Tax season is once again upon us, and that means it’s time to take stock of how my adventures in self-publishing have progressed this year. Several of my fellow authors in the Podcast Fiction Tribe have taken the lead in disclosing their sales numbers and earnings from self-publishing (hat-tips to Abigail Hilton and Matthew Wayne Selznick), and in the interest of transparency I’m going to do likewise.
Hello, everyone!
Some of you who’ve been following me for a long time may remember that chrislester.org used to look very different. When this was just a private blog for my own scattered ramblings about the world, I found that I didn’t have that much to say. But a lot has changed since that old site went dark.
For one thing, publishing isn’t what it used to be. With vendors like Smashwords and Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing providing a direct link between authors and readers, there has never been a better time to bring my fiction to a broad audience.
There also has never been a better time to be in audio production. Making audiobooks and moving them around used to be expensive — remember those huge boxes of CDs that used to fill the shelves at Borders? — but with the widespread availability of broadband Internet access and 4G phone connections, people can not only easily access audiobooks, they can even stream them directly to their handheld devices. We’ve become sort of inured to this, but when you stop and think about it, it’s pretty incredible. And with audio content easier than ever to access, that means that the demand for it is increasing — and that means big opportunities for authors and producers to reach a vastly increased audience.
This year I’m focused on breaking out from the world of podcasting into the exciting, expanding world of professional audio production. I’ll share my journey with you here as it develops.
And, of course, if you enjoy my rants and ramblings, there will be some of those here, too.
So welcome aboard — and as we say in Metamor City, keep it on the bright side!