Audio book CDs appear to be on the way out and are being replaced by less expensive Podcast. I looked briefly at a Podcast search engine and found very little outdoor book content.
Audio book CDs appear to be on the way out and are being replaced by less expensive Podcast. I looked briefly at a Podcast search engine and found very little outdoor book content. What I did find was a site that offered downloads of audio books for $7.47, which is much less expensive that I paid to get CDs of an audio book to hear on my cross-country trips.
On a recent trip I found that the audio book display at Flying J truck stops had been taken down and the books were being sold individually. Apparently, this method of marketing books is being replaced by an increasingly robust, less expensive, alternative.
For writers, Podcast have the advantages of not having to be packaged, boxed and physically distributed - to say nothing of the costs of artwork for covers, advertising costs and the time involved in mechanically producing a CD and marketing it. The companies that are producing the CDs are also feeling this stress. Discounts and special package deals are the norm in their attempts to attract and retain clients. It has never been less expensive to produce CDs in any quantity that is desired. If interested in this approach for a project check out www.discmakers.com.
As with anything on the Web, deriving money from it is the problem. Several approaches have been used. One is to serialize a book and the user pays a small fee for each download (most often through a PayPal button). Another is to list the entire book and allowed it to be downloaded for a fee. A third approach is to record episodes, and use this to obtain pre-publication sales for a forthcoming title. One could have a couple of "teasers" eposodes out for free, and then charge for the remainder, special services, lectures, other for-fee work as well as linking to your website and blog.
I am not swimming in the Podcast sea yet. I hear from some who are already in the water that, "Yes it works, but it may take three years to build a significant audience. Some have tried, put out a few epidsodes, and then quit after receiving little or no response." I found evidence of this on my brief look through past Podcasts.
Some of you heard my pitch for a CD-based distribution company, "Outdoor Audio, Inc." The concept here is that outdoor stories from well known writers would be recorded in their own voices and distributed nationwide. It now appears to me that Podcasting has become the more appropriate, and easier to manage, method either under a company umbrella or as individual writers. If we want to tell our stories, there has never been an easier tool to use - one that we can run ourselves, if so inclined, or managed under a cooperative agreement.
Wm. Hovey Smith