← The Amazing Authorities Podcast
The Amazing Authorities Podcast
Writing, Voiceovers, and AI: How Authors Can Still Thrive in a Changing World
00:37:01
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- [00:01]
A
Welcome to the Amazing Authorities podcast, where game changers, visionaries and category leaders share how they built their brands, platforms, and global influence. Your host is Mitch Carson, international speaker, media strategist, and creator of the Instant Authority system. If you're ready to learn from those who've done it and want to become the go to expert in your space, you're in the right place.
- [00:31]
B
Our guest today is the absolute polar opposite of lazy, because somebody has to get up every single day and write a little bit. Well, if you can see the background, if you're privileged to see the YouTube video and. And the face of our guest today, Aaron Ryan, you're going to see a man who has put in some elbow grease. And I was very excited. I am very excited about this interview. Was very excited when I he accepted the invitation to come and share with you folks today, what's going to blow your mind because there's a. It's a big deal to write one book. Most people, that's a pipe dream. And then make it happen. What an accomplishment. But I'm going to let him tell you how many books you can get an idea of his background there. I get papers, walls with all book covers. Aaron, welcome to the show. Truly welcome.
- [01:31]
C
Yeah, thank you for having me. It's good to be here. I appreciate it.
- [01:34]
B
All right, let's just talk some numbers for a second. I know you've got a varied background and we'll dive into that in a little bit, but how many books have you written in the nonfiction category and then the fiction.
- [01:47]
C
Oh, my gosh. Well, far, far less nonfiction. There's probably. There's at least six as a. As a voiceover artist, coach, and inspirer. And then there, there's a book on poetry. There's a book on being an entrepreneur. I'd say there's probably about 12 is a rough guess. All of the rest of them are fiction, and I just lost count. I always forget the count. But I think I'm working on book number 45, so I've published some of those. You know, if you talk about the publishing, I haven't written all 45. For example, you do the trilogy of the end in the top left corner or a right corner for you maybe. And then there's an all in one version of that. And then there's a Cliff Notes version of that. So it's really a trilogy. But there's five total books, if that makes sense. Same thing with dissonance in other series.
- [02:39]
B
I'll count it as five pieces of work. So.
- [02:41]
C
Okay, sounds Good.
- [02:43]
B
We'll give them their due and their respect. So the trilogy and what were you always into the writing space? I mean, was this something that came naturally to you as a boy in school?
- [02:55]
C
Yeah, no, I remember and I always love to share this story. It never gets old. Second grade, Mrs. Walker. Hi. Mrs. Walker gave everyone an assignment to write a story and it was just, you know, write a little novella. We were all of, you know, seven, eight years old, whatever it was. I don't think I'd even bloomed into eight yet. I think it was still seven. And I performed what's probably referred to as a blatant copyright infringement ripoff of Alan Dean Foster's novelization of E.T. at the time.
- [03:25]
B
Okay.
- [03:26]
C
Because I, you know, I love the movie E.T. but I did write my novella and incorporate some supernatural, you know, kind of body morphing via electricity issues. So it was, it was a kid who stuck his finger in a light socket. He is imbued with powers. He starts to become transparent and doesn't know what to do. And so it actually turned into a story. But the epiphany for me was holding it in my hands when I was done with all of its, you know, crude red construction paper surround and crude stick figure drawings and going, look, I made this. You know, it was such a cool testament. So I look back at that. That's the origin story for sure.
- [04:12]
B
10 years old. All right. Yeah. I think I started with. Just didn't have the creativity. Today we're in the world of AI. It is everywhere. It started out with chat GPT and you know, hit the market in about three little over three years ago and exploded onto the scene. That was the premier platform. And now there's every AI under the sun. There are agents, there are this, they're that it's going to ruin certain fields. Let's talk about the field we're in of publishing and writing books and doing voiceovers. How's it going to affect, or has it affected those categories?
