Why Audiobooks?

     Many of my bestselling ebooks are also offered in audio format.  Listening to an audiobook is a different experience than reading the same book the usual way.
     First, deciding whether to read a book or listen to the same book in audio format is a bit like deciding whether you want your ice cream in a cup or a cone.  A lot of it has to do with the way the material is presented, and also the environment you'll be in when you consume it.  There are advantages and disadvantages to both.   With an audiobook, the main upside is that your eyes and hands are free to do something else while you're experience the story--such as driving, for example, or doing your laundry.
     The following are the most common reasons people listen to audiobooks, or at least the reasons they start listening to them.
- Commuting back and forth to work via car, bus, train, ferry, etc.  Great for reducing boredom and alleviating stress, such as when stuck in traffic.
- Exercising/working out/hiking/walking
- Performing repetitive tasks such as housework/cooking/gardening, etc.
- Doing hobby or craft work such as knitting, painting, pottery, modeling, etc.
- Traveling on long trips by car, bus, train, or plane (audiobooks are very popular with truck drivers)
- Taking a bath or sunbathing, when the light isn't conducive to reading, you want to lay back and relax, or you simply don't want to risk getting your book or ereader or tablet wet.
- Experiencing a story in a group setting (with family or friends while on a road trip, for example).
- Learning English (or the language in which the book is narrated) - hearing the tone and pronunciation of words can help learners become more natural speakers.
- Increasing your "reading" time - in general, audiobooks allow you to consume new material at times you otherwise could not.  Many book reviewers have started listening to them to increase their output.

     As I said, these are the main reasons that people start listening to audiobooks.  What many folks discover after they try one or two of them is that the experience is quite different than reading, and that it has one unexpected advantage:  the ice cream "cone" itself tastes good, too!  A great narrator can add to the drama as the story unfolds and the overall impression that various characters make.
     When I was in the sixth grade, I was lucky enough to have a teacher read a novel aloud to us for 30 minutes every day when we came back from lunch.  One was the bestselling thriller Failsafe.  To simply say he "read" the book to us is doing the man a great disservice.  He had a lot of acting experience, and he didn't just read the book, he performed it for us, almost like a stage play. The story made such a powerful, lasting impression on me that I've never forgotten it. I can still vividly remember various scenes and bits of dialogue, and that was almost 50 years ago!  A good narrator can  definitely enhance a story, increase the dramatic impact with his/her voice.
     Of course, there are downsides to audiobooks, such as the fact that you may not like the way the narrator interprets the characters or the story. But I've found that if the narrator is skilled, most readers will enjoy audiobooks and the hands-free, eyes-free, group listening advantages they provide.  I spend a great deal of time auditioning narrators and choosing just the right one for each book, the one that I think is the perfect fit and brings the most to the story.
     So, in summary, please don't think I'm pushing audiobooks on you, or that I believe they are superior in any way to good, old-fashioned reading.  I simply want to provide all my books in audio format so that those who want them can have them.  It also pleases me to see my work interpreted and "acted out" by talented people--an audiobook is an interpretation of a book, similar to a movie or stage play.  As an author, I would be thrilled to see every one of my books adapted in all these different forms.
     And who knows?  If you've never listened to an audiobook before, maybe you'll try one and discover a new form of entertainment with benefits that will surprise you.  To try a three hour audiobook totally free of charge, you can listen online or download Lust, Money & Murder, Book 1 on SoundCloud here.

#FreeDailyReadingFix - Wild Child 1, Part 8

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Chapter 1.10

The next morning, Kyle’s father’s secretary, Sheila, showed up at the door of his English class.  Kyle felt a paralyzing sense of dread pass over him.  Professor Morelli walked over to the door.  Sheila said something to him in a low voice.

Morelli turned around and scanned the classroom.  His eyes focused on Kyle.

“Mr. Dunlap?” he said.

Kyle got up, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and walked over to the door.  Sheila motioned him outside and Morelli pulled the door shut, leaving them alone in the hallway.

“Your dad wants to talk to you,” Sheila said.  “He said it’s extremely urgent.”

