Tag: audiobook

Dragons’ Truth is now a Podiobook

Dragons’ Truth is now available in an additional format.  Sticking with the idea that it’s reasonable to charge money for physical products and that digital products should be available free (or at least published under a CC license), the downloadable version of the audiobook of Dragons’ Truth is available for free through Podiobooks.com.  As with the E-Book versions of my novels, you are welcome to pay for the digital copy if you like (see modernevil.com or the Kindle store to pay for the E-Books; more options coming soon), through the donation link at podiobooks, and I’ll get 75% of whatever you donate (the rest goes to running the site & feeding to all the people who download and don’t donate), or you can just grab the entire book for free and enjoy it without spending a penny.  The whole book is available there now.

So, the formats Dragons’ Truth is now available in are:

Digital, for free under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License<:

  • E-Book in any of (currently) 7 DRM-free formats
  • Episodic Podiobook subscription

 

Physical, for $:

  • Paperback book for $12.99
  • Audiobook on 4 CDs for $24.99
  • Audiobook on 1 MP3 CD for $12.99
  • Kindle E-Book, list price: $8.35 (usually available for $6.68)

 

You can also listen to the first chapter of Dragons’ Truth for free without signing up for a Podiobooks.com account by visiting dragonstruth.com.  If you enjoy what you hear, please consider buying the audiobook on CD, on MP3 CD, or in paperback.  If you don’t want to pay full price, there are usually stores listed at AbeBooks or in the Amazon Marketplace that will sell you new copies of the paperback at a significant discount (and I still get my share of the wholesale cost – though obviously, ordering directly through modernevil.com is the best way to support me as an independent creator, I understand the need to be frugal), and you still get a “real” book instead of data on a disk.

Oh, and one more thing: If you do decide to read the book for free online, or listen to the audiobook for free through Podiobooks.com, could you please take a couple of minutes and review it?  You can rate/review it at Podiobooks.com directly, Amazon reviews are always helpful, blog posts are great, even a < 140 character review on Twitter or Plurk would be good.  I will gladly link to any reviews, blog posts, SM profiles, et cetera from both dragonstruth.com and this blog, so please let me know if you do write something about any of my books.  (Even if you just talk about what you didn’t like!  I can certainly work to improve future releases.)  Oh, and be sure to tell your friends, too.  I’m sure they’d enjoy it.

little ‘o this, little ‘o that

I’ve been feeling a bit down, lately. Getting things accomplished is somewhat more difficult in these emotional doldrums.  I’ve been feeling disjointed and unfocused, often even conflicted when it comes to how to proceed with my individual stories and pieces of art.  But I’ve got a bit done.

I put Chapter 1 of the Dragons’ Truth audiobook up at dragonstruth.com.

I added a link to dragonstruth.com over at teelmcclanahan.com, and re-arranged the page a little.

I’ve been waffling for the last week or so on exactly what colors to use for a piece I sketched out, but I spent a few hours working on it in Photoshop last night, pre-visualizing various color schemes, and came upon something which should be both in line with my original thoughts and interesting to look at.  I threw the first coat of paint on it tonight:

coat of black paint

I also started and finished another painting this week.  I’m calling it “things i’ve lost“, and I’ll post later with more images and information on making it:

things i've lost

Yes, that’s my hair.

What else?  Hmm…  I’ve uploaded Dragons’ Truth to Podiobooks.com twice now; I’m told it should go online Monday.

Oh, and I’ve been Plurking a lot lately.

Dragons’ Truth Audiobook options

Dragons’ Truth, which has been available in paperback ($12.99) for several years, is now also available as an audiobook in two physical versions.  I made the little video above (less than 90 seconds – you have 90 seconds, right?) to show them to you, inside and out.  Dragons’ Truth is a 4hr, 24min audio program, read in its entirety by myself, the author.  The entire audio content of the book is available, under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike license, to remix, re-use, mash up and re-purpose (please email me if you do, and I’ll link to it).  The two versions are:

The entire book on 1 MP3 CD for $12.99:

  • A single CD-R disc
  • Individual files for each chapter
  • Premium Jewelbox
  • Two-page insert with CC license info.

The audiobook as a 4-disc audio CD set for $24.99:

  • Four CD-R discs with matching labels
  • Individual tracks for each chapter
  • Blue multi-disc wallet
  • Two-sided insert with CC license info.

Please visit http://modernevil.com/ for more info, or to order Dragons’ Truth in any of the available formats.

