This means the recording production is a GO, and longtime Troubleshooters series narrator Patrick Lawlor is on board to narrate this book!

Thank you to all who participated!

And if you haven’t yet, and if you like the idea of supporting indie/small businesses like mine, and real human actors like Patrick, there’s still time to get your very own early-release, discounted-at-$25 audiobook download of JULES!

The Kickstarter campaign runs through April 1^st at 8 pm ET

Here’s the link to go check it out: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/suzannebrockmann/audiobook-jules-cassidy-pi

Help me out by sharing this link and spreading the word wherever fellow friends of Jules Cassidy and Troubleshooters series audiobook listeners gather! (Thank you!)

My estimated date for the audiobook release is a still slightly murky “Summer 2026,” but I’m now squinting at July as a potential target as I nudge all of the production details (recording, engineering, checking the sixteen-hours of finished files) into place. I’ll be keeping my Kickstarter backers posted via regular updates!

As soon as the audio files are ready to go, I’ll upload the audiobook of JULES to that terrific author-and-reader-friendly site, BookFunnel. Kickstarter backers’ copies will be delivered to their BookFunnel libraries, from which they can download it or simply listen to it right on the easy-to-use BookFunnel app!

I’m still working out the details of a more general public release to follow that. It’ll probably be sometime in the fall, but I do want to give people a heads up that Audible is not on my short list of distributors—at least not for the near future. 

Recording a lengthy book like Jules Cassidy, P.I., with both a high quality and talented SAG/AFTRA human narrator and an expected sixteen-hour run time is an expensive endeavor. Subscription sites like Audible undercut the value of longer audiobooks, and make it difficult to break-even when hiring human actors, let alone to earn royalties. (Check out a breakdown of my break-even budget for this audiobook, over at Kickstarter.)

The solution—or, I should say “a” solution—is to write shorter books. Unfortunately, I’m not wired that way, and when my brain hears “Write shorter,” it too quickly slips into “Just don’t write.” (No, brain, no!)

Bottom line, my plan for the fall (after the summer Kickstarter-exclusive release) is first to release the audiobook to sites like Apple and Kobo and Google Play that allow readers to purchase and download the audiobook without deeply discounting its value, which will be in the $30 range (or slightly more if it comes in longer than sixteen hours). (Reminder: you can get it early for just $25 via the Kickstarter!!)

I’ll also be using the audiobook download of JULES as a “reward” in future Kickstarter campaigns for my upcoming releases. (Yeah, I’m writing the next book featuring Jules Cassidy right now. Or I will be after this latest Long Covid flare-up settles down. Yikes.)

All righty! That’s the latest news! To recap:

(And while we’re checking things off, don’t forget to check out the various add-on backer “rewards” at Kickstarter, including the opportunity to hear your name read by Patrick in the end credits for the audiobook under a “Friends of Jules” list of supporters, a special Zoom Q&A with Patrick and me, and my entire self-published ebook backlist priced at only $3 a pop!!)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/suzannebrockmann/audiobook-jules-cassidy-pi

Thank you!

Reminder: March 28th is No Kings III! (See you in the streets!)

Wishing you peace, light, and joyful inspiration during these dark, uncertain times—with the hope that there’ll be much to be grateful for in the coming days of community, activism, and resistance, brought about by our deep love of freedom and democracy.

Love,
Suz