Kyle nodded and followed her down the corridor, his heart pounding harder with each step.  The situation brought back a painful memory.  The last time he had been called out of class was when he was eleven years old, when his mother had died of a massive stroke.  The assistant principal had simply told him that his father wanted to talk to him; he didn’t learn that his mother was dead until he reached the hospital.

When he and Sheila came around the corner where the English department offices were located, he was surprised to find his father standing in the hallway, next to a small room reserved for seminars.  Kyle had assumed that he was waiting in his office in the engineering building.

Kyle Senior thanked Sheila as she continued down the hall and out one of the exits, leaving them alone in the hallway.  Something was definitely wrong.  His father’s face was drawn and cheesy looking.

“Son,” Kyle Senior said, his voice strained, “I want you to know, I didn’t have anything to do with this.”

Kyle swallowed and glanced at the seminar room door, which was closed.

“With what?”

“There are some people here who want to talk to you.  They’re from the—”

The door opened.  A well-built man in a dark blue suit looked Kyle over, then turned to Kyle’s father.  “We’d like to speak with him alone, professor, if you don’t mind.”

“No,” Kyle Senior said, looking guiltily at Kyle.

“Come on in, son,” the man said.  He put a firm hand on Kyle’s shoulder and guided him into the small room.  Something about the way the hand felt told Kyle that it had spent much of its life guiding people into small rooms.

There was another man sitting at the conference table. He also wore a suit, but he didn’t have the athletic, clean-cut look of the first man—he wore glasses, had a sagging belly, and his brown hair was a bit disheveled.  He merely nodded to Kyle.

The brawny man motioned to a chair directly across from the other man.

“Why don’t you have a seat?” he said to Kyle.

Kyle guardedly set down his backpack and complied.  The brawny man sat down next to the other man.  They both just sat there, side-by-side, gazing at Kyle as if they were sizing him up.

“Mr. Dunlap,” the brawny one said, “we represent the United States government.  We understand that you know the location of this unusual water that the chemistry department has been testing here.  Is that true?”

Kyle looked at him for a moment, then at the other man.  “What are you, CIA agents or something?”

The two men exchanged glances.  “That’s really none of your concern,” the brawny one continued.  “Do you or do you not know where the water sample came from?”

“Why do you want to know?”

They glanced at each other again.  “Listen, son,” the brawny one said, “you could be in a lot of trouble here, and I would strongly advise you to cooperate with us.”

“Kyle,” the other man said in a much gentler tone, “that water is very...special.  If it fell into the wrong hands, it could be very dangerous.  You don’t want that to happen, do you?”

Kyle let out a short laugh.  “I’m not in the fifth grade.  I know all about the specific gravity being greater than one, and the isotope theory.”

The two men exchanged glances again, both looking surprised.

“What do you want it for?” Kyle asked.  “To make a weapon or something?”

The brawny man’s face seemed to turn to stone.  “Now you listen up, son.  We don’t have time for any crap.  You can either tell us where this water came from or—”

The smart-looking man touched the other one’s wrist.  “Let me handle this, will you?”

The brawny man glared at Kyle for a second.

Brawn and Brains, Kyle thought.

“We can see that you’re a bright young man,” Brains said, in an academic tone that reminded Kyle of his father.  “I’m sorry if I seemed condescending.  Of course you’d want to know what we intend to do with your discovery, and—”

“It’s not my discovery,” Kyle interrupted.

“Oh?”

“It’s nobody’s ‘discovery.’  It’s just water from a spring, that’s all.”

“Well,” he said, smiling, “I’m glad that you feel that way.  And if that’s the case, there shouldn’t be any problem telling us where it is.”

Kyle looked at Brawn, then back at Brains, groping for some excuse.

“We know about your friend, Kyle,” Brawn said.

Kyle tried not to show any reaction.

“Where is she?” Brains asked.

Kyle was silent.

Brawn slowly rose to his feet.  “Look, son, you can either tell us where she is now or—”

“Kyle,” Brains broke in, “it’s very important that she get immediate medical attention.  We really have no idea what her, or anyone’s, reaction might be to a new water isotope.  I know you don’t want her to fall ill, and neither do we.”

