So I’m taking this post to do a little “inside baseball” commentary. If you have no desire to submit work to Podiobooks.com and are content to simply be a listener, feel free to skip this. But if your plans include making your own serialized audiobook and joining the others here, please read this! It will save both of us much time and aggravation.

Follows is my process for checking all new submissions. I tend to work in the order of reverse-difficulty. In other words, I look at the easiest things to fix first, then move up the food chain to the more complex. Keep in mind that if anything is wrong during this waterfall of events, I stop checking and reject the file. My rationale for doing so is this: if you’ve screwed up the easy stuff, you’ve probably boinked something more difficult down the chain, and I’m not going to waste my time going further.

Every new submission is sent via email to me. I typically (though not always) open the email to check to see if the file name is correct. I don’t download anything at that time, as I prefer to wait until Sunday and process all new submissions and once. But the file name doesn’t take much work to check, so I’ll look. If it doesn’t follow the format outlined in the guidelines, I’ll send you a note telling you to try it again. I get lots of file names with spaces in them and with extra “.mp3″ extensions tacked on the end.

On Sunday, I steel my nerves and start downloading the dozen or so new submissions from first-time providers. Some submissions are brand new. Some submissions are prior week(s) rejects that are trying again. Or again. Or again. Remember: I only check once a week. Miss it the first time, and I won’t check again for seven days.

I download the file and first check to see if the encoding specs are right. At least half the submissions are rejected due to encoding errors, typically when the submitter doesn’t know the difference between stereo and Joint Stereo. Plenty of folks haven’t nailed the bit rate or sample rate, either. Why? They aren’t looking, or don’t know where to look. If that’s you, don’t submit. It will be wrong. Find out how to check. Google it. Ask the mentorship forum. Fire up the “Help” documents for your editing software. The .mp3 encoding specs we’ve set aren’t suggestions. They are the law.

Next, I check the ID3 tags. Lots of people skip the Grouping tag. Not all editing programs let you set the Grouping tag. If yours doesn’t; find one that does. But plenty of other errors are made. Like forgetting the Track, confusing Album for Artist and other mistakes. Again, our guide clearly spells out what needs to be here. And don’t forget to embed an image!

Finally, I open the .mp3 file in Audacity and look at it. Here’s where I can tell if the submitter bothered to try and maximize their sound. Most don’t. Or they have a really loud intro and a really quiet narration track. I stress the use of The Levelator, but many don’t use it. It’s a shame, really.

After looking, I listen. Not to the whole file, but parts. I tend to listen to the entire opening, which should be short. And often isn’t. I listen to the whole outro — assuming you have one (which you need) — to see if proper attribution and other information was provided. I then do some spot-checking throughout the file to see if stumbles were edited out. I don’t have time to listen to the whole thing, so I just try and listen to a few minutes here and there. Very few things I find during listening will cause me to reject a file, by the way. Ultimately, the provider is responsible for the content. I just make suggestions from experience. Experience that is mine own culled from watching every single comment made by listeners since we started doing this in 2005. I think that counts for something.

Then, and only then, I’ll send the provider the all clear and give them info on how to get me the rest of the information I need to get their book live. After that, it’s jut a matter or scheduling.

That’s it. The whole process. Any fail point and it gets rejected and a quick email from me is sent. They are free to resubmit, but I won’t look again until the next Sunday. It’s the only way I can stay sane.

In case you missed anything, here are the quick hits of my checking process:

1. Check filename

2. Check encoding settings
3. Check ID3 tagging
4. Check overall waveform
5. Check for intro/outro

I purposely didn’t put the things I check for in this blog post. I know how many shortcut takers there are out there. I’m one. All the information you need on each of those steps is clearly detailed in the Submission Guidelines, linked above. If you want to build your own checklist from that, be my guest. Because I’ve got one in my head that I just outlined above. Might as well follow it, too.

Catrin leaves her homeland behind as she goes in search of knowledge and peace, unaware that she will face the greatest evil her world has ever known.

Check out Call of the Herald if you haven’t already, as it’s the first book in the series.

Since Brian has made all the files available, you get a choice in how you want to listen. If you want to click and manage the process of getting episodes out of the default feed, have at it. Or if you want to employ a little technology on your site, get a custom feed. Our system will send down a new episode of the book each and every day, or week, or whenever you want. Either way you go, it’s a free serialized audiobook.