First Video Promo for Dragons’ Truth

First, I want to start by saying that at the end of the video, there is a lie.  Or, as they say in the business world, a “future-looking statement.”  I say that Dragons’ Truth is available as an episodic download from Podiobooks.com – I have been too afraid, so far, to submit it there.  I don’t even know how long the process will take, from submission to getting online.  And even though I’ve read through all the documentation at least twice, the stress/fear-of-failure/fear-of-rejection I’ve been experiencing re: the whole thing has apparently made me feel like I don’t even know what to do to submit it.  Bleh.

But it is available in paperback, and as an audiobook on (MP3) CD.  And I got the packaging in today for the multi-disc audio CD sets.  Now I just have to wait on the new printer (which can print to MUCH smaller margins) so I can print the covers & inserts for those sets, and I’ll put them for sale, and this whole video will be true.

And yes, I’ll probably embed it again when everything in it is true.  I’m sortof just testing YouTube and my ability to make and post videos, right now.  This is my first attempt.  Yes, I looped the audio.  Yes, I know it’s a bit off.  I’m sorry.  Kill me.  I can’t afford a shotgun mic or lapel mic right now, and haven’t worked out a setup for my condenser mic that I feel safe with yet, and which looks okay on video.  I suppose the alternative is lip-syncing to pre-recorded audio, but … that’s a bit weird, too.  What do you think?

Dragons’ Truth Audiobook

I hear it’s better for SEO (which I believe stands for “Blah Blah Blah,” or “I don’t Really Care,” I can never remember which) for me to make each blog entry contain only one topic instead of posting a big post covering several subjects.  So, tonight, multiple posts.  Let’s see if the silliness of this doesn’t cause me to forget several of my topics.

First: The Dragons’ Truth Audiobook.

I’m as satisfied with the recording as I’m going to be without doing a complete re-record from scratch, and after spending the last month recording, editing, and going over and over and over Dragons’ Truth I’ve remembered why it’s my least favorite of my novels, and have no interest in repeating the entire process immediately.  Maybe next year, or perhaps later this year, if I write a sequel (or the prequel I recently thought of and which -I believe- would make a much better book, all around), I’ll record both of them at the same time for a re-release and “box set” containing the pair.  Bleh, who knows?  Anyway, the recording is done, the mixing is done, I’ve got the Podiobook-compatible files ready and broken into eight episodes ranging from about 28min to 46min in length (avg. ~35min, if I recall correctly), I’ve got CD Master disc images of the MP3 CD and the 4-disc Audio CD versions created and ready to burn.  I’ve received the packaging for the MP3 CDs, designed it all, inside and out, and even have the first two copies burned, assembled, and shrink-wrapped. (Yay, shrink-wrap!  Very nice end-product!)  I forgot to take a bunch of photos of it being assembled to post – I’ll remember to photograph everything when I put together the first of the Audio CD packages, and do a couple more MP3 CD packages at the same time.  The packaging I chose for the multi-disc Audio CD sets will arrive Monday (UPS-willing), and I’ve begun working on the cover for that as well (which is a headache, btw, and I’m not sure my printer is up to the task.  If I forget, remind me to try: Print from two sides, 50% opacity on overlapping center, scream and cry when alignment is inevitably off), so with any luck, those will be good to go on Monday as well.  ((ooh, I forgot to buy more labels for those.  Sigh.  Add that to shopping list.))

Erk.  I just spent two hours (since the last paragraph) adding the MP3 Audiobook to modernevil.com (and updating the styling a bit).  You can now order the MP3 Audiobook.  I will add the link for ordering the audio CD version as soon as I have a copy in hand that I consider salable.  I’ve priced both the MP3 CD version and the AudioCD version a little lower than I probably ought to have, but since there’s no sales through standard retail channels (I don’t have & can’t afford mass production, warehousing, distribution, et cetera) for the audiobooks -which is to say that I’m manually making them with my own two hands and then shipping them out- I don’t have to worry too much about making sure I still get a profit after retail takes 50%+ like I do with my paperbacks; I’m the sole retailer.

The Dragons’ Truth Paperback is $12.99.

The Dragons’ Truth Audiobook on 1 MP3 CD is $12.99.

The Dragons’ Truth Audiobook on 4 Audio CDs will probably be $25.99.

If I offered a version that contained the paperback and all 5 discs for $44.99, would anyone buy it?

–Oh, and since I’ve passed 1:30AM now, I’m not going to do the other posts tonight.  At least one of them requires more Photoshop work.  I’ve made a list of them, and I’ll post more tomorrow.  LJ people who notice this post: I’ll cross-post tomorrow, too.  Goodnight!