Wired UK ran a story a few days ago on the phenomenon that is the serialized audiobook

Oh, and he wrote a really great piece that heaped the praise on some authors who’s tireless promotion have pushed the whole movement forward. I’m just amazed he took the time to actually get everything in the timeline right.

Martyn took the time to interview Tee Morris, Scott Sigler, J.C. Hutchins and Seth Hardwood for the piece. But he also makes reference to many other novelists — some on the site and others just stepping their toes into the serialized audiobook waters.

I’ll end this reference with the way Martyn ends the article:

The revolution has begun, and it appears it will be serialised.

Well said, John. And thanks for letting us help distribute such a fine tale.

Ray Davis is newly divorced, going nowhere at a dead-end job in a warehouse, and has almost worked off the debts his ex-wife rang up. Then his underinsured brother’s need for a liver transplant forces Ray to come up with a lot of money, fast. When he attempts to recover the profit he made with an old business partner, Ray discovers that the partner is dead and his investment has fallen into the hands of a drug dealer. The dealer has used the cash to buy a large supply of cocaine; he and his gun are not inclined to return the proceeds. Ray enlists a crude private eye to help him get it back, and he falls in love with Jenna, a beautiful waitress. His struggle to recover the money soon takes him deep into a swamp of crime, drugs, murder and revenge. Caught in a war between rival dealers, he comes to realize that the stakes have risen beyond the woman he loves or the money he needs to save his brother. He’s fighting for his life.

ACTS OF DESPERATION is the new thriller from Tim Dodge. It combines crime, action, adventure, romance and humor into a roller coaster ride of a story.

We’ve released the first seven episodes in the default feed. More coming. Or get a customized feed just for you, and space them out one at a time on a schedule you control. Either way, it’s free!

Readers who like their hard-boiled crime fiction violent and gritty will cheer Harwood’s debut. [snip] While the plot line may be familiar, the taut prose and fast pacing bode well for future entries in the series.

No kidding on both counts. We wish Seth lots of luck on his print release. Want to be salivating for it, too? Check out the free serialized audiobook version. That’ll get you hooked.

I’m usually a library book reader and not a book buyer. That is unless it is at a second hand book sale. I would go broke because I really can’t help myself from owning books. However, because of a medical condition I can’t hold a book for the amount of time I would like to anymore. Podiobooks.com has become my literature lifeline. I can’t find the types of books on audio that I like to read at the library. It fulfills a need and a desire.

That’s from Nyssa Storm, constant listener and frequent donor to the cause of serialized audiobooks. The emphasis is mine. There are many needs and desire. I’m glad we can help fulfill many.

And hold tight, Nyssa. We’ve got some changes coming which may fill a niche or two left open today.

We’ll take it.

In this new article, the author explores the careers of J.C. Hutchins, Mur Lafferty, and Scott Sigler. It also promotes the hell out of Podiobooks.com as the place to keep up with the phenomenon. What phenomenon, you ask? From the article:

It seems a ripe time for novel podcasting to grow. Traditional book publishers are struggling. Book sales are down; MacMillan has laid off employees, as have Random House and Simon & Schuster; and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has suspended the purchase of most new manuscripts. With advance money drying up as well as contracts, [Evo] Terra says that aspiring writers now feel that “maybe I should try something on my own” and build an audience online.

I’m even more stoked that I come out smelling like a rose in this article. I’m often misquoted. Or maybe I say stuff out loud that I shouldn’t!

Ken was no stranger to the methods used by independent authors. In 2007, he released several versions of his collection of short stories, The Love Book, including a “podcast novel” or serialized audiobook format. And yes, it’s available right here on Podiobooks.com. And Ken kept a close watch on other authors in the space, taking notice of how new media success translated into real hard book sales.

His new challenge: use new media to boost the sale of Karen Marie Moning’s Faefever, the third book in her popular Fever series. Instead of podcasting Faefever, Ken had a light-bulb moment: podcast the first book in the series, Darkfever. Ken discusses his logic In an interview with Book Business:

Since we were doing the first book in the series, we didn’t see it having any negative impact on the new book coming out. We had the new mass-market [paperback of “Bloodfever”] coming out at the end of August, followed a few weeks later by the hardcover [of “Faefever”]. Starting in the beginning of August, we started podcasting “Darkfever,” which led into the mass-market [release of “Bloodfever”]. … We thought, “Let’s use this to snowball into the new hardcover [release].”

And snowball it did. Listeners responded to the professionally produced audio. But this was during the heyday of books like Twilight. Would listeners of the free serialized version of the first book take the desired action and purchase the print copy of the third book in the series?

The hardcover [of "Faefever"] debuted at No. 3. That’s the highest this author has gotten on The New York Times Best-seller List. The obvious benefit is that we had 60,000 podcast downloads. You can keep it up as long as you want. We had 155,000 of the excerpts [of “Faefever”] downloaded. That’s something else that is still [online]. We’re still generating fans. That’s the benefits of doing these online promotions. They can take off on their own. We did see a really, really nice climb in book sales. It did exactly what it was supposed to do. We took an author that had been established pretty well, brought in new fans, and increased sales above the previous hardcover [in the series]. … What we saw was that sales were great for the book and still are. …

That’s a pretty compelling piece of evidence in support of the theory. I hope other right-thinking publisher and authors utilize a similar thinking. And I know they’ll see similar fantastic results.

