Emma M. Lion comes to Audiobook!

The Bookshelf ~ June 2025

DEAR READERS,

Hello! Many of you have been waiting years for this announcement. So have I.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion are being released on Audiobook this year!

On August 14th, Vols. 1 & 2 will be available. Followed by a release of the next book every two weeks until all 8 volumes are available for purchase! (While I’m working hard on Emma Vol. 9.)

It’s going to be wild and wonderful.

CAN I TELL YOU a little about how it came to be?

I’ve long known that for Emma M. Lion to translate into audiobook, it had to be the right team. Not only the right team, maybe the impossible one. The publisher would need to have a little of that magic I encounter when writing The Unselected Journals. They would need to find a narrator with enormous talent and scope, and a director who understood the books on every level. Certain stars would need to align for the project to be what it could, what it should be.

And so I waited.

I’d received offers and queries, especially over the last few years, including an offer from a rather large audiobook publisher. But I didn’t feel settled about moving forward with any of them.

This project needed fate not chance.

Then I heard from Echo Point Books and Media. They wanted to discuss producing audiobooks of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion.

BUT WHO WERE Echo Point Books and Media?

I did my homework. What I found felt very St. Crispian’s…

Echo Point Books and Media is an east coast publishing company that began with the desire to save books from being pulped or sent to the landfill. My dear reader, their origin story is that of rescuing books from certain death. They are a publishing company with a beating heart.

Echo Point soon began looking for out-of-print books that needed resurrection (The Dalliance, anyone?), and then branched out into audiobooks, both for the out-of-print and other books that were not yet available in audio.

Last year, Echo Point Books and Media approached me. They had come across The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion. Would I consider working with them on the audiobooks?

After a few meetings it was clear: Echo Point’s values as a publishing company
were aligned with mine as a writer and steward of these characters.

Echo Point wanted quality over ease. They wanted a great performance, not merely a recording. And they were willing to forgo traditional industry norms to do so.

I felt excitement and courage instead of caution and hesitation, like the freedom of a good horizon. This was the publishing company for the Emma M. Lion audiobooks.

In this process I have worked with two outstanding forces in the field: Addie Mahdavi and Jakob Hoffmann. They are intelligent, witty, and kind. Meeting them in New York this last fall confirmed my choice. It is always a special thing, when one is able to work with people who are leaving a positive imprint on this world, and doing so with consideration, humor, and grace.

TWO THINGS

FIRSTLY, I am nearly bursting with excitement to announce the narrator and director on the project. Preparing with them has been a joy. (You guys, they are incredible.) This announcement will be made in the next few weeks.

SECONDLY, we here at Rhysdon Press have something fun in mind for the preorders! I will let you know once the preorders are posted and give you all the details.

Well, my friends, the audiobooks are almost here.

With anticipation,
x Beth

P.S. Please feel free to share any of these graphics with friends, on your insta, or however you pass on Emma news. And thank you, all, that you so often do.

P.P.S. Here is the link to Emma’s page on the Echo Point website, if you want to share this with a friend.