Podiobooker
News from the Staff of Podiobooks.com

More from the insidious mind of Greg Crites. Consider yourselves warned. It’s his second book in a series, Dunkin the Vampire Slayer TWO:

DUNKIN THE VAMPIRE SLAYER II
Death Rides A Pale, Pink, Porcine Horse

The second installment in the trilogy!

In Dunkin One you followed the heroes as they pursue a High Council vampire all the way to Brazil and up the Amazon in search of ancient scrolls that may contain a cure.

Now, in Dunkin Two, from the Smoky mountains of America, to Nepal, France, Australia, Italy, these three are on a quest that spans the globe. A quest to rid the earth of the bloodsuckers and find a cure for that nasty vampire blood.

Many things stand in their way, high council vampires, hit men, ninjas, ancient prophecies, and an unspeakable horror unleashed on the world by desperate vampires. And worst of all, Devlin’s having serious anger issues as he comes to grips with being more powerful and more of a jackass than anything on earth.

…oh, and more jokes, one-liners, and wiseass comments than should be allowed in any single novel.

Find other free serialized audiobooks by Greg Crites. You can subscribe to the default feed of Dunkin II, or get a custom feed and control how often new episodes are sent to you.

 

 Dunking the Vampire Slayer TWO really long promo [4:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I have to admit that when Bill DeSmedt, author of Singularity, emailed me talking about a New York Post article that proudly featured his work, I wasn’t immediately impressed. Not that getting press isn’t a great thing, but the article simply listed a bunch of books that someone named Danica McKellar enjoyed. Very meh.

I had no idea who Danica McKellar was. But hey, Google is a click away right? Holy cow. Have I mentioned how appreciative I have become of Google’s decision to put highly sought-out images at the top of certain search results? (Link probably safe for work depending on how you have your Safe Filter set up…)

Intrigued as I was, the obvious connection to this lovely woman and Bill’s lovely book wasn’t obviously apparent. I don’t watch a lot of TV and I avoid the network news like the plague, so I had no idea that Danica was a mathematical education advocate and had penned two books about math.

BING! The pieces fall into place. Bill DeSmedt’s book Singularity (did I mention freely available as a serialized audiobook on Podiobooks.com?) — heavily featuring physics — caught this woman’s attention. Not only did it catch her attention, but she listed it first in her list and called it “her favorite science fiction thriller”. So the international language of math geeks holds true. Way to go, Bill!

I probably still wouldn’t know Danica if she walked up to me on the street, but how likely is that? And if she does (and I do), I’ll probably ask her to calculate some binomials to the tenth power just to prove she’s as good as she says she is. Not that I could check her work, mind you.

Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US. Which makes it a natural gathering place for many of the authors you’ll find here on Podiobooks.com.

This year, Podiobooks.com is helping sponsor two Very Large parties:

Friday night - 8/29/08
Scott Sigler’s Pimps & Hoes II: The Wrath of Bone (RSVP)

Saturday night - 8/30/08
Tee Morris & Pip Ballentine’s Books & Blackwell (RSVP)

And since I’m is throwing the party, you can bet there will be plenty of beer & booze to go around. Assuming that the more libatious (pretty sure that’s not a word) of you don’t drink us dry the first night. The party will take place in one of the Very Large suites at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Atlanta, Ga. No, I don’t know what suite number. I won’t until Friday when they assign us a room. But if you are going to Dragon*Con, just ask any one at the Podcasting track, as it’s the place most of them will be hanging out in the off hours, too. Or contact me and I’ll tell you where to go.

See you in Atlanta!

It’s arguable that Scott Sigler is more than just the most successful podiobook author — he’s also a shining example of how individuals can use new media and social media to create opportunities. His long interview with Podcasting News is now¹ up, and I suggest fans, authors and publishers give it a solid read.

He was asked about the future of book publishing and how new media fits into the picture:

Well, I think book publishing is heading for a very serious change. You go back to the heyday of publishing which was maybe 20, 25 years ago, when you had three channels on TV, four if you count PBS; you had no Internet, you had no videogames. All of these new entertainment options are being put in front of the customer. That’s why readership could be down: there’s just better options available for some people. So publishing needs to learn how to compete with that…. well, maybe not compete with it, but somehow merge with it and embrace it.

