Since my first book signing people have asked for an audio version of my books. Yesterday the final episode of the audio version of The Crown Conspiracy went up on Podiobooks.com and iTunes and the best news…it is free.
The term podiobook was coined by Evo Terra to describe serialized audiobooks which are distributed via RSS, much like a podcast. Listeners to Podiobooks.com can choose to receive the episodes of their books via an RSS feed or by listening to episodes by directly downloading episodes from this site. Some listeners keep the audio files on their computers, some transfer the book to CD, but most transfer the file on to their MP3 player so they can listen no matter where they are.
Why are authors making these versions available for free? Many authors do this to get exposure for their work, others do it in the hopes you’ll buy a physical copy of their current or perhaps next work in development. Still others simply do it for the sheer joy of writing. And while it’s not required, you have the option to donate money to the author of your choice. When you consider that audio books run usually twice as much as their hardcover counterparts… we hope you’ll be generous. Authors receive 75% of all the proceeds from the donations from listeners. The smaller portion goes to the maintenance and upkeep of Podiobooks.com.
Nathan Lowell, the author and reader of some of the most popular books on Podiobooks.com volunteered to produce the audio versions of the Riyria series. He has an amazing reading voice and has done just an excellent job putting this together. In listening to his rendition, I found myself sitting back captivated wondering what would happen next. Hearing him voice characters and interpret lines, made me think this is what it must be like, at least to some degree, to see a movie version of one’s book. It comes alive in a way I never expected to experience. It also called into question the exact pronunciation of every word and the sound of accents. With this experience, I can only imagine the insanity of trying to make a film and all the questions that would come up. As it is Mr. Lowell made the process extremely easy. His professionalism, talent, and experience really blew Robin and I away. He managed to get nearly all the words right from the start, and his handling of the work was truly marvelous.
I found myself lost in Nathan’s dramatization and laughing at jokes, more for his presentation than how I wrote them. I also found myself fascinated at some of the writing, wondering if I wrote that. I guess it just sounded better when spoken aloud by a talented reader.
This release is the first venture for Royce and Hadrian outside of the world of print and it is quite exciting. So drop by either iTunes or Podiobooks.com, download the episodes and experience the adventure all over again.
You can expect to hear Avempartha sometime this winter.