Friday, January 14, 2011

The Future of Romance Audio Books

Today we have a guest blogger, Jennifer Feddersen of Audio Lark Books, talking about the future of audio books.

* * *

We’ve all seen how ebooks are changing the face of publishing, but did you know that digital audio books have had a similar effect on the world of audio book publishing?

Gone are the days of paying $50 - $75 for a cumbersome plastic container filled with cassettes. The age of audio book CDs were over nearly as soon as they began. Digital audio downloads are the way most people get their audio books now.

AudioLark Romance Audio Books – and our erotic titles on AudioMinx, as well – are carried in a variety of online audio book outlets as well as our own websites, but we’ve got something new and exciting coming soon:

Audio books as apps!

If you own a handheld device or cell phone, you are probably familiar with apps and how easy they are to purchase and play. AudioLark will begin rolling out our audio book apps as soon as February 2011. Stuck in line? Waiting at the doctor’s office? Listen to your favourite romance audio book and time will fly!

What does this mean for authors?

We’re putting out a submissions call for short romances (8,000 – 15,000 words) and romance series (each book 8,000 to 15,000 words). We’d especially like to see contemporary romance, romantic comedy, and romantic suspense, but we’ll also consider paranormal, science fiction and historical.

We pay a small advance against royalties - $20 per single title, more for a series – and will release titles simultaneously as ebooks and audio books.

For more information, visit www.audiolark.com!

* * *

We'd like to know from you whether you have ever listened to an audio book or not, and if so, what did you think? If you haven't, would you consider it?

Jennifer is giving away a copy of their latest release, Kaye Chambers' Love at First Shot to one lucky commenter.



BLURB
Emma Feltman is a master mage in training with one minor problem: sexual frustration has twisted her ordinarily powerful magic into an unpredictable force of chaos.
Her current job assignment is the Supernatural Clean-up Crew. When a werewolf is unlucky enough to get hit by a car, Emma’s crew is sent in to retrieve the body. Dr. “T.J.” Jackson happens to be the coroner on duty. When it’s discovered his mind is immune to magic so they can’t erase the incident from his memory, they do the next best thing. They take him with them.
Stashed in a cabin miles from anywhere, Emma and T.J. start things off with a bang. But can a relationship built under extreme conditions really work?

8 comments:

mell61 said...

I have recently started to use audio books, I find them great on MP3 while out walking, or waiting around at appointments.

Piper Denna said...

My experiences vary depending on the narrator. I listened to one Meg Cabot book where a man narrated, and put on the dumbest high voice for all the female characters' dialogue... it was quite distracting.

On the whole, I think women are better narrators for romances.

However, the "computer" voice which reads for Amazon sounds quite nice. I almost think it'd be easier to slip into a story done by a good computer voice than by a narrator who emphasizes where you wouldn't.

Sutton Fox said...

I've listened to a few and enjoyed them very much. Looking forward to the apps!

Wasn't aware of AudioLark though, off to check it out. Thank you for the informative post.

Wendy S Marcus said...

My daughter is going to college seven hours away. The last time I had to drive both ways myself, I picked up a Nora Roberts trilogy on CD. I LOVED it. The narrator had an irish accent which took a bit of getting used to, but I got into the story just like I was reading it myself. And boy the trip flew by!

Sally Clements said...

Really interesting post, I'm not very familiar with audio books, think I'll go check the link out!

mell61 said...

Considering Pipers comment, I'd have to agree the voice can make or break an audio book - my number one recommendation for anyone who hasn't listened to audio books is to check out the Harry Potter books as read by Stephen Fry, his voice is another character to the story.
I'll be checking out audiolark, in the future.

Maya Blake said...

My first (and only) audio book experience was last summer when I won a free audio copy of Steig Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. Unfortunately, the male narrator's voice was so bad, I stopped listening a few chapters in and switched to hard copy! That said, I've heard good things about audio books and Stephen Fry is absolutely fab as a narrator so I haven't ruled it out completely for the future :)

Kelly said...

I love audiobooks! If I'm on a bumpy bus or train, they're better than reading, and since they're on my phone I can play them over my car stereo then just keep going when I leave with my headphones. It's a little different than reading, but in a good way. Here's where I've been finding a lot of audio romance books.