Pernell Rogers – Writer

Archive for February, 2024

Hello all! I’ve been very quiet this year, contemplating my marketing strategy for my current and future stories. There was an error in the timing of my latest release. Reviews came in much later than the publishing date, and my book didn’t get the exposure I desired. I must rethink my strategy. I discovered a website that uses AI voices to create audio from text. I used it to introduce the beginnings of my short stories, similar to Amazon’s ‘read a sample’ option. The voices still sound robotic, to me, but the inflections and voice variability are much better.

Also, Smashwords has been bought by Draft2Digital, and there is a learning curve to use it. Their website has extra capabilities that I may explore. They have the ability to create audiobooks using either AI or human narrators. I’ll play with those later.

Currently, I have no stories in my head, which feels strange. A few ideas are floating around, but nothing concrete has come forward. In the meantime, I’ve been re-editing the 11 stories I still have to publish. ProWritingAid, has included some outstanding tools in their latest release. Probably the most interesting the Inspiration option. With it, the software examines 4000 words at a time, and looks for improvements in dialogue, atmosphere, plot twists, symbolism, etc. I used it for the first time yesterday to check the atmosphere of my first mystery. Its suggestions were eye opening. Must say I was impressed.

That’s all for now. Take care!