Genre Search: Trying Audible

I left music behind a few months ago and started listening to podcasts during my commute.

In my attempts to learn more about writing and publishing (and marketing), I tried several podcasts, narrowing them down to a few I really connected with.

But, podcasts only come out every so often. I know they are a lot of work to produce and I am grateful to all those people who make them. I enjoy them. Although, I am in the car for an hour every day of the week and I quickly ran out of the backlog of podcasts that interested me.

This is when I thought about Audible.

Curiously, Audible came to my radar after hearing several authors talk about producing audiobooks for their indie books in several of the podcasts I listened to. I knew I wouldn’t be listening to writing advice on Audible, but I began my subscription and listened to my first book in March.

The book was Becoming, by Michelle Obama, and I will review it next week.

With its subscription, Audible gives you one credit (which you can use on ANY book) and then it lets you download 2 Audible Exclusives a month. I have since downloaded a few of those and I listen to them if I’m done with the book I downloaded and it isn’t time to get one new – and there aren’t any new and interesting podcast to listen to.

I am enjoying hearing audiobooks. Sometimes I get distracted and my thoughts wander, but all I do is rewind a little and I get back to the story.

In thinking about what to read next (after I finished Becoming), I got an idea. I would use my time in the car to do research to use in my writing career.

How? You may wonder.

Well, as I have mentioned before, my books don’t seem to fit in any specific genre. They may be Urban Fantasy, but then the other books in the urban fantasy genre are so different from my books it’s not even funny. I’m having difficulty finding similar books to use in ads or to help find the right audience.

So, I decided I will listen to an Urban Fantasy book each month to get a taste of the different books that are out there in the genre. Maybe I’ll find one that is similar to what my books are.

I then decided to start with the most popular author out there: Ilona Andrews. I downloaded Magic Bites and I will be posting the review soon. In June, I’m downloading the first Dresden Files book, then Vampire Academy and A Discovery of Witches. We’ll see where I go from there.

Every month, I will blog about these books and how they compare to mine. I’m excited for this new adventure. I have big plans for Audible!

cheers,
www.claudia-silva.com