up for your mailing list. Have any of you done this? Any advice?
