June is Audiobook Month Update

Since it's a little over halfway through June (WHA??! Already?!), I thought I'd do a recap of some things that we've been doing around here for audiobook month as well as some things around the web that are happening.

Narration Creation is in full swing. Our awesome narrators have talked about how long it takes to record a book, and what they do to prepare for a narration.

The first of Audiobook Sync's free audiobook downloads have begun. You still have time to download The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Starting on June 21, you can download Irises by Francisco X Stork and Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. For a full schedule of downloads and information on how to download them, you can check out Audiobook Sync's website.

Pageturners Blog interviewed Playaway, which produces these really cool devices that are media players all in one! These are great for schools, libraries, and the men and women in our armed forces serving overseas!

Recorded Books has a few cool things going on for audiobook month as well:

We want to know what audiobooks mean to people. So we're inviting librarians, educators, and audiobook lovers to record a short (1 minute max) video that tells us about their favorite audiobook moment, or write a few lines about what audiobooks mean to them and post the video on YouTube or Vimeo and send us the link via facebook.com/recordedbooks, twitter.com/recordedbooks, or email (kjennah[plus]JIAM[at]recordedbooks[dot]com). At the end of the month, we'll pick two winners who will get a personalized voicemail message for their library read by AudioFile Golden Voices George Guidall or Barbara Rosenblat! Please note that all people who enter the contest consent to have their video and words used in marketing materials for Recorded Books.
 
On the RB blog (http://www.recordedbooksblog.com), we'll be featuring "favorite audiobook moments" from some of our narrators, including Simon Vance, Robin Miles, Barbara Rosenblat, Christina Moore, Jenny Sterlin, Andrew Garman, Robert Ian Mackenzie, George Guidall, Carol Monda, Johnny Heller, Mark Turetsky, and many more.
 
At this year's ALA conference (2012 Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA: June 21–26, 2012), anyone who participates in a demonstration of OneClickdigital or any of our digital products will receive a copy of Robyn Carr’s “Hidden Summit” and be entered to win a free iPad! We are booth #900.

 Brickshop audiobooks has this really fun little poem called "Ode to the Audiobook" on their website, read by their narrators.

And, one of my FAVORITE audiobook narrators, Katy Kellgren, recorded a video about the series that she's excited about for Robert Fass' audiobook month video series. She mentions Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick, which is one of my favorite reads this year and is a must-listen on audio!

So, happy audiobook month everyone! Only a couple weeks left!