Taming the White Leopard
The Writing Process and the Audiobook Nightmare
Cheers. We survived.
After months of absolute lockdown in the cave, we are back in business. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be revealing the new “Crónicas Blasfemas” projects as we move forward with them. There’s a lot brewing in the shadows.
But before looking to the future, it’s time to autopsy the present.
Getting “The White Leopard People” out into the wild was one of the most gruelling writing and publishing cycles we’ve ever faced. We didn’t just disappear because we were busy; we went dark because we were surviving.
The Grind: Bleeding on the Page
Writing the damn thing was a battle of attrition. Expanding the lore of the Tribe, making sure the gritty, visceral tone of the universe stayed intact while pushing the narrative forward, took a massive mental toll. There were weeks of rewriting, tearing down chapters, and stitching them back together. In the indie publishing trenches, you don’t have a corporate safety net; if the story doesn’t bleed authenticity, the readers smell it immediately. We obsessed over every sentence until the manuscript was finally locked.
But as any indie author knows, typing “The End” is only half the battle.
The Audio Hell: A War of Decibels
We need to talk about the absolute technical nightmare it was to tame the audiobook files for Google Play. If you think writing a book is hard, try fighting an automated audio quality algorithm.
Google Play Books has standards. Rigid, unyielding, robotic standards. We aren’t professional audio engineers; we are storytellers. So, wrestling with Audacity to master 12 separate audio files turned into a descent into madness.
It stopped being about the pacing of the narration and turned into a brutal war of decibels. We had to perfectly normalise the volume, ensuring the RMS (Root Mean Square) levels stayed exactly within their microscopic acceptable window. We fought rogue audio peaks that spiked out of nowhere, desperately applying limiters so it wouldn’t exceed 3dB. Then came the noise floor—filtering out the ambient hum of the real world without making the narration sound like it was recorded in a tin can.
We exported, uploaded, got rejected by the automated system, tweaked the EQ, exported again, and re-uploaded. 12 files. Over and over. It was an absolute hell of trial and error just to get the green light.
But the beast has finally been tamed. We beat the algorithm, and the audiobook is officially out there.
You can listen to the whole preface of the audiobook.
Are you a Reviewer?
The beast is finally loose in the wild, and now comes the most crucial part of the cycle: feeding it. In the independent publishing trenches, honest reviews are our absolute lifeblood. We don’t rely on massive corporate marketing algorithms; we survive on word of mouth and the visceral, unfiltered reactions of our readers and listeners. We want to hear exactly what you think.
To get the ball rolling, we’ve secured a limited batch of free promo codes exclusively for reviewers ready to plunge into the audiobook version of “The White Leopard People”. Whether you run a dedicated dark fiction blog, dominate Bookstagram, host a podcast, or just leave passionately brutal critiques on Goodreads and Google Play, we want you on board. Experiencing the lore of the Hard Tribe in audio format adds a whole new, gritty layer to the universe we’ve built.
If you want to claim one of these coveted codes, get in touch with us right now. Drop a comment below, shoot us a direct message, or reply to this newsletter with a link to where you usually post your reviews. We’ll hook you up so you can tear into the story.
Wear the Spirit of the Clan
If you want to fully immerse yourself in the universe of the White Leopard while you listen, the official gear is ready. The exclusive Crónicas Blasfemas merch is up in the store. You can grab the official White Leopard gear right now to show your allegiance to the Hard Tribe.
That’s all for this week. The cave is open, the hangover is over, and the forge is burning again. We are officially back to our weekly rhythm, so expect more lore, more rules, and more unfiltered updates coming your way very soon.
Stay blasphemous.
— Nico Sánchez, Creative Director at Crónicas Blasfemas