Hello! I've got a jam-packed newsletter for you today including:
- a cover reveal for the upcoming Bewitched by Chocolate book
- updates on the next Oxford Tearoom & English Cottage Garden mysteries
- a "tell-all" on audiobooks
- a new German release
- a chance to join my Superfan Team and receive free review copies of all new releases
- ... and more!
So scroll down for all the news...! ☺️
First, I'm really excited to share the final cover of my upcoming release (SALTED CARAMEL SORCERY, Bewitched by Chocolate #7)!
As you can see, the story is set during Mabon - the harvest festival celebrated on the autumn equinox - with a masquerade ball and lots of exciting twists & turns, as well as (of course!) a mysterious murder which may or may not have a magical cause... 😉
And I'm really pleased to tell you that the book is finally with my editor! You know, I thought I was done when I completed the first draft a few weeks ago, but then I got feedback from my beta readers and there were lots of revisions & additions needed, so I've been hammering out the issues and rewriting parts of the book... but I did finally get to "The End" (again!). There will be several more rounds
with my editor & proofreader before the book is ready for publication, but it's on track for release in July - so not long now! 😊
What about audio? As soon as the "final pass" is done, the manuscript will also be heading to my narrator Pearl Hewitt for her to start work on the audiobook. So that should come out hopefully at the same time or only a short while after the ebook & paperback formats are released.
When are the next Oxford Tearoom & English Cottage Garden mysteries coming?
As you all know, I currently have 3 series and I try my best to rotate around them, to keep all my fans happy (although it also depends on having the right inspiration for the next book in each series. If I have a stronger idea for another book in a different series, then I'll write that one first.)
So after this latest Bewitched book is "put to bed", I'll be starting work on the next Oxford Tearoom mystery (haven't decided on a title yet!), which will be released later this year. And then I'll be moving on to the next book in the English Cottage Garden series. This will be Book 6 and I do have a title for this one! 😊 TOO MULCH TO HANDLE should hopefully be released early next year.
** By the way, in case you missed it, Book 5: FRONDS AND ENEMIES is out now and available in ebook, paperback and audio!
"Spring has come at last and Poppy is hoping that the new season will resurrect the cottage garden nursery she’s inherited. But with her stock failing to grow and a mysterious 'peeping Tom' stalking the village, she has her gardening gloves full… and that’s even before her visit to the local doctor ends with her stumbling on a dead body..."
Neuerscheinung!
There's exciting news for my German-speaking fans too: the translation of Book 5 in my Oxford Tearoom Mysteries has just been released!
The Deutsch title is inspired by the German saying: "Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund" - which translates as "the morning has gold in its mouth". This is similar to the English saying: "the early bird catches the worm".
So the title for my book is a pun on this saying, replacing the "gold" with "death": "Morgenstund hat Mord im Mund." Finding a title in the foreign language which retains the original references and still has a play on words is a huge challenge! So I was really pleased that my translator came up with this. As fans of the series know, the murder in Book 5 takes
place during the famous annual Oxford University celebration on May morning, so it's great to keep that "morning" reference in the German title.
By the way, French-speaking fans - I have exciting news coming for you soon!!
Are you an "H.Y. Hanna superfan"?
Once in a while, I open up my Superfan Team to new members for a limited time... and now's your chance to join!
- Do you LOVE my books and gobble them up as soon as they're released? Are you always telling friends and family about my stories?
- Would you like to get free advance review copies (ARCs) of every new release?
- Do you want to help spread the word by posting reviews on Amazon and sharing on social media?
... then please contact my assistant Erin on: assistant@hyhanna.com for details of how to join my Superfan Team!
I look forward to welcoming you to the team! ❤️
FAN QUESTIONS:
I recently received several questions from fans curious about the audiobook production process - so I thought I'd share what happens to bring a book to life in audio...
- I love your stories as audiobooks, but I'm curious how you produce them?
- How do you decide on the voices for the characters in your audiobooks?
- How do authors pick the narrators for their books? Lately I have had a hard time with annoying voices and wondered how they were selected.
First, I must say this is just the way I approach things. I'm sure many authors & publishers don't go into so much detail when prepping and still produce perfectly good audiobooks. I guess I'm a bit of a perfectionist - haha! 😉 And luckily, my narrator Pearl shares my perfectionist attitude and work ethic, so we make a great team together.
So how does a story become an audiobook? Well, as an author, you have a choice of either selling the audio rights to an audiobook publisher (similar to a traditional book deal, often with no control over choice of narrator, etc) or producing the audiobook yourself (which means you bear all the initial production costs but also keep all the royalties).
