Congratulations. You added ‘author’ to your list of bonafides. Despite marketing and promoting your paperback or e-book, it’s being ignored. What to do?
Just add audio.
Audiobooks are one of the strongest ways to hook readers. In the last decade, audiobook have enjoyed double-digit increases each year.
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As a voice actor, I receive a lot of auditions that request a ‘conversational read’. The style requires voice talent to sound relatable, likeable and empathetic. It’s the voice of a good friend or trusted adviser. As if you’re in, you know, a conversation.
It strikes me that in a time when the marketing version of conversation is so popular, our real-world conversation is decidedly not. Genuine, engaged conversation – that give and take of ideas information and feeling – is often absent in a world filled with noise and hit-and-run commentary.
Over the last two years I have advocated better conversations to understand each other, to see each other as human beings rather than opinions. Or punching bags. Find common ground.
We have much more in common with each other than we think.
So, in the spirit of better, more connected conversations, I propose this solution: Get a dog. (more…)
Gabriella Pereira is the founder of DIYMFA, an online writing community and a virtual alternative to the traditional MFA creative writing program. When she was 24, Gabriela received the life-changing diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Last week on my podcast Embark, she shared her story in the hope this conversation sparks more conversations about the stigma we attach to mental illness, and how we can change the language around it. The following is an excerpt of that conversation. (more…)
It’s a global industry valued at over 150 billion dollars, with over 25 million people in itsworkforce. It is an industry built upon greed, manipulation and exploitation. This industry is human trafficking, an ever-growing enterprise, which often happens in plain sight. One segment of trafficking involves indentured servitude, and exploitative labor practices which proliferate hospitality services, agriculture, construction, domestic services, warehousing and countless other businesses. (more…)
When I was in college, I approached projects as any self-respecting student would: I waited until the last possible moment to start my research, then craft a lengthy essay on the lesser-known works of Chaucer, or argue the merits of Kant’s moral theories.
It did not go well.
At the crack of midnight, I was bent over texts that could double as door stops, studiously writing away. By two a.m., curled snail-like on the sofa, energy depleted, eyes bloodshot, brain lacking in conscious thought I lay still until creative inspiration kicked in.
My next move? (more…)