Chris Howard's Writing Blog

Seaborn reading...

Sylvia Kelso (Amberlight) asked me if I was doing a reading at WisCon, and...no…I hadn't actually signed up for anything.  My first time at the con, and Seaborn's still a little ways out--3 months and closing...awfully fast.   I really should have, but I missed the deadline back in January--back when July seemed so far off.

Nothing to prevent me from getting into practice, though.  I sat down at the mic and read the first chapter--and I'd like to hear what you think. 

I've converted it into a few formats.  If you're inclined--say you really want an ogg version--use the 30MB 128kbps MP3.  Let me know, and I'll link to it, or you can send it to me:  chrishoward.author@gmail.com

Click on one of the formats below or download it. (The m4a opens in Quicktime on my machine, the wma is Windows Media Audio format).  To download in Windows: right-click, select Save Target As... from the popup menu  |  Mac: Ctrl+click and then "Download File"

SEABORN-Chapter1-48kbps-44.mp3  (MP3)
SeabornChapter1.m4a  (MP4)
SEABORN-Chapter1-48kbps-44.wma  (WMA)

Larger, better quality version:
SEABORN-Chapter1-256kbps1.mp3  (MP3, 30MB)

Enjoy!

Listen to The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate

Ted Chiang's "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" is available in audio here. 

via girlie jones

Publicity through Podcasting (again)

Still me and my blog with a couple a podcasts... 

To start, let me direct your attention to this lovely piece of visualization:

(Click to see the full version)

The image isn't to scale because if it were, my blog wouldn't appear on the page.  I could have placed a callout with a line pointing to one colored pixel, representing my blog in the universe, but even that would be a horrible twist of the facts.

My place in the blogosphere in relation to podcasting is sort of like those pictures of our solar system with the scale corrected.  There's Jupiter, gigantic in the center, Saturn, the other planets.  That little tiny blue spec is earth.  Where's the center of it all, the sun?  Then you notice the glowing orange edge of the page with a very slight curve, a fiery bleed of light that you didn't at first register.  Ah, there it is, good old Helios.  Couldn't fit it on the page and maintain the scale. 

Here, is this a little better?

(Click to see the full version)

Let's forget about scale and concentrate on two aspects of this diagram:  the lines going from podcast listeners to my blog and The Harrow, and the fact that the two universes do not overlap.

The lines represent the channels, podcast listeners who found my mp3 file and either came to my blog and followed the link to the story, or went directly to The Harrow to read it.

Some interesting facts: 

The Harrow published my story, "Diminsher of Peace" in the September 2005 issue.  I recorded myself reading it in August, posted the MP3 and XML right after the story appeared online, and then submitted the feed to iTunes, Podcast.net, and a few others.

There used to be a link to The Harrow's statistics page, which listed the top-most accessed stories, reviews and articles in the zine, and after a year or so online, my stories, "Diminisher of Peace" and "Always Becoming" were first and second ranked on the site.  Sure, I think they're damn fine stories, but...ranked first and second?  Where are all these readers coming from? 

Let's move on to the overlap.

First: There isn't any.  No overlap.  I didn't really cover this well in the diagram, but by no overlap, I mean that I don't think anyone in the podcast universe even knew who I was before finding some guy named Chris Howard who read his story and submitted it to iTunes.  I'm willing to bet that not one of the people who found my blog by way of the podcast had ever set there eyes on it before.

By joining the podcast universe with my blog--even with it was a thin link to a small percentage of people looking for fiction podcasts, it's a new connection, new visitors, possibly return visitors.  Podcasting seems to be a way to get traffic from an audience that was completely unaware of me.

There are millions of people out there downloading and listening to podcasts. An article on podcasting at MSNBC in April 2005, stated that according to a Pew Research poll, "more than 6 million people" have listened to a podcast. This was a couple years ago:

Twenty-nine percent of U.S. adults who own MP3 players like Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod say they have downloaded podcast programs from the Internet, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found.

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7374976/

My point in posting this is to share my opinion that recording your writing may bring traffic to your site (or the publisher's), and to ask anyone who reads this if they have similar experiences with podcasting, or if they've read or know of someone who has.

There are a lot of things I haven't tried yet or looked into, such as how many fiction podcasts are there in iTunes and the others?  What's the demand?  Is there a continual listenership?  Will they come back to my podcast for more? 

Here's some more info:

Audible's Podcast Tool Tallies Listeners

Audible Inc. is introducing a tool to help advertisers measure how many people are listening to podcasts, the Internet-based audio shows that are downloaded to listeners' computers.

Link

Media Bistro article on podcasting:

Why Podcast? And Also, Why Not.
http://www.mediabistro.com/mbtoolbox/writing_online/why_podcast_and_also_why_not_32046.asp

.

Interview with Richard Morgan at The Agony Column

The Agony Column interviews the author of Thirteen, the Takeshi Kovacs novels. (In MP3 and Real).