Kyle chuckled softly.  There was greed in both men’s eyes.  “You don’t care about what happens to her.  All you want to do is see what it did to her and find out if you can do it to somebody else.”

They glanced at each other again, as if they were surprised at Kyle’s audacity.  Brains took off his glasses and polished the lenses with his tie.  “I can see that you have a very jaded view of your government,” he said, “but we really are interested in the new isotope for humanitarian purposes.”

“Oh, is that so?  Like what?”

“Well,” Brains said, putting his glasses back on, “there are a lot of possible applications.  It may be useful in medicine...agriculture...environmental cleanup...”

“Yeah.  And it also might be fun to dump it into the water supply of some unsuspecting country you want to manipulate.”

Brawn took a step forward.  “I’ve had enough of your smart-ass college-boy crap!  You can either tell us where this water came from and where your friend is, or you can be placed under arrest right now.”

Kyle just sat there.  He was scared to death, but he thought they were bluffing.  “Is there a law against knowing where a spring is and not telling?”

Brawn’s eyes became so focused and intense that he looked like the Terminator.  “You don’t know what you’re dealing with, kid.  When it comes to matters of national security, the law doesn’t mean a damn th—”

“Stop!” Brains said, raising his voice for the first time.

“But he—”

“Sit down and let me handle this before you say something you wish you hadn’t.”

Brawn grudgingly lowered himself back into his chair, but his piercing blue eyes stayed riveted on Kyle’s.

“Now there’s no need for us to get in a big scrap over this.  You’re absolutely right, Kyle—we can’t force you to cooperate with us.  You have to do so willingly.  So you just go on back to your English class and think about what we’ve talked about here.  You seem like a man of high principles.  Think about the right thing to do in this situation.  Your friend may become seriously ill.  The isotope you know the whereabouts of could fall into the wrong hands and be used for purposes I can’t imagine you, or any other thinking human being, supporting.”  He shrugged.  “It’s really very simple.  You can choose to stop that from happening, or you can choose not to stop it from happening.  It’s up to you.”

He rose and offered his hand to Kyle.  “Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.”  He glanced over at Brawn, who simply scowled.

Kyle reluctantly shook hands, then picked up his backpack and went out the door.  His father was still standing outside.

“Kyle, listen.  I—"

Kyle brushed past him and kept moving.

Next Part =>

The Mysterious Disappearance of Kurt Kramer Released in Audio

Narrator Sue Sharp

The Mysterious Disappearance of Kurt Kramer, a romantic paranormal thriller about a 16 year old boy who mysteriously disappears during a family vacation, has just been released in audio format on Audible, iTunes, Amazon USA and Amazon UK.  Sue Sharp, the voice artist who narrated Lust, Money & Murder, also did the narration for this book, and she did an excellent job.  I'm quite sure that listeners will be impressed by her work and thoroughly engaged in the story. I hope you'll give it a listen.  Although classified by publishers as "young adult," I believe many readers of all ages will remember their teenage years and enjoy this unusual tale.

Synopsis:

Seventeen year-old Rachel is crazy about Kurt, but she’s not sure the feelings are mutual. When his parents invite her and his best friend on a family vacation in Aruba, they see a meteor come down on the beach.  When they go to investigate, Kurt vanishes.  He soon begins to communicate with Rachel and his family in bizarre ways that shake everyone to the core. Rachel realizes that Kurt is stuck between worlds...and that she’s the only one who can bring him back.

Reviews (of ebook): 

"Mike Wells has written an imaginative thriller and left us hanging on the precipice of a magnificent mystery." - Dan Glover

"I really like Mike Wells's style, and this story did not disappoint. The pace is fantastic, and the plot is engaging. I could not put the book down. It did it for me, once again!" - Johanna K. Pitcairn

"Mike Wells knows exactly how to craft a short story. It captures mystery, intrigue and a summer vacation. Great writing." - Ed Blythe

"This book is a combination of sci-fi, mystery and a childhood romance all rolled into one gripping package." - Janice Spina

How 3,000 Copies of My Book Found Their Way from the Trash Bin to the #1 Spot on the Amazon Kindle Bestseller List

The story of how Wild Child, one of my early novels, was published is almost as wild as the story itself.

