Saturday 30 November 2019

Spoken Word Self-Publishing?

I was talking to a friend yesterday when he mentioned the possibility of self-publishing.... audio books.  Admittedly, while I'd considered self-publishing before, this was something I had never thought about.  For a while I dismissed it - after all, I'm no actor or voice artist.  But then as I thought about it further I thought, "Well, my voice isn't that bad!  I normally get decent feedback at spoken word nights and I don't have any annoying verbal tics or speech impediments"  (as far as I know!).  But as he pointed out, a lot of people listen to audio books now, either as they work (he is a visual artist so listens to podcasts and audio books as he works on his canvases) or while commuting.  So why not take advantage of that new medium?

So what do you think?  Would you have any interest in an audio version of some of my work?  Maybe the upcoming flash collection?

While I have a far better audio set-up at home now (I was planning to do some YouTubing a while back but never got round to it), some audio versions of my stories can be found below.  Also, if I did do an audio book of stories, would you prefer it as a straight reading of the stories (such as in the link to decomP magazine below) or do you like the sound effects and music of some of the YouTube examples?


Reading of "Man in the Street" - decomP magazine, 2018.




Reading of "Genuine Photo" - 




Reading of "The Girl Within" - 




Reading of "Nanny Knows Best (Prologue)" -




On unrelated news, I will be attending the book launch of this year's Worcestershire Litfest and Flash Fiction Competition anthology, The Jar Thief, tomorrow (Sunday) at Titania Ltd, Security House, Barbourne Road, Worcester, WR1 1RS at 6pm.   I apparently have at least one flash story in there - I submitted three but haven't been told what has been accepted in it as yet, so that will be interesting.  I have also had flash stories accepted for publication by Palm-Sized Press and the Bumper Book of British Bizarro Vol 2.  And in the best news of all, my collection of flash fiction, This Septic Isle, has been accepted for publication, possibly some time in mid-2020.  More news as it comes in!