Full URL: http://trashotron.com/agony/news/2007/07-30-07.htm#MorganRichard

Focus on audio books with Ben Bova and Orson Scott Card

Free Ben Bova and Orson Scott Card interview at Audible.com

Acclaimed science-fiction authors Orson Scott Card and Ben Bova, along with their shared audiobook producer and occasional narrator Stefan Rudnicki, discuss audiobooks and their works in a joint interview. The authors touch on their thoughts on audiobooks vs. print editions, the effect of technology on literature, religion, science, and many other fascinating topics sure to intrigue both Card and Bova fans, as well as all audiobook enthusiasts.

Nanowhere podcast

I just completed the reading and recording of chapter 1 of Nanowhere.  Here's the podcast and mp3 info:

Nanowhere, Chapter 1, Joe and Al

Get the MP3 directly: ChrisHowardNanowherChapt1_64.mp3 (8MB)

eBay on my logBay

I have finally started playing with the eBay widget on Typepad after seeing the ads every time I log in to post.  The ads say something like, Bling for your Blog, which turned me off the first few times I read it.  I mean...bling?  That's so 2004!  Step into today Typepad marketing group.  I get where you're going with the alliteration, but bling just sounds so out of date.  C'mon, today, we're saying things like, I got my shinies bangin'

All right, okay, break it up.

I'm still goofing with the widget as you might be able to tell (See the lower part of the right column).  These auctions are not my own as the widget title proclaims, but are the beautiful work of my friend, Jeff Hayes.

http://www.jeffhayes.com

Podcast update

I just posted the audio version of "A Corner Not Dipped In Styx."  It's a 27 meg MP3, which is a little long.  I'll see what I can do for more compression.

Summary: Seriously wounded on a far away planet, Lieutenant Boort plans his escape from behind enemy lines, enlisting the aid of the indigenous fauna and quoting Aristotle when he's in the mood.

Listen to the MP3 (27MB) here.
Get the podcast feed here.
Read it at Ultraverse here.

Podcast numbers update

It really does seem to work.  Podcasting can drive traffic to your site.  Between chapters one, two and three of The Wreath and the short, Always Becoming, I've received almost four hundred visitors--downloading the mp3's--in the last week. 

Looking at user-agent (something that identifies the visiting piece of software), ninety-six of the accesses have come from the iTunes player.

Chapter 3 added to the podcast

I just posted the audio version of The Wreath chapter 3.  Update your podcast or download the mp3 directly from Lykeion Books.

http://www.lykeionbooks.com/thewreath/

New gear!

What a difference better recording equipment makes.  I think so anyway.  Here's a sample of Chloe and I recording the first page of The Wreath chapter 3.  I still have to work on the balance in volume and tone, and I think it will work better if both of us are recording at the same time.  Right now, Chloe goes first, says her lines, then I record and paste in her lines over mine--and it's obvious that we're doing this when you listen. 

Listen:  First page of The Wreath Chapter 3 (mp3, 850kb)

Here's my new setup:

Marshall MXL 990 Condenser Microphone with Shockmount   ($49)
Behringer UB802 Eurorack UB802 Mixer  ($49)
Miscellaneous cables and mic stand  (~$30)

I bought all of this at Amazon.com.  It's extraordinary what you can do without ever leaving your home nowadays.  Although I drive into the Boston area every weekday, I'm this close to being a hermit!

Some numbers coming in...

I have four mp3's in my podcast so far.  Yeah, I know, not much.  I'm hoping to do one or two more this weekend.  (It's supposed to snow tomorrow, so it sounds like a good day to settle in front of a microphone--my new microphone, a Marshall MXL-990, which looks like something Edward R. Murrow would have used).

Here's what I have so far:

DiminisherOfPeace2.mp3
TheWreath_Chapter1_64.mp3
TheWreath_Chapter2_64.mp3
AlwaysBecoming.mp3 

I'm hosting the last three over at the Lykeion Books site where I get web server logs and statistics.  Here are some interesting numbers: 

I put up two mp3's, chapters one and two of The Wreath, on February first, and in that time (10 days) there have been 73 downloads of chapter 1 and 61 downloads of chapter 2.  I posted a cast of  "Always Becoming" yesterday and there have already been 18 downloads!

I've also been loading the description and summary fields in the feed with URLs and site information in the hopes that some of these listeners will come back here.  So far, with Diminisher, I can't say that much of the traffic came to the0phrastus, but it looks like a lot of it went to www.theharrow.com to check out the readable version of the story.  It's still the third most accessed story at The Harrow.  I'd prefer it if they came through here on their way to the story, but, hey, any traffic to something with your name on it is a good thing, right?

Podcast update

I recorded "Always Becoming" last night.  Took me about two hours to read, edit and upload it.  When I have time, I'll submit it to all the podcast services.

I'm serving this one from the Lykeion Books site on which I have full logging and Web Trends, so I can track how many people downloaded the mp3.

It'll also be interesting to see if I can match Diminisher of Peace's numbers, and get some traffic to the readable version of the story.

Listen: http://www.lykeionbooks.com/audio/AlwaysBecoming.mp3

Publicity through Podcasting

Me and my blog with a couple a podcasts... 

