 Well shakin, howdy, howdy, how you going? How's the writing going? Hope it's going well. Bit of an impromptu unplanned video today. I just wanted to have a bit of a quick chat, plus a bit of a quick update on my part, and the chat has to do with my update. It's a whole thing. Don't worry about it. So as you may know, I recently, very recently published a collection of horror short stories called Darkest Deepest. I was working on that for quite a long time. It's out, it's available. If you want to check it out, you can. But segwaying from that, my next release is actually quite soon as well. And this is the one I am like really, really excited about. It's something I've just kind of wanted to write for a very long time. It's the first book in a new fantasy series. And the biggest thing about this series that I'm excited for is that I'm writing it episodically. So I've said for quite a while now that I feel that fantasy fiction has trended towards needing to be these massive series filled with like huge books with a world ending plot, all this kind of stuff like that. And I just kind of missed the days of more still adult but fun fantasy fantasy about the same character or characters but can be wrapped up in each book, maybe with one like major plot line connecting them all. But you get my point episodic fantasy. I love it. I wish we would go back more to that like serialized type of storytelling. I think it's super underrated, especially in fantasy. I think that's one of the best genres for that type of storytelling. Anyway, the point is, that's why I wrote the book and I'm very proud of it. So originally, this was planned to come out on the I think, did I say the 16th of February? I can't even remember now. And originally, it was just going to be paperback and ebook because that's the way I've always done it. That's pretty much what's within my budget. And most importantly, that's within like pretty much the maximum I can justify for how many books I expect to sell. I don't I just I don't sell a lot. It could be because I don't have like a super large platform. It could be because I'm horrible at marketing myself, which is one of the worst things to be when you're a self published author. But that's it's true. That's probably the reason why actually, or maybe my books just suck and they're not getting, you know, word of mouth. Hopefully that's not the case. But you know, I'm not going to rule it out either. It sounded really sad. I'm confident in my writing, but I'm not going to go tell everyone like I'm I am a good writer, you know, I'm confident that I am. But that's not the point. So yeah, originally, it was meant to come out in two to three weeks. However, that date has now had to be shifted to March 31. So that's bad news. I've shared the bad news. But the reason for that release date being pushed back is actually the good news. And that is that there will be a full audio book also available on release on March 31, which I am extremely excited about. I've already gotten some of it back. And I will play a tiny bit for you at the end of this video. I think closer to release, I'll probably put the full chapter one or off the audio up for free. But for now, maybe I'll play you like two minutes of it. That's like the update section of this video out of the way. But I want to talk more about audio books in general and audio books as a self published author, because it's kind of a big thing right now. It's a big topic. And I think it's an important topic. So in case you didn't know, the number of people who consume their books via audio book is increasing astronomically, it's going up a lot. And as someone who also listens to books via audio book quite a lot, I feel like one of the major reasons is because there are so many people who work from home now or work in an office or in an environment where they're allowed to have headphones in and they listen to audio books while they work. That's the quickest way to get through reading I have found. It's a good way to make work feel less tedious. I spoke to Daniel Green like a while ago, not for a video or anything. We were just chatting in like a discord call. And he mentioned to me that I think what he said was that the majority of his sales or at least the majority of his profits came from audio books. And that's someone who sold a metric fuck ton of self published books, because obviously he has an enormous platform and the story itself was interesting enough to warrant interest from readers. So audio books are selling a lot, maybe even more than actual physical books, and I don't just mean like paperbacks and hard covers, I mean like ebooks as well. And that's where self published authors are kind of in a shitty situation for lack of a better term, because the whole self publishing experience is already very, very expensive, super expensive. If you want to do it right, if you want to get like a professional editor, professional book cover designer, and I guess audio book as well, you're going to be looking at thousands of dollars. That's just the reality of the situation. You can do all that stuff yourself, but it's very likely that it's going to result in not as good of a product. I'm trying not to be mean, but just even if you're really good at like cover design or audio book narration, that kind of stuff. There's a level of bias because you're the one doing it. And it's your story where you're not going to be able to see when there are faults. There is a high, high level of value in having professionals that aren't you coming in and helping you with those things. So when we add audio books to the mix, it is a very, very expensive experience. And I'm not saying that audio book narrators are overpricing themselves. It's a lot of work, a lot more than most people would even realize because we read a book and we're like, oh yeah, I read that in four hours. Easy. With audio book narration, it's a lot more than just reading out the book. Reading out the book takes longer than reading it in your head. Add to that that they usually need to read the entire book first before reading it out so they know the vibe of the characters and the story and how to do certain scenes and all this kind of stuff. And they need to know like the twist so that they know how to set up the voices. Then they have to like map out how they're going to put on this performance because it is a performance. It's not just reading it out. They have to actually designate and perform voices. And then if you've gotten yourself like a good professional audio book narrator at the end of the process, they should also be doing the audio