- [04:53]
C
Yeah, absolutely. The reason why I'm so. Why there's such a mad dash of books behind me is because I'm propelled by urgency in authoring because of what has happened to the voiceover industry. You're absolutely right. The opening of Pandora's Box really happened in the spring of 2023 when ChatGPT and OpenAI made their foray into the market and we started to see this slow erosion of the industry pay scale for voiceovers. That is when people would start rather stop paying a fair market rate to a voice Actor for a national TV commercial. And instead, and that pays like, you know, three grand. And instead, hey, we can buy a license for re speecher. Speech. Hello, speech. Ocean Eleven Labs, whatever. For 49 bucks for a lifetime or a year, we can give it a prompt and it'll spit out our whole script for us. And hey, that's, you know, bravo, that works. People will never know it's a robot. And that really started to see the erosion of the pay scale. Now, you know, fast forward three years later, and I've lost a tremendous amount of income revenue as a voice actor. I've lost really cherished long standing relationships with beloved producer colleagues that I would get to work with all the time. And now either they've been replaced or they've been told to use synthetic voices instead of real human voices. So those are gone. And it's like, so definitely it's affected our income and our livelihood as a voice actor. Authoring, you're seeing all kinds of the dilution of quality offerings in the marketplace with the slop that's being put out. You're seeing authors pitted against each other. Those who support AI and those who don't. Do you use it as a tool? Do you use it to write your novels? It's a quandary that a lot of people are. It's an incendiary topic and people are talking about it.
- [06:53]
B
Well, let's split the topics because there's a vast difference between nonfiction writing, which isn't necessarily creative, it's drawing from facts and situations that exist in our life, and then the other side of the world. Completely different. Brain power is the fiction side because you're inventing things. How good is a robot in replicating our creativity?
- [07:19]
C
Well, I think it's getting better and better, and that's the problem. I have run tests in things like Grok, and I don't remember the other one. I want to say it was Quill Bot or something like that. Yeah, I've never used Claude or any of the other ones, but I did use Grok, and I did it for Idea Generation, primarily for one book. And I, I hated everything that it came up with. It was the opening. It was. It was Idea Generation for the opening installment of my Talisman series. Hated everything that Grok threw at me, and I gave it three rounds to, you know, to, to surprise me and impress me. And I ended up just kind of reverting back and going, yeah, I'm not. I'm not scared anymore. Right at my own, wrote my own. And then, you know, Turn it into a what it is has become.
- [08:04]
B
But, but nonfiction side, that's on the fiction side, correct?
- [08:10]
C
Nonfiction, though, if people want to use AI, nonfiction flows so much more freely from my brain and my heart, through my fingers. I completely understand the desire to use an AI tool to generate fiction writing because you know, you are using your, your brain muscles and your heart muscles and the imagination and you've got to create it compelling and new and unique. So people, people like the workaround, I guess. I personally look at it as a huge surrendering of a God given gift of creation. And the fact is that's what's so sad about it is that people are willing to go to Grok or Claude or whatever. I don't know. There's so many now, like you said, and they give it a few prompts, they'll get a story, then they go to mid journey, they get a cover, they put that on it together, they slap it up on KDP and they throw their, their own name on it as if they're the author and they didn't write a thing. It's full of EM dashes and bullet points and very clinical language that's not human. And people can tell the difference. Yeah.
- [09:16]
B
Oh, certainly they can. And you know, being a writer myself, I teach how to use AI as a tool. As a tool, it's not the end all. It still requires a human being. It's the ideation process. For nonfiction, I cannot address fiction. It's a whole different category. And I respect the creatives who come up with the stories because we all live in the story world. But nonfiction, I find it to be useful. It certainly isn't the end all. And you cited the obvious bullets and EM dashes. You can instruct it not to use EM dashes. So if you can, you detect in non fiction when it's been AI generated.
- [10:00]
C
Yeah, I haven't read a lot of non fiction. Quite frankly, I'm stuck in reading either the Lord of the Rings right now or my own stuff. And there's a reason I actually, I was instructed to read my own material right now. There's a process that's happening right now that requires me to really know my own material because it's being pitched to producers. So if they option it, if they buy it, I better know it better than they will. So I'm kind of, you know, brushing up on who is Aaron Ryan and what has Aaron written. So I haven't read a whole lot of stuff right now. I'm really, I'm really kind of Cycling through the Lord of the Rings again. But there are some of the dead giveaways. Always fiction or nonfiction.
- [10:42]
B
Yeah. And what have you done to become a best selling authority there? That is a whole different step. I, I like the phrase and it's not mine. Comes from Thomas Edison. It's 1% inspiration. 99 perspiration. And when somebody writes a book. All right, that's your inspiration. Awesome. You've written it. It's up there. You even paid somebody to create a cover. You, you upload it to Amazon. You don't go wide with all. Because there are other platforms other than Amazon. They think that they uploaded to kdb. Great.