Today, Griz makes available his namesake: Biography of a Grizzly:

“The life of a wild animal always has a tragic end,” as Ernest Thompson Seton said. This is the story of Metitsi Wahb, born a playful cub, orphaned young by the murder of his mother, his brothers and sister, raising himself surrounded by enemies, and growing to the fiercest creature anywhere in his vast range — though showing himself a gentleman in the Yellowstone National Park.

And finally, he is laid low by a smaller, more cunning enemy, and defeated in the end by age and injury. “The life of a wild animal always has a tragic end.”

I’ll warn you this is a gentle and yet violent story, a natural violence, but not one you’d wish to face yourself, and not recommended for young children. This was the first full book I ever recorded for my “Stories from the Hiber-Nation” podcast, a natural choice, and in some ways my favorite. I hope I’ve done this fairly short story justice, and that you, too, will feel the passion for nature in Seton’s writing.

Read by David “Grizzly” Smith

This book is complete with only six episodes, so you can plow through them on the default feed if you choose. Or if you need it to fit in better with your listening schedule, get episodes delivered to you one at a time with a custom feed.

Independent author have a different struggle. Where publishing companies pay someone to design the cover of a book, indie authors are footing the bill on everything they do. Often times, professionally designed cover art is sacrificed at the alter of cost-savings. And that’s understandable.

It’s also the source of problems. Without a budget, authors either take it upon themselves to create the cover art or turn to a friend. I mean, how hard can it be, right? It’s hard. Really, really hard. I’ve worked with enough designers over time to fully appreciate quality design work. I can’t do it, but I certainly can recognize it. (He says, in his best Supreme Court Judge fashion…) Personally, I don’t think most authors can do it either.

So they turn to a friend. And the friend creates something. And… it’s really terrible and they don’t want to hurt the friends feelings. Or they ask other friends who all know the friend and they all agree it’s the best thing ever. But it isn’t. Anyone can plainly see it is not. They just collectively don’t want to hurt said friends feelings. Back to square one.

There are many factors which will make or break a book. The cover is exists for a reason, and it’s the first barrier to entry. Put a crappy cover on a great book, and it may get missed. Of course, you can also put a great cover on a crappy book, and it’ll get dropped pretty quickly. It’s not a panacea.

But what if getting a quality book cover was less expensive than you thought? There are plenty of new and talented designers out there. And some of them charge rates that will make the most frugal of indie authors smile. One of those is Krista Alexander of r⋅stiltskin design. She’s an experienced cover designer who has helped make a number of books on our site look amazing. Here are three examples:

If you need a designer for your next cover — or an existing one — I highly recommend you talk to Krista. And she can do more than just the cover art we need. She can lay out the entire wrap for your print version, too. And again, she’s affordable. As in really affordable.

Covers are important. Even for indies. Choose wisely.

For extra credit, he’s encouraging kids to experience serialized audiobooks from us here at Podiobooks.com. And knowing that not all kids are aural learners, he’s also guiding others to print versions of books by one of our authors, Scott Sigler. Talk about a forward-thinking teacher! He’s helping kids understand that the world of “reading” is a lot bigger than they may have realized.

This is a Good Thing, as 1/3 of students won’t ever pick up a book again after high school. It’s also a bit dangerous, as over-zealous helicopter parents have turned against more than one teacher going outside of the norm.

^{1 – I always heard of kids doing this. Never happened to me. Damnable responsibilities and Type-A personality!}

During that time, you’ll get errors when trying to download chapters, and for that, we apologize. We’ll be back online ASAP.

But for the overwhelming majority of you, you probably could use some help in figuring out a good book that fits your tastes. I’d like to draw your attention today to one of those sources, Geek Radio Daily.

Geek Radio Daily is a 15-minute daily podcast (because the founders are clinically insane), focusing on a different topic every day of the week. Monday is box office results, Tuesday is new DVDs, Wednesday is new comics… but Thursday is the day you need to pay attention to. Every Thursday, the hosts of the show cover podcast fiction, much of which you can find right here at Podiobooks.com. Oh, and Friday is new movies.

So the next time you need a podiobook fix and aren’t sure where to turn, check out my friend The Vicar and his buddy Billy Flynn and see what they think on Geek Radio Daily. It’s 15 minutes of your life you’ll never get back, but you may find something fun to listen to. At least on Thursdays.

So hold tight, and please accept our apologies. But we’re waiting on our chapters just like you!

