Cool thing happened tonight. I discovered I’m on i-Tunes. No, it’s not the greatest hits of the 80’s as sung and performed by me. No, it’s the unabridged audio for Isolation. The above image is the cover (which is somewhat interesting).
So I listened to about five minutes of it. I’ve never had an audio book done for one of my novels, so this was a first. Listening to it made me laugh and also made me think Did I write that? It actually sounded pretty good. The writing, that is. The narrator (Jack Garrett) has one of those voices that probably has done quite a few audio books. He sounds great. Kinda creepy, but that fits the book.
If you’re into audio books, go check it out. Or at least listen to the preview. It’s strange hearing the words I wrote a few years ago on i-Tunes. What a great way to end a fascinating and exciting week in my writing career.
A few questions:
1) They can do that without your permission? (not that you’d say no, but geez…)
2) Why is the art different? Wouldn’t they want to establish the brand visually so that people might recognize the work? Different art makes it harder to find for someone who saw the cover in the store and considered buying it. And for some reason, different art seems to cheapen the audiobook’s value somehow… you almost feel like you’re buying a pirated version or something.
3) Assuming you paid for the download, how does it feel to pay to hear someone read words you wrote? I know you can’t badmouth your publisher on your blog, but shouldn’t they send you a freebie when they turn your work into an audiobook?
Sorry, that’s just my $0.02 worth. All this bailout crap has me in a foul mood regarding anything corporate.
Hey S.A.M. Good questions. I’ll answer.
1. Hachette Publishers told me an audio was being done. I googled to find out who was doing it. I did get paid some, which was nice.
2. Anytime you license a book, the company you license it out to can do what they want. I agree it makes sense doing the same art. Not sure why that’s the case.
3. I didn’t pay yet for the download. I’m hoping to get a freebie. But this isn’t unusual for a publisher to licence something to another company and then not get sample copies (I used to get asked that by authors when I was the author relations guy at Tyndale). Authors assume that the publisher gets copies of audio books, large print editions, or foreign editions (and they usually do!). But things move at a glacier pace in publishing. I wouldn’t be surprised to get one a few months down the road. I plan on asking, because I’d really like to get one!
Good questions, and can understand them. Hey–speaking positively about my publisher, they send me free copies of any Hachette book I want! And since they have so many imprints (Little Brown, etc), it’s a great courtesy.
Congratulations to you! Kim and I and the girls are going to listen to it together.
We are very proud of you.
Hi Doug and gang. Thanks! Hope you like it (though I think the story might be a little too intense for the girls!). I only want to give adults nightmares. 🙂
Travis – that’s awesome! I think I’ll get a copy for the library….