Free (Audio) Books.

March 8, 2007 12:39 PM

More and more authors are turning to podcasting to find their audiences after being rejected by traditional book publishers, it seems. Interested in hearing some of their stories for free (or if you're feeling generous, a suggested donation of $9.99)? Check out PodioBooks, where there's a tonne of free literature just waiting to be downloaded to your iPod.
posted by Effigy2000 (9 comments total)

Oooo I hate that word. You know the one I mean.

MP3 Player ≠ iPod.

And even accepting that evil world, most things labelled as 'pocasting' aren't.

Sorry. I haven't had a beer for two months...
posted by popkinson at 12:59 PM on March 8, 2007

The public domain version.
posted by brundlefly at 1:16 PM on March 8, 2007

Yes, but is it part of Web 2.0?
posted by solistrato at 1:21 PM on March 8, 2007

There are more ways than ever before to not get paid for writing fiction.
posted by Mister_A at 1:42 PM on March 8, 2007 [2 favorites]

Speaking of which, what's going on with Scott Sigler lately? I enjoyed Earthcore when I was first getting hooked on podcasts (the summer when I had nothing to do but work, and the drive to work took half an hour), but I couldn't listen to more than an episode or two of the next book he put out... it was terrible.
posted by rossination at 2:31 PM on March 8, 2007

OK, so I didn't read the first article, which talks about Sigler and "what's [been] going on with him lately".
posted by rossination at 2:33 PM on March 8, 2007

Considering all the tripe that gets published, it seems to me that almost anything that someone is incapable of getting published is bound to be utter garbage.

...of course, I realize this is not a hard and fast rule. Some very good books have languished simply because publishers didn't consider them marketable. John Kennedy Toole would probably be alive today if Doubleday (I think it was Doubleday) hadn't given him the runaround about publishing A Confederacy of Dunces.
posted by Target Practice at 4:13 PM on March 8, 2007

According to this, it was Simon and Schuster that did for Toole's book (I had thought it was Knopf, but I too have a faulty memory).

Toole, however, had enough other problems in his life, it seems he would have checked out early regardless. Bunch of books out there on him and his troubles. (By the way, his first book, second published, The Neon Bible, is nothing like Confederacy but also well worth reading.)
posted by IndigoJones at 6:35 PM on March 8, 2007

You can also try Audiobooks.net

They have around 400 free audio books.
posted by freeb26 at 12:13 PM on March 17, 2007