Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing EP 159 - Many Roads of Creativity with Sarah Beth Goer

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark interviews Actor, producer, audiobook narrator, and singer Sarah Beth Goer.

Prior to the interview Mark shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, and a few words about this episode's sponsor...

You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

During their conversation, Mark and Sarah talk about:

• The fact that this is Sarah's first appearance as a podcast guest
• Working with Erin Wright on releasing her romance novels in audiobook
• How and when Sarah got started in audiobook narration
• The reality of trying to be an actor in LA - including the difficulty of even getting an audition
• Sarah's determination to get at least 200 rejections before giving up on this pursuit
• The importance of understanding your goal of having your books in audio
• Other suggestions to authors on strategies for determining whether or not its worth investing on audiobooks
• What Sarah wants every author to know about licensing their audio rights to a publisher
• The original of where Sarah got the "bug" for acting
• Determining that she really had to do acting for her soul
• Coming to terms with the doors that are open for you and the doors that are closed for you, and walking through the doors that are open instead of banging your head on the doors that are closed
• How audiobooks are an actor's medium - where an actor can't be limited or typecast by how they look, for example
• The comparison of a one-hander, a play performed by a single actor with being a single narrator of an audiobook
• Why Sarah highly recommends the audiobook for Charlotte's Web
• The converted and sound-proofed/sound-dampened closet that Sarah records in within her home
• How Mark met Sarah while looking for narrators for the audiobook for his Obsessions anthology
• The way Sarah gets new clients - Different genres that Sarah likes to work on as an audiobook narrator and what she looks for in a collaborative writing partner
• The deeply satisfying experience of creating the feature film THREE ROADS
• The resonance of a specific scene in the film that was created in an ad hoc fashion of collaboration between the actors ad libbing with suggestions from the director
• Sarah's penchant for ad lib film creation, but why they didn't use that for THREE ROADS (other than a few short scenes)
• Behind the scenes of the "little details" put into a feature film, such as the "scene within a scene" of a fictional movie two of the characters are watching
• The mind-boggling realization that every single thing seen on a television show or movie was painstakingly created, designed, or placed by someone responsible for that
• The challenging reality of the fact that the cost to just distribute this film and would most likely far outweigh the funds that would be earned off of it
• The cross-training of working on multiple collaborative and creative projects
• And more

After the interview Mark shares a reflection about Sarah's conviction to stick it out until she tried 200 times, as well as the need for disruption in the film industry.

Mark also welcomes new Patron, Kevin Partner.

Links of Interest:

• Sarah Beth Goer's Website
  • Sarah on Twitter
• Wonder Woman Productions
• Pink Flamingo Productions
• Lyric Audiobooks
• Episode 157 - A Conversation with Jeff Elkins, The Dialogue Doctor
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Series
  • This Time Around (Book 0)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York (Book 1)
  • Stowe Away (Book 1.5)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles (Book 2)
• Findaway Voices
• Books2Read
• Draft2Digital
• Wide for the Win Submission Form
• Patreon for Stark Reflections

Sarah Beth Goer is a member of acting unions SAG-AFTRA and AEA. Her feature film THREE ROADS, which she co-wrote, starred in, and produced, won BEST WRITERS at the LA Femme International Film Festival in 2019.

Sarah is also an audiobook narrator with over 100 titles under her belt. Notable works include Harper title The Unteachables (named in January 2019 an Apple Books Must-Listen), Disney Hyperion title The Devouring Gray (which placed on Barnes & Nobel's 20 most anticipated YA debuts of 2019), and Night Music – which Audiofile Magazine called “an exquisite listen,” deeming Goer's performance “dynamic,” and “noteworthy” as she “successfully capture[d] the raw emotions of first love muddled by racism and greed.”

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0