There are pros and cons to this method as you might imagine. As the Persistent Spirit story begins to enter its final phase and the end of the book is on the horizon, I find myself contemplating whether I might undergo the same process for the second book, A Shot in Time. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

The cons

Time: writing and recording an episode consumes 15-20 hours of effort. Maintaining that each week with an increasingly demanding and unpredictable day-job has been, frankly, stressful.

Structure: episodes have a completely different structure to a novel, requiring continuing momentum, restructured scenes, and some point of tension at the end of each one. Unedited, this brings the novel a strange, pulse-like pace which now needs a further re-write.

The pros

Progress: episodes promoted regular writing. I believe I am further along in the story than I would have been without to self imposed demands of a regular episodic production.

Story momentum: despite the structure issue mentioned above, the story has a pace and continues to move along ithout getting bogged down and sluggish. Once the “episodic pulse” is edited out I think the novel will have an enhanced page-turning pace.

Feedback: reaching out with even an unpolished story to potential audience around the globe has generated feedback that has helped both encourage the work and help shape it.

What’s in store for 2009?

Not another audio book, that’s for sure. The pros most certainly outweigh the cons, so the audio book of the second Table Rappers book must correct some of the negatives of this years’ experience. Most importantly is the frustration from being unable to produce regular, weekly episodes. Book two (titled A Shot in Time) will not be released as serialised audio until it has completed the second draft.

That does not mean there will be nothing from the Table Rappers in 2009, however. I’m planning some short story dramatised episodes, including a cast of actors, full sound effects, etc. Doesn’t that mean even more work? Yes, but the work flow can be controlled around the production, and such a project is free from an ongoing, weekly deadline.

2009 is already promising to be a challenging year on both personal and professional fronts, so careful planning will be essential to achievement of my goals. I’m thoroughly looking forward to what might prove to be a formative year for the future!

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Readers read books (I know, it’s obvious, but bear with me) and I believe the acceptance of audiobooks stumbles over the need to switch modes between dealing with a physical product to dealing with discs or abstract digital files. It is the same stumbling block podcasting has had: the technology gets in the way of the user experience. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

One company has come up with a possible solution, one that I have been thinking for some time is a viable form of the audiobook product.

PlayawayDigital have taken the audiobook and packaged it in a no-fuss, independent physical product – just like a miniature book. Earbuds plug in to the side and there are the basic controls you would expect from an audio device on the back. No searching a device for the right chapters, no having that device messing up the order of those chapters, no synchronising, no disc swapping – no messing around whatsoever. Plus, the product retains the product’s branding (i.e. book cover).

The most significant aspect of this, I feel, will be a higher level of consumer acceptance. It is just like a book. It can sit on shelves, pop into a handbag, be loaned to others – and will ultimately appear on the shelves of charity shops.

I not only hope the publishing industry will take up this form of audiobook distribution, but also that there might be a way for independent audiobook creators to distribute their content in this way. That’s a little optimistic, I’ll admit, but providing none of the big publishing players nail PlayawayDigital down to tight agreements, or do not buy the company outright, we can still hope.

The publishing industry needs this form of audiobook product to truly break the market. I, for one, welcome it.

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Ewan is a kilt-wearing, ?ºber-geek podcaster, and producer and host of the TPN Rock show from The Podcast Network. You can generally find Ewan at almost every important, global, geek gathering, wherever it may be in the world – kilt included!

Discover the five items Ewan could not live without as he spends a little time on our deserted island.

MP3 direct download here
Running Time: 31 minutes | Subscribe with RSS | Subscribe with iTunes

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Last year, Blakes 7 was reborn in audio form. B7 Media, an independent production company in the UK, created a series of audio dramas revisiting the Blakes7 story and characters and bringing the whole concept up to date – currently available on audio CD. I liken it to the way Battlestar Galactica was recent de-camped and re-visioned. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

Their latest offering brings a very special treat for Blakes7 fans with Michael Keating reprising his distinctive role as the not entirely competent thief, Vila. This is the first in several planned “The Early Years” prequel stories, each one featuring one of the primary characters from the Blakes7 universe. I wonder whether any other original cast members will appear in the other stories.

I haven’t managed to have a listen to this audio as yet – it’s still in the latter stages of post-production, but I am really looking forward to it. Expect a review once I do get my hands on it.

Read the official press release:

www.blakes7.com

LONDON, April 22, 2008: UK-based independent media production company, B7 Productions, has announced a series of prequel audio adventures based on the cult television classic, BLAKE’S 7.
Following the success of last years audio re-imagining of BLAKE’S 7 (broadcast on BBC7 over Christmas) and thirty years since the dramatic and shocking finale of the original series, MICHAEL KEATING (Blake’s 7, EastEnders) will reprise his most popular role as the cowardly thief, Vila Restal, the only character to appear in all 52 episodes of the original series. The new audio incarnation of Olag Gan played by OWEN AARONOVITCH (Coronation Street) also stars.

BLAKE’S 7 – THE EARLY YEARS will be a prequel series of stories exploring the origins of key BLAKE’S 7 characters prior to them meeting rebel leader, Roj Blake. The first of these prequel stories “When Vila met Gan” has been written by lead writer, Ben Aaronovitch (‘Classic’ Doctor Who, Jupiter Moon) and explores the history and enduring friendship between Gan and Vila, two of the most unlikely rebels to take up arms against the Federation.

