As mentioned in my last post, MX Publishing is holding a Kickstarter fundraiser to spread the word of the publication of a special hardcover edition of A Man Named Baskerville as well as a forthcoming audiobook.
Well, the Kickstarter has started, and I’m asking for your help. There are some great donor rewards for your generous contribution:
A Man Named Baskerville PDFs
Signed paperback copies
Signed copies of the hardcover first edition
Exclusive Hound Megapacks, which include A Man Named Baskerville and several other of MX Publishing’s Baskerville-adjacent offerings, including The Widow of Dartmoor, a graphic novel of The Hound of the Baskervilles, and Hounded: My Lifetime Obsession with Sherlock Holmes and the Hound
You may donate at any level.Even if you don’t wish to donate, please consider sharing this Kickstarter with your friends and followers on social media.
(Please note this money does not go into my pocket—it’s used to defray the cost of production, distribution, and marketing.)
I’m pleased to announce that I’ve signed with MX Publishing in London to release two new editions of A Man Named Baskerville, my reinterpretation of the classic Sherlock Holmes mystery.
Some time in early 2025, you should expect to see a new hardcover and audiobook of Baskerville. I’m especially excited about the audiobook, as this will be the first one produced for my novels.
In order to offset publication costs, MX Publishing will be running a Kickstarter. The donor gift tiers are still being decided, but you should expect to see signed copies of paperback and hardcover editions of Baskerville as thank-you gifts, plus perhaps a couple more surprises.
You can sign up to be notified when the Kickstarter launches—just follow this link and add yourself to the “Saved” list.
And watch this space too, as I’ll be announcing more details as they finalize. You can click on the blue “Subscribe” button to receive notifications.
Thank you for following me this year! I hope to have lots more exciting news and new developments in 2025.
In November, Amazon opened a beta program for Kindle Direct Publishing authors called Virtual Voice. It may be the biggest upheaval to independent publishing since Amazon launched KDP over a decade ago.
Virtual Voice uses synthetic (i.e., computer) voice technology to produce audiobooks. On first blush, that sounds like a pretty crappy experience—who wants to listen to a robot narrate a book? Know that automated voice technology has advanced tremendously in recent years, to the point that people have trouble distinguishing between it and a human voice.
It’s tempting to go into my thought process over the pros and cons of synthetic voice audiobooks. At this moment, I’ll just say I find the possibility alluring.
I’ve done audio in the past. I recorded Everywhere Man at Fantasy Studios, a dreamy, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that was quite expensive and exhausting. A few years ago, I made a concerted effort to hire a voice actor to record Bridge Daughter. I was put off by the terms dictated by every actor who responded to my call for bids. Both experiences impressed on me the risks of producing my own audiobooks, risks of both cost and rights.
Synthetic voice audiobooks eliminate a lot of the question marks. If I’m reading the Amazon announcement correctly, a KDP author chooses a voice from a catalog of voices, previews a sample, and names a sale price. My guess is, the final audiobook will be ready in a few hours. Audiobooks created with synthetic voices are labeled as such on the Amazon market and may be previewed, so the buyer knows what they’re getting.
It sounds like a no-cost, risk-free offer for independent authors. I’m more than curious. Unless Amazon botches the roll-out—a possibility, they’ve botched things before—I predict we’re going to see a Cambrian explosion of audiobooks on the Amazon market soon enough.
