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Realm (Serial Box)
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A lot of my episodes are 1 hour+. They also have some cool sound effects and stuff incorporated into the audio, so I’m sure that takes time as well.Have you tried looking under the text editions for page counts? You’re pretty GoodReads Savvy so I assume so just figured I’d put it out there.
Sorry I can’t be more helpful! I do love SerialBox though. I think they are fantastic. Their narrators, writer teams.. all really impressive.
The ebooks have a page count. All of the books are should be listed with both page count & audio length but not all Librarians put in the work to put in accurate information.
I like to track things by pages read as well and had this same problem with Audible "exclusive" content. I compared narration time with page count for some audiobooks that also had paper/ebook versions and found that they averaged 30 pages per hour of audio. The number for a specific book would depend on how it was formatted but for the SFF books that I checked the number was surprisingly consistent (within a couple of pages per hour of 30). So that's what I use when a page count isn't available.For print that's not page formatted I use 275 words/page based on publisher estimates for typical paperbacks. This can be a lot higher for reference material (up to 600 words per page in some cases) but that's usually not very interesting listening.
I just tried using both of these metrics on a Serial Box short that I recently finished - using both the stated narration time and the word count for the text version (pasted it into a text editor) and ended up with the same number of pages either way.
I didn’t know some of the episodes are longer! I thought the whole point was 45min episodes.They don’t all have ebooks, in fact I’ve been waiting a year for a Vela ebook but still nothing. I’m going to listen to it anyway, I just wish I knew what page range it’s in.
Anna I don’t know about an ebook, but you can eye-read The Vela within the app. I just checked.I don’t know if that’s helpful or not. I don’t think they’ll be putting their content out on Kindle or iBooks because I think it’s kind of exclusive to SerialBox.
Other SerialBox SFF I enjoyed were Machina and Ninth Step Station. I’m looking forward to reading The Vela and checking out some of their others as well.
Using the figures above (message 4) and the length of the audio for The Vela (12.8 hours) I get a page equivalent estimate of about 385 pages.The audio for the episodes of this serial run between an hour and an hour and a half long each.
I know the way the ebooks/audio used to be sold. Like you can find Bookburners on Amazon & Audible, Barnes&Nobles, etc. As far as I know, all books on SB are in ebook & audio format. The cost for them are cheap/low in comparison to what others charge for just the ebook and audiobook. The fact they are offering both is a great deal.
However, with the recent change where they don't offer downloads and you have to use either the app or website to read/listen, that makes it less optimal for me.
I'll still keep an eye out for sales & buy then but I don't like that I can't keep a copy of book that I have bought. Especially when I love it like Bookburners.
Raucous, that helps, thank you!Sarah, Machina is next on my list if I like the app enough to continue using it. I don’t love the idea, which is another reason I hadn’t tried it yet. But free Vela was the perfect opportunity to finally check it out!
I’ve seen that some SB serials have an ebook, which is why I kept waiting for Vela to also get an ebook release. But it’s not that I want to eye-read it, just to know the page count.
By ebook I mean an epub or Kindle format, not something you have to read in the SB app
Hopefully, the ebook will be sold after a time period on other sites. There would be more profit for SB/authors/etc that way.
Soo and others- I’m curious why you don’t like the app? I just hook it up to my headphones or wireless speaker and don’t really think about it.
I don’t like the idea of only being able to read/listen on the one app, with no ability to download the purchased content. But I might start liking it after I’ve properly tried it!I can already say that I dislike the reading part of the app, it looks horrible! The audio seems to work fine, no complaints so far.
You can access SB on a browser or the app. Before, you could download the ebook sections onto PC/phone/etc but now you can't. I had downloaded Bookburners S2 and figured out recently that I missed an episode. When I went on to fix that issue, I found out the download option had been taken away.
If you need to have internet access 24/7 to read what you buy on SB, then that's not cool because that means the content is only accessible with internet. There's no option for downloading and reading/listening offline.
I haven't tested out the app much but it seems to have limited functions. I think it is clunker than the Kindle App.
Soo I think you can still listen and read without internet? When I click the episode it is downloaded to my phone and then a little symbol with a phone and a check mark appears in blue. I just tried listening in airplane mode with wifi off and it seemed to work fine.As for storing it outside the app- yeah I can see how that could be a problem.
I agree about the reading interface, which is why I usually listen, but I think the audio experience is so awesome anyway I don’t really mind never eye reading. It’s nice that it’s an option.