To start, let me direct your attention to this lovely piece of visualization:

(Click to see the full version)

The image isn't to scale because if it were, my blog wouldn't appear on the page.  I could have placed a callout with a line pointing to one colored pixel, representing my blog in the universe, but even that would be a horrible twist of the facts.

My place in the blogosphere in relation to podcasting is sort of like those pictures of our solar system with the scale corrected.  There's Jupiter, gigantic in the center, Saturn, the other planets.  That little tiny blue spec is earth.  Where's the center of it all, the sun?  Then you notice the glowing orange edge of the page with a very slight curve, a fiery bleed of light that you didn't at first register.  Ah, there it is, good old Helios.  Couldn't fit it on the page and maintain the scale. 

Here, is this a little better?

(Click to see the full version)

Let's forget about scale and concentrate on two aspects of this diagram:  the lines going from podcast listeners to my blog and The Harrow, and the fact that the two universes do not overlap.

The lines represent the channels, podcast listeners who found my mp3 file and either came to my blog and followed the link to the story, or went directly to The Harrow to read it.

Some interesting facts: 

The Harrow published my story, "Diminsher of Peace" in the September issue.  I recorded myself reading it in August, posted the MP3 and XML right after the story appeared online, and then submitted the feed to iTunes, Podcast.net, and a few others.

Here's my story: http://www.theharrow.com/journal/viewarticle.php?id=255&layout=html

Here's a link to The Harrow's statistics page, which lists the top-most accessed stories, reviews and articles in the zine:
http://www.theharrow.com/journal/statistics.php?op=top_articles

Notice that "Diminisher of Peace" is the third most accessed story.  Is that crazy, or what?  Sure, I think it's a damn fine story, but...ranked third?  Where are all these readers coming from?  (You may also notice that there's only one other story published in September in the list.  There are no stories in the list published after September 2005).

Let's move on to the overlap:

There isn't any.  I didn't really cover this well in the diagram, but by no overlap, I mean that I don't think anyone in the podcast universe even knew who I was before finding some guy named Chris Howard who read his story and submitted it to iTunes.  I'm willing to bet that not one of the people who found my blog by way of the podcast had ever set there eyes on it before.

By joining the podcast universe with my tiny blog--even it was a thin thread, a small percentage of people looking for fiction podcasts, it's a new connection, new visitors, possibly return visitors.  Podcasting seems to be a way to get traffic from an audience that was completely unaware of me.

There are millions of people out there downloading and listening to podcasts. An article on podcasting at MSNBC in April 2005, stated that according to a Pew Research poll, "more than 6 million people" have listened to a podcast. This was almost a year ago:

Twenty-nine percent of U.S. adults who own MP3 players like Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod say they have downloaded podcast programs from the Internet, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found.

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7374976/

My point in posting this is to share my opinion that recording your writing may bring traffic to your site (or the publisher's), and to ask anyone who reads this if they have similar experiences with podcasting, or if they've read or know of someone who has.

There are a lot of things I haven't tried yet or looked into, such as how many fiction podcasts are there in iTunes and the others?  What's the demand?  Is there a continual listenership?  Will they come back to my podcast for more?  I am working on increasing the quality of my recordings, and my reading.  I'd also llike to start recording everything I can and adding it to the podcast.  Time, time...

Here's some more info:

Audible's Podcast Tool Tallies Listeners

Audible Inc. is introducing a tool to help advertisers measure how many people are listening to podcasts, the Internet-based audio shows that are downloaded to listeners' computers.

Link

Media Bistro article on podcasting:

Why Podcast? And Also, Why Not.
http://www.mediabistro.com/mbtoolbox/writing_online/why_podcast_and_also_why_not_32046.asp

Podcast update

I've posted audio versions of chapter 1 and 2 of The Wreath (left hand column), and submitted both to iTunes.  I'm waiting for my cover change to go into distribution before pinging all the podcast sites--and by then Chloe and I will have two more chapters up.  I'll also be posting text versions of chapter 2-4 in a few days.  You can read chapter 1 in my Fiction section (link on the right).

Listen here:
Chapt. 1 The Ferryman (3.6MB, time: 8:04)
Chapt. 2 The Girl who was Afraid of Water (17MB, time: 36:17)

Podcasting with Chloe

Chloe and I spent a few hours reading The Wreath and recording ourselves Sunday afternoon, and I think it turned out well.  We talked about who would read particular parts, and we ended up going with a fairly clear break down:  I read all the narrative and character parts, and Chloe reads the introduction, the chapter titles and all of Kassandra's dialogue.  So far, it's been a lot more work for me, since Kassandra isn't really in chapter 1, and has maybe seven or eight lines in chapter 2. 

I'll post the chapter 1 and 2 in mp3 in a bit. Here's the intro with Chloe saying "Lykeion Books presents The Wreath... "  I think it sounds great.  My reading, on the other hand, needs some work.  Alice tells me that I sound too serious, back off, lighten it up a little.

Podcasting again

I put up chapter one of The Wreath in audio on the Lykeion site and over on the left.  It'll show up under iTunes and other podcasting services.  Let me know what you think.  This is my first try at goofing with mixing different tracks, and I don't think it came out half bad. (Listen now - 8MB)