The Decision Fatigue Chronicles Vol. 3
The decisions we're always making that we don't think count (but they do)
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Last Wednesday night after watching the most recent episode of Survivor, I noticed a small catch in the back of my throat and immediately went into equal parts over-planning and denial. I did NOT want to be getting any kind of cold because this week has been blocked to record the audiobook for How to Walk into a Room and I did not want to:
a) cancel and try to reschedule in the quagmire of times and dates that is my January or
b) record with a nasal version of my podcast voice. Lord, in your mercy.
While the small catch did, indeed, turn into an actual cold situation, the good news is that Zicam really does seem to work (?) and the recording schedule was ever-so-slightly flexible.
After a days-long drama experienced only inside of my own head of will she or won’t she be able to record this week, she did. We postponed our start from Monday to Tuesday and yesterday was the first day of recording. We made it exactly half-way through the book and hope to finish today.
The thing a lot of people don’t know is that it’s not a given that an author will record their audiobook. Some don’t want to, some try out and don’t get picked (no but really!), and some aren’t even given the option.
I didn’t know they could just sell the rights to the audio and not even offer me the chance to read or at least audition to read. First-time author mistake.
(I learned this the hard way with my first book in 2011 when I got an excited email from my then-publisher saying that my audiobook was now available! I raced to my computer to see what they were talking about and sure enough, there was my first book, available in audio, read by a voice actress named Coleen. They were kind and apologetic, saying they didn’t think to ask if I might want to read it myself. This was pre-podcast days. We’ve all learned a lot in the last decade.)
Since then, we’ve always made sure it’s included in my contracts that I will at least have the option to read my own books.
But this is not an essay about audiobooks.
It’s about the decisions we’re always making that we don’t give ourselves enough credit for; the ones we don’t think count but very much do.