The podiocast version of The Devil's Deep went live this morning and I already have quite a few listeners. It's an exciting new step for me and it will be interesting to see how it goes.
Meanwhile, the book made a nice little run yesterday after a mention on eReader News Today, reaching its highest ranking ever in the Amazon store, at 280. It is still in the 300s and it would be great if that held for a few days, but either way, it was fun to watch. It's previous high was around 1,200, if memory serves me right. At the time, the book was priced at $2.99, so that was a nice little payday when it came. The book is currently only 99 cents. The reviews have been so strong that I still feel like it has a long way to go before it finds its audience.
Showing posts with label podiobooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label podiobooks. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Steps for a Podiobook Episode
The hardest part of releasing a podiobook is the initial learning curve and the approval process. Now that I have that part down, here are the steps I follow to release an episode.
1. Record an episode. I use a Zoom H1 digital recorder that cost about $120, including accessories. I find the quietest place in the house for recording, then invariably suffer interruptions of airplanes, loud motorcycles with sound that reaches all the way from the road, and other interruptions. When one happens, I stop, snap my fingers to make a mark in the audio file for editing, then reread the passage.
2. Edit the file. I use Audacity. I listen through, isolating and deleting noise. Once I've got a cleaned up file, I run normalize, then import my outro (the little bit at the end: "Thank you for listening to the Devil's Deep, etc."), then export a wav file.
3. Run the file through Enlevator. This evens out the loud and quiet parts to make it all roughly the same volume.
4. Add the music. I have created a file with background music for the intro and outro. This file took some effort to create, but now that I've got it done, it's just a question of queuing it up in the proper location of the file.
5. Export as mpeg. This is where I tag the file for release, at least partially.
6. Finish tagging in iTunes. This loads up the art and readies it for release.
7. Upload to podiobooks.com. There is a third-party software system that handles this, and there are a few additional fields to fill out, as well as a description of the episode, etc. At this point, I wait for the site owner of podiobooks.com to either approve the episode or point out some deficiency.
Yes, even though I know enough of what I'm doing not to spend all day on this, it still takes a couple of hours of work in order to give away part of my book for free. By the time I'm done releasing the book, I could have written a good chunk of a novel. I'll explain in a future post why I'm going to all the trouble.
1. Record an episode. I use a Zoom H1 digital recorder that cost about $120, including accessories. I find the quietest place in the house for recording, then invariably suffer interruptions of airplanes, loud motorcycles with sound that reaches all the way from the road, and other interruptions. When one happens, I stop, snap my fingers to make a mark in the audio file for editing, then reread the passage.
2. Edit the file. I use Audacity. I listen through, isolating and deleting noise. Once I've got a cleaned up file, I run normalize, then import my outro (the little bit at the end: "Thank you for listening to the Devil's Deep, etc."), then export a wav file.
3. Run the file through Enlevator. This evens out the loud and quiet parts to make it all roughly the same volume.
4. Add the music. I have created a file with background music for the intro and outro. This file took some effort to create, but now that I've got it done, it's just a question of queuing it up in the proper location of the file.
5. Export as mpeg. This is where I tag the file for release, at least partially.
6. Finish tagging in iTunes. This loads up the art and readies it for release.
7. Upload to podiobooks.com. There is a third-party software system that handles this, and there are a few additional fields to fill out, as well as a description of the episode, etc. At this point, I wait for the site owner of podiobooks.com to either approve the episode or point out some deficiency.
Yes, even though I know enough of what I'm doing not to spend all day on this, it still takes a couple of hours of work in order to give away part of my book for free. By the time I'm done releasing the book, I could have written a good chunk of a novel. I'll explain in a future post why I'm going to all the trouble.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Adventures in Audio
Or maybe that should be adventures in podio, since I'll be releasing my audio books on podiobooks.com. The audio release of The Devil's Deep is currently scheduled for August 10, with the first half dozen or so episodes going live and at least one more episode coming online each week until they're all available. Right now, I'm getting a few episodes done per week, so it might only be a couple of weeks until it's all up.
Why am I doing this? The podcasts will be free, so unless people are generous with the tip jar on podiobooks (unlikely), it is unlikely to earn me any money. Of course, it's unlikely to cost me any money, either. I figure every listener is someone who wouldn't have otherwise come into contact with my work. I've also just released the sequel to the book, The Devil's Peak, so maybe a few more people will wander over and pick it up. This is the same reason that I've lowered the ebook price of The Devil's Deep itself to 99 cents.
My goals as a writer remain writing + audience + income. I have no great ambition to be rich and famous (in fact, I think I'll be happier if I'm not), but I'm finally at the point where I have a growing audience and the encouragement to keep writing, and even the earning a living part is within reach. The audiobooks are largely about targeting the audience goal.
Next post I will give some of the details on how I've been producing a podiobook and the learning curve I've been climbing. I won't pretend it hasn't been a lot of work.
Why am I doing this? The podcasts will be free, so unless people are generous with the tip jar on podiobooks (unlikely), it is unlikely to earn me any money. Of course, it's unlikely to cost me any money, either. I figure every listener is someone who wouldn't have otherwise come into contact with my work. I've also just released the sequel to the book, The Devil's Peak, so maybe a few more people will wander over and pick it up. This is the same reason that I've lowered the ebook price of The Devil's Deep itself to 99 cents.
My goals as a writer remain writing + audience + income. I have no great ambition to be rich and famous (in fact, I think I'll be happier if I'm not), but I'm finally at the point where I have a growing audience and the encouragement to keep writing, and even the earning a living part is within reach. The audiobooks are largely about targeting the audience goal.
Next post I will give some of the details on how I've been producing a podiobook and the learning curve I've been climbing. I won't pretend it hasn't been a lot of work.
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