Pointers on Publishing - Do you hear what I hear?

No, I am not singing the Christmas carol, but I am singing a tune that I hope you are noticing.

Have you looked around and realised that more and more people are plugging their ears these days? I don't know if they are blocking out something or listening to something, but either way, there seems to be a number of people walking around with audio of some form or another at different times of the day.

Whether it is on the bus, while jogging, walking to work or having lunch. It is not only the younger folks doing it either. What this means to me is that audio is a renewed and developing craze that can be taken advantage of as a marketing tool for your books.

At one point, audio books were done by major publishing houses like Random House but now the opportunity has opened up for audio books to be done via Amazon. A recent development in Amazon's history, this has created a new wave of income-earning potential for authors. Amazon has collaborated with audible.com to create Whispersync for voice. Check it out here http://www.audible.com/mt/wfs/narrow. In essence, this app allows you to switch between listening and reading, so you never have to put a good book down as they say. Remember now, that audio is the only form of media that allows you to do many things at the same time, i.e. multitasking.

It does not require your full attention at any one time and with Immersion reading, you can watch your book come alive with text highlighting. Great for children's books as a tool to teach words and pronunciation.

I do recall in a previous article titled 'Creative ways to market poetry', I suggested to authors that using audio by repurposing their poems into songs or even recording the poems as an audio file and putting them on a CD or DVD are great ways to market their books as opposed to traditional ink on paper. While it is said that audio books are best for fiction authors, there is still room for other authors to take advantage of this medium as a promotional tool.

Authors who write children's books should take advantage of using audio and children, much like adults, learn in various ways. Using audio with the written words is a creative way to get them hooked to the books, especially for those in the preschool age group. Printed books can carry with them the facility to have audio attached to the story or each story in the book by simply the press of a button.

Another approach is to have the CD with the book which can include games, puzzles and interactive media that offers the added educational aspect to reading. This is not a novelty, and I am sure these types of books can be found in the bookstores. How prevalent they are is still to be decided, but it is something to breathe life into as a way of encouraging young readers to get excited about reading.

All authors should have a blog. Did you know that you can turn your blogs into audio? Yup! And there is a free application that can do that. Check out http://www.odiogo.com/.

They can give your text voice and legs. The legs part is crucial, as most people may not have the time to sit and read your blog, but are open to downloading it on their iPod or MP4 and listening to it at their convenience, even while in traffic! Your text automatically becomes a podcast which can be published via RSS feeds and pushed to other media such as iTunes. Did I happen to mention that all this is for free?

Now you may be all excited and thinking, 'where can I get content to get started?' That's easy. I mentioned one already, your blogs. If you have done webinars, you have some audio there and yes, the audio can be extracted from the visuals if using PowerPoint. Have you written articles? That's useful information too, and, of course, if you have written a book, that's even better. Go for it! Don't have any content? Record yourself speaking on a topic that you're an expert in or interview someone who is.

I remember listening to motivational speakers like Jim Rohn, Les Brown and Robert Kiyosaki on audio. They saw the vision many years ago and used audio as another avenue to reach their audience and it worked. Listening to those well-known speakers is a great way to start and end your day when travelling and can certainly change your demeanour for the entire day and, can I say, even impact your life. They used audio as a way to supplement their books or as a stand alone.

A few quick tips when using audio for books:

1. It is estimated that 20 pages equates to one hour of audio.

2. Make sure the audio is as close to the original audio text as possible - even if it is edited.

3. If you don't have a good voice, seek out the professionals who can provide the voice-over you need.

4. Don't compromise quality. If you're using your computer and microphone, test out the quality first. If it sounds choppy and filled with static, get a professional microphone or use a professional studio to avoid having unwanted sound interrupting the quality of the audio.

5. Recommended dimensions for doing a cover for your CD or DVD is 1448 x 1448.

Want to give audio a test run? Try http://www.cueprompter.com/. This works just like the tele-prompter on TV that scrolls when you speak and you can adjust the speed and the size of the font as well.

Now that you have the basic tools, play around and see what you can come up with. Record your own song if you feel creative for the Christmas, test out the avenues for promoting it to your audience and see how many hits you get. You may be surprised!

Corine La Font is an author, certified author assistant and online book marketing specialist. Get a copy of her book at amzn.to/TFHQka. Tune in to her radio programme at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/helpdeskja. She can be reached at corine@helpdeskja.com or visit her website at www.helpdeskja.com