Vincent Trigili's Blog, page 8

Audio Book Headed To Retail!

Hey Everyone!

I just wanted to update you on the progress of the audio release. Yesterday the status of the audio book went from “In Review” to “Headed to Retail.” All I know for sure at this time is that means it passed the quality control checks. Other authors have told me that also means that it is less than a week away from actual release when it hits that status. So I think that means we are close!

Since Amazon is the publisher on this, they set the release date, and price, without informing me. That means I will only find out by randomly refreshing the page to see if it is release. This means some of you might find out before me if you are watching for it. If you do, post to the Facebook Group and let me know! Thanks!

Until then, here are two samples from the finished product. The first is the prologue, which was released last week, and the second is chapter five which is previously unreleased! Why chapter five? Well, because it would have been a bad idea to release the last chapter of the book of course! Hence, chapter five is the best choice.

 

Also, in case you did not get my email, I will be offering free review copies of the audio book a couple weeks after it is out (I have to wait on Amazon to open that option for me). If you will promise to post a review on the audio book, I will give you a copy of the audio book for free, while supplies last. This is important; I only get a very limited number of copies to give out, so if you take one I really need you to post a review.

I would like to get The Academy done for a pre-Christmas release. In order for that to happen, I need your help. Amazon is only paying for Enemy to be produced, and no others at this time. This means I need Enemy to sell really well so that I can raise the money to produce Academy myself. So I really need everyone to help spread the word.

Thanks!

 

 

Robby Episode 15 – Webcam – Part 2

Episode 15 – Webcam – Part 2

Originally Released on September 4th, 2005

Well, this is something very real that has happened to me. The only difference between the strip and my experience was the call I placed to the shipping company when they told me to come down and pick my package up. When I arrived they said they had already sent it out for delivery.

Click on comic for large size

The Enemy of an Enemy Audio Book!

We are getting close to completing the audio rendition of Enemy of an Enemy! Soon it will be off to Amazon for final quality control checks, which probably will take around three weeks. After that Amazon will publish it, and the world of audio will get its first taste of our universe!

Jack De Golia has been great to work with, and I think you will all love his rendition. He has put up with some very picky edits from me that had us going back and forth over what was the right way to say words, verse what was actually pronounceable. I will say if he pronounces anything different from what you think it should be, it is probably all my fault!

REMEMBER – Everyone on the mail list will have a chance to win a free copy of the audio book. Everyone in the Facebook group will also have a chance to win a free copy. That is at least two free copies I will give away. If I suddenly get a flood of sign ups I will toss more free copies in the mix! So spread the word wide, it could very well increase your chances to win! I will leave the contest open for about a week after the audio book is live to give as many people a chance to get it as possible.

So here is the long awaited first sample of the audio…

Robby Episode 14 – Webcam Part 1

Episode 14 – Webcam – Part 1

Originally Released on August 28th, 2005

Robby, like most amateur astronomers, has decided that astrophotography is what he needs to be doing. So Robby calls up his favorite astronomy store and orders a fool-proof webcam. This week is the first time we see a company in the strip that does not bear the Acme logo. I decided to go with “Big Brown Truck” because it would be easily recognizable as a shipping outfit and would need no additional information or frames to explain. In the following strip, however, we ended up putting the Acme logo on the building after all.

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Episode 13 – Mice on Ice – Part 4

Episode 13

Mice on Ice – Part 4

Originally Released on August 21st, 2005

This week we drop a big hint as to who the caller is, and the relationship to Robby. Robby is still in a good mood despite his failed trip to the dark sky site. This is the last installment in this storyline for a few weeks, but it sets up the strip for several other storylines to branch off.

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Audio Update!

Hey everyone! Just a really fast up date for you! I have received the first audio samples from Jack de Golia! They are early and sound great! I can’t wait to share with you all! Right now I am targeting the end of September, early October to release the first samples for your entertainment.

The hope is to have Enemy and Academy out as audiobooks before Christmas, but the only way that will happen is if I can raise all the money for Academy myself, so please keep spreading the word about the series – and don’t forget to spread the word about the up coming audiobooks!

I plan to give away some copies of the new audio book upon release. If you want to win you have some options.

First: Sign up on the Lost Tales Mailing list. At least one copy will be given away via the email list. Make sure you tell all your friends and family that might be interested in these books about the mailing list. I will increase the number of audiobooks given away based on how much the list grows; so help me give away lots!

Second: Join the Facebook Group. At least one copy will be given away to that group. As with the mailing list, spread the word about the group and I will increase the number of books I give away as the group grows!

