Guest Blogger Dr. Bob Cundiff

 

I was happy to be able to work with my friend Jim Hazewinkel and his wife, Judy, with the co-writing and editing of Legacy of the Mat, the fascinating story of twin Christian brothers Jim and Dave Hazewinkel who became Olympic wrestlers and then coaches for decades.

The book about their years of wrestling and coaching, featuring their eagerness to share their love of Jesus to everyone they met, was published by Westbow Press, is also available on Amazon. The eBook also became available on Amazon, which made it possible to have Legacy of the Mat audiobook permissible to offer on Amazon’s Audible. 

After the book was largely finished and close to being published, Judy wrote and told me about the prohibitive cost of recording the audiobook. 

One of my side interests is voice acting; I have recorded more than 1000 audio products over the years, including a few audiobooks. I have a short children's book, Why the Platypus Doesn’t Sing, also available on Audible. 

Since I helped with the writing and editing of the book as a labor of love, I offered to record their audiobook at a much-reduced cost. 

In my Clearwater, Florida home studio, I recorded each of the chapters as a separate audio file. Then I edited each of the files, taking out any unwanted noises that voice artists take out in the editing process. 

The next step was to upload all the files to ACX, the Amazon audiobook website where authors and artists meet, agree on terms, and finish the financial and creative agreements. ACX approved all my recordings and made Legacy of the Mat as an audiobook on Amazon’s Audible collection.  

My final audiobook narration runs just under 3 hours. 

May this book inspire you to be a witness for Jesus. 

Bob Cundiff, PhD