Evo

Tech report from Chris, and then…
Podiobooks featured titles:
Featured Title: Daughter of the Sun, by Lonnie Ezell
Featured Title: The Arwen, by Timothy Callahan

I’m going to collect all the videos made by podiobook authors — those with titles you can find on Podiobooks.com and those you cannot — and list them here. Video. Books. Made by regular folks. Let the creativity fly. Thanks, Magnify.net!

Site news from Tee, promos, and a review with Dani Cutler!
Podiobooks featured titles:
Featured Title: The eX-Wife Files, by Mark Forman
Featured Title: Come, Let Me Whisper, by Russell L. Burt
Special Feature: Dani Cutler of sffaudio.com and theaudioaddicts.com
reviews The Red Panda Adventures – Season One, by Decoder Ring Theater

Site news from Evo and FOUR (count ‘em – four! How cool is that?) promos!
Podiobooks featured titles:
Featured Title: Brave Men Run, Matthew Wayne Selznick
Featured Title: The Pirates of Sufiro, David Lee Summers
Featured Title: Children of Rhatlan, Jonathan Fesmire
Featured Title: The Failed City Monologues, Matt Wallace

OK, that’s not really true and is simply my poor attempt at a segue into a way you get some goodies and help support Podiobooks.com.

I just ordered another pound of Golden Monkey tea from Adagio Teas. It’s my favorite “morning” tea and I highly recommend it. I’m totally spoiled now and can barely stand that powdered stuff in a bag all the restaurants carry.

Click the image to the left and you can get some, too.

Authors are increasingly coming up with new ways to integrate their books into other forms of media. A Hollywood deal continues to be the desired goal, while the Internet allows anyone and everyone to have a say. But in between, authors have been using music, games, plays and even crafts to make their marks in 2006.

I don’t know that every, or even most, authors have a Hollywood deal as their ultimate goal, but I don’t know many, or any, who would reject such an offer out of hand.

Beyond that, the article describes a few novel ideas (pun intended) used by authors to “do something more” than just deliver a print book. They include:

• Including a CD of music inspired by previous writings in a series
• Making playlists of music listened to by the author in the writing process
• Having a rich in-world website with puzzles, games and activities
• Producing graphic novels
• Developing real-world articles and items, selling them or giving them away at signings

All of these are great ideas and it shows that some thought-leaders are trying to find ways to be more than a book on a shelf. Many of our authors (Sigler and Hutchins leading the charge) are taking this route, with more to follow. Which causes me to ponder: How can we here at Podiobooks.com facilitate those “extra” opportunities? We’re open to ideas…

Site news from Tee, and Podiobooks featured titles:
Featured Title: The Immortals, by Tracy Hickman
Featured Title: The House Down Cherry Tree Lane, by Ramona Holliday
Special Feature: Dani Cutler of sffaudio.com and theaudioaddicts.com reviews A Different Point of View, by TD-0013.

We’ll see you again in January. Happy New Year from the staff at Podiobooks.com!

Updates on the site from Tee and Chris, and then some podiobooks.com
featured titles:

Featured Title: Live, From Milwaukee, It’s Tuesday Night, by Billie
Pagliolo-Olman
Featured Title: Jack Wakes Up, by Seth Harwood
Special Feature: Dani Cutler of sffaudio.com reviews 7th Son: Descent, by
J.C. Hutchins

Not only that, but the winner is encouraged to submit the work to Librivox, which means it will wind up getting posted here as well! See the link above for more details, and happy audiobook-ing.

And while that is true, it’s utter horseshit to apply any value to the “average” book. Look at this distribution. Of the 1,200,000 books sold in 2004:

• 79% (950,000) sold less than 99 copies
• 96% (1,150,000) sold less than 1,000 copies
• 98% (1,175,000) sold less than 5,000 copies

Only 2% of the books published (25,000) sold more than 5,000 copies.

Of course, these numbers cover the retail book market, so you’ve got fiction and non-fiction wrapped up in these numbers, so your mileage may vary depending on genre. But this is a classic long-tail example. A comparatively tiny amount of products make up for the lion’s share of the sales, while the larger grouping scales off a declining trend. Interesting.

Food for thought. I wonder what the audio book retails sales stats look like?

I’ve been spending lots of time reading POD-dy Mouth and the BookSlut to keep my eye on the larger publishing arena. Both are great resources.