• Phil Rossi’s Crescent

• Murder at Avedon Hill by P.G. Holyfield

Add to that a five-out-of-six domination of the Best Podcast Novel category:

• 7th Son, Book Three: DESTRUCTION by J.C. Hutchins

• MOREVI: Remastered by Tee Morris
• Scott Sigler’s Nocturnal
• Another nod to Murder at Avedon Hill by P.G. Holyfield
• Playing For Keeps by Mur Lafferty

… and you’ll see that yes, it is good to be the king. Oh, and the one show that was also listed in both categories but isn’t currently available at Podiobooks.com? Metamor City. And from what I’ve heard, we’ll have it over here when complete. Hooray for us!

She’s a fan of her recently-lost iPod, and if this story from the Orlando Sentinal has it right, she has a penchant for using it for books as well as music:

Her favorite books: “‘Anne of Green Gables.’ Oh, and the Max Quick (fantasy) books. I’m on the last one of those, so I’m kinda sad about that.”

That’s my insidious plan: get young Hollywood starts turned on to podiobooks, and then take over the world! And well done, Mark. So that’s why you’ve been spending so much time on movie sets. It all makes sense now…

I was shocked, stunned, and every other appropriate adjective for “surprised beyond belief,” to learn yesterday that my novel, The Best Laid Plans has been named one of the five finalists for one of Canada’s oldest and most prestigious literary awards, the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. My feet haven’t yet touched back down. Podiobooks.com really helped me build an audience and I’m grateful for all the efforts!

Thanks for the kind words Terry, but it was your skill in writing a great book that got you where you are today. Add to that your impeccable delivery of the serialized free audiobook, and it’s a no brainer!

To a casual observer, Podiobooks.com may seem to be just a DIY approach to “books on tape”. In reality, it is something much more important. To me, podiobooks represent nothing lest than the next great chapter in the history of storytelling.

When the author chooses to narrate the story by himself, the listener gets to experience how characters and story actually sounded in author’s mind as the story arc was shaping itself. This creates an atmosphere of intimacy akin to that of a tale told over a campfire and is very different from one that exists when simply reading a book. Additionally, the author may
choose to have his story narrated by various people as well as add sound effects and music. When done well, such productions rival those of the best programs from the golden age of radio and provide another way of drawing the audience in.

Right on, Leon. You’ve captured exactly what we’re hoping for. It’s about giving the author one more outlet for the story, allowing them to add to words on the page and paint and even more colorful picture in your mind. Thanks for expressing that idea so clearly.

And when it comes to getting Very Big Things to happen for him, Scott Sigler is the master. His first hard-cover release, Infected (have you seen this page yet?) received the following starred review last week:

* Infected Scott Sigler. Crown, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-307-40610-1

In Sigler’s riveting horror thriller, alien seeds from outer space infect a number of unlucky humans, who develop some unusual symptoms—itchy, blue triangular growths on their skin—that eventually result in the carriers becoming screaming, homicidal maniacs. CIA agent Dew Phillips must find out why these formerly docile citizens are running amok, aided by Margaret Montoya, a Centers for Disease Control epidemiologist, who reported the first of the strange cases. One of the infected, former football player Perry Dawsey, doesn’t take any crap from anybody, not even the aliens residing in his body. Sigler (Ancestor) leads the reader from one startling detail to the next—the creatures learn to speak (“feed us we hungry”); they grow little black eyes—until even hardened genre fans will find themselves whimpering at each new revelation. This terrifying page-turner could be the author’s breakout book, fueled by an extensive online podcast campaign. 5-city author tour. (Apr.)

OK, so what? He got written up in a magazine that none of you are going to read. Well, the big deal is who is reading this magazine. It’s the people who make decisions on what books will be carried in their bookstores. Ma and Pa Bookie read this magazine. But so does Joe Book Buyer, who’s trolling for titles to place in the hundreds (?) of Barnes and Noble stores across the country. Overseas, too.

And that’s what makes this special. Sure, the podosphere and blogosphere will embrace Scott and this launch. After all, he’s One of Us. But this is outside of us, in that crazy thing the kids are calling “RL” (real life). Not only did PW consider Scott’s book worthy of inclusion in their magazine, they gave it a starred review, and that’s as strong of an endorsement as they can give. To someone who gave (hell, is giving) his book away for free. Incredibly cool. For all of us.

In the book, Rossi describes Crescent, a space station so big it’s a veritable floating city, as “a disembodied talon, black, silhouetted as it floated 400 miles above the gray-green expanse of the planet Anrar 3.”

Throughout the audiobook – or podiobook, if you prefer – Rossi fills the background with contextual sounds and ambient music: A crescendo mounts as Evans’ ship descends toward the space station, the automated voice of the ship’s computer confirms commands, in the bar music can be heard from the jukebox, and as Evans enters the space station, intercom pages and crowd chatter leak through the speakers like residual white noise. Rossi pays careful attention to the proximity of each speaker and background noises.