- [11:15]
C
Rah rah.
- [11:16]
B
I'm an author. Crickets. No sales. There's a whole big engine behind that. I would love to at least mini deep dive into what you've done because you make a living with this. You've got a family, you've got to eat and you're off cat food. You've already expressed it. So it's part of your diet. What, what's involved in causing a book to be noticed. And you've now looking at an option that's a, that's a different level than someone that just says, hey, I did this when I was 10 in school, man. I'm going to do it again. Upload it right now.
- [11:53]
C
Okay. You probably want to reformat that a little bit. Yeah. And by the way, just as an update, we have graduated from cat food to top ramen and saltine crackers. So it's like, just wanted to make sure. Thank you for the. Yeah, we're living large right now. Beef top ramen though, not the shrimp. That's just, that's, that's a little too luxurious for us.
- [12:12]
B
Little nasty.
- [12:12]
C
Yeah. Gosh, there's so many things that go hand in hand with promotion. And I think that the problem with indie authoring and publishing is that so many people get so frightened about the specter of marketing. Like, oh gosh, you know, I'm gonna have to do all this marketing. I'd rather have a trad pub take care of it for me. And like that's, that's an illusion that the traditional publishers are going to do some marketing and they will have access to some things that you don't. But it. I love. I wish I could remember who said this. There was a female author who did a video, inspirational video. And she said, quote, if you want to get better at marketing, stop marketing. And I went, what? And she said, yeah. She said instead, just be an enthusiast. And there's a huge, massive difference. When I'm out at a craft fair or a vendor market, I don't do book fairs because I'm not unique in the slightest. We're all clamoring for the attention of readers, but I do vendor markets all the time and craft fairs all the time, and I sell really well.
- [13:14]
B
Okay, what's the difference there? Because I'm not clear, and I. I suspect some of the people listening may
- [13:22]
C
not be clear between a vendor market and a craft fair or between those two and a book fair.
- [13:27]
B
All three.
- [13:29]
C
So vendor markets and craft fairs. Yeah, Vendor markets and craft fairs are very similar. They are ultimately you having a booth amidst a whole bunch of different artisans of different trades. So. And you're very unique as an author. So I'm right here in my booth next to a bead maker or a photographer or a T shirt maker or bumper stickers and pottery and whatever, and people come along and they go, author. I mean, you're instantly unique. Got it. Whereas at a book fair, there's nothing wrong with it, but it's just they are there for books. They are readers. But you're gonna have one heck of a time standing out and being unique among this. This fold of.
- [14:10]
B
You're in the sea of sameness.
- [14:12]
C
Yeah. Oscar Wilde said, be yourself. Everyone else has already taken. Well, it's hard to. Because we're all being ourselves, but we're all the same. So I do the vendor markets and the craft fairs all the time, and I sell really well there, and I love it. And one of the things that is so helpful about it is just getting out there and meeting readers, having the book right there that they can see and touch and flip through and see the synopses. And you get to tell them enthusiastically, not marketing wise, but enthusiastically, why you love this story so much. And people love to buy. They hate to be sold. They don't, you know, they don't want their arm twisted. You know, you should really buy this book. But if you simply are enthusiastic in telling them, you know what. Why this story means so much to you, people will hitch their wagon to enthusiasm every time. Creative marketing, like vinyl lettering on your car, leaving business cards, creating flyers. I've got, you know, stickers on my car, of my books. I wear T shirts, you know, apparel all the time that says, I am a writer. So I'm out there buying groceries. And it. It furnishes a conversation that might not otherwise have happened. Nice.
- [15:27]
B
I like that.
- [15:27]
C
Are you a writer? Yes, I am. You know, and then you get to tell them, okay, so, man, and there's so many things you can do online and offline. Press releases, radio stations, appearances and in bookstores and signings. I post the same comment all the time on Reddit where, you know, people get tired of me. Like, didn't you just post this a week ago? And it's the same thing. It's just a big list of creative ways that you can market online and offline and the people who, who frequent those same groups and see me post that same thing, like, oh, here's Aaron Ryan again, you know, posting his list. But it does work. It's just thinking outside the box. Well, give a few, give a few
- [16:08]
B
tips that you consistently say that work for you.