As an independent author, I've always chosen the latter option. So this means I auditioned narrators myself by going to specialist sites and searching through lots of voice actor profiles, listening to their samples and making a shortlist:
You then put up a short excerpt from your own book and ask for auditions - and choose the "best" narrator based on their style, voice acting abilities, experience, fees, etc. In some cases, authors will already have heard a narrator reading another book and loved their style, so will approach them directly (much like a director casting actors for a movie! 😉)
Of course, a voice that appeals to someone else might really grate on your nerves & vice versa. I tried to mitigate this by asking several friends who are regular audiobook listeners to rate my shortlist. Pearl won hands down with her gorgeous voice, which you can listen to all day!
Most people just ask the narrators to read one chapter for the audition sample, but I do things a bit differently: I make a list of all the key characters in my story and find short excerpts featuring each of them in dialogue, then I ask the narrator to perform every one in their audition sample. This way, I can check their interpretation and see if they have the range to provide different voices/accents, plus
the acting ability to really bring the characters to life (I told you I'm a perfectionist! 😉)
It takes a bit longer (and a lot more auditions!), but for me, it's worth the extra time & effort to find the right talent. Here's an example of the "Notes" I sent Pearl when we first started working on the Bewitched by Chocolate series, with detailed descriptions of age, background, personality + the voice/accent* I had in mind for each character.
(* Accents are VERY important in stories with British settings, as they play a key role in characterisation. Not that everyone with a Cockney accent is a London gangster, of course 😉 - but authentic regional & socio-economic accents are crucial, IMHO).
I do this for every audiobook we work on, although obviously, once we've established the core cast of recurring characters for Book 1, it's much faster/easier for subsequent books in that series.
Pearl also likes me to include links to Youtube clips of actors/people to give her a reference (she's an incredible mimic!). It's a very collaborative process and we often have great discussions as we "find" the voices to bring the characters to life...
Once Pearl does the character samples and I give her feedback on her interpretation (eg. "the Widow Mags sounds too aggressive - she needs to be cranky but still likable") - she then goes away and records the whole book. The finished narration files go through audio
post-production & editing, before being sent back to the author for the final proof.
This can be done by an assistant who just checks the audio against the original text - but I always listen to the entire audiobook myself. I don't care so much about matching the audio exactly to the text, unless the meaning is significantly altered (eg. if Pearl say "I'll" instead of "I will") - but I do care that all the scenes & characters have the right nuances. Pearl is usually spot on but sometimes,
there are little tweaks, such as:
~ "can you make that reporter sound more pushy & irritating? He's too nice & likable at the moment so it's hard to understand why Caitlyn is rude to him. It makes her come across badly and listeners need to like her since she's the heroine"~
Pearl is AMAZING and she will even re-record entire scenes if I'm not 100% happy with the way characters sound... so that every nuance is just right! I'm so grateful to have found someone who shares my passion for getting things "perfect", no matter how much extra
effort it takes (in fact, sometimes Pearl will insist on redoing things that I think are fine! 😄). She's so dedicated, she'll even ask friends to record themselves speaking in a certain native accent, so she can practice mimicking them as authentically as possible!
And she loves a challenge! As you know, my books often feature characters from a range of ages, backgrounds and nationalities. So Pearl has had to master Egyptian, Russian, Austrian, Japanese & South African accents (among others!), an ogre grunt, a cat who sounds like he's saying "N-ow!" and even a parrot doing a Robert de Niro impression - just to name a few! I'm often in awe of how one person
can do so many different voices so brilliantly!
I do believe that all this extra work shows in the quality of our audiobooks and we're very proud of them. They aren't just stories being read aloud - they are true performances (almost like listening to a play!), with different character voices and authentic accents, and wonderful acting & energy that really immerses you in the story. ☺️
Well! I've still got loads of other things to tell you but this newsletter is in danger of turning into a novel in itself - haha! So I'd better save it for next time.
In the meantime, I hope you're relishing a bit more freedom, now that many places are opening up again, and also (if you're in the Northern Hemisphere) enjoying some lovely summer weather! We're shivering here in Perth. Well, OK, "shivering" is a bit of an exaggeration 😉. Winters in Western Australia are fairly mild and still very sunny. But it's chilly enough, especially at night, to want a nice blanket
to snuggle in when you're curled up reading or watching TV... as demonstrated by Muesli!
Thanks for reading - talk soon!
Hsin-Yi
(H.Y. Hanna)
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