‘The Long Road to Amazon Audible …’ or ‘Reading the Instructions …’

‘The Long Road to Amazon Audible …’ or ‘Reading the Instruction Booklet’ by Ms Paige Turner
Seven months. It took seven months.
February 2023. I listen into some samples of something called ‘Audible’ on Amazon and think – I can do that. I could even do that better.
So, I found, through Adrian Spalding – my co-editor on the pandemic anthology ‘When This Is All Over …’ the email address of someone who could tell be about Amazon Audible and edit my ‘recording files’. I didn’t know what ‘recording files’ were at the time – or what Windows 11 was. Both my audio editor and my son-in-law Master Mind soon told me that I couldn’t keep sitting on a Windows 7 laptop if I wanted to create an audiobook. So, upgrading to Windows 11 took time. Time also to order and assemble the right recording equipment for my ‘home studio’ – with the help of IT support. (I am amazed how these people read instructions and follow them to the number and the letter – and with such patience.)
Then I had to learn how to sound proof a home studio, how to record on to my laptop and how to send files to someone I don’t know but have come to trust implicitly: my audio editor who ccd me in on lots of emails to my IT support. I had a team and I didn’t even know I was creating it.
Then the files had to be sent back to me and I was ready to upload to Amazon Audible – which actually turned out to be the trickiest path of all: finding my way around Audible accounts. There’s two – and I didn’t know it. One for just narrators (which I am) and one for author/producers (which I am). Then there’s bank information and tax details. (Mister Justin Case helped me out there). And your book must be on Amazon Kindle – so I had to upload the cover and the book. Ah, the cover. Who thought the cover would be a stumbling issue? Indigo Dreams Publishing had created a beautiful cover for me when they published my poetry collection. Could I find the original? And when eventually I got the right squared size, I found the pixels were all wrong. I moved through three graphic artists before finding someone in Nigeria who turned it round in a few minutes.
This all took longer than a few minutes. I realised I had to go into my account and change my ‘Retail Sample’ as I had uploaded the wrong one.
It’s here on: Red Lipstick and Revelations

And after seven months of discussing, Googling, requesting, uploading, downloading, emailing, recording, cutting and pasting, waiting for Amazon acceptance and much, much more – there I am. For £5.59 (if you can find the button to download to your phone via an app) ) you can hear me reading my poetry collection ‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’ with some introductions.
Of course, it’s all about selling and making a buck. On the first day I saw I had sold ‘one unit’. Who was that person? Let me know. I want to kiss you. I know it’s not Mister Justin Case as he told me two nights ago, he had bought it. So that’s two sales. Make my day and let me know you have bought and ‘downloaded’. Right now, I am looking for ten influential people to endorse the audiocollection.
And if you need any advice and tips on ‘Amazon Audible’ you know who to come to – someone who might have read the instructions first …