Monday, June 17, 2013

Audiobook Adventures: Post Twenty

Don't know if it's week twenty (actually, I think I've missed two or more now), but this is the twentieth post, so that's pretty cool, I guess.

I really have nothing to say this week, and posted nothing in a while.  Actually though, there are two things I could talk about.  The first is that I finally, after revision after revision, had one of my projects accepted by the writer, and I can put it behind me.  It's sad that, because human nature is what it is, we tend to talk a lot more about the things we don't like than the things we do, but I will try not to say anything more about this one.  You know what I mean.

But I sort of want to, and don't at the same time.  Weird.

It's hard to write.  You have to make things up from your own mind and imagination, but then you have to be savvy enough to see what works and what doesn't work, and figure out a way to fix the things that don't.  Good thing I'm not a writer, huh?

I started editing that SF book I mentioned finishing last time.  Today I discovered that, in a scene about the prow of a boat, I referred to it as the "pro of the boat" one time.  Dumb, but hopefully understandable.  And rather than re-record that sentence or paragraph with the correct pronunciation, I decided to go through the other uses of the word in the chapter (where I said it correctly) and try and paste them into the sentence over my use of "pro."  Dumb, but even I don't understand that.

. . .

Alright, the other thing I said I could talk about.  I'm worried that it'll make me sound like a bit of a tool if I talk about it (or maybe not even "a bit" of one).  But I gotta fill these blogs with something.

So, I got another statement from Audible, breaking down my sales and all the royalties I supposedly earned in the month of April.  It wasn't a lot, but it was slightly more than what I supposedly made in March.  I use the word "supposedly" because I have yet to get a check out of them.  The first month, I looked at the fine print and it said that any royalties that are less than fifty dollars do not merit them sending out a check, so I thought, alright, I can understand that.  But here we are a month later, and still nothing. 

I thought they might not have my tax information, so I triple-checked, and it is there, since January.  I'm not really complaining--okay, I totally am, but I warned you about the tool thing--but I did get into this as a way of earning money, even if it was fun at first.  But a sprawling, poorly-written horror novel, and worse, a Christian-themed YA book with less of a feel for American teen life than Kim Jong Un would have, well, those felt like work.  You know?

Regardless, I do plan on editing the SciFi book I finished recording this week, and I imagine they will pay me eventually.  Right?

I wonder how long I should wait before I start to worry that something is wrong.*

As I've said--often?--the SF book is the first in a series, and I recorded the whole book through to the end, and will wait until it's completely edited before I start on the second book.  I'm slowly, but surely, editing that book, at the astounding rate of about two chapters a week.  I think I may have burned myself out, at least for a little while.  Either that, or I'm even lazier than I remembered being.  Probably both.

I hope I get a second wind soon, or by the time I crack book number two (of at least five), I'll have forgotten what the characters sound like.

Hell, maybe I should stop blogging and edit the darn thing.

Rish Outfield, Serial Procrastinator

*My gut tells me, "Oh, a month ago."

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