Podibooks: Self-published Audiobooks

Do you know what a podibook is? Think of it as a 21-century version of Dickens’s serialized novels – for free. Tech-savvy writers have by-passed print publishing entirely, posting chapter-by-chapter audio versions of their books online. But here is an interesting twist: Scott Stigler recently received a Publisher’s Weekly starred review for his novel Infected, published in print by Crown. But he’s been posting the podiobook for free on Podiobooks.com, the primary podibook distributor. Stigler is not the first to make the jump from podibook to print. If you’d like to learn more about the phenomenon, subscribe to the Podiobooks blog, where I first read about Stigler. Or read this New York Times article about Stigler & podiobooks. Currently, there are only four teen titles listed on the site, and just two original children’s titles on Podiobooks.com. But this is a trend to watch…

Image by Heidi Schumann for The New York Times