The Audiobook for Motus is live and is available for preorder on Audible (Amazon) right now. I had a great experience getting the audiobook made, so I thought I would share some of those positive experiences as well as an interview with the amazing narrator.

Making the Motus Audiobook.

For those of you who know me well, you are aware of my audiobook addiction. According to my audible account, I have over 822 titles since I started listening back in 2011. While I do tend to absorb more of a book when I hear it, the main reason I prefer audiobooks over their digital and print counterparts is the convenience. I commute over an hour and a half each day to work and back and like to listen to audiobooks while I cook and do chores around the house.

Another major reason I prefer audiobooks is the performative aspect. I find there are narrators that I can listen to regardless of what they’re narrating. They really make the book shine and add another dimension to the story. So, as I was preparing to publish Motus, I knew an audiobook would be a priority format for me. Holding a print book in my hands was great and all, but hearing my character’s voices would take the publishing experience to another level.

And so I got on ACX, audiobook creation exchange, and put my book up for auditions. I selected a 3-4 minute segment of my book for the script, making sure it was a tense scene with a few characters (male and female) to get a feel for the narrator/producer’s performance range and flexibility. It received 90 auditions in just 3 days.

While about 70% were quality narrations and productions, only 10% of them really suited the story. And one was a narrator I’d listened to before. He happened to have narrated one of my favorite series. So when he expressed an interest in my book, he was a shoe in.

That’s how I selected the talented Nikola Hamilton to narrate and produce Motus. His voice was of the appropriate age and had a great pacing and narration style that I felt could make even the slower parts of my book sound interesting and exciting. And he was available to start right away, squeezing me in before he started to narrate the next book in one of my favorite series.

I expected the narration and production to take a month or more, but he was finished in a single week. And the quality blew me away. It was amazing to hear my characters’ voices coming through a pair of headphone, rather than imagined in my head. And even though some of the voices weren’t exactly how I imagined them, letting Nik choose the voices was the right decision. He gave them a personality that was different from my own, making them feel far more genuine.

Narrator interview.

But that’s enough about my experience as the author, who literally did nothing but listen to the files as soon as they were uploaded. What about Nik’s experience? Well, I asked him a few of the questions I, and hopefully some of you, were dying to know. Here are his responses:

What was your favorite scene of the book to narrate?

Many of my favorite scenes have some spoilers, but one of my favorites to narrate was Celest’s disciplinary hearing. It was a fun little courtroom drama moment in the book.

Who was your favorite character to narrate?

A tough question as I like a lot of the characters, but I think Rhyo or Cassi probably. Rhyo has a really fun energy and Cassi is so intelligent and intense at times. It was fun tapping into their personalities for the performance. I guess that makes it a two-way tie, each for different reasons!

Is there anything that sets this project apart from the other books you’ve narrated?

First of all, I love the creativity of the setting. A moving city burrowing underground through a planet’s crust in order to collect the resources needed to stay alive? So cool. Second, I appreciate how much science is woven into the story. I think I learned some things about geology and engineering.

What’s your least favorite part of the narration process?

Editing, if that counts as the narration process.

What’s your favorite genre to read and narrate?

When I’m reading for pleasure I tend to read fantasy and sci-fi most frequently, but I’ll read just about anything if it’s got a good story. For narrating, anything fiction really. One genre I haven’t done much of that I think would be really fun is horror or a mystery thriller.

Do you have any advice for any aspiring narrators out there?

Listen to a lot of audiobooks. There are a lot of different narrating styles that work. Listen back to your own performances and see what’s reflected.

How can fans of your work help support you? And what book do you suggest they listen to next?

Keep listening to audiobooks! And I recently listened to Project Hail Mary and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you want to hear another sci-fi book I’ve narrated, I suggest Grone by Patrick Cumby.

You will find that the performance ratings of those books Nik narrates always rate higher than the book itself, almost always at 4.9 stars. That’s practically unheard of for even seasoned narrators.

He is the kind of narrator I mentioned earlier, the kind you could listen to no matter what they are reading. So even if my book isn’t quite right for you, I think you’ll find yourself enjoying the listen regardless.

A Small Oops.

Most will not have noticed, but this audiobook was technically released late last week and available for anyone to purchase and listen to right away. It turns out ACX will not automatically use the future publication date listed in the title details as an indication to make it a preorder. Nor will they give the author any kind of heads-up that the title is about to go live. Instead, they tell you there will be a 10ish business day review period (of cover, meta data, and audio files), and then after that arbitrary review period is complete, they will immediately release it to the world, giving authors no way of anticipating the exact release date.

They sent me the release notification two hours before closing on a Friday. Thankfully they immediately responded to my email and told me it would be a “quick fix.” I just had to download all my audio files, notify them to archive the title (i.e., delete everything), and then reupload the files. They even said the 10-day review could be expedited and it would go to preorder instead. Not sure why they need to delete the entire occurrence of the audiobook in order to move it to preorder, but they insisted it was the only way. So, I went home, downloaded the files, and let them know it was ready to be archived. Except that email reached them a handful of minutes after 5pm. They must have all gone home for the weekend, and now Motus was destined to stay live for days.

I said nothing about it to anyone, afraid people would buy it only for the title to be erased. That also left me unable to advertise my preorder campaign since I was afraid people would see the audiobook and purchase it right before it was archived. I had only just posted about the 15-day preorder campaign hours before, so time was ticking.

And someone did purchase it. I should have been happy, but it was devastating, because I suspected the title would be deleted from their library as soon as it was archived. So, I sent another email to ACX Monday morning, expressing my concerns. When they finally emailed me back, they said the customer would retain access to the audiobook.

In the end, they archived the title and released it again under a preorder period. So all turned out alright in the end. This was my one and only negative experience with ACX, so please learn from my mistake if you intend to release an audiobook of your own.

And please don’t use AI narrators. If you appreciate the talent and hard work of narrators like Nik, I encourage you to hire a narrator. It will be worth it for you and for the narrators you help keep in business.

Listening to the Audiobook.

I also used an Audible credit to purchase the title when is was released early. I had already listened to the full thing 5 times by then, but wanted to see how it all meshed together in the app. I also wanted to make sure their claims of it not disappearing from a listener’s library once archived were true.

I have no regrets. It’s been great listening to it over my car speaker and on my phone wherever I go.

If you want to help give this book and the narrator the reception they deserve on release day (October 9th), please consider purchasing it on Audible. For those of you who can’t afford to buy the audiobook but would still love to hear it, contact me. I have a limited number of promotion codes for early reviewers.

And if you preorder, don’t forget to fill out the form on my preorder campaign post for a chance to win some signed books, a t-shirt, and other merch.

Preview.

Still on the fence? Here’s a 5 minute preview of the audiobook.

Until next time, write well and science hard.