I will have more options for giveaways as we go, so spread the word! There may even be rewards for the persons that go the extra mile to spread the word about the series.

Big News! Big News!

Hey everyone! Remember how I had said that I would have big news soon, but then kind of stopped talking about it? Well that was simply because the deal that I was working fell through and left us scrambling to recover. This has set all kinds of schedules behind track, including Volume VII, but such is life. However, I now have new big news! That’s right, and instead of tease you with it, I can tell you right now!

Amazon has decided to back Enemy of an Enemy, as in putting real money on the table, so that it can be produced as an audio book! Amazon is covering the entire bill, and handling all the rights negotiations. They will make sure the audiobook gets in to Amazon, Audible, and iTunes (those three are basically the entire audio market).

I spent a lot of time listening to auditions from professional narrators, all vying to do Enemy! It turns out that when narrators hear that Amazon is backing a project they come running. I could have chosen any one of several front-runners and all of them would have produced an excellent product. I was impressed at the amount of voice talent available to the project. In the end I had to just pick one and one of the big deciding factors was production schedule. The narrator we decided to go with should be able to get volumes one and two both ready for Christmas.

Right now we are looking at late October, maybe early November (depends on Amazon’s quality control schedule) for the release of Enemy as an audio book, and we should have a sample of the book ready for you to hear by late September. Here is the cover:

Jack de Golia is the narrator we are going with. He has tons of credits and if you head to his webpage you can hear samples of his work. There you can a bibliography of his work and learn other information about him. The plan is to have him do the entire series, even the now behind schedule Volume VII.

Now, I want to get The Academy done for Christmas, but Amazon is only paying for one book. I do not have any reason to expect they will pick up Volume two also, so that means the only way I will be able to afford to do Academy is if all of you really get out there and brag about books. Talk about them on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, or where ever you hang out.

I will also need you to get on audible and review the audio book as close to release day as possible, preferably on release day. The more reviews we can have on release day the better. When you are bragging about the series mention the audiobooks that are coming.

In short I need to raise a lot of money (well a lot of money to me) in a very brief period of time in order to pull off producing Academy for Christmas. After that each new book will need money to produce, but my hope is that the audio book sales from Volume I and II will cover the production of Volume III, and so on for the rest of the series.

No matter what – Enemy will be produced. Amazon is backing it, and that is really cool.

Robby Episode 12 – Mice on Ice – Part 3

Episode 12 – Mice on Ice – Part 3

Originally Released on August 14th, 2005

Well, the letter Robby received sure cured his black mood fast! Now he is going to sprint off to the dark sky site as fast as he can to take advantage of his new found luck. So he packs up his car and loads up! Since I set up in my backyard most of the time this has not yet happened to me. But the few times I have headed out to a dark sky site, I have always figured I would forget something critical. This week also introduced the fifth frame and a brief return to the less desirable vertical format. I was originally planning this as two strips, but I decided it would have drawn it out too much and just combined them.

 

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Introducing Signed Copies!

It seems that some of you have wanted to get signed copies of the print edition of the books. This is something I never considered before, but it came up recently in a discussion in the Lost Tales Facebook group. I looked into what it would take to do this, and it seems easily doable. I have already had two readers run through the process and it everything seems to work well.

Each of the six currently released books will cost thirteen dollars, plus five dollars shipping. That should safely cover all my costs to sell and ship a copy anywhere in America. For international orders, please contact me directly before ordering and we can investigate the costs to ship to you.

I am also offering a bundle of all six books for $70, plus five dollars shipping. I save a lot on shipping when I can put all the books in one order, so I am passing that savings on to you.

I am using SquareUp (a.k.a. Square) to run the store and all the monetary transactions. This keeps it safe and secure for both of us. You can find the store at https://mkt.com/LostTales.

In other news the writing of Volume VII: The Sac’a’rith: Rebirth is going well and I am hoping for a Christmas release. Tentatively I am planning Volume VIII: Silverleaf to be about a new realm in the Lost Tales universe, but that is not yet set in stone. As usual, updates on that will be available in the upcoming months on our web site: http://losttalesofpower.com.

Thanks again for your support!

Lost Tales of Power is in the Library!

I mentioned last year that a local library planned to carry my series … well it is here! This is the first time that I know of that any of my books have been spotted in the wild in print. I grew up devouring books at my school library so this is a nice touch for me. They only have the first five books, but I am hoping people stumble on them, read them, and then demand book 6 with out me having to say anything. That would be fun! Anyways, here is proof: