Last year I decided I no longer wanted to work with a publishing company for my audiobooks. That meant I’d have to take responsibility for all new releases – finding a narrator, managing the script, dealing with revisions, and publishing the finished audiobook. After several months of hard work, the first of my self-managed audiobooks landed on Audible – A Page in Your Diary.
Fast forward to today, and I’ve just finished listening to the audio draft of Kenneth.
Now, I was in two minds about producing an audiobook version of Kenneth because it’s consistently at the bottom of my monthly sales chart and I rarely receive feedback from readers. When I decided to write it back in 2019, the intention was to tap into the mainstream commercial fiction market, so Kenneth deviated a bit from my previous books. It should also be said that it was aimed at female readers.
After disappointing sales in the first few months, I put the book to the back of my mind and moved on.
Since then, I’ve written a lot of words and published five other books. For that reason, I’ve forgotten much of what happened in Kenneth. So, when I sat down to listen to the audiobook for the first time, I found myself in the peculiar position of listening to it with a level of detachment.
Modesty prevents me from saying too much, but I really enjoyed it. Much of that enjoyment was down to the skill of the narrator, Rhonda Pownell, but the story itself was much better than I remember – certainly better than the poor sales suggest.
That brings me to the point of this post.
I suspect Kenneth has slipped off the radar with many of my readers because I’ve neglected it. I don’t think I’ve ever promoted it in any way, and rather than address possible issues with the cover and marketing blurb, I’ve just let it fester on the dustiest of Amazon’s shelves. On reflection, that’s a real pity because I think it’s one of my best stories.
If you haven’t read it, I’d love for you to give it a try. The audiobook will be available towards the end of February (2022) but the ebook and paperback are both available on Amazon.
And, if you’d like to have a listen to Rhonda’s fantastic interpretation, here’s the first chapter…
