Today, it begins...

I've been promising myself to begin keeping a blog for some time now. I may not post everyday but, then again, I may post more than once on some days.

When I edited and wrote for a newsletter at work, I had wanted to write 'whenever' under 'how many times published a year' but that was vetoed by the powers-that-be. Now that I'm commissar of this blog, I can do that. Heh, heh, heh...

Ever since I was introduced to LibriVox (thanks to a co-worker), I've discovered books I never knew existed. Since we can only record books that are in the Public Domain in the U.S. (which is pre-1923 except for items like government documents) there are, of course, plenty of the classics. But it's been fun reading books that were on the best-seller list in the early 1900's (yes, they had best-seller lists then) and finding some great stories.

If you haven't checked us out, please do. We are all volunteers so you will find a variety of levels of experience -- from novice like me to actual professionals who like to volunteer, too. Readers, proof-listeners and listeners are from all over the world and I've met some terrific people. If you're shy about reading (we have an entire thread devoted to 'what if I suck?') you can always volunteer as a proof-listener. If you don't like the way a particular book was read by another volunteer, you can always volunteer to read it yourself. As an example, we have at least 5 versions of Pride and Prejudice in our catalog. One is a group version and the others are solos. We call this offering our readers 'choice of voice.'

I've also become involved in a small company called Iambik Audiobooks founded by the same man, Hugh McGuire, who founded LibriVox. This site is devoted to recording books from smaller independent publishers that may otherwise not offer their books as audio. The finished products are offered for $5 to $6 -- unabridged. A bargain for audiobooks. All audiobooks are sold as online downloads (instructions are on the site) so they can be downloaded to your computer and then played as MP3 or M4b files from your computer or loaded onto your iPod or MP3 player for listening on the go.

Right now we have more narrators than books and, in most cases, the authors themselves choose the narrator from audition recordings that are sent to them via their publisher. It's competitive (we have lots of professionals on board) and exciting to be involved with this company. My current project is proof-listening a children's book loaded with illustrations. The illustrations will be made available as a download with the book when it's completed.

Gotta run now. Henry James is waiting for me... my next LibriVox solo.