The idea for the book came to me in a dream.   I started madly writing it down the next morning, and  couldn’t stop.  In 40 days of frenzied typing at the keyboard, I finished the entire book.

The first literary agent I sent it to was Laura Rennert, at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency in Manhattan.  She loved it.  Laura sent it out to three of the biggest YA (young adult) publishers in the USA.  They loved it, too.  I was thrilled—my very first YA book, and I had already found an agent and willing publishers.  My baby was about to be read by thousands, and perhaps millions, of people.   It was a dream come true.

“But,” she told me on the phone, “there’s one problem with your book.”

“What’s that?” I said, my euphoria fading.

“It’s too short.  Can you add another fifteen thousand words?”

Fifteen thousand more words?  I was dumbfounded.  I didn’t understand why I had to add 15,000 words to a book that seemed perfect as it was.

“It has to do with the cost of paper,” Laura explained, "and retail price points, and so on.  It’s complicated.”

I spent the next two months struggling to make Wild Child a longer book.  Nothing about the process felt right to me, but I like most writers, I badly wanted to see it published.  When I finally finished padding it with all the extra words, I gave the manuscript to all my friends and trusted readers to read again.  “Mike,” one of them said, “congratulations! You totally ruined a really great book.”

Unfettered, I started packing up the manuscript to send to Laura.  But at the last moment, I changed my mind.  Why should I add 15,000 words to a book that seems perfect just as it is, just because of some rules about the cost of paper and cardboard boxes?  Would an artist make a finished painting three inches bigger on all sides to make it fit into someone's frame?  To hell with the big publishers, I thought—I’ll publish Wild Child myself, in its original form.

I was living in Atlanta, Georgia, at the time.  As I needed a book cover designed, I decided to hold a city-wide student art contest for the best cover illustration.  After all, Wild Child was a story about young people, written for young people—why not have young people come up with the cover picture?

The winning illustration came from a 17 year old at North Atlanta High School, a laid-back African American by the name of Seron Fuller.  Everyone agreed that his amazing, magical illustration for Wild Child perfectly captured the main characters, Kyle and Brianna, and the overall feeling of the story.

I excitedly arranged for 3,000 copies of the book to be printed with Seron’s cover illustration on the front, investing my own money in the project.  Then, as fate would have it, my work situation changed.  Within a week of the books being delivered to my apartment, I moved across the Atlantic, to Europe, to Riga, Latvia.

Printed books are heavy.  I could only afford to take two boxes of Wild Child with me—200 books, total.  I shipped the rest up to Nashville, to my parents’ garage.  My stepfather wasn’t too happy about keeping them for me, as they took up a lot of space, but he grudgingly agreed to do it “for a while.”

I settled in Latvia and began my job, teaching at a Latvian university.   My wife is also a teacher was working at a local high school.  One day she said, “Mike, I told our English teacher that you were a young adult writer and she wanted her students to read Wild Child.  Can you spare a few copies?”

Why not? I thought.  They’re just sitting here in a box, collecting dust.  So I gave five copies to my wife to pass along to the teacher.  A few weeks later, the teacher asked for five more copies.  And five more.  Then an English teacher at another Latvian school became interested, and I gave out more copies.  And the book began to spread.

In short, hundreds high school students in Latvia went crazy over Wild Child.  I had soon given away half my copies to schools and libraries.

Meanwhile, my stepfather had contacted me several times, asking me when I was going to get all the damn books out of his garage.  I investigated shipping them all to Latvia, but the cost was astronomical.  Finally, backed into a corner, I said, “Just have them recycled, I don’t know what else to do with them.”  It killed me to tell him this, but what choice did I have?  None of my American friends wanted 28 huge boxes of books taking up spaces in their garages.

To add insult to injury, my stepfather called me back the next day.  “Mike, it will cost two hundred dollars to have these books hauled off for recycling.”  Two hundred dollars!  I had to pay to have my precious babies thrown into the trash!

Feeling sick, I sent him the check.

More time passed.  I soon had given away all 200 of the books I’d brought with me to Latvia.  I sorely regretted having the others hauled away.

