Matthew Wayne Selznick

Hi Matthew,

I'm the one who asked that last question during your podcast-a-thon, about buying the book vs. hearing the podcast.  I thought I would elaborate a bit and throw it open for further discussion.

First, I have a voracious podcast appetite.  Ever since the first podcasts I heard in 2005 I have been filling up my MP3 player every day.  I spend a lot of time commuting and driving for work (4+ hours/day) so I have lots of subscriptions as you might imagine.  So far I have heard everything ever podcast by Sigler, Hutchins, Lafferty, you, Myke Bartlett, Max Grant, Jack Mangan, Patrick McLean, James Patrick Kelly, John Lenahan, and Bill DeSmedt.  And that's only the PodioBooks.com authors.  Most recently I've devoured Seth Harwood and Greg Crites' works.

Up to this point I had assumed that the best way to support the authors was through assisting with publicity and donating to Podiobooks.  I've never been able to justify purchasing a book, in spite of my desire to help the author, because I don't read books when unabridged audio books are available.  I've even slogged through a Clancy novel on cassette tape from the library before.  But the overriding factor has always been cost.  Library = free but when I run through all of their selection podcasts are next in line.  I'll buy a paperback next, and then as a last resort I'll pony up for something from Audible.com (but that is rare).  That is the order in which I make my selections, and it really does have to do with cost.  If Audible.com were cheaper I might never buy another book (except for more technical tomes). 

So, as much as I love your story, I am very inclined to do one of two things:  1) Buy the book, *OR* 2) donate for the podcast.  Not both.

So that's why I asked the question.  I am still willing to buy the book, but I don't collect books (I resell almost everything I ever read) so I would need some other compelling something to incentivize me to do so. 

Yeah, I know, I'm being a hard case, but I want to help and yet can't bring myself to justify it.

P.S.  I certainly understand what you said about showing the publishers the power of inependent authors but haven't Sigler and Hutchins already paved the way there?  Haven't you already been published?  Besides, like I said, if I wanted to send a message to the publishing industry it would be to make more books available via audio and at lower price points.  I don't think that is exactly what most authors are looking for though (yet)

ok, enough of my rambling…

dixonge said:

So, as much as I love your story, I am very inclined to do one of two things:  1) Buy the book, *OR* 2) donate for the podcast.  Not both.

P.S.  I certainly understand what you said about showing the publishers the power of inependent authors but haven't Sigler and Hutchins already paved the way there?  Haven't you already been published?  Besides, like I said, if I wanted to send a message to the publishing industry it would be to make more books available via audio and at lower price points.  I don't think that is exactly what most authors are looking for though (yet)

Hi Dixonge,

I really appreciate your writing in the forums, and elaborating in greater detail what can be hard to communicate in a chat room.

I appreciate that cost can be a factor in the consumption of any content — books, music, film.  I also appreciate that you see it as a choice between donating to podiobooks.com on my behalf, or buying a book, but find it hard to justify doing both.

Frankly, I want you to enjoy my work in the format that best suits you.  That's why “Brave Men Run” has been available in print, e-book, and free podcast editions since November of 2005, and why I'll likely always release content in multiple formats.  So if books aren't for you… no problem!

Speaking from the mercenary side of things, if you enjoy audio and you want to give the author (this author, anyway) the best possible return, you should purchase the MP3 Audio CD version of the podcast from Lulu.com.  I get about $6.79 from every sale.  Or you could donate about $12.00 to Podiobooks.com — after their well-deservered cut and PayPal takes a bit, it works out to about the same.

The reason I asked people to buy the book on July 13 from Amazon was to help make an impact.  Yes, Scott Sigler and Seth Harwood have had successful Amazon campaigns in the past, but that doesn't mean traditional media distribution companies have entirely received the message.  Any author who uses new media (not just podcasting) needs to do something like this every time a book is published to continue to hammer the message home:  the audience is the primary arbitrator of quality, not the publisher.

That was job one for me on Sunday.  Job two was to draw attention to Swarm Press, so that they can thrive as a small independent publisher.  Job three was to attract attention to “Brave Men Run” and myself — not for a publishing deal, but for the many other licensing possibilities out there: film, television, comics, games, etc.

I completely understand your desire to do what best advocates your own needs — lower priced audio books.  Imagine a day when traditional publishers offer their books as free podcasts because they're shown — again and again — that free podcasts sell print books.  You'd get what you want, and they'd get what they want!  :-)  That  is a reason to buy print books from podcast authors.