Download Free Audio Books at PodioBooks
August 22, 2007
I spend about an hour a day driving back and forth to work, and I’ve been using my iPod to keep the drive interesting. Not too long ago I ran across PodioBooks, which offers free Books in podcast format.
Although you do have to create an account, I don’t think I have received even one e-mail from them since I signed up.
You can browse through their large selection of free books, and once you have decided on what you want to listen to, a RSS feed is created which allows you to subscribe using your favorite feed reader.
New installments are delivered at the schedule you define, and that’s about all there is to it. The site is easy to use, and the podcasts are delivered in a timely manner.
The first podcast novel I listened to was EarthCore, and I liked it so much that I have downloaded pretty much everything by Scott Sigler.
I definitely recommend this site.
Also on Port 16:
Posted in Podcasts, AudioBooks, Distractions
content rss
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:42 pm
It looks like these can be downloaded onto your iPod, do you know if that’s the case? Interesting, because many public libraries in the US and Canada have purchased a similar product called “Overdrive”, which could uses copyright protection technology from Microsoft , so the WMA formats cannot (easily, there are workarounds) be supported on iPods and Macs.
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Actually, I only listen to these with my iPod. One of the only reasons I purchased an iPod was for the RSS support used with Podcasts.
Since these are published via a RSS feed, iTunes uses them just like it would any podcast.
In every case I have seen, the files are unprotected MP3s, so they would also work on any MP3 player that supports MP3s, although iTunes just makes it easy.
I think the biggest difference between PodioBooks and a pay service is that the Authors on PodioBooks want to give their books away. I am pretty sure that Scott Sigler started this trend with Earthcore. He couldn’t get his book published, so he gave it away in Podcast format.
Now he has a publishing deal for a bunch of his books, and a movie deal in the works. He still makes them all downloadable, in audio format, for free. Other authors saw it working for him, and followed suit.
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:35 am
Thanks very much for spreading the word of Podiobooks.com. Yes, all of the files are DRM free and all but one in the standard .mp3 format, so they work on any MP3 player.
Scott Sigler was one of the first ones in this space and certainly helped show how it can be an effective way for authors to promote themselves as writers.
Oh, and no, you won’t get any spam from us. We’re nice people that way.
Evo
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:27 pm
No problem Evo, thanks for the comment, and thanks for a great site!
August 25th, 2007 at 6:13 am
[…] mentioned in an earlier post about the free audio books and podcasts at podiobooks.com, that at the time I was listening to EarthCore by Scott Sigler. I finished it, and I loved […]
August 25th, 2008 at 10:53 am
[…] year ago I had just started getting into Podcast books, and told everyone about a great site to download Podcast Novels. I still make great use of this site. As a matter of fact, just today I posted about how to help a […]