Is listening cheating? by Tara Lyons

Excuse the blatant attack of self-promo, but stick with me for a minute… I’m excited to share my debut novel, In the Shadows, is now available in audiobook format on Amazon, Audible and iTunes.

When I self-published in March the thought of audiobooks didn’t even occur to me. I guess there’s two reasons for this: one, I’ve always assumed it’s something only “big” publishing houses offer, and two, I don’t use audiobooks myself so they escaped my thought process. Tut tut to me.

In the last six months I’ve discovered audiobooks are hugely popular, and a few readers asked if this was available immediately after publishing. There are a multitude of people who want this format – be it for health reasons, because they have long commutes or because they take their dogs for long walks.

A friend pointed me in the direction of ACX – an indie publishing tool via Kindle Direct Publishing. It’s a very simple, self-serve website. After I uploaded the necessary details about my book, and an excerpt for auditioning, it took off from there. I received two auditions and, using the website search engine, I narrowed down what I was looking for from a narrator – style, accent, gender etc. – and I found Craig Beck. It was a pleasure to work with Craig and although it felt time-consuming during the creation, it actually all happened really quickly. There’s an open portal of communication and Craig made all the alterations I requested. Also, what I liked about ACX, is the option to choose to split the royalties with the narrator, which means there is no upfront cost to pay (of course there’s that option too if you so desire).

Now, for those of you who don’t know In the Shadows, the story is heavily split between a male lead and a female lead character. So, the decision of which gender the narrator should be was a difficult one to make. Again, especially as I’m not an audio listener, I wasn’t sure if there was a preference. In the end, I chose Craig because I thought he picked up the Detective Inspector’s personality brilliantly and gave enough distinction to the women in the story too.

It’s very strange to hear your work read by someone else. At first I struggled to get into the swing of things, thinking: I wouldn’t have delivered the line exactly like that or that dialogue needed to sound more dramatic. However, I was soon caught up in the world of audio and thoroughly enjoyed the process. It also spurred me on for book two, which I’m in the process of writing now.

What I’d like to know is, do you listen to audiobooks? What’s your thoughts on them and how important is it they’re made available? To the authors, have you created an audiobook, and what’s your experience? If you’re interested in listening to In the Shadows, I have promotional codes – which can only be redeemed on Audible.com – that I’m happy to share with you. Just send me an email (details at the bottom of the post) and I’ll send you the details; I’d love your feedback.

Oh, and the title – is listening cheating? I’ve seen a few social media posts recently, people asking if they can count audiobooks on their Goodreads reading challenge. What do you think? It’s that very popular statement that always creates a debate, kindle vs paperback – and I wonder, if you’re enjoying a book, does the format really matter?

Contact me at: Taralyons@hotmail.com if you'd like an audible code. 

More information about the audiobook can be found here:

Audible UK

Audible US

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