Planned Audiobooks for 2025

Rather than an author, I consider myself a story-teller, and a story can be told in many ways.

My plan since the inception of Undelund Tales is to make the stories available in the most optimal formats; one of those being via audiobooks or in a streaming format to be listened to on websites like YouTube or services like Spotify.

Professional Voice Actor Narration:

In an ideal world this would be always my first choice. Nothing beats having other people read a manuscript, add their own twist to a character, and spice things up as they go along. In the future, I'd like all the stories be be narrated and voiced this way; at the moment though it's too cost-prohibitive.

Fully-automated services:

Narration service provide an easy method of making stories available as audiobooks; however, the downside from my perspective is that (at the time of writing), there is no means for story-tellers to 'proof-listen' to the story before it's made available to ensure it's up to scratch.

Being unable to 'proof-listen' runs the risk of place names and characters being mispronounced or there being a lack of emphasis or inflection when required.

Manual Optimisation and Conversion with AI Tools:

There are now numerous ways of having a story narrated and my preferred method is to optimise the manuscript and manually process it using ElevenLabs. After creating the audio and exporting it, I make additional adjustments to ensure the narration and dialog flow smoothly.

The optimisations keep the core of the story, but the tweaks are there to add clarity when required or remove excess wording when not required. Additionally, some stories will have subtle sound effects added for extra spice.

Additionally, this service allows for the pronunciation of place names and characters to be corrected manually prior to optimisation.

The first story under going this conversion is Meet Chompy which is due to be released in the summer in ebook and audio versions to begin with and then added to the print-only 'Beasties - Collection 1' in the autumn.

As a taster of what the 'manually optimised' stories will sound like, here are two excerpts from Meet Chompy: one is from Grandma Jeeky, and the other from Cousin Flanagan.

Grandma Jeeky mentions her 'peculiar appearance' to houseguest Kozmo:

Cousin Flanagan reveals a traumatic incident from her past:

During the summer, I plan on having the following three stories released using the 'manually optimised' method, these are:

• Meet Chompy

• Bristlewurm (currently has an Apple-narrated version)

• The Oakmere Grynfang (currently has an Apple-narrated version)

By the end of 2025, I'm planning to have at least three more stories converted, and at the time of writing these are shortlisted to be:

• The Promise

• The Bushgreave

• Tingle Toes

As always, the Undelund Tales website provides the latest details on what is available, in what format, and where. Further updates will also be provided on this blog.

Planned Print Books for 2025

 

It's always  been on the cards to make as many tales available in as many formats as (practically) possible, including:

• eBook format.

• Print format.

• Audiobooks/stream.

After assessing viable options for print; Amazon's publishing service appears to offer the best balance between options, cost, and quality. That said, for the time being, Amazon will be where these print options can be found.

The types of print offerings will be as followed:

Single Tales:

As per this blog post, the following two titles are currently available in print:

The Oakmere Grynfang

A Girl Named Latchford

Also, at the time of this blog post, the following two titles are being prepared:

• The Farley Mount Pinchers

• Tingle Toes

During May 2025, it is expected the title The Crossing of Crocklemell will also be available in print.

Collections:

During the latter part of the year (likely autumn), the first 'Collection' will be published as a print-only option. These collections group together stories based around a general theme or character.

In the collection of 'Beasties: Collection One'; the stories contain something monstrous.

Beasties: Collection One

This collection will include the first editions of the following individual tales:

• Meet Chompy

• The Crossing of Crocklemell

• The Oakmere Grynfang

• Tingle Toes

These collections allow for the inclusion of short stories to be made available in print where it would not be practical (or cost-effective) to create a print version of a single short-form story.

Next year, more collections are planned including one for Cora Winstanley (as featured in The Oakmere Grynfang and Bristlewurm).

The Undelund website carries an up-to-date list of stories planned for print found at the link provided here: Undelund Tales - Story List (Print)

Spring 2025 - Update

The writing of novelette Meet Chompy is complete and will be released when the audiobook version is finalised and ready.

All being well, Meet Chompy will be available this summer in the following formats:

• Ebook.

• Audiobook.

The next few months should see the availability of the following:

• The Oakmere Grynfang (print version and this edition also includes the short-story Bristlewurm).

• A Girl Named Latchford (print version).

• The Farley Mount Pinchers (print version).

Current tales in the works are:

• The Duskwood Ribticklers (third draft).

• The Promise (first draft).

• The Bushgreave (outlining and storyboarding).

The next few months will be busy in a fun way, and in case anyone does read this blog, I’ll post updates each fortnight on how the tales are progressing and any other news.

Audiobook versions of Bristlewurm and The Oakmere Grynfang are available on Apple Books and Overdrive Audio (the ‘news’ section of the Undelund Tales website will be updated with links when they're available). More options will be available in due course.
Not all stories will be suited to an audiobook version, but this will be kept under review.