Going Audio with my new book....Decision Time...Take my poll!

[RSJ]

Hi, All! I'm thinking of doing an audio version of my new book, On the Shoulders of Giants by Saijin (amazon.com). But I'm not sure it's an audio-type of publication. It contains a daily guide, but I do post those daily entries free on-line, so I was thinking maybe I could do a podio book on the front and back matter and maybe just talk through a sample entry for one day.

So, here's opportunity for your input--a sampling of me 'in-action' with voice and video. What do you think? http://www.saijinonline.com/Video

Thanks for your input!

[Nathan Lowell]

I just watched your video and this is a cute idea for book promo. I really like the concept.

I've got some questions about it from a technical standpoint.

> The people walking by in the background were really distracting and I'm not sure of the legal status of posting their images online without their permission. Did you get releases?

> Video (like audio) is a performance medium. I didn't get a "performance" vibe from this. The mid-shot talking head frame, even if it did have the candles and nice background and all, left me wondering when the show was going to start.

> I understand that the continuous take precluded your ability to edit out the missed and repeated lines. You might consider doing two, or even three complete takes, all from different angles, so you can change the frame while at the same time giving yourself an opportunity to pull out the line errors by replacing them with a clip from a different shot. You can also get a lot of mileage from some establishing shots of Balboa Park at sunrise, or in the fog, or something. You shot there because that's where the action of the book took place, so a few shots to set the wider scene might help break up the "talking head" effect and add some pacing to the piece.

> Audio quality. The background noises were distracting and sometimes overwhelming. Your voice got lost in the sauce.

> Gabriel didn't add to your production. He mumbled, talked away from the mic, and was all but overwhelmed by the background noise while at the same time, he blocked your light and stood with his face in shadow every time he turned to look at you. As an endorser, he lost all credibility with the kiss at the end. If he's a significant other, then having him say nice things about you and the book is a lot like having yer mum say what a good writer you are.

> Is the music from Josh Groban? The song's been covered a lot but his seems to be the current fave and your intro and rollout sounded like his. Might be a good idea to credit the artist in the rollout, and it would be a really good idea to get permission to use it, if you're going to put it out there as a promo for the book.

The idea of a book dedication vid is a great one and you get high marks for the promo effort. You could *really* be onto something here with the concept.

As for taking the book audio, it looks like it might be a challenge since the daily signature (same as the daily guide?) isn't really a narrative. My question about the front and back matter with a single day run thru is, what would you do with the other four episodes?

Typically, a podiobook has - at a minimum - five episodes. The length isn't set, so there's no minimum time frame. Out of respect for your listeners, you'd probably wanna make sure that it took longer to listen to than it does to does to download and put on an iPod.

But a front/back/sample audio sounds like it would be - at most - one episode, so what would you do for the rest?

[Dave Hitt]

I agree with everything Nathan said, although because it's a public place I don't think you have to worry about model releases.

The video was too long. I don't need to know every detail of Sabian and his wife and the cards, and ho hum, what's for dinner? I ended up scrolling through it. It should be three minutes, max.

On the first shot with the long scroll my first thought was "why is she showing me her underwear?"

Is this about trees? If now, why the long scroll down a tree to the book, which we don't know is a book yet, and then a long shot up the tree afterward?

The first thing you need to think about with a video production is "who is my audience?" The second thing is "what do I want them to do?" I'm guessing your audience is people who are into this sort of stuff, and the action you want is to have them buy your book. So tell them what's in it for them, and then tell them to buy the book.

How about starting it with you wrapping up the book in the lace first, a three or four second shot of you walking into the park, then showing it wrapped on the table (no scrolling down the tree shots) so we know what we're looking at. Follow that with an enthusiastic explanation of why this is so great. A brief well lit dedication (no shadows on the book), and then telling people to buy it.

As for the idea of making this a podiobook, I'm not into this kind of thing at all, so I can't offer a useful opinion on that.