Audiobooks of The Reefs of Time and Crucible of Time have hit the ground with a hop, skip, and a twist. The narrations by Stefan Rudnicki have been finished for a while now. But their appearance in stores has been erratic and slow. A glitch at Findaway tripped up the distribution of Reefs, which should have been out a month ago—but it’s now finally appeared in a handful of stores. Unfortunately, Audible is not yet one of them. Lon-n-ng review times (caused by a flood of new submissions) have caused delays for both books in getting into Audible and Amazon.
Crucible was actually the first to make it through to the first stores, even though it was the second to be recorded and uploaded. But Reefs is catching up. Right now you can get them both at Apple, Scribd, Google Play, Kobo, Chirp, and eStories. I hope to see both of them in all the stores before too much longer. For continually updated purchase links, see my Audiobooks page.
In the meantime, I’m pleased to report that my new audiobooks really are finding an audience. Keep spreading the word for me, okay?
Addendum: Crucible just showed up in the Nook store, and they’re selling it for 25% off. In fact, they have the whole series discounted. Go, Nook! (Reefs is now there, too.)
Breaking news: Reefs is now available in the Audible store, as well as Amazon! See my Audiobooks page.
Cat Rambo is former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), and an author of considerable note. Instead of writing on my own blog today, I wrote on hers—a fairly detailed piece on audiobooks and how I went about it with my books. I called it “How I Ventured into Audiobooks and Lost My Shirt—Or Maybe Found It.” If audiobooks interest you, and especially if you’re a writer wondering how that whole thing works, why not step over there and take a look. Here’s a teaser:
Audiobooks are the current gold rush in publishing—or so they say, and you know “they” always know what they’re talking about. If you don’t get on the audiobook wagon, you are sure to lose out.
That might or might not be true. But one thing that is true, without a doubt, is that listening to a book narrated aloud is an experience unlike that of silently reading text. An audiobook can make or break a book for the listener. In the hands of a poor narrator, any book can be crushed. But in the hands of a skilled narrator, even humdrum text can take flight, and sparkling text can soar.…[continue reading]
Oh, sorry—talking to myself. Bad habit. But it seems I’ve talked my way into an actual Double Deal. Audiobook and ebook!
The audiobook of Neptune Crossing, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki (think God gargling boulders), is on sale right now in multiple outlets! It’s $4.99 at Chirp, Downpour, Apple ($3.99 at Apple), Google, and Kobo—limited time only! It’s a great recording, and I doubt you’ll ever see it again for a price this low. Do you want to miss this? Of course not.
For you ebook readers, my omnibus volume The Chaos Chronicles: Books 1-3 will be going for the slasher price of $1.99! This is an international Bookbub special, and the email announcement will go out on Saturday. But keep an eye on those prices, because the way the logistics works is, you have to drop the prices a few days early. So you never know.
Summer reading, folks! These prices are good through the end of Worldcon.
Not me, Stefan Rudnicki. He started this week recording the audiobook of The Reefs of Time! I can’t wait. If all goes well, it’ll be out and up for listening before the waning of summer!
I told you recently about a new print edition for Sunborn. Now I’ve got an audiobook you just have to have! This fourth volume of The Chaos Chronicles is billowing into the stores, with narration by the incomparable Stefan Rudnicki.
It’ll be in lots more stores soon, including Audible and Amazon. Also Overdrive, so you’ll be able to ask your public library to order it. (Not yet. But they can order the first three books.)
The next phase of my w/o/r/l/d/ c/o/n/q/u/e/s/t/ “Return to Print” campaign is complete! A new paperback edition of The Infinite Sea is now out, with the same knockout cover art by Chris Howard that appears on the ebook. It’s available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and any store (or library!) that cares to order it from Ingram. It’s quite a handsome edition, if I do say so myself. Like Strange Attractors before it, it’s in a companion trim format with The Reefs of Time / Crucible of Time.
The audiobook, with narration by Stefan Rudnicki, is also complete and hot in the distribution pipeline. Barring unforeseen difficulties, it should be showing up in online audiobook stores in the next week or two!
At last! Strange Attractors is now out in audiobook, narrated by the amazing Stefan Rudnicki! This has been a long time coming, and it’s a superb recording from the studios of Skyboat Media.
This took a different route to publication from my earlier audiobooks. I published it through Findaway Voices under the Starstream Publications / Book View Café imprint. It will be available through innumerable outlets, including iTunes, Audible, Overdrive, Hoopla, and many more. Right now it’s migrating through the distribution system. Here’s where it’s available, right this very minute, that I know of:
Important heads-up for my friends! Did you know that if you buy (or own) the Kindle edition of Neptune Crossing, you can add the Audible version for practically nothing? That’s the audiobook narrated by the amazing Stefan Rudnicki that I told you about. I forgot to mention it until now—but it’s true! I must be getting thickheaded. So I’m going to make it up to you. Starting this moment*, and for about a week, Neptune Crossing in ebook is just $.99. (If you already have the Kindle edition, maybe you could tell a friend?)