mastering for you because especially if you want to get it on audible, there are very strict standards that the audio has to be set to. And they will take care of all of that as well, which is like potentially hours of work. There is a lot involved, so it makes sense that it costs quite a lot. A couple of hundred dollars, I believe per finished hour of the audio book, per finished hour, meaning like for a four hour. Okay, so let's say it's 200 dollars per finished hour for this narrator that you're hiring. And your audio book ends up being four hours long. It's going to cost you 800 dollars. And that brings us to another interesting facet of this conversation. AI read audiobooks. So this is something that has been at the center of a lot of hot debate lately because obviously AI is it's a scary thing. You know, it's an exciting thing because it's just a great display of how far we've come as a species. But a lot of people are fairly worried about their careers and their jobs because, you know, stuff like audiobook narration or freelance artists already not having the best time with finding work and the rates involved. So when you add to that the accessibility and the extremely low cost of AI being brought into pretty much any space, it's just objective fact that it has the potential to, you know, make it harder for those freelance artists. On the flip side of that, I also see a lot of pros with AI being integrated into this stuff. It can be used as a tool that makes those jobs easier. I think the accessibility in particular about these things is a huge part of the benefit because now there's a lot of people who wouldn't have been able to do this kind of stuff in their wildest dreams that can. And I just, I find it hard to fault that. But that's another thing that I'm kind of on the fence about. I don't know specifically how I feel about the future of AI in these industries, especially the book industry. And to be fair, I don't know if a lot of people should be overly confident because I don't think a lot of us know how it's going to go. It could go either way. Anyway, AI audiobooks, that's a thing. And it's not just like Siri reading out the book. It's actually quite advanced at this exact point in time. I don't think AI read audiobooks are at a place where they could replace narrators, at least if you want the reader to enjoy it. However, the thing with machine learning like AI is that it advances very quickly and very easily. And I think it is plausible that one day, one day soon, there could be a very convincing AI program that narrates audiobooks for you. Whether that's a good or a bad thing is up to you. I'd love to hear what you think. Anyway, I'll probably wrap it up there. This was just an unscripted, to be honest, kind of unplanned video. I literally just thought to myself like 10 minutes ago or however long ago this video started, I was thinking about audiobooks and I was listening to a bit of this sample I got back from the narrator for my book, my upcoming book. And I just had all these thoughts racing through my head about audiobooks in regards to self-publishing. I was like, hey, why don't I make a video about that? That's why I have a YouTube channel for talking about writing, right? I didn't completely forget about you guys. I'm still here. What do you think about audiobooks in regards to self-publishing? Are you a self-published author who has had to confront the struggle of deciding whether to have an audiobook or not? Oh, also one more thing I completely forgot to mention. If you live in one of many countries like Australia, you cannot upload to Audible directly from here. Just I don't know why. Audible's been a thing for years and years and years. You would think that would be something they would implement. But for whatever reason, here, I have to go through a third party who will upload the book to Audible for me and then the profits for that audiobook will go through them and then be channeled to me where they obviously take a cut. So even more money out of my pocket when it comes to audiobooks. I'm not going to make the money back from this audiobook that I'm putting into it. I mean, of course I might, but I'm just, I'm not putting my eggs in that basket because to be honest, it's unlikely. But I want to have an audiobook for this book, so I'm doing it. But it doesn't mean I have to be happy with how expensive the whole process is. Stuff like the narrator. I understand stuff like having to pay for a third party just to put my like a file on a website is ridiculous. It's ridiculous. It's like with Kindle Vella. Maybe Amazon's never going to put Kindle Vella available to people in Australia either because fuck us for some reason, right? Anyway, that's it. That's all I have. Thanks for watching, especially for watching through the whole video. Good luck with the writing and I'll see you in the next one. Catch ya. or beast. While not the most dangerous territory in Chorograve, the dunes of Sar-Tkar had bested legions of mighty warriors and well-stocked travellers alike. The truth is that the hyena's wasteland, as it is so affectionately referred to by the neighbouring townsfolk, is a barren, joyless valley of famine and death. And Enzo Chalera could not hide a grin at the sight of it. I have to say he groaned. He stretched his arms with a theatrical flourish above his head. It feels dumb good to feel the wind on my face again, eh? He gave the man a cross from him a playful kick and flashed him a wink. Despite the man's face being hidden behind a filthy knotted beard and a few too many layers of grime and dust, Enzo spotted the edge of a smile. There it is. Enzo cackled dryly. He wheezed a little as the deck of the wagon they were seated in gave a sudden jolt. I fear you mistake me, replied the man, his voice surprisingly calm. I suddenly look forward to the moment you realise that out here you are but a leaf in the flame, a loud prick of a leaf it may be. Enzo laughed as he raised a finger to his nose and tapped it knowingly. I believe this prick of a leaf has kept you anchored to reality, good Elia. Worry not for my charm, you would likely have thrown yourself onto the rocks of Garuhul long ago, wouldn't you say? Elia gave a chesty, ha, before shaking his iron shackles, mockingly in the younger man's direction. I should be so lucky. Always the optimist you are, friend, Enzo replied. He scratched at his patchy beard and winced as one of his fingernails pierced the raw flesh beneath. What about you? He continued, turning his head loosely to the woman beside Elia. Tell me, you prefer the good son's kiss to those stinking prison walls?