Podiobooks: Free Serialized Audiobooks Create an Audience for Authors--Filmmakers Take Note

It seems like I've hit some sort of ceiling as of late. I've gone through my RSS reader (Sage, in Firefox) cleaning out all blogs that don't really help me write for the low budget filmmaker. As much as I've hated to do it, I'm trying to clean house so I spend what little time I have properly focused. There are a ton of blogs about Hollywood and it's films, so those had to go. Film commentary blogs get a dirt nap. Movie review blogs go bye-bye. I still have plenty to look at, but now at least I won't be distracted by stuff that is off-topic.

I'm finally trying to get into listening to podcasts, since I have a twenty minute commute to work, and this is valuable time I could be filling. I feel the best podcast is still Lance Weiler's "This Conference is Being Recorded", which is so progressive and forward-thinking along the tech/filmmaking route, that we all should be listening. It's phone interviews basically, and Lance gets some great guests who all tend to be on the cutting edge of something, and how homegrown flicks can benefit. I have yet to find a superior resource.

While listening to another podcast, Michael Bekemeyer's Scatterpod, I came across his interview with author J.C. Hutchins. Hutchins is the writer and reader of the 7th Son audiobooks, a serialized trilogy available for free on a site called Podiobooks. This site contains many authors who release their books as an mp3 file, one chapter at a time. Once all chapters are out, they remain available on the site. You can have the chapters sent to you, as well as donate to the author via PayPal (75% of which they receive). It's an interesting model of distribution.

So, how does this help filmmakers? My first thought is to turn your screenplay into an audiobook, and put it on Podiobooks. You won't make any money (well, maybe a little), but you'll get some notice, and you can promote the fact that you'll be turning your story into a movie. That should excite fans, creating some buzz for your film. This takes more work, of course, and maybe a ghostwriter, but could be yet another avenue to get the word out and add another leg to support your audience creation goals.

If not, there are a lot of free books to listen to...