- [16:10]
C
You did.
- [16:11]
B
I mean, that was great. Between standing out where there's an exposure of people is what the real lesson is, versus being one of many. And then you get lost in the sea of sameness at a book fair and. But the book signings at a bookstore, that seems like an old, tried and true method. Has that worked well for you? I mean, do you still go to a Barnes and Noble? Is a Barnes and Noble?
- [16:38]
C
Barnes and Noble is nice because it's Barnes and Noble and you get a little bit more bragging rights, I think, like I'm in Barnes and Noble. But the truth is that they're buying those books at cost. So you're not making your maximum profit that you would out at a vendor market. And they can sell those back to ingramspark or to Barnes and Noble Press if you don't sell them. So it's nice because they do make a nice overhead announcement and you're in the section right there where people are deliberately browsing.
- [17:06]
B
Photography is good. So the bragging rights, as you mentioned,
- [17:08]
C
there is a. Yeah, yeah, it's great. I'm sitting here in Barnes and Noble, you know, it's great. Yeah, the things I mentioned, like, you know, vinyl lettering on your car or, or you know, branded apparel, things like that. Organic posts on social media, ads on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook, but especially Amazon because that's where people are there to shop. I hold book parties at like pizza restaurants. It's not a book joint, it's not a library. But these are your friends and family and they're inviting their friends and you're celebrating book launches and people do buy them there. Vinyl lettering on my back window, like it says, support a local best selling author. And there's the website and there's QR codes on my vehicle for hopefully I'M driving safely on the highway.
- [17:58]
B
But does your wife like that?
- [18:01]
C
Well, I put on her, her car as well. So with her permission, she didn't like wake up and go, what's this? She. I did ask, but it's kind to
- [18:11]
B
ask, smart to ask.
- [18:14]
C
Yeah. You want to ask for permission when it's a car and it's hers and not forgiveness. So yeah, there's, there's the typical stuff that you can do that is tried and true like running promotions through Crave Books and Written Word Media and Book Barbarian and the Fussy Librarian and you know, all those things they do help and they will shoot your, your book up the charts. They're good, they are costly and your book may drift back down into oblivion, you know, afterwards if you're obscurity, if you're not keeping those going. So they can, they can cost a bit. But one of the best things I found is just simply writing more books. The more expansive library that you have, the more people will go, I liked this one. I'm going to check out another one by this guy. And they start telling their friends. And then you have, you know, lo and behold, three column or three rows of very different books all behind you in a zoom chat.
- [19:10]
B
And. Yes. And that conveys to the market, yeah, you're a serious author, you're a writer and in order to stay in the game, I mean, you're not in it for a hobby. It's a passion, I presume, but you have to profit at some point. And you mentioned Amazon ads. Has that had a positive return on investment? Oh really?
- [19:31]
C
It's been the best. Yeah, it's been the best out of all of them. It's a tall ask to get someone to bounce from Facebook or Instagram or Book Talk TikTok rather to your Amazon listing because they're not, they're there to be social, they're there to browse reels. So it does work. It can work, but people are already on Amazon to buy. They're already there to buy and particularly if they're looking for books, then those book centric ads are going to pop up and they're going to, you know, it's going to appeal to them and hit them in the fields when they're looking for those fields. So it's, I write the ads that I have running are fairly select unique genres. So Alien Invasion is one genre. Christian Dystopian is another very narrow genre. Young Adult is the largest one, you know, for the Phoenix Experiment is one of my books, for example. But they do okay. They do okay. I'm in the black, you know, for what I'm. You want to be, you know, like, you don't have a. Too high of a cost to like the CPC margin? I don't know, with all the terms and some. I have a guy that does it for me. Yeah. Cost per click and this, the click through ratio and all that. It seems to be doing better than it has been. And I had it recently calibrated, so that's good. But I've. Man, Facebook ads for me suck. TikTok ads, they've never worked. Instagram ads, they've never worked.
- [21:01]
B
Okay, well, I've heard about TikTok shop. Some people have had a positive experience there with their books or TikTok bookshop or what have you. That didn't work for you?
- [21:11]
C
No, I have them in there and I've never made a sale through TikTok, so.
- [21:14]
B
Wow. Okay. But Amazon ads, do you manage that yourself or do you send it off to somebody?