These are effects that cannot be obtained in the pages of a book.

“It hearkens back to the roots of storytelling,” Rossi said about audiobooks. “The coolest thing about the whole process is connecting with people and reaching them on a very visceral level. I love to hear people say, ‘Your novel made my day,’ or ‘It kept me up at night,’” he said – although he would prefer to hear the latter.

There you have it, listeners of Crescent. Phil wants you to keep the comments coming!

After 35 letters of refusal from part of as many literary agents, determined J.C. Hutchins that was I stew of the expectant waits of forehead to the cassette of letters.

Hats off to J.C. & Scott for yet another media mention, this time in a non-English press. I’d love to have some foreign language titles here on the site, btw…

And thanks to Mike Bennett for passing the story along to me!

If you’re looking for some entertainment this weekend, go listen to a podcast novel. More often then not, authors record their own books, and they record them well. The voice talent on most podiobooks is remarkable, and with the occasional sound effect, it creates an immersive experience.

Much thanks to Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen for the media coverage!

Have you heard a good book lately? Audio books aren’t new, but they’re everywhere. You can buy them at bookstores, order them through Internet retailers and borrow them from a library or a friend. Or you can download them for free online.

The article give serious props not only to us at Podiobooks.com, but also talks about Librivox and a few other free audiobook resources on the net.

Thanks for getting the article, Nora. And for passing it along!

It was only a matter of time. Maybe he’ll be a little less angry now.

Kidding, Sigler. Call off your junkies.

But there is a really nice write up in the New York Times about Podiobooks.com (registration required), with quotes from me, Scott Sigler, J.C. Hutchins and Mark Jeffrey. They also talked to a few of the more enthusiastic listeners, as well as Gwen Gedes of Dragon Moon Press, publisher of print versions of a few of the free audiobooks available on Podiobooks.com.

I’m stoked about the article and give much props to Scott for bird-dogging the reporter and setting up such a great opportunity. And to all of you new members who came in from the article — welcome! We hope you enjoy your stay.

I’ve been aware of Podiobooks[.com] for a while but never really bothered to check it out. Part of the reason is that I don’t like going there and seeing lots of completed podiobooks; one of the things I find so compelling about podcasting is following along with things that are brand new.

Podiobooks[.com] does have a solution, though: if you create an account, you can get a personalized RSS feed for each book that will give you the episodes one at a time, on a schedule you specify (like once a week). It’s still not the same as listening to the shows as they’re created, but it’s better than just downloading them all at once.

That’s correct, BMan. While the conventional way to listen to an audiobook is to download the whole thing and read it at your leisure, most of our listeners enjoy our audiobooks in true serialized form. Some, like yourself, enjoy replicating the “oh what will happen this week!” experience of following along as the author completes the book. Others, like myself, find that the serialized way of listening allows for the ability to listen to many books at one time — and never having to remember where you left off. But we’re not dogmatic in this approach. If you want to grab every chapter and listen to the whole thing: go for it! You can get all available episodes for any book in a single feed, or click-save to your system to your hearts content. Hey, we’re easy.

He finishes his comments with:

As far as I can tell, Podiobooks[.com] doesn’t have a recommendation system, which I think it desperately needs. There are too many books, and just finding stuff that interests me by chance requires a lot of time or extremely good luck.

I’d agree with that. In fact, we’re working in that direction. But a recommendation engine is only as good as the data polled, and we’re seeing a lot of commonality across listener behavior. I expect that will change as we continue to add new titles. And holy hanna… we’re at almost 100 right now!

I got a letter from a guy who is thinking of podcasting his novel and he asked me how much success I got from podcasting Shadowmagic. I thought I might share some of what I wrote.

Dear Kris,

It depends on what you mean by success. I wrote Shadowmagic pretty much to see if I could. When it was finished I loved it but the literary/publishing world seemed not to. Then my wife took ill and that meant Shadowmagic sat in a drawer for two years. After my wife died I took a writing class that was full of people who thought fantasy was the literary equivalent of an Archie comic book. I eventually concluded that Shadowmagic was no good and that I was the only one that liked it – I was deluding myself.

Then I discovered Podiobooks.com and thought – after all of that work why not at least podcast it? I invested in some good recording equipment and practiced reading and editing with some old Jack London short stories. When I got the sound and the reading technique right I started podcasting Shadowmagic. From the start the response was fantastic. It turns out I was just not reaching the right audience. On my two feeds [You can subscribe on John's website or here at Podiobooks.com - Evo] I have had over three thousand subscribers and every day I get a fan letter or two that makes my head so big I can hardly fit through doors. The money from donations at Podiobooks.com isn’t much but that’s not the point. Podcasting has redeemed my faith in me as a writer. Today I started sending my manuscript out again. And I’m working on the sequel. So yes – it’s been a huge success.

John (Shadowmagic) Lenahan

Thanks for letting me share that with everyone, John. And if you’ve been wondering what the measurement of success is for a “new media embracing” author — here’s one idea.

Special thanks to fellow winner Librivox for posting something about it and making me aware.