Think what you’re about to spend on shopping for the holidays, and you’ll quickly realize what a steal this is—the ebook for $.99, and the audiobook for $2.99 more, which is an incredible steal. (Audible’s regular price is $24.) It’s Whispersync enabled, so you can go back and forth between the ebook and audiobook without losing your place. I’ve listened to the audiobook, and it is every bit as good as my publicity engine has made it out to be. Please don’t miss this opportunity! You can get the ebook deal in almost all stores, but the audiobook deal is only via Kindle. (You don’t need to own a Kindle; the Kindle app on other devices works very well.)
By the way, I will be eternally grateful for everyone who buys the audiobook. Not so much for whatever denarii trickle my way, as because the fate of the audiobooks of the rest of the series hangs in the balance here. Skyboat Media and Stefan want to record them, but they can’t unless this one proves itself in the market. (And if you buy it, I’d be most grateful if you’d leave an honest review encouraging others to give it a try.)
So please — go out and make me grateful, people! Thanks!
*Actually the Bookbub promo email went out yesterday, but it seemed crass to blog about a promotion on Thanksgiving Day. I hope you had a great one.
I just learned of this: Downpour.com, the outlet store for Blackstone Audio, is running a huge Thanksgiving week sale, with 50% off on audiobook CDs, and it looks like 40-60% off on downloads! I’m not sure, but I think it applies to all their audiobooks. If you’re a fan of the format, this looks like a fantastic deal.
My own Neptune Crossing is 50% off the CD and 60% off downloads. (They also have an option to rent downloads.) I do not know how long this sale will last—I was told it’s a Black Friday sale, but it’s already going—so if you’re interested, don’t wait too long!
(This continues the story of my journey to an audiobook of Neptune Crossing, begun in yesterday’s post. If you haven’t already read that, start there.)
After several failed attempts at putting The Chaos Chronicles into audio via podcast, I was metaphorically trapped and rudderless in the great clouds of Jupiter. I gave it a rest for a while.
My focus returned to writing. Audiobooks took second place to ebooks. I joined Book View Café, a marvelous cooperative publishing venture of several dozen veteran authors, including some highly respected SF writers. It was a smart move. I was doing my ebooks in community now, not just on my own.
And suddenly a path broke open in Jupiter’s clouds! In a remarkable breakthrough, a resourceful BVC member got us a distribution deal with Audible: We had a first-rate list of books, and they would make audiobooks of pretty much everything we offered them! They took my two short story collections, which was all I could offer at the time. I didn’t have the rights to my remaining books. I wondered if I could get just the unused audiobook rights back. I asked. And asked again. For two years.
I was never told no, just that so and so was away, or on leave, or… silence. Finally, one day, word came through: They weren’t just reverting the audiobook rights of certain books; they were reverting all rights. The books were mine again, to do with as I pleased. Good-bye, Jupiter! BVC and Audible, here we come!
This is going to be great!
And perhaps it would have been—if it hadn’t come two weeks too late. Audible had changed their policy. They would not be adding these books to their list. Nooooo! We were free of Jupiter, but on a slingshot trajectory into the endless void.
My only option seemed to be to pay a narrator and do the book myself. But I didn’t have the time or money. I grew ever more discouraged, as all the planets we knew dwindled in our viewer.
And then… something unexpected twinkled on the scanner: Skyboat Media, Stefan Rudnicki’s recording company. I already knew and loved Stefan’s work narrating other books. His voice is deep and resonant, with the gravitas and character of James Earl Jones. His name would have been at the top of my request list. But there was no way I could afford to hire him and make an audiobook on my own dime.
Eventually, I set aside my discouragement and sent Stefan an email: Would you be interested in looking at a couple of my books and telling me what you think? To my delight, he got back to me right away. He was interested. I sent him some ebooks. And a week later, I had his answer: He loved Neptune Crossing and wanted to narrate it. I could hear the enthusiasm in his voice. Further, he was offering a publication deal, with a modest advance and distribution through Blackstone Audio, a giant in the field. It would be in Audible and iTunes, as well—and all with one of my favorite narrators lending his voice to the story!
Did I mention that Stefan is a Grammy and Hugo winner for his narrations?
I did not have to think for longer than it took to pinch myself. The deal was struck, and soon Stefan was at work recording. And now the audiobook of Neptune Crossing is finished, and is live in all the major places where audiobooks are sold!
And you know what? This time, it is great!
Final note:
If you like audiobooks, I hope you’ll give it a try. If you’ve never tried an audiobook before, I can’t think of a better place to start. If this goes well, the rest of the series will likely follow!
Audiobooks of The Reefs of Time and Crucible of Time have hit the ground with a hop, skip, and a twist. The narrations by Stefan Rudnicki have been finished for a while now. But their appearance in stores has been erratic and slow. A glitch at Findaway tripped up the distribution of Reefs, which should have been out a month ago—but it’s now finally appeared in a handful of stores. Unfortunately, Audible is not yet one of them. Lon-n-ng review times (caused by a flood of new submissions) have caused delays for both books in getting into Audible and Amazon.
The audiobook of 
For you ebook readers, my omnibus volume 
