Podcast Authors Blowing Up During The Late 2000’s
There are several sci-fi podcast authors I have followed since 2006 when I first discovered the wonders of podcasting. It’s been amazing watching them develop their craft into this new medium and explode in popularity over the years. Among the writers I’ve closely followed there are two that stand out: J.C. Hutchins and Scott Sigler. During 2005, Sigler was one of the true pioneers in releasing novels via the podcast medium and he has since used it as a spring board to being published in print books. Hutchins’s 7th Son trilogy came along soon after Sigler had demonstrated how quickly a fan base could grow while releasing not chapters, but episodes of a story. While these two were seeing their following rise into thousands upon thousands of listeners, there were dozens of other aspiring authors finding creative ways to release their novels also. Eventually Podiobook.com was created and became a store in which podcast authors could release their audiobooks for free (or for donations if the reader felt that what they had heard was good). Both Sigler and J.C. Hutchins finally hit it big in 2008 when they both announced that they had been signed to major publishing house deals. Sigler had already published some of his podcasted novels through a smaller press in 2007, but it was awesome to see his novel Infected actually published as a hardbound book in late 2008. During 2009, both authors released two novels each. It’s been great to see their novels on the same shelves as some of my favorite authors in bookstores across the U.S.
Scott Sigler has taken things one step further in the publishing game by releasing his podcast novel The Rookie on his own. Of course I had to order a copy when it came out and I was really amazed at the quality of this book.
More than likely if you’ve listened to podcasts for any appreciable amount of time then you knew just about everything I’ve written above. However, if you’re new to the podcast community then by all means right after you’ve checked out the latest Legion of Lethargic Super-Geeks podcast episode, then check out one of the following podcast authors: Matt Wallace, Mur Lafferty, Matthew Wayne Selznick, Mark Jeffrey, or of course Scott Sigler or J.C. Hutchins. I believe these are truly some of the authors of the future. And of course you can find their stories as both podiobooks and now as paper books too.
Sunday, January 3rd, 2010