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A year ago, if anyone had said that I would be a published author of an audiobook, read by me, I wouldn’t have believed them. Nah, you’re kidding. It’ll be too hard, too expensive. Paying a pro will cost a packet – 5-10$k,  on top of the same or more for studio costs, and, what’s more, I couldn’t possibly read it myself. 

I’ve never known anything about audiobooks, never listened to one. Nevertheless I first had the idea of an audiobook of my novel The Fossilarchy, since April 2022, soon after publishing the paperback (which I also couldn’t possibly do -see blog 1). Actually, it was Luke the Canadian partner of my niece Jessie in Vancouver who suggested it. With training in acting, he reads audiobooks professionally and did a sample. He was awesome, but I didn’t feel a North American accent was right, although the US is apparently the biggest market for audiobooks. Maybe I’d do it, sometime in the future. 

Time passed and then in 2023 the audiobook idea reared its head again. Sales of the paperback and e-book were still slow in spite of promotional efforts, good reviews and the growing popularity of climate fiction. You may know that the book market is tough  and a lot of otherwise potential audiences not having time to read. Maybe an audiobook would do the trick and also help with the paperback. 

But I didn’t feel confident about reading it. I’m not posh, have a working class background, UK state school (although having four degrees at last count). I grew up in the west of England where many people talk like pirates, and in spite of 20 years in Australia, still have a slight English country bumpkin twang. 

Then  I did a few library and other talks on the book, which included reading extracts. People said the reading was good and a friend said I should read the audiobook. Guidelines on audiobooks all say it’s better if the author reads if possible – for obvious reasons of understanding, feeling, etc. I did a sample for Linda Lycett at my publishers Aurora House and she was most encouraging, inspiring actually.  

AH ha adlready published some audiobooks and provided technical guidelines and specifications. I set about finding a recording studio – unless you have quiet conditions and professional equipment it’s best not done in your bedroom. As often happens in life, at least in mine, I met a bloke down the pub (my local is the Northbridge Hotel in Perth  – more about beer and pubs in another blog) who works at Soundbyte Studios in Leederville. They do all sorts of recording, from music and commercials to audiobooks. 

I went along and did a test. They were happy to work with me, I liked them and their facilities. and we agreed a deal and contract. An excellent young sound engineer Lachy was assigned to me and together we produced the whole book of 45 chapters. 

Sitting in a booth with earphones and a mike, I read from a tablet – there’s too much page rustling with paper books or sheets – and we worked through each chapter, section by section, line by line, replaying to check for flaws, and doing retakes as necessary. Lachy was always painstaking, patient, professional and attentive to fine detail -like me, too. As a choral singer for many years I’m used to rehearsing until things are right.  

It took around an hour to do each chapter, with one or two chapters per session. To keep consistency in quality, longer sessions are not recommended as the voice tires – nor possible, depending on studio and my availability ( I was combining it with working). We started in August 2023 and the last session was in January 2024. 

It was  a serious undertaking, but we had a lot of laughs. It  took a few goes to say certain phrases like “she suggested’’ while keeping a straight face. The oft-occurring simple phrase ‘was the’ got me every time – you have the teeth together for the ‘s’ and then you quickly shove your tongue between the teeth for the ‘the’. English is tough. I always tripped over long words. If I do another novel and audiobook I’ll avoid words with more than two or three syllables. Like Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids, really. 

Doing all the voices was challenging but also a source of laughs. I was determined to attempt mimicking, rather than just reading, all of the many different voices – male, female and children – and accents, from the US President and Australian politicians to ex- British and South African Special Forces and Albanian gangsters. I can only apologise if I cause anyone to wince. 

I was heartened to learn that even top pros can have difficulties. The actor and writer Stephen Fry was reading Harry Potter and simply couldn’t articulate ‘he pocketed it’. Stephen finally rang JK Rowling to ask if he could say ‘he put it in his pocket’. ‘Absolutely not!’ was her reply. Under pressure and extra scrutiny from the author, he eventually nailed it.  

If, five years ago, anyone had said that I would be a published author of a novel now, I wouldn’t have believed them. Nah, you’re kidding. 

Although I’ve spent my working life in engineering and environmental consulting, dealing with factual stuff, I’ve always enjoyed creative writing and infusing a bit of wit and humour into all I do. I enjoy reading, but I’ve had to spend so much time reading factual material that I’ve spent far too little of my life reading novels – except when travelling, etc, and roughly none learning the craft.  I wouldn’t have felt remotely qualified to write one or see it through to publication. 

My only previous effort was not exactly a glorious success. The Seventh Boat  is a novel which I co-wrote with David Ashbridge between 2005 and 2008, and which is still an e-book on Amazon. It was fun to write in our spare time at a distance – he in the UK, me in Australia – but we didn’t get it published as a paperback and sold few ebooks. It has always been very hard to get published through the large publishers – they generally only accept submissions through agents, and agents take on authors not books and generally only occasionally take on new authors who they think might produce future books and sales. We didn’t have a clue about promotion and marketing. At the same time printed book sales were in decline and traditional bookshops closing left and right. Writing novels was a surely a mug’s game. 

Then in March 2019 I took up a job in Christchurch, New Zealand. I’d had no work for 6 months, so had no choice. The conservative Coalition government under Scott ‘Scomo’ Morrison was pro-unconstrained development, anti-environment and a bunch of climate deniers,  cutting demand for consulting work in Australia for people like me. My daughters were newly independent and it was too risky to sell up and move, so I went alone while Pauline stayed in Perth, Western Australia. Under Jacinta Adhern, NZ was more enlightened on the need for climate action, and on just about anything, compared to Australia under Scomo and Rupert Murdoch.  

It was an inauspicious but moving time to arrive in Christchurch– about 10 hours after the Christchurch massacre.  I’ll never forget that first Sunday – the city centre was empty and utterly silent, as if in morning. In her reconciliation efforts, Jacinta was a shining beacon in a dark and ugly world and inspired a lot of hugging and kindness. I found some lodgings in a family home – my Maori landlady Laura, had made a room available as a gesture, and somehow had in her head that I was a Muslim refugee – only after a while thinking that my fondness for going to the pub was a bit unusual. Perhaps I followed an Unorthodox sect (I’m that alright) 

I had some time on my hands at weekends and while travelling, and you know what they say about the Devil making work for idle hands. At first I didn’t think of a novel. I started compiling a non-fiction book about the state of the world, building on my 40 years’ experience in trying to save the planet.  But I found it not only a depressing task , but the world didn’t need another book on saying more or less there same thing – how badly fucked our planet is – or on how there might be still hope if we do this, that, and the other. 

Then some ideas for a novel started to gel. How I could inject some satire, sarcasm or whatever? Actually have fun writing, not have to make pompous pontifications with 50 academic references for every sentence?. What would I do if I had the money or could get away with it? I read a few Lee Child novels while handing around in airports. What about a thriller? Watching Scomo and his crew in action made me think of political satire, such as his waving a lump of coal in the Australian Parliament The final trigger was the great bushfires in Australia in 2019-20. You could smell the smoke in Australia over 2000 kilometres away.It was estimated that 3 billion animals died while the government and Murdoch media blamed arsonists. Good God! What are we doing to our planet! I began writing in earnest. In March 2020 I found work back in Perth. Soon after came the lockdown when I wrote chunks. It was truly a novel coronavirus for me! 

In late 2020 I had a first draft. After initial unsuccessful approaches to agents and publishers realized I needed an independent manuscript assessment and found Aurora House, who provided one. They found positives in the story and some characters and features, but apart from too much information, a lack of female characterisation. Shit, I thought.  I might have a wife and two daughters but what do I know about women? Anyhow, back to the drawing board, and a new draft in August 2021 which Aurora liked. How to get published? All sorts of technology and other options are now available between complete self-publishing and the traditional agent and major publisher model, including hybrid services provided by smaller publishers like AH so I chose them. It included working with the AH editing team up to publication and initial marketing. It was great, and very rewarding with AH’s editing team -all women. My main my advice to anyone writing and editing is the old adage “be ready to murder your darlings” features you thought were very special. Some of my best – most politically incorrect – gags got lost. Oh well. After publication in 2022 came the hardest bit – marketing it. This never stops. 

Will I write another? I don’t know. Yeah, probably. The question is, should I wait for the next pandemic and lockdown? 

Inspirations for The Fossilarchy 

Writing it 

Much was during the lockdown, written in bed. 

Finding a publisher 

Seemingly hopeless 

Refining and final editing 

The Aurora House editorial team 

Results and reviews 

Fantasy or prophecy? 

“Daring to walk an extreme line that could become a frightening reality if we don’t change our ways soon” 

                     KC Finn, Author