Thursday, March 31, 2011

Journal - Audiobook Heaven Prospering

`Audiobook Heaven continues to grow and prosper. In January, I averaged about 40 hits per day, and in February the average was about 42. March isn’t quite over yet, but I think it’s safe to say the average hits will be over 60. It’s been a pretty phenomenal month. My record for one day was 79 hits on a day back in January. In March, that record was broken 5 different times, including three days that went over 90 hits. The new record is 97. I’m continueing to get lots of new audiobooks in the mail. I just got three books from AudioGo, including a couple of Doctor Who books that I’ve really been looking forward to. I have a new L Ron Hubbard book here from Galaxy Press, and another one on the way. I also have a book coming from someone I just met. I got a press release from Audible.com on Monday that told about a new audiobook that’s going on sale. It sounded like a good book, and the narrator’s contact information was included in the release, so I emailed him and asked for a review copy. He emailed me back pretty quickly and said “Sure!” Joe Bevilacqua has been doing audio work for 40 years, mostly in radio from what I can tell. He’s done a bunch of shows on NPR and is just beginning to release them on CD. Joe told me that he has 45 audio productions coming out this year, and asked if he could send me copies of them. I had to tell him that honestly I might not be able to get through that many, but he said he would send a few and we will go from there. In addition, it’s almost time to put in another order to Blackstone Audio. I’ve been getting 6 books a month from them, but I think I’ll have to cut back to 4 in April because of all the other things I’ve been getting. I also made contact with another publisher this week, MacMillan Audio. I looked through their catalog and they have a lot of good audiobooks. MacMillan has some pretty specific guidelines for requesting review copies. They emailed me the procedure, which is no guarantee that they’ll send me any books, but I take it as a good sign. I’ll request a couple of books and see what happens. I’ve been giving some semi-serious thought to trying to find someone to contribute reviews to Audiobook Heaven on a regular or semi-regular basis. I’m not really sure how to work that out though. I can’t pay anyone of course, but I can offer free audiobooks, kind of like the deal I have with Susan Dunman. I think the hardest part would be finding someone that I’m comfortable with and that I can trust. Just something I’ve been tossing around a little. So that’s what’s going on at Audiobook-Heaven. Can’t wait to see what April brings!

3 comments:

  1. Why not just slow down on accepting the hundreds of audio books?
    Taking on someone else to do reviewing? (yuk) That sounds more like audiobook hell, than audiobook HEAVEN.

    Maybe a name change is in the cards to? :P

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  2. So what did April bring? Besides wind and snow??? teehee

    Sixteen days into April and ya got nothing? hmmph! :P

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  3. Almost one month and no post?

    Nothing happening or nothing to write home about? :)

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