I’m excited to tell you that my audiobook of ‘Dark Magic’ is now available at the following stores:

Scribdhttps://www.scribd.com/audiobook/489919335/Dark-Magic

BingeBookshttps://bingebooks.com/book/dark-magic-4

hibookshttps://www.hibooks.com/discover/audiobook/dark-magic-1

Applehttps://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/id1547410629

I recorded it myself, just to see if I could tap in to this huge market for audio books that people keep telling me about.

I wasn’t sure about doing this by myself, but I have a friend who is a voice artist and she said that it would be a useful way of spending time in lockdown. I followed her advice on what kit to use right down to the duvet – as recommended by the BBC. This recording was done in a recording studio under my desk. Here’s a photo.

And here it is in use with the duvet in place.

Does the camouflage work or can you spot me on the carpet?

 If I do this again I think I’m going to try to do it sitting up in a windowless room. Lying on your stomach while you read a book from beginning to end – even a novella – turns out to be quite hard work. It’s warm, though, so an ideal job for a winter afternoon.

Is it any good? Well, initial responses were positive. I know I’m not a professional actor and it’s not an ideal studio space, but doing it myself means I’ve been able to keep it very cheap. I have a friend who did get a professional in to do it for a percentage of the royalty and he feels guilty that it never sold enough to justify the work the actor put in. If this one fails, at least the only person to lose out is me.

It’s taught me a lot. Learning how to do a professional edit has been fun, so I suppose I can count that as a skill learned in lockdown. It’s not mastering a new language or writing King Lear but it’s something and right now I think we all have to award ourselves prizes for any ‘somethings’ we manage.

What do you get for your money?

It’s the full text of Dark Magic, my contemporary novella. It was my first attempt at what I think they call ‘urban fantasy’. It’s a story of two magic shows: the Maestros of Magic touring the country, playing provincial theatres and the Carnival of Conjurors  in the West End. When the Maestros learn that the Conjurors are using real magic – Black Magic – to do their tricks they decide that they must use their own, distinctly unmagical, stage skills to stop them. I was delighted that people found it both humorous and scary. (Check the reviews on Amazon.) 

The audiobook is priced in dollars, but the idea was to make it about £5 in the UK, which seems pretty reasonable for three hours of recording. It’s the full text and I do try to get the voices. I had a lot of fun recording it, so I hope you enjoy listening.

Remember that the book is still available on Kindle for a staggeringly inexpensive £1.99 (free on Kindle Unlimited) or in paperback for £4.99. (You can buy it on amazon in North America as well.)

I do hope you enjoy it. Let me know.

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