Non-Stop Audiobooks

So…it has been a mad month. Why? Because, after pitching for work, I got my wish and ended up with an insane amount.

Audiobooks, audiobooks everywhere, and no time to edit to be seen!

It is one of those rare, but pleasing bits of nightmare when you get more work than you can healthily undertake.  You don’t want to complain, because you don’t know when it will happen again, but then you also need to sleep and take a break and when this much work comes along you tend to sleep very little!

Let me explain…I don’t have a 9-5 job, 5 days a week.  I own the two businesses I run, and like all small business-owners, tend to take on as much of the work as possible in order to save money and maximise profit. And, as a bit of a perfectionist who has built his reputation on his own quality of work, I find it hard to hand over jobs (especially audiobooks) to other people to do.

Over the past 4-6 weeks we’ve had the following audiobooks (and radio productions) happening:

• 3x Doctor Who audios (5 and 6 CDs long each)
• 3x Unabridged novels (8 and 10 and 12 CDs)
• 1x five part BBC Radio 4 Extra series
• 2x autobiography audios (both 8 CDs)
• 1x 2 part World Service series
• Oh…and the continuing adventures of the 4th Doctor in the Serpent Crest series!

So how did I manage to produce, edit, master and deliver all of these?  Partly it is due to working 7 days a week, from 7am to 10pm.  But it got to the point where things overlapped, producing was required when editing needed doing, and, worryingly, I ended up getting depressed and close to breakdown because with no downtime, the work became too much.

BUT HUZZAH! To the rescue came four wondrous people:

Paul Kent – Paul is just about the most proficient and experienced audiobook producer I have ever met and has taken on two of the titles for me when I needed to be elsewhere.  His first book is out now…a whole blog about that soon!

Richard Bannerman – Richard is my partner in crime in the radio biz and has taken over producing some BBC work for me…I wish I could do it, but time is against me!

Seb Juviler – Seb co-owns SNK Media/Studios in central London and is my co-conspirator on audiobooks.  He has made the studio side of things incredibly easy and stress-free.

Tanja Glittenberg – my beloved fiance who has [a] put up with my moods and stress and [b] learned the art of audio editing very fast and with incredible finesse and precision. She is an excellent first-pass editor and means we can take on this level of work without killing me or losing quality.  It also helps her build a new career, get paid and (ahem) help with the household bills

So…it took me a while to ask for help, but when I did, I got it and in spades!  What a wonderful experience.  Now I just hope [a] you enjoy the audios and radio shows and [b] we keep getting the work

I’ll be back to tell you what the titles were as soon as I am allowed to share such secrets