I do think it’s clunky to browse for new stuff in the app but Once it’s available in my library I look at the actual app so little except to hit play or grab a new episode I don’t use it much.
So I’ve seen Book Burners mentioned. I enjoyed Ninth Step Station and Machina.Can anyone recommend any of the other serials? They had a couple horror ones that looked good, and they have some free short stories. I haven’t looked into the Fantasy ones too deeply.
The first episode/chapter are free. That's the sample and then you can buy the rest of the book/season. Well, that's good to know that I can download via app but you have no control on where it downloads. I try to keep all of my downloads to the SDcard.
I really like Bookburners. Once I get caught up on a few series, that will go back on my reading rotation. It was a cool way to get exposed to new authors. The only one I had known was Gladstone. Each of the authors have a distinctive style and it's fun to see how they maintain the core plot/characters and add their own flair.
Otherwise, I read Fisher of Bones (which was free) and started Dead Air. The new stuff looks much more interesting. I'll probably get them on sale. They run a sale about 4-5x a year.
Yes I’m a sucker for their sales! 4.99 is a great price for a whole season.
They had sales where you could get 2-3 seasons for 2.99. That one has been the best. =)
Haven’t seen that one yet- but I’ll keep an eye out!
Now that I'm not on my phone. Some of the serials have been published as "normal" ebooks, like Ninth Step Station: The Complete Season 1, Tremontaine: The Complete Season 1 and Bookburners: The Complete Season 1. Those are still available to buy as Kindle books, and they have normal page counts. Some of them are even available on Storytel, which I find very surprising. So I was waiting for The Vela to also show up as an ebook, but it never did. It kept having editions on Goodreads with an ASIN (complete season Audible) or an ISBN (complete season epub), but I could never find those anywhere to buy. When I saw the "Audible" edition cover had Robin Miles as the narrator, I decided I wanted to listen to it, because she's amazing. So since then, I've been waiting for a sale to buy The Vela on SB, and I even added The Vela on my TBR challenge list, so that I'd actually get to it this year.I didn't want to pay full price for anything on Serial Box (the first time), because the format annoyed me and seemed strange. But I kept coming back to it, because some of the serials sounded really interesting! I've had the app for ages, and I even signed up, but I never used it. Now I've dipped my toe in, and I'll soon know if it's for me or not.
But I still don't *know* the page count for The Vela, and that annoys me very much. I'll be using the numbers Raucous so kindly gave me, and I'll probably be doing the same with the Audible Exclusives I've already listened to. (I stopped listening because they annoy me in the same way.)
And I still want to try Machina, because it sounds cool and has a great set of authors, just like The Vela :) (And just like The Vela, it doesn't have a page count.)
It's disappointing to hear that Serial Box has discontinued downloads - I like many of their stories, but find the app difficult to use. So far I've really enjoyed The Vela, Ninth Step Station, and Tremontaine, and I liked the episodes I tried of Bookburners and The Witch Who Came in From the Cold (the latter also has en ebook available, I believe).
I have downloaded a few things on the app, but they didn’t show up in my library. They were free shorts and I didn’t start listening to them immediately. So I tracked one of them down again and started listening. NOW it shows up in my library. Supposedly, it’s downloaded, but who knows where?
Yeah, it's somewhere on the secured file section of your device and it annoys me because if the app build is bad, things can stay in your memory for a long time and take up unnecessary space.
Soo wrote: "Yeah, it's somewhere on the secured file section of your device and it annoys me because if the app build is bad, things can stay in your memory for a long time and take up unnecessary space."The iOS version of the app, at least, has an option for viewing and deleting downloaded audio files. It's at More->Settings->Manage Audio Files. Which is kind of a weird place to put it. Hopefully there's something similar in the Android version. That's only useful if you trust the app even that far but from what I can see it's a pretty accurate accounting of what I've downloaded.
Since the Library tab doesn't work right (only about half of what I've downloaded shows up in it) this is the only place that I can tell what content from Serial Box is on my device. Needs work...
I have Android devices. You can manage downloaded files:Settings -> Manage Audio Files
Default downloads are on the device vs external. So, that's annoying.
Upside: I got a notification for the freebie that's given on Thursdays. That's cool.
I don’t love that I have to download, remove and play each episode separately. I listen to audios while cooking for example, it’s not very convenient to have to keep tapping on something.I also don’t like the sound effects. I’ve listened to many audiobooks where the background has something, and this is not as good as those. Not the worst thing ever, but it’s just mainly loud beeps.