- [21:21]
C
No, I have a gentleman who I found on Fiverr who's calibrated all of them and he recently recalibrated some and it's been improving since he did that. So I, I let. Those guys are better at that with all the keyword marketing and the enticing ads and stuff. So I know what I know and I frankly just want to write. So let those guys do what they're good at and they do well.
- [21:43]
B
That's a key point. Delegate what you're not good at or passionate about, and that's what matters. I mean, do you create your own covers or do you have a cover artist?
- [21:53]
C
I do, but only because I've had extensive graphic design experience and I, you know, it's really subjective. Though I love my covers, I'm grateful for the covers that I. That I've created. But for example, behind me here is the third one from the left there is Dissonance Volume one Reality, the green one. And I just recently revised that based on feedback that I got from pickfu.com, which is a cover review site. And then I got feedback through NetGalley. And so I'm like, okay, well, you got to be willing to roll with the punches and try new things. So I changed it and it's still like these people go, your covers are so beautiful and they're so nice and look at them. And then another person goes, I can't tell what it is, you know, so you're never gonna meet everyone 100%, nor should you try. Just try to do the very best that you can. It's very subjective.
- [22:45]
B
I see Lord of the Rings over your. Your shoulder.
- [22:48]
C
Yeah. Examining the Lord of the Rings. So I am not JRR Tolkien. I do have a ring on my neck, but it is not the one. You can see I'm still here, Right? Still here. See? Still here.
- [22:57]
B
I got it.
- [22:59]
C
Yeah. It's literary criticism, that book, and it just. It's me explaining why I believe Lord of the Rings is the quintessential work of fantasy fiction. Huge fan.
- [23:07]
B
It's fantastic. Yeah, fantastic. Loved it. And what are your. You were also a voiceover artist, and that has changed with AI. Where do you see the market going? I mean, there's been massive changes over the last three years in.
- [23:25]
C
Yeah.
- [23:26]
B
In our industry. But what. What do you think is going to happen over the next year? You've got some crystal ball. Because we. The past can help us with the future.
- [23:36]
C
Mm. I'm. I'm nervous. I mean, and I've been nervous for a while, but the voices that. Oh, my gosh, there's like a little bit of an Illuminati at the top of the voiceover circle. And I withdrew from a very toxic online VO community, voiceover community in 2023, who always reassured everyone that, you know, AI isn't going to matter. It's going to blow over. Well, it turned out to not be the case, of course. And, you know, at the time, voiceover artists were really threatened by things like the things I mentioned earlier, speechelo and Speech Ocean and Elevenlabs and all that. They're getting better and better is the problem. So with each day, week, month that passes, those voices are getting better and harder to delineate between a natural human voice. But now we have the problem of it's not just an audio attack or an audio onslaught that we're facing, it's video as well. Sea Dance is creating videos that are so believable with a rooftop fight between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt that neither of them participated in, that's not them. It's entirely created in a computer, but 1000% believable. And if you can do that with video and render video, which is so much harder and so much more resource intensive, audio is just so much easier to do. So we did have a problem that was a precedent in the voiceover industry. In 2022, there was a gal who did a project for the Chinese Institute of Acoustics. Without her consent, they sold those recordings to TikTok. People heard Bev's voice on TikTok saying, you know, lascivious things and, and off color things. Bev, is this you? Like, I didn't know you did this kind of work. And she's like, I didn't. And she found out the hard way. She sued them and settled, sued TikTok and settled out of court. That's a precedent and that's great. But we're in a, we're still in a wild, wild west of unregulated AI stuff and we need the legislation to catch up with this infringement that's happening all over the place because it does come for jobs. And I've already said I've lost so many great relationships and so much income because of it.
- [25:54]
B
You've had to circle back to writing. And if someone writes a book, Amazon has a program where you don't have to hire anybody to create an ACX recording. You can just, you use their platform. How good is it?
- [26:11]
C
It's not. And there are studies that prove that. In fact, a person I admin three groups on Facebook comprising about 50,000 authors. And one of them posted, I think this morning, said, hey, I want to have an AI audiobook generated of my book. How do I go about doing that? And I said, well, you know, KDP can do that for you, but I highly advise against it, and here's why, and provided some great links. It's nearly unanimous from readers that they don't. They would much rather hear a human voice. Readers are saying that. So not fellow voiceover artists saying, please don't do that. Pick me. I can do it. Not fellow authors, readers who are your target audience and listeners who are your target audience. I've heard them and I, I'm on both sides of the fence. I'm an author and I'm a voice actor. So I understand it from both perspectives and I urge everyone, have it done. Have a voice actor do it for a royalty share basis. Not a per finished hour cost, but a royalty share. There are people who still do that and they get paid if your book sells that way, you're not resorting to AI, you're enabling human, you're furthering human work. And it's like you're going to reach your readers that way.
- [27:29]
B
Where do people find that? Because that's a good resource or a good tactic. Is it through one of your sites, your Facebook groups, that they can find somebody willing to do that on a royalty basis?
- [27:42]
C
You can publish your book and then go right on ACX.com and put it out for open casting. That's how you would do it. Okay.
- [27:48]
B
Good.
- [27:49]
C
You upload your book. Two choices are offered you. When you upload a book on acx, or rather claim your book that's already been published on acx, and you either say, I'm going to produce these independently. I forget what their verbiage is exactly. But one choice is, I'm going to produce this independently and upload my own files. And. And another one is, I want to open this up for casting. And so there are really good, competent human narrators out there who will still do it for a royalty share, and then you're not spending a thing up up front.
- [28:24]
B
Well, that's good. What about an author? Like, I have a client, and she's got a great British voice. She sounds like Mary Poppins. Do you advise people to narrate their own books, or should they hand it off to a professional? All right, I knew you'd have an opinion on this.
- [28:45]
C
I totally do. So. It's been so funny, Mitch. When I'm out at a vendor market and I tell people about the books, I want them to buy the books right there. Because there's nothing better than just holding this in your hand and by a fire and reading through the book. I love that. But many people will come back. Well, I'm just not much of a reader. I, you know, I listen to audiobooks. I said, oh, that's no problem. I've got them on audible, and they stop me, and they go, wait a second. Did you narrate it? And I go, you know, I suddenly feel like a deer in the headlights. I'm jack lit. And, yeah, you know, I hope that's okay. And they go, okay. You know, they're content with that answer? Yes, because who else can bring the author's story to life but the author? Or better than the author?
- [29:32]
B
Especially fiction.
- [29:35]
C
Yeah.
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B
Does it matter or doesn't matter? There isn't any delineation, would you say,
- [29:40]
C
well, nonfiction, Especially if it's. Especially if it's about a topic that you care about. For instance, I just released a book. You are my whole Earth. A daddy's love for his sons. And I love my boys. And so it was a very natural scribing process. For me, it was even more natural to narrate it because you're just talking so conversationally that those are easy. They're fairly easy to do. I mean, if you are a dad who wrote a book about being a dad and then you want to cast it and you want to. You could say, I want a dad to narrate this. If you're A woman. No offense. I'm sure you're a competent narrator. But I want a dad with kids to narrate this because he'll know.
- [30:20]
B
Right?
- [30:22]
C
So you could do that and it probably would come very naturally because it's conversational. But fiction, yeah, it takes a lot more. I love doing accents and character voices. So I'll intentionally write in a Scottish character because I want to do that voice in my book and I get to talk like that, you know, when I record their part. So I'll intentionally write in those accented characters because I know I'm going to narrate this one.
- [30:51]
B
Should most people write or narrate their books or is it because. All right, better. Here, let me rephrase the question. Who should not narrate a book?
- [31:02]
C
If you've got a real dry voice with a standard kind of drab like monotone cadence, that's not going to hold people's attention. If you are expressive, if you've been told that you're expressive, if you have sent some recordings, like test recordings to people and they've said no, I would listen to you. I would listen to you narrate your book. Send those test recordings out. That's really important. But you also need to make sure that you get decent equipment and don't scrimp and just get a thirty dollar mic.
- [31:35]
B
Right.
- [31:35]
C
Record it and have it produced. Well, be willing to invest in yourself and maybe get some coaching lessons on. On public speaking or speaking period. So we.
- [31:47]
B
You met. All right, so the mics, I agree totally. Are there standards in order to upload your audio file to acx?
- [31:56]
C
Yeah, absolutely. And I think they change sometimes. So when I'm produced, when I'm all done and I've recorded the whole thing and it's all edited, I have alcs, just like you would have an arc, an advanced reader copy listeners, beta, beta readers rather. You do the same thing for audiobooks where they are ALCs, advanced listener copies. And man, when you're. This is another great reason to record your own audiobook. Boy, do you catch those last straggling typos and errors because we narrate slower than we read.