One day I ran into a student who had read Wild Child in his English class—he recognized me from my photo from the back cover of the book.  He asked if I had any more copies.  I told him, with pang in my heart, that no more copies existed.

“You’re wrong,” he said.  “They’re selling your book on Amazon.com.”

I blinked once.  “That’s impossible,” I told him.  “All the copies I had in the United States were thrown in the trash.”

He shrugged.  “See for yourself.”

Certain that he was mistaken, I went home and pulled up the Amazon website.  Lo and behold, there it was.  Wild Child, by Mike Wells. 

For a few seconds, I stared at the computer screen in a state of total confusion, overwhelmed by a surreal feeling.  I thought I was having some kind of strange dream.  How could this be?   All sorts of crazy thoughts flew through my head.  One of those publishers that Laura Rennert sent the manuscript to had printed it without my knowledge, somebody had stolen it, the story had fallen through a hole in the space-time continuum and had magically published itself...

But then I looked more closely at the book cover image, and I realized that there was a much simpler explanation.

These were the copies I had printed myself!  Somebody had pulled them out of the trash and started selling them.

After some reflection, I decided that even though I wasn't making any money from the book, I was happy that lots of people were reading and liking it.

Not long thereafter, I moved to the UK and started teaching in the University of Oxford Creative Writing Program.  In 2010, I witnessed the explosion of ebooks and reading devices, such as the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, the Sony Stanza, etc..  It seems like everywhere I went, someone was reading a book on one of those gadgets, or an iPad smart phone or notebook computer.

I decided that Wild Child’s time had finally come.  Publishing the story as an ebook was perfect!  Ebooks don’t have any physical form—they can be as long or short as they need to be.

I converted Wild Child to ebook form for the Kindle, the Nook, the Sony,  etc.  and of course the iPad and all  the other Apple devices.  Young adult book bloggers started reviewing it and the book has received great reviews.  In July of 2011 it climbed to the #3 spot on in the Young Adult/Juvenile category on the Amazon USA Kindle Books Bestseller list, and in September of 2011 hit the #1 spot in Children's Fiction on the Amazon UK Kindle Bestseller List.

I have to say that I feel 100% better about myself now that I'm actually helping Wild Child find its way into the world.

Sometimes I think that Wild Child should have a subtitle:  The Book That Wouldn't Die.
 ____________

This story was covered in the UK Daily Mail. 

NOTE (August, 2013):  The 3,000 copies I threw in the trash have become collector's items—the current price in the UK for an original copy of Wild Child, unsigned, is £600, or almost $1,000! 

However, for the much more reasonable price of $3.99 you can download the ebook from any of the following stores (click links): 

 

Amazon USA	Amazon UK	Barnes & Noble	Google Play
Apple iBookstore	Sony	Kobo	Smashwords

 

Lust, Money & Murder and The Mysterious Disappearance of Kurt Kramer Both Featured on Apple's iBooks BREAKOUT BOOKS Section

Wild Child Sequel Released!

In response to popular demand, I'm thrilled to announce that "Wild Child, Book 2 - Lilith" has now officially been released.  This is an exciting day for me--as with the original , I poured my heart and soul into this sequel to make it the best possible read I could.

Wild Child, Book 2 takes up where Wild Child left off.  Join Kyle, Briana, Brawn and Brains for another hair-raising adventure with the magical "green water." I've introduced several new, intriguing characters.  The book is also written in the same lean, fast-paced style as the original.  I believe it will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next!

The book is available now as a Kindle book on the Amazon USA and UK bookstores.  Within a week or two it will be available on Barnes & Noble, the Apple iBookstore, the Sony E-bookstore, and others.

If you're not a Kindle owner and you're anxious to start reading the book, it's also available right now on Smashwords in all other e-book formats (Nook, Sony, iPad, Palm) and can be purchased and downloaded immediately.  If you don't have an e-reader, there are a number of free e-readers you can download for your PC, Mac, tablet computer or smart phone, such as the Kindle Cloud.

I hope you enjoy this book.

In the meantime, I'm busily working on Wild Child, Book 3, the next in the series, which I plan to have out by the New Year's holidays.

A big thank you to all the readers and other folks who made Wild Child a smashing success!