Oooh it's taken a while but I can proudly announce that The Interspecies Poker Tournament is now available on audio - my first audiobook!
The Interspecies Poker Tournament is a Roshaven novella, a case file from the thief-catcher office and as such has Ned Spinks and Jenni the sprite investigating a series of murders.
Blurb
Ned Spinks, Chief Thief-Catcher, has a new case. A murderous moustache-wearing cult is killing off members of Roshaven's fae community. At least that's what he's been led to believe by his not-so-trusty sidekick, Jenni the sprite. She has information she's not sharing but plans to get her boss into the Interspecies Poker Tournament so he can catch the bad guy and save the day. If only Ned knew how to play!
The Interspecies Poker Tournament, Case 27 of The Roshaven Files, is a humorous fantasy novella following the adventures of Ned Spinks and Jenni, a prequel to The Rose Thief. If you loved Terry Pratchett's Discworld, you'll love Roshaven.
Here is a preview of the audiobook:
The Process
Oh my goodness it was a process. First I did some saving up. I bought a course on how to record your own audiobook, then a bought a mic and created a test audio file. It didn't sound great. Then I realised I had bought the wrong mic!! So a bit more saving up meant I was able to buy the right mic.
I was recording onto my laptop from the mic through a program called Audacity. It wouldn't work. No matter what I did, how many YouTube videos I watched, articles I read and helpdesk I sent emails to - I could not get Audacity to recognise my mic. I fumed for a while. Then Microsoft did an update and voila! Amazingly, suddenly, the mic was recognised and I could record to Audacity.
It still didn't sound good.
I bought a sound shield and the wrong mic stand, twice. I tried creating some weird umbrella based, blanket fort but still, the sound wasn't great.
Then my good friend Kate recommended a sound guy to me, Rob Hodgkinson of Ghost Studios. He gave me some wonderful advice on set-up. I bought a mouse mat and forked out for the correct, more expensive mic stand and a shock mount. Put everything on my chest of drawers, nestled into my small wardrobe space and used an additional blanket and pillow to absorb as much sound as possible.
Looks pretty good, huh?
And the sound quality was a huge improvement but it still wasn't as good as I thought it could be so I went back to Rob, who was now a very good email friend lol, to see if he could help. He offered to master the files. This means running them through professional sound equipment, getting rid of background noises and reducing hisses and pops. A service that has been absolutely worth every single penny.
Once the files had been mastered I was able to upload. I uploaded direct to Findaway Voices for the wider distribution - Apple, Google Play, Kobo, libraries etc and to ACX who look after Amazon's Audible service.
There were a few quality hoops to leap through but nothing too horrendous and then that was it. The audiobook had been uploaded. Ta-da!
You can get your copy here:
I really hope you enjoy the audiobook, I look forward to hearing what you think. I will be narrating more books in the future, starting with The Rose Thief.
Claire Buss is a multi-genre author and poet, completely addicted to cake. Find out more about her books on her website
clairebuss.co.uk. Join the discussion in her Facebook group
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