Haha- Anna the sound effects were one of the things I loved about Serial Box. It feels very immersive to me.I am not an avid audio listener so I haven’t encountered many books that do it better.
I have nothing against sound effects when they’re good! But so far in Vela it’s beeps and scuttling bugs, which either creep me out or startle me.
I haven’t listened to The Vela yet so I can’t comment if they are similar to others. I know there were some sound effects in Ninth Step that could be similar.The ones in Machina I feel like were well done and varied.
I'm now listening to episode 4 and either I'm getting used to it, or there is more actual background sound, like a crowd milling around, which is more like the other audios I've encountered.I don't mean to sound like I hate everything about SB, I'm just getting used to something very different that I'm feeling resistant but also curious towards! This is why I added a serial for the TBR challenge "pushing boundaries" prompt, I really need to get out of my comfort zone to appreciate these. I'm sure the episodic format works great for people with far less time to spend on (audio)books.
I missed the giveaway for Thor last night, but if I'm being honest I probably wouldn't have read it anyway. Sarah, I loved the sound effects in Ninth Step as well! I had more trouble trying to listen to Born to the Blade, but I think that was more all the fantasy names. I can't actually remember if there were sound effects for that one.
I'm starting the final episode, and I don't really notice the sound effects anymore. It could just be that it's been a while since I listened to something like this. There are still occasional loud beeps that startle me, but for the most part it seems to work for me now.I think SB will probably be great for short fiction, because then the episode format won't bother me :) I'm still annoyed that I have to manually start each episode.
Yes Kaa- I found them so immersive! I felt like I was experiencing it rather than just listening. Have you tried season 2 yet? I keep meaning to pick it up
I have not, but I have a subscription! I will probably wait till the season is a little closer to complete, since I am always in danger on binging.
I didn't know EWZ narrates Ninth Step Station! I just started it and so far I'm really enjoying it. You were right Kaa/Sarah, the sound effects in this one work much better!(Also Sarah, I'm sorry I started a new thread even though you'd already made one! I only noticed it a little while ago when I was searching for this thread. I added a link to that one to the first post of this thread.)
Ha- no worries Anna! I actually have plenty of Serial Box since they started Free Season Thursday lol.
I’m never awake to get in on that deal!
(I have a repeating alarm set for 3:58 AM every Friday.)I'm almost done with episode two, and this is so good! I've liked all the ones I've listened to so far to some extent, but this seems to be the best one by far, unless something drastic happens.
re: Sound effects, I could do with less phones ringing in the station setting, it's getting on my nerves! I hope they spend more time outside soon :D
I wish I could, but I just can’t do that myself! Oh well.
Is there a way to delete a serial/episode from your library? I hate that it adds them automatically when I just want to read what the serial is about. Going forward, I'll try to remember to do research logged out, but I'd like to get rid of all the first episodes of serials I was never interested in. I haven't clicked on the episodes, or downloaded them, just opened the serial in the app, and it's added them, grr.
You can check stuff out in the browser and then it won't add to your app library. You should be able to delete the downloaded episodes from the app too. I just went on the website today to see if there's a holiday sale. I missed a sale that happened on the Dec 1st.
Did you see that there's a membership deal now? I'm tempted to check it out at some point and go on a Serial Box spree. Looks like they are going to add audiobooks from other publishers too. The website interface is still clunky. Both the main website and app will have to change a lot to handle a bigger selection.
The app update a while ago cleared all the extra stuff off my phone. And yeah, I did for the most part check the website without logging in. I haven't used SB in a while, but I still get emails and I feel like every week is 30% off or 60% off or something off.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Ninth Step Station: The Complete Season 1 (other topics)Ninth Step Station: The Complete Season 1 (other topics)
Tremontaine: Book 1 (other topics)
Bookburners (other topics)
The Vela (other topics)
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Here's my question, and the reason why I've waited this long to try it: How do you track these outside of Goodreads? They don't have page counts, but I still think they should count as pages read. So do you just estimate? I've long ago stopped caring what Goodreads shows as my pages read, but I like my spreadsheet to be at least somewhat accurate. My understanding is that the episodes are 45min audios, so there must be a set word count per episode? Is this information available somewhere?
edit: Sorry I didn't notice when I started this thread that there was already another one started by Sarah! Here it is!