Hi, Everyone –
A week or so ago, I posted an excerpt from KINDRED SPIRIT, consisting of the Prologue and Chapter One. Meanwhile, my publisher, Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster), has posted Chapter One as an excerpt on their KS page.
Now, I’ve taken the excerpt concept to the next logical step: podcasting.
I’ve been creating RSS feeds for a while now, but I’m new to the world of podcasting (i.e., audio broadcasting via the Web; in my case, this amounts to a remote and portable author reading!), so please excuse any beginner mistakes.
I realize many of my fans are probably unfamiliar with podcasting, so I’ve tried to make this easy and accessible for everyone. You may not know how to (or care to) download podcasts or subscribe to podcast feeds/shows. That’s fine. What I’ve done is create a podcast Web page where you can simply listen to or download the MP3, which is the heart of the podcast concept.
You’ll find my podcast page with instructions here:
http://www.passarella.com/passpodcast.htm
On the other hand, if you would like to subscribe to the Passarella Author Podcast in iTunes or some other podcasting software, I’ve also created a true podcast XML file. This is the one you need to subscribe to the podcast. I hope to do a podcast for Chapter One of KINDRED SPIRIT as well. Beyond that, I don’t know if I’ll be doing regular podcasts on the order of audio newsletters — but I might! My short-term goal is to podcast the Prologue & Chapter One, and to do something similar for future books.
Here’s the URL for the podcast XML file:
http://www.passarella.com/podcast/passpodcast.xml
That won’t make much sense in your browser window, but it’s the format you need to subscribe to RSS feeds and, in this case, podcasts. If you want to subscribe to this feed in iTunes, you need to go into the Advanced menu (of iTunes) and select Subscribe to Podcast… Then you enter the URL shown above. You may need to GET the file before you can listen to it. In testing I had to do this manually once, but another time it was automatic. (And for some reason the volume level in iTunes seems lower than elsewhere.)
I did create an iTunes friendly image (an 8 bit, 300×300 PNG file) for the podcast but it doesn’t show up for some reason; I also created a standard-compliant JPG image, i.e., reduced in size (100×100). Let me know if these actually show up when you subscribe.
Legal Stuff: All the standard copyright notices apply to the audio excerpt, same as they do to the posted written excerpt. If you want to tell someone about the podcast, I’d prefer if you refer them to my site or the podcast page URL above. Thanks!
REVISED: If you just want to grab the MP3 file, here’s the link:
http://www.passarella.com/podcast/ks_prologue.mp3Â
Let me know if you enjoy the podcast.
Until next time,
Jack
I got a call today confirming a new book signing date at Borders Express at the Exton Square Mall, in Exton PA. This will be my first signing at this particular store. Here are the details: