Audio books for sale online - why pay?
Published by on February 21st, 2008
I’ll bet the vast majority of people searching for audio books online presume they are going to have to splash out money to get their ears around them. iTunes, for example, has an audiobook section accessible from the iTunes Store home page, but this only stocks commercial Audible titles. For free podcast-distributed audiobooks, one must do some digging in the podcast section.
Free audio books also have a good selection of atrocious production values, and are littered with dull voices, uninteresting readings, and are just plain difficult to listen to. A handful, however, are of a quality that surpasses many of the professional productions, and these really do stand out from the crown, being completely free and very enjoyable.
When I was preparing and researching the production style for TableRappers Persistent Spirit, I listened to a lot of free and commercial audio books. Sadly, I found the vast majority of them too poor in the quality of either the production - background noise, hum, low levels, etc - or in the voice performance to be something I would ever choose to listen to. They did, however, help me to set the bar for how to produce my own audio book and have contributed to the quality of every element of the production.
Is free too big a risk?
The perception that free means poor quality, will inevitably hold back a large slice of potential audience from taking the plunge and dipping their ears into an audio book. Which is a big shame because most audio book authors and producers are striving to improve their content and give it the best chance of a broader audience. I also wonder whether the audience finds it difficult to comprehend why an author would go to all the trouble of writing and producing the audio without any apparent direct financial gain - I would guess the assumption is one of desperation, that the book is so bad no publisher will touch it.
How to reach out
Still, no matter how good it is, word of mouth will remain the primary means of building audience for audio book creators. This means that the old adage of ‘content is king’ is critical to the book’s success. Recommendation, either directly or through trusted reviews, is the single most powerful motivator to have someone try out a slice of new content, and that will only ever happen if the content is compelling.
TableRappers Persistent Spirit, is a free downloadable, original audio book, distributed in weekly chapters. Read some of the reviews here.
3 Responses to “Audio books for sale online - why pay?”
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December 24th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
We’ve got a ceiling fan in our bedroom, made by Fantasia and it doesn’t wobble. We had ours fitted as part of the extension work completed. You can see Fantasia Fans here => http://www.fantasia-fans.co.uk/fantasia.home.php
December 24th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Neil - you are right to defer to Jen on all things fan-related because they are a staple in America and an oddity in the UK.
I live in Maryland now, and had the fun task of installing about half a dozen fans in our brand new house. I was lucky/smart enough to have the builder pre-wire the ceilings with holes/wires for ceiling fans.
For the kids’ bedrooms, we went cheap and got low price fans. They were a nightmare to install and impossible to balance.
For our bedroom and the downstairs rooms we got more expensive kinds that were much easier to install and seemed to balance all by themselves.
I’m just sorry that I can’t link to some fan manufacturer or other - I feel left out on this thread - but consider paying $150 for a fan rather than $50, if you ever find yourself in that position.
December 26th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
It pleases me to know that fans can be purchased without the need for wobble-correction. Nowhere near buying one yet, but one day for sure.
December 27th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
I must make a slight correction: I have had fans without wobble, though, they were built in a compact format and could not accomodate any such swinging around. I’ve had experience with both the kind that are suspended on a rod from the ceiling (mostly wobblers - and built with some sort of bushing mechanism into their bases), and the compact models meant for lower ceiling heights (non-wobblers).
Ceiling fans are incredibly popular in the US. The last house I had in the states had one in nearly every downstairs room - three of them I think - and would’ve had them in the upstairs rooms too if the ceilings weren’t so darned low. (Of course, it could have reduced the household hairdressing costs… “A little off the top, ta.”)
January 2nd, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Neil - check out this BoingBoing link and the manufacturers link below it..
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/01/02/fanimation-air-shado.html
http://www.fanimation.com/products/air_shadow/
Enjoy and keep your credit card safe… lolz
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
I dont think free means poor quality . Infact lot of great things online are free . However , some websites out there charge $11 to $20 and you can download literally thousands of books . These all are good books and not just crap . Just do a little search on ask.com
(better than google )
March 23rd, 2008 at 6:33 am
Audio books are here to stay . I am in love with them . Not only its interesting to hear voices , you can enjoy them while moving. I hear audio books all the time in my car . One of my friend is so crazy about audio books . He takes long routes to get back to his home . You can find some cheaper audio book library online .
May 26th, 2008 at 5:19 am
While audio books are great, I think that hard copy books will always have their place. Most experts thought with the internet boom that book stores like Barnes and Nobles would go out of business but the truth is, brick and mortar bookstores are actually making more profits.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:11 am
I checked out the site farreys.com…Its quite good. Thanks