Grey Redemption and the AudioBook challenge

Hey Everyone,

    So, it has been another long while since I updated anyone on anything! Seems that I am saying that a great deal this year! It has not been for a lack of trying! I have been so incredibly engaged that staying on top of my blog is taking a back seat. Now I know why famous author types hire people to do this!

   This being said I think it is a little more honest the way I do it. We all have incredibly busy lives! Be it a stay at home mom, police officer, or writer. So we all know the challenges the day to day of life brings. Add to that the ups and downs and Facebook pokes and distractions, as welcome as they might be at times, and you get infrequent posts. Someone said Facebook is like jail. You waste a ton of time hanging around while getting poked by people you don't know well. I thought it was a funny perspective.

   My life has settled into a new normal, and while it is not without some new and different challenges, it is all good. I managed to steal a little bit of time to sit and reflect a little on what has been going on with the writing and the direction things are going. So lets break some news.

   I have a new Publisher and agent and together we have a new strategy for Grey Redemption and the prequel, that's working title is Grey Dawn.  Awesome and scary news as it means the white board timeline and the character lists have to be distilled into a new yarn! Been working on it a bit, less than I would like but it is hashing out ok. At issue is not messing up the original by confusing a content edit with a new fact that doesn't fit. I know I wrote it so it should seem like an easy thing. But in reality the original got so cut up that I have to be very careful with the facts of that edited reality! For example it would be cool to show how the old Regimental Sargent Major dies in the beginning of Grey Redemption as a great deal of readers liked the character. Editorial brevity had him simply die in the plane crash. Rhys never shares the cigar he was gifted by the man with Baal's eyes! Instead he smokes it alone in the back of a train car...So consistency with the published work's reality is a bit of a Leviathan! (Props to Rick M)

   Many readers and fans have commented as to the detailed imagery in Grey Redemption. Some good and some bad comments. Both are valid. This is to say that some people like the idea of reading how a mercenary moves through a large airport while others prefer the jumping timeline method. I have written before how I wanted the reader inside the mind of the main character. A 544 page book written in the first person perspective is a stylistic challenge. So I chose not to do the flash ahead. It would have been easier to simply start the next scene with:  Vancouver June Ninth, 18:15 hours. But I felt, and still do, that the effort of the reader to read through the minutia would pay dividends when the action ramped up. But like it or not almost all have agreed that listening to it on a Audiobook would be great.

    So let me be the first to tell you that it is currently in the works! Yes, the copyright and distribution issues looks to have been overcome! The script, as it is called when working in the audio format, is moving through first reading and the actor that is reading it has an awesome voice for the genre! I am truly looking forward to getting a full copy, putting it on my Iphone and sitting back to enjoy the yarn anew! It should help with some of the edit continuity challenges I've been having too.

     Distribution should be via Itunes and Audible. Two of the major players in the audiobook market. We are kicking around a few other options in addition to the major players, but nothing solid yet. The price point for this work should be pretty reasonable as well. I am actively trying to get it on the sites for around 4.99 or 5.99! I know the audio version will make people like my brother in law happy, and I hope it fits a niche for the others that have requested it!

    The timeline for this project is a little fluid and depends on a bunch of different factors, not the least of which is me finishing Grey Dawn! The plan as it sits is to release the Audiobook of Grey Redemption and then six months later release Grey Dawn as an Ebook only. Sales numbers of Grey Redemption are heavily weighted toward Ebook downloads so doing another three format release just doesn't make sense. I get that the Ebook can't be signed and the like but I have a fix for that as well. More on that later. Going with the single format release allows me to better control the price point of that as well. I promised fans  a cheaper version for Grey Dawn and I will come through!

    Following the release of Grey Dawn we will look at the numbers and see if we can do an Audio version as well six months to a year later. So that is the plan. You have no idea the amount of work that has gone into getting us here! Hopefully things go as planned and you can look forward to having a cigar and a pint, lying in the sun, seeing the world once again through the monster that is Rhys Munroe!