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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > Mister Satan's Apprentice: audiobook now on sale
Mister Satan's Apprentice:  audiobook now on sale
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kudzurunner
4548 posts
Feb 11, 2014
6:55 PM
Sixteen years after first publication in 1998, Mister Satan's Apprentice finally exists in an audiobook version. It's unabridged, which means there are 14 hours of the thing--a six month home project, professionally mastered.

"Read by the author" means something different here than it does with most audiobooks. I did indeed read every word, but I also supplied harmonica playing at needed moments. I also added recorded music at a few key points.

You can read all about the audiobook at the link below. There's a 15 minute preview extracted from the first two chapters.

If you search Audible, Amazon, and iTunes for audiobooks appropriate for a blues aficionado, you'll come up with almost nothing. Buddy Guy's autobio, Elijah Wald's very short introduction to the blues--and that's about it. The pickings are incredibly sparse. So if you've got bluesy friends who like audiobooks, please let them know that my book has entered the fray.

Mister Satan's Apprentice audiobook
jodanchudan
867 posts
Feb 12, 2014
10:00 AM
This is unbelievably good value - and surely unique amongst other audiobooks in its format. I'm buying this immediately. Thanks, Adam!
mr_so&so
778 posts
Feb 12, 2014
10:43 AM
I just listened the preview. I have the print book, but it was very enjoyable hearing Adam's story told in his own voice. I'm thinking about picking up the audio version too.
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mr_so&so
CWinter
103 posts
Feb 12, 2014
12:42 PM
I will be enthusiastically purchasing this audiobook.
Questionably inexpensive, but I won't question. Thanks for making it so easy on the budget Adam!
kudzurunner
4550 posts
Feb 12, 2014
2:26 PM
I'm going to sell it on Tradebit for six months or so, then upload to ACX, which puts it on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. At that point it will no longer be on Tradebit--I'll give ACX an exclusive--and the price will jump up. The four free songs will disappear, too.

But for this initial period, I decided to keep the price fairly low. I had some expenses (mastering, design, and photo permissions), but in the long run, I'd rather sell a few more copies at a slightly lower price than extract every possible dollar from individual purchases.

The time consuming element of the project wasn't the actual time spent reading the book out loud--although that did indeed take time; 20 minutes a day for weeks and months--but the time spent editing, then listening back, tweaking, and listening again. Pacing of one's phrases, and the time BETWEEN phrases, is absolutely crucial, and that can change from day to day as you sit down to read a new chapter or portion of a chapter. I made thousands of micro-edits, literally, but you'd never know that. It's like a feature film: if you edit properly, nobody pays any attention to the editing; they're drawn into the flow.

I couldn't have done any of it without a Yeti Blue mike and Garage Band.

Last Edited by kudzurunner on Feb 13, 2014 3:58 AM
shadoe42
281 posts
Feb 12, 2014
2:58 PM
Audiobook editing is WAY more tedious than music track editing. But it is nifty when you can take some different takes and edit together a coherent final track that doesn't sound stitched together.

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Mirco
99 posts
Feb 12, 2014
3:18 PM
Lots of bonuses with this book. The recordings of 1980's Adam and Sterling alone are worth it.
Gus
8 posts
Feb 12, 2014
9:03 PM
Adam - Great job with the audiobook.

Gus
FreeWilly
412 posts
Mar 28, 2014
7:15 AM
Just listened to this on my vacation (long drives on which I wanted to read but still see the landscape).

It's an amazing story, very well written and narrated. This story and the story-telling flows. Had an amazing amount of fun (listening to the harp playing and the story) for amazingly little money.

Thanks Adam! You're a really talented author.

I like how you can identify with Adam (telling the story of a developing harp-player from the shy perspective of a developing harp-player) and long to be Nat throughout this book.

Watching Adam's vids and listening to his stories before reading this book is like watching the blues brothers before knowing about Rice Miller. It makes sense, but after you've seen the whole picture you can't imagine not having done so for so long.
DukeBerryman
303 posts
Mar 28, 2014
9:18 AM
Congrats on the publishing of the audio book. The only audio book I've "read" so far has been Keith Richard's - and he narrates it! So, I'll make this #2.
WinslowYerxa
535 posts
Mar 28, 2014
10:30 AM
The original print book is a fascinating read - highly recommended.

Does the audio book include the original audio of Mister Satan's rant/soliloquy?
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Winslow
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FreeWilly
413 posts
Mar 28, 2014
10:41 AM
There is quite a long bit of Satan on there. Like half an hour. Not a public sermon, but something he recorded in a 'lucid' moment brought on by liquor, weed or both :) He is charismatic, that's for sure.

Hope that documentary will be edited soon. Satan really should live to see the day that thing hits!
kudzurunner
4635 posts
Mar 28, 2014
12:11 PM
@Winslow: Yes, I included about 4/5 of his "God Tape." FreeWilly is right: it's a very long bit of tape. It really distorts that particular chapter, and I don't assume that most people will want to sit through all of it. By the same token, it has documentary value. It makes clear, in a way that nothing else really can, that he was an extremely forceful, thoughtful, and prophetic man. We think about people like Jesus or Paul, Biblical figures, and can't imagine people like that actually striding the earth. Well, Mr. Satan, at his height, is that sort of person. Is he "crazy"? Certainly he exhibits what any psychologist would call an extreme sense of grandiosity. "I am the EARTH!" he shouts more than once. But he's also very funny, and perceptive--wise might be a better word--and all that comes through in the God tape. So I decided just to throw it at the audience and let people do with it what they will. At bare minimum, it's an authenticating document that will help convince people that I didn't just make Mr. Satan up out of whole cloth.

Last Edited by kudzurunner on Mar 28, 2014 12:12 PM
SuperBee
1840 posts
Mar 28, 2014
4:04 PM
Nice analogy FreeWilly. I read the book years ago, I'm gonna get the audiobook too.
SuperBee
1861 posts
Mar 30, 2014
7:41 PM
Listening while painting . It's cool, quite a different experience to reading. I recommend it. It's...atmospheric...
Great job!


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