- [32:30]
B
Yes.
- [32:30]
C
And so you go through and you know there's another one. So, man, my book is almost like bulletproof by the time it's published and the audiobook is ready to go because I've caught all the last ones. Right. But yeah, record it yourself if you can. You give it to someone who will review it for you and then they're going to help you they're going to help give you feedback.
- [32:53]
B
I love that. I love that. Where do people get in touch with you? I mean, is there an Aaron Ryan website so they can.
- [32:59]
C
Yeah, it's actually, it's, it's author aaronryon.com I used to joke, just for the purposes of diction, I want to make sure that you get that it's author Aaron Ryan. Not awful Aaron Ryan. You know, make sure it enunciate. Yeah. On a lark, I did actually book that domain and I forwarded it to author Aaron Ryan.com for a while.
- [33:20]
B
Author Aaron Ryan.com.
- [33:22]
C
okay.
- [33:22]
B
And do you have a podcast yourself?
- [33:24]
C
I don't. I just guessed I wouldn't have time to do that. I just want to write and it's hard enough to just, you know, stick to a writing schedule, so.
- [33:32]
B
All right, well, that's important to point out. You delegate what you're not competent at. Like you say you have an ads guy that you met through Fiverr and I'll have to get his name later if he's been good because there are. You have to covet great vendors.
- [33:48]
C
Yes, you do have it great help.
- [33:50]
B
If you do not, the ego cannot be your amigo. In this case, you know, there are things that you need to outsource.
- [33:59]
C
Do you use books as a way
- [34:01]
B
to get paid speaking gigs?
- [34:04]
C
Absolutely. But I also have a speaking website and I have spoken, I've, I've taught several times over with a nice Resume. So that's Speaker AaronRyan.com but I think the non fiction realm, the non fiction library that I've, that I've, you know, written and published, that serves a better. That's more of a target audience for speaking fiction. Not quite so much. So I've got a different library, but it's a little bit more reduced than my fictional library. That sounds weird. I do have an actual library that is not fictional. It's fiction, but it's, it's real. I guarantee it's real.
- [34:39]
B
Thank you for that distinction.
- [34:41]
C
Yeah.
- [34:41]
B
And Claire, Aaron, you've been an outstanding guest man. You've dropped so many bombs. I can't wait to read the transcript and use the highlights. But you know, some of them, to sum up of, you're, you're involved in groups and is there a Facebook group where people can follow you?
- [34:59]
C
Yeah, well, my own is author aaronryongroup.com and so it's, it's not just for, you know, fans or readers or anything like that. It's also for people who are fellow authors, aspiring or established. I put tips and tricks and observations and insights in there. I'll also share about the books I've had adapted for the screen and their. Their process being pitched or film festival wins and awards and I'll share all that stuff. So that's my own group, but I'm also the admin of authors and writers. All caps. Only authors and writers only on Facebook. That's about. I think it's about 30,000 authors.
- [35:37]
B
I'm gonna jump in for sure.
- [35:40]
C
Yeah, it's a great group. We very diligently weeded out the scammers and spammers. You're an author? We're inundated. I get 30 plus scammer emails every single day. And it's just. It's so annoying. They'll never go away. They're like the Terminator. You can't be bargained with, can't be reasoned with. They don't feel pity or remorse or fear and they absolutely will not stop, ever, until you're dead. So we've really diligently weeded them out of that group.
- [36:08]
B
That's great. Well, thank you so much for your time today. Author Aaron Rein, ladies and gentlemen. I enjoyed this, as expected, and he did not disappoint. Aaron will certainly have you back in the future. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Give us a bell. And all the best of luck with getting one of your books optioned. That's fantastic. That's fantastic.
- [36:30]
C
Every author's dream.
- [36:32]
B
Yeah.
- [36:32]
C
Thank you.
- [36:33]
B
Thanks so much, bud.
- [36:34]
C
Thank you too. Appreciate it.
- [36:35]
A
Thanks for tuning in to the amazing Authorities podcast. If today's episode inspired you, take a moment to subscribe, rate and like, leave a review. It helps more experts like you rise to the top for behind the scenes access and free resources to boost your authority. Head to mitchcarson. Com until next time, stay amazing.