Publishing

With Chapter 14, Book 1 is Complete

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Today, with the release of Chapter 14, brings an end to book one. Martin and Susan finally make it to his home in New Hampshire.

Below is the embedded player from Podbean. It’s supposed to show all 16 of the available episodes, in published order (except for Chapter 1 that’s out of order).

Creating audio files for podcasts was new to me. Having the narration NOT sound like it was coming from the bottom of a well was a challenge. I didn’t have the space or excess cash to create a sound studio. YouTube had a few tricks that seemed to work reasonably well and cost nearly nothing. Being a cheap date, I liked that. I had to learn my way around the Audacity software, but once again, the shared experience of YouTubers helped cut the learning curve way down.

Each chapter averaged around 35 minutes long. It would take about twice that long to do the initial recording, allowing for the starts, stops, and do-overs.  That was the fast part. Editing the raw file proved to be the bigger chore. Going back and cleaning up the file typically took a couple of hours, sometimes 3. Between the full-time day job and homestead chores, finding the couple-three hours was a challenge. 

A montage of this autumn’s harvest canning.

Harvest Accepts No Excuses

When I started, in mid-August, there weren’t any harvest chores. Time to edit files was pretty easy to come by. As autumn progressed, processing the harvest demanded more and more time. The green beans came steadily such that pressure canning was an every other day task. The tomatoes were so prolific this year that we seemed to forever in the kitchen canning salsa and sauce. Before the tomatoes were done, the apples ripened and had to be picked. By the time the tomatoes were done, the apples were starting to get soft. Lots of jars of applesauce this year. Then, it was the pears’ turn to demand our undivided attention. We caught them in time to can most of them as wedges. Only a few got soft and became pear sauce.

Now that we made it to the end of Book One, the plan is to go back and stitch them together into one big audio file to become an Audible book. I expect there will be some hours of editing involved there too, trying to get all fourteen separate files into one and do what I can to even them out. Then, satisfy whatever requirements Audible has.

Thanks for hanging in with me this far. This audiobook cum podcast has been a different sort of adventure.

8 comments for “With Chapter 14, Book 1 is Complete”

  1. Hello Mic,

    I listened to your podcast on Podbean and loved it. I really enjoyed the different voices you used. Listening via podcast reminded me of summers in Colorado where my grandparents highly valued the radio for news and entertainment, unlike today. Today I live in Australia and am concerned over world events and the future. I am afraid I would be rather like a “Susan” if worse came to worse but your podcast shows that we are more capable than we may realize with some thoughtful preparation.

    Are you planning to put your other books in this series on Podbean? I think I may be able to order the books from the States but I would miss listening to the wonderful audio production.

    Cheers from DownUnder,

    Chrissy

    • Hi Chrissy,

      Glad you enjoyed the podcast. Nice that you got my background theme of ‘ordinary people CAN survive too’. As for book sales, I have had some sales to Australia, so I guess it’s possible. Amazon handles that, so I don’t know what’s involved.

      I am planning to continue narrating the stories. Hope you’ll keep listening. Thanks for writing!

      — Mic

  2. I enjoyed this audio story so much, and then my dad did aswell.
    It’s sad that people are commenting about getting rid of Susan, and not thinking more about community spirit during difficult situations.
    Your narration was fantastic, and as I listened to this commuting home from London, in very bad traffic, it really didn’t seem such a far away scenario and I’ve been inspired to look at prepping items for the car.
    Really looking forward to the next installment.

    • Hi Julie,
      Glad you and your dad liked the story. Podcasts do help with slow commutes. If you’re spending a lot of time in the car, having some preps in there with you is a great idea. I think you’ll enjoy the continuation of the story — which I’m planning to resume on the 31st. Until then, Merry Christmas!

  3. Mic, I really enjoyed listening to Plan B: Revised! So much so, that I went to the zon and bought all five books. But I am looking forward to any more than you might do. Thanks for making the sewing of plain, boring quilt squares more enjoyable!

    • Hi Catherine,
      Glad you enjoyed listening to Book One. Thanks for buying the books. I do appreciate it. I am planning to start narrating Book Two after Christmas. Maybe that will help you through another quilting. 🙂

      — Mic

  4. Hi Mic, I’m loving listening to book one! Thank you so much for making the effort to record it. I ordered the first book this morning and couldn’t resist jumping the gun a little and hearing the beginning read by you – what a lovely reading voice you have!
    best wishes and thanks – Lucy

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