So a lot of what’s coming is the kind of things like I and the other podcast novelists are doing, [and] the people over at Podiobooks.com are doing, which is just give it away. Give the audience a chance to get to know you as a content creator, and as a performer, and know whether they like your stories. Then, once the audience develops that relationship and that affinity for you, then they’ll go out and buy your books, knowing that it’s going to be money well spent. They know what they’re going to get. So you’re allowing people to try it before you buy it.

And the other thing that’s really going to come into play heavily is story extensions and expansions. You’ve got your core story, which will be in the [physical] book. You’ll probably be having to give that away as a podcast, just to compete. But then there’s a lot of other things you can do. You can do the “back story” of your characters. You can do all kinds of background information. You can combine the extra podcast content with wiki content, with links to websites. The book sort of becomes the “gem in the tiara of entertainment,” if you will, instead of just the whole crown all by itself.

The whole interview is full of insight and information much like that. You can listen to all of Scott’s serialized audiobooks right here on Podiobooks.com. And you can find links to buy the physical copies, too!

^{This interview happened back in mid-April of 2008, so much of the “what is happening” has already happened.}

It’s time to rally around another podiobook author and bum rush the Amazon.com charts! Today we’re supporting the much beloved Mur Lafferty and the print release of Playing for Keeps. As of this writing, the book is #3 in Today’s Top Subscriptions, #8 in the Top Ten (last 30 days), and #6 in Overall Rating. And that’s just here on the Podiobooks.com charts.

Your mission is simple. Anytime today — now would be better — buy a print copy of Playing for Keeps on Amazon.com. The goal (and yes, we’ve done this before) is to see how far up the charts we can push this sucker, getting some additional attention not only to Mur’s book, but all the other authors who rely on their readers, listeners and rabid fans to really stand behind them.

You have your mission. Now get to it!

E.

In what might be the single largest posting in the history of Podiobooks.com, we’ve just posted 42 episodes of The Onion Files by General Val Pattee. Whew! That brings the total episode count to 53, and they are now all yours for the taking!

Yesterday we posted the 11th chapter to Tiara Fay’s novel Chase Around The World. Which makes the book — our first romance title — complete!

 

 Chase Around The World [2:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Basil Sands’ short story collection In the Shadows has just been completed. 10 episodes of hard core (no, not THAT kind of hard core) short stories now available!

Please welcome Abigail Hilton to the site, author of The Prophet of Panamindorah, Book I Fauns and Filinians:

Corry showed up at the orphanage two years ago, unable to remember how he’d gotten there. He spoke a language no one recognized, and he was afraid of cars and planes and computers. Corry can remember snippets of another life, but no matter how hard he tries to remember, it just keeps slipping away. Then one day, he meets a fauness in an orange grove. She’s from a world called Panamindorah, and he can understand her language. In addition, Corry can read a language that no one in Panamindorah has been able to read for three hundred years; has he really been gone that long? Now he must recover his lost memories and rebuild his life, because the person who tried to kill him once is about to try again. The Prophet of Panamindorah is for listeners 13 and older.

Visit the book’s page to get episodes delivered on your schedule, or subscribe to the default feed and get them as the author releases new episodes.

 

 The Prophet of Panamindorah, Book I promo [1:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Seth Harwood storms back on the crime podcast fiction scene with Young Junius. This is the prequel to his “Jack Palms” series.

Before Jack Palms ever shook ‘em down, Junius Ponds came up on tough streets outside Boston way back in the day. In the middle of drugs, gang violence, and the toughest set of tower-projects you ever knew, Young Junius fights to escape the consequences of a murder he had to commit and tries to live long enough to avenge the death of his brother.

Visit the book’s page to get a custom subscription with episodes delivered on your, or subscribe to the default feed and get them as soon as they are released!

 

 Young Junius promo [1:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download