I was so looking forward to the audiobook of "Arrival" but your publisher told me: Tantor Audio only has North American rights for this title, so Audible.com would not be able to sell it outside of the U.S. and Canada. Do you know why?
Next why did you change the narrower from Jeffrey Kafer to David Drummond on "Escalation"?
Please dont stop working with Jeffrey Kafer. He is the best narrower I have heard and realy makes your book stand out.
I'm an audiobook listener of frontier and I also hope that u stick with Jeffrey kafer as narrator. He is the characters in my mind and to change narrators now would be like listening to a completely different story.
Mr Drummond was originally only supposed to do "Arrival". Due to a snafu at Tantor (a misunderstanding of Mr Kafer's availability) Mr Drummond ended up doing Escalation. Regretable, because I too wanted to keep the same narrator throughout all 75 episodes. However, the snafu has been corrected, and Mr. Kafer will be the narrator for episode 2 and onward.
As to it being the North American rights only, I'll have to check into that. I'm assuming that you were able to purchase episodes of the Saga?
@rykbrown In the past I've purchased both your books and the audio narrations read by Mr. Kafer and have enjoyed reading and listening to them. But I'm curious as to why Episode 11 Born of the Ashes is the only episode of Part 1 that can't be purchased to WhisperSync through Amazon. I've been able to purchase the Audible narrations of every other episode for an additional $1.99 except Episode 11. I checked and it is on the Audible website listed for $31.49 if you don't have an Audible membership. Is there a reason why that particular episode can't be WhisperSynced?
I got the same anser on Escalation its only realeased in North America.
The answer I got from Audible:
"We appreciate your interest in the availability of "Escalation" by Ryk Brown. While we strive to make as many audiobooks as possible available to our customers, there are times wherein a publisher may only acquire the rights to distribute a particular audiobook in certain regions of the world. In most cases, the publisher will secure "world" rights, but at times the distribution is more restricted.
We're sorry that "Escalation" by Ryk Brown is not currently available in your region. If you would like to, you can request for this title to be made available by emailing us at: content-requests@audible.com. Due to the volume of requests we receive, we may not be able to keep you updated on the status of your requests, but we truly appreciate your suggestions."
I live in Sweden and I really hope to be able to buy your audiobooks in the future.
Best Regards
Anders
Just a heads up for others that my local public library is in the process of adding Rky's audio books to their electronic offerings available through OverDrive. Arrival was the first book followed one by one by the first five episodes. They tend to add one more every week to 10 days. Great to see this new exposure for Ryk's books. I have recommended them to many local friends who download through OverDrive and they seem to be very popular as there is a not insubstantial hold list of 4 to 5 per title.
@takeyabue Escalation (narrated by J Kafer) released on Audible on Feb 11th- actually the Drummond edition was available through my Library via Hoopla until recently but it apparently has been deleted. Unknown if Hoopla will release it with the new audio version soon.
I am pleased to hear of the return of Mr. Kafer doing the rest of the series. As I was listening to Mr. Drummond read Escalation I kept thinking, that's not <character's> voice (inflection, tone, accent), that's not how you pronounce Ghatazhak (and I corrected him every time in my head), President Scott doesn't sound that whiny (which bothered me more than I thought it would). Well, you get the idea, after listening to all 15 chapters with Mr Kafer (yes, I bought them all a second time), I am looking forward to having him back for Rescue.
Thank You 🙂
WOW – I just now saw that Mr. Kafer has narrated Escalation. I read it in his facebook group today. I can’t believe this has happened, I am very excited to go back and listen to this book again. As a few of us had voiced our concern about not having him narrate Escalation way back in 2016, so this is great news. Thank you for letting this happen.
First of all, I'm a big fan of the series! Unfortunately, I don't get much free time to read them anymore. The audiobooks are a great alternative. Do we have an eta on the audio book for "rescue"?
I am about to start in on Arrival, and when I saw that Mr. Kafer was not performing it I was a little bummed, actually maybe a lot bummed and I have been putting it off. I have a book or two that has been re-performed after the narrator's time had freed up and I know that this is an extra cost. I speak for no one but myself here, but if there was a collection taken up to get Mr. Kafer to perform Arrival and I guess Rescue as well, I would be willing to donate to the cause heavily. I don't know what it costs to have him perform one of your books but, I know that I will be very frustrated with the new narrator and not because he is good/bad but just because he wont BE the characters. I do not know how much direct contact you have with Mr. Kafer, but if he were willing I know I would be willing to help it along as I would much prefer the characters remain themselves for the entirety of the story.
I know it may seem weird to some because it is after all just someone reading the books right? Well yes and no, I have put down audiobooks that I could not stand the narration of to only read myself when I have time which I often don't and like it, I have also gone back to books I read myself, and listened to the audiobook and liked a LOT better than when I read it. To be honest the lack of descent SciFi on T.V. and on the Silver Screens have me turning them off and not attending in preference to my audible subscription, which even with Kindle Unlimited for those times when I JUST don't have any more credits, I spend less probably quarterly than I do going to the movies with my wife once. that said it has basically become my primary form of entertainment. Jeffery Kafer had me sobbing when Nathan left the Aurora at the end of "What Other Men Cannot Do" and I am a grown @@@ed man. The relationship a great heck even a good narrator can bring to your readers/listeners is a very powerful one. If you for instance have someone who pronounces Habitable as HUH-Bit-Uh-ble some people are going to be turned off, I am sure that there is somewhere that uses that pronunciation but I don't know of any. It becomes a lot worse when it is words that are not normal because it puts a major break in the flow for the reader @makehselamiut pointed out words like Ghatazhak which almost always sounds like God of Shock to me and sometimes I ponder if that is were it comes from, but I digress. Point is, I think we could pass the plate so to speak to pay Mr. Kafer if we knew how much that would be or what he would be willing to accept to do them.
But again that is just my own opinion, and when I say I would be willing to pitch in I speak not of just the books cost, but an order of magnitude more or so, just so there is an understanding of what I mean. I think to those of us who fell in love with the characters as read by him may feel similarly in the matter of wanting them re-read but not be as fiscally motivated as I am, so, maybe they would like the option to just pre-order the re-read or something? I dunno how all the licencing and contracts work, so I can not be sure if this is even possible... BUT, I do know I am willing to put my money were my ... Um, mouth? earhole? ugh, anyways you get the point.
By the way, I LOVE that the website has illustrations that is just AMAZING!
