At last weekend’s LA Times Book Festival, there was talk about the continued growth of audio books. Probably due to new technology like the iPod. Seemed to be a glimmer of hope amidst all the gloom and doom about the traditional publishing world’s downward spiral.

Since many authors are now self-publishing (and there are more titles being published than ever) they’re trying new ways to market their titles, like Social Media, Websites and Audio Samples; Little teasers to let the reader (listener) sample the book. Could be a new voice over opportunity.

Penny Sasevieri, author of Red Hot Internet Publicity, wrote a blog about audio samples for authors, called Ten Ways to Use Audio Samples to Sell More Books.

-Tracy Pattin

Here’s an excerpt:

“We all know that audio can be a powerful way to engage your audience, but can it really help you make a book sale? You bet it can. Here are some ways you can use audio to help sell your book:

1. Audio book samples: do a reading from your book, maybe a chapter or two and load it onto your website (if you don’t think you’re a good reader, have someone else do it or hire some voice-over talent)”

2. Audio on your website: while I’m not in favor of having an audio file load when your website does, there’s some merit to having a short little audio “hello, welcome to my site message” read more …