AUS
NZ
UK
CA
USA
FRA
GER
ESP
ITA
NLD
PRT
SWE
GRC
IND
POL
BRA
ZAF
RUS
CHN
UAE
The company partnered with best-selling Marshall Terrill for his 2014 book, Zora Folley: The Distinguished Life and Mysterious Death of a Gentleman Boxer.
“I recently read a statistic that almost half of all book titles are now consumed through Audible and that consumers want to hear authors narrate their works,” said Terrill, who has written more than 30 non-fiction books on iconic figures such as Steve McQueen, Johnny Cash, Billy Graham and Elvis Presley. “I felt this title was the perfect opportunity to take the plunge. I’m so happy I did because it was fun and painless.”
Terrill recorded the book at Otto D’Agnolo’s Mia Studio in Scottsdale, Ariz. in June, who in turn sent the audio to McCartney Multimedia. They edited and converted the tape into a suitable format for Audible. They also listed the title for Terrill.
“I don’t have the time or the technical know-how to get this done on my own, so it was a nice luxury that McCartney Multimedia Inc. could do this for me,” Terrill said. “It was an easy process for me and because they are so resourceful. McCartney’s Creative Director and producer Martin Nethercutt not only figured it out but were able to turn this project in quickly so I could take it to market in less than a month.”
The edit was conducted at the McCartney Studios in Los Angeles, Calif. using their state of the art LLM (large language model) software, and they also cast a female voice over artist to play an additional role towards the end of the book. Terrill’s voice has also been archived and protected in the firm’s VerifiedVoiceVault.com to hedge against future AI clones and bad actors.
“We believe audio will continue to be a cornerstone of content consumption, and with the podcast and audio book market growing, it was also a natural progression to offer the Voice Vault services for protection of voice prints going forward,” said Ruth McCartney, aka the “Digital Diva” and CEO and co-founder of McCartney.
Terrill wrote the book about Folley, who lived in Chandler, Ariz. almost a decade ago. Folley was a top heavyweight boxing contender in the late 1950s and 1960s. His career culminated with the loss of a heavyweight title match against Muhammad Ali in March 1967 in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Folley was a decorated Korean War veteran; a consummate fighter in the ring; a role model for youth; a seemingly happily married father of nine children; a successful businessman; Chandler’s first black city council member, and the city’s most famous son.
His death at age 41 on July 8, 1972, however, remained shrouded in mystery for more than four decades, and the few available details concerning what happened hardly square with his distinguished and genteel life according to Terrill.
“This book was originally a three-part newspaper series I wrote in 2003. I was haunted by the words of Zora’s son Robert, who told me, ‘One day the truth will come out,’” Terrill said. “But how was the truth supposed to come out if no one was actively in search of the truth? Closure is an overused word, but it became my Great White Whale.”
Terrill took it upon himself to finally answer the decades-long mystery of Folley’s death at a Tucson motel. He did so by uncovering Folley’s long vanquished police and autopsy reports, which he unearthed after years of searching. He also interviewed more than a dozen Chandler residents as well as an eyewitness who was there the night of Folley’s death. The 93-page original ebook also contains photos and memorabilia of Folley’s career as well as excerpts of the police and autopsy reports.
Zora Folley: The Distinguished Life and Mysterious Death of a Gentleman Boxer is available for $9.95 exclusively through Audible.
Ruth McCartney
McCartney Multimedia, Inc
+1 310-301-8166
email us here