Future episodes will feature the characters of Avon (written by Ben Aaronovitch), Jenna (written by Simon Guerrier), Travis (written by James Swallow), Cally (written by Marc Platt) and of course the series wouldn’t be complete without a story exploring the origins of the rebel’s arch nemesis Supreme Commander Servalan who we meet as a young, ambitious, cadet officer with ‘family connections’

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UPDATE: Adam Curry refers to this as less a facelift than a shot of botox!  ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

This interim change refocused the site around primary promotion of video content, which is – despite the understandable resistance from those involved solely with independent audio – is where both audience growth and advertiser interest are undergoing significant accelleration.

This morning was the first time I had seen the v2.5 interface (I have simply been too wrapped up in other projects), and I like the emphasis on show promotion right there on the front page. Much more is being done to push the content from producers with whom we have a relationship – something that is close to my heart, of course. The initial lineup seems a little weighted to the bigger productions, but that is understandable for day one to offer the strongest lineup.

One of the main challenges the site still faces is media persistence – the ability to keep watching or listening uninterrupted as you explore – and the ability to interact with the rest of the site without losing the connection with that already playing media.

With the very much stronger, and still growing interest from advertisers in associating their brands with video content, I think this new interface is going to open a number of doors for PodShow and associated producers, of course. We are already seeing a marked increase in the number of, and potential from, new advertisers. Most of the new campaigns being offered to producers have unlimited potential for growth and earning, regardless of audience size. Now that is an important point, it is no longer the shows with bigger audiences that are (potentially) able to generate the biggest earnings. Could we have discovered exactly how to tap in to the full potential of aggregating many small-audience productions to distribute brand and product promotion? Not quite yet, but every single day is a learning experience and we are a lot closer to understanding how to help producers make the most out of their shows.

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In no particular order (apart from the first one). Descriptions are snagged straight from the authors’ blurbs, perhaps I’ll have the time to do some proper reviews in the new year.

		Crescent Some places are far darker than deep space. Places where the shadows smile. Where men go mad and lovers go missing. These stygian corners of existence are where reality is stretched thin and something hungry is waiting just outside the corner of your eye.Turn out the lights, take a deep breath, and dare to visit one of these places.Crescent is dark science fiction at it’s most visceral. Phil Rossi weaves a tale that is reminiscent of old school Stephen King but with a shiny, new set of tricks and an appetite to terrify. There’s sex. There’s corruption. There’s horror. And after you sweat your way through the first chapter, there’s plenty more to keep you awake at night.
		One among the Sleepless Is it Peter Reynolds, mild-mannered office clerk pouring petrol through his neighbour’s letterbox in the middle of the night? Is it Wayne Dolan, a man who discovers strange, unsociable uses for his own urine – and an even stranger desire for the lady upstairs with the whip? Or is it Dusty, a mysterious vagrant who views the world through a pair of 1966 Balorama wrap sunglasses? Mick Nixon wants to find out, because people are disappearing. And if he and Sally are ever going to share more than just sandwiches, he’d better hurry up, or they could be next. One Among the Sleepless is a novel set in a neighbourhood just like yours: noisy, angry, demented. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll throw it through your neighbour’s window tied to a house brick!
		Scott Sigler’s Acestor Scientists struggle to solve the problem of xenotransplantation — using animal tissue to replace failing human organs. Funded by the biotech firm Genada, Dr. Claus Rhumkorrf seeks to recreate the ancestor of all mammals. By getting back to the root of our creation, Rhumkorrf hopes to create an animal with human internal organs. Rhumkorrf discovers the ancestor, but it is not the small, harmless creature he envisions. His genius gives birth to a fast-growing evil that nature eradicated 250 million years ago — an evil now on the loose, and very, very hungry.The most popular podcast novel of all time: #1 on iTunes and at Podiobooks.com, PodcastPickle.com and more. More from Scott at ScottSigler.com

Got a fave audio novel? Let me know so I can check it out.

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Audio Hijack developer Rogue Amoeba ,  are attempting to close the gap between internet radio and podcasting with a new application called Radioshift . Looking unsurprisingly like iTunes, the application allows you to search a large library of online radio streams and set up recording schedules so you do not have to miss your the programming just because you are not near your computer at just the right time.

This has been possible for a while with AudioHijack Pro , but that was fiddly and very manual process to locate content and schedule recordings. Radioshift makes things a lot easier. In addition, add a Griffin Radio Shark (under £30) to your setup, and Radioshift will integrate with it allowing you to schedule recordings straight from AM and FM radio. That’s even better than the BBC’s podcast offering as it will be complete unedited versions of the original radio programming.

Integration with iTunes and links to edit the audio files after recording, as well as a choice of recording formats and compression, gives this app some real usability. I’d like to see the interface a little less clunky-looking though, right now fonts and icons are just a tad too large to give you that real slick, professional feel, and I’d like to see a much broader selection of available streams in their directory. A great start though, and a useful tool if you like the convenience and control of podcast subscription, but want complete control over what you can choose to listen to and when.

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Despite its title, this image has nothing to do with gun crime.

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