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Yellow Man blurb
Emergence Collective on Audible!
Grab your copy now!
Emergence Ascended is currently in production!
Audible update: Major announcement!
As promised, I did not abandon you!
In the “you win some, you lose some” category, I added my Audible project to the list. I will summarize the story for the new folks (Hi, I do notice and appreciate it!) Being poor and starving author and artist with a goal of have my books on audible, I decided to record my books myself (because I am free labor, I can exploit all I want). So I bought some equipment and made myself a nice little corner in the closet to record.
I started recording and was horrible, sight reading is a skill that I didn’t know I needed. I got better, improved my sound quality, and started to feel pretty good about my narration (I was even told that I am pretty good, translated to my ears are “you don’t suck”). Skipping ahead, with slow progress, I uploaded a sample to ACX (Audible production) to test the audio quality. I got 4 out of 4 flags on my audio, I could almost hear ACX asking if I was deaf or stupid) It seems that my minuscule knowledge of audio engineering was not enough. Go figure.
On a side note, Amazon prime credit should have never given me a card. I signed a contract with a narrator to produce Emergence Collective! Tentatively, it should be released sometime in May 2024. So stay tuned for more on that!
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. As always, please like or comment! I love comments and do my very best to respond to every one!
I am sorry, I am cheating on me
You may have noticed, but I have been in a blogging slump lately. There are a couple reasons for that. My original intention for this blog was to attract and gain a following so that I can share my books wit the world. No one told me that after you self-publish, YOU have to market and market and market. Social media (not my first love) was the most realistic answer. However, it was suggested that I need an Author landing page where people interested can find my books. So, my blog was born.
I created an Instagram account to market the blog and the books, you know, to create an “online presence.” The sad thing is I have little time enough to write my books, let alone post blogs often enough to maintain a following. And there is Instagram; now I have to maintain that as well. For the last two years I have pushed hard to keep up the pace. I have seen some success. it was not all fruitless. And the bonus has been that I have met some very cool people here, ones that I would consider friends.
Then I discovered “Threads.” When it first came out, I ignored it and blew it off as just another waste of time. One day I gave in and decided to make an Author profile. Just like in real estate, the key to success is location, location, location. In 3 months, I had gained more followers there than ALL of my other socials combined, including the blog (Twitter(Twix?) my personal Instagram, and author profiles). Then I started to sell books. Really, People are actually reading my books and, by all accounts, are liking them! YAY!
So I have been spending all my time on Threads. (Feels like I am cheating on my blog) Threads is a great place that has a lot of super supportive author and artist communities and I get less spam and intrusions into the little world I built there. There are also a lot more engagement and interaction with fellow authors and artists, it just feels right to be there. Please give me a follow there @joseph.hallett.author
I am still going to post here from time to time so don’t go away. I am considering a reformat on the blog to make it more bookcentric, but I will still share stuff about my writing journey and post flash fiction and such.
Hey a book Promo!
Happy Read an Ebook Week! You can find my book, My Emergence Collective, available now at smashwords at a promotional price to help you celebrate. Find my book and many more at smashwords.com/ebook… from March 3 – March 9! ebookweek24 #Smashwords
Read an Ebook week
Happy Read an Ebook Week! To help you find a book to celebrate, you can find my entire collection at a promotional price at @Smashwords from March 3 – March 9. Find my books and many more at https://www.smashwords.com/ebookweek #ebookweek24 #Smashwords
Revisions?
I had a successful weekend creatively. I am in the midst of editing “Yellow Man” and got a good chunk done, wittling away. My usual style of writing is that I tend to edit as I go, and I tend to write as I go, only having the idea of the story (beginning middle and end.) With “Yellow Man” I wrote an outline, listed my characters and wrote little interviews for thm so I had a good sense of my characters before I even started. It was good timing, since I had just published Emergence Ascended and was ready for a new project when I realized it was NaNoWriMo season and I had accidently prepared for it. I completed NaNoWriMo with it! Since I abandoned my typical writing style by not editing as I go and essentially puking out my story at a breakneck speed, there is a lot of work that needs to be done to get it ready to publish. I made progress on it this weekend so that makes me happy.
I also recorded two more chapters of Emergence Collective for the Audible project. I am still on the fence (actually starting lean far to the otherside of it) about whether to revise and republish. When I wrote it I did not do some things that I am doing now, and it shows. I have learned a lot since then and I cringe at my writing from then to now. I think I can make the story a little better. However, as I stand now, Chapter four and five are recorded. (But I am now thinking about the revision and then I would need to record the revised version again) Floundering…..
Some Interesting news, I may be doing another interview for a podcast highlighting authors. The Podcast is new and would be debuing in February this year Its called “Once upon a Write.” Wish me luck!
Audible update: Chapter 2 and 3
If you are new to my blog you may be wondering what is the Audible updates I keep posting. I get a fair amount of requests to have my books available on Audible. I am poor, my books do not sell enough to pay for a narrator to record them (or even a nice dinner) so as with most things I do, that I need done and lack resources to do, I learn how to do it, and do it myself. While it is not a perfect solution, it has worked out so far.
I started the “Audible project.” I scrounged enough money to buy a decent microphone. I employed a friend to do the recording (but that did not work out) so I decided to do it myself. I started recording in my dining room, the only space available. That began a crash course in acoustics and learning to use the recording software (I am still learning but figured out enough to pass.) My first episodes were a disaster and I apologize to the brave souls who endured that. Little by little I improved both the sound quality and my terrible narration. Narrating is a skill that does not get enough credit so give Kudos to your favorite narrators, the unsung heroes. I got used to hearing my own voice and I think my sight reading skills are improving.
I graduated from the dining room table to a cozy closet space that has drastically improved the overall sound quality, although there is nothing I can do about the murder of crows that live in my neighborhood. I had previously recorded up to chapter 21 of Emergence Collective, but decided to start over with the improvements. I had originally planned on replacing the episodes one at a time to maintain continuity with the story, however I got heavy handed deleting drafts and organizing Anchor for Spotify and accidently deleted some of the recordings (I mentioned this in a previous post.) That forced the decision to scrap everything and start from scratch.
I do not mourn the loss of those hours recording and editing. That time is served well by giving me practice and a learning experience. Here I am now, Chapters 2 and 3 published yester and I am back in the saddle so to speak. My intention is to record every Sunday morning. That being said If you are reading this blog, you get to have free access to the Audio version of my books, narrated by me. So I toss my ego aside and try not to cringe at my voice, I hope you enjoy the story. If you do, The best way to support me is to buy my books (of course) and leave a rating and review on the platform that you purchased it. I am now published world wide on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others. The reviews are very important (Not just to give me the warm feels) but it helps get me noticed and helps readers find new books to read.
Hand-prints of Darkness 