I read a zombie story to two of my co-workers today during a break.
Specifically, I read "Kicking the Habit". It’s a romantic zombie story (YES IT IS) and they were… well, impressed.
And that’s the thing – they were willing to spend ten minutes or so listening to me read a story. But even though they knew me, the odds of them buying the book with the story were pretty low… until they heard it.
If you spend any time at all around indie authors, you’ll hear a lot about "sampling", and how much of a sample is the right amount, and so on. We often forget podcasts, though.
There are three stories from this collection that have already been put into audio form. You can hear them without ponying up a single cent – they’re free to listen. No software needed – there are players right on the web pages.
"The Burning Servant" was produced by Pseudopod.
"Memories of Light and Sound" was produced by Tales of Old.
"Broken" is the third story in Trifecta XIX from the DrabbleCast.
Go give them a listen. If you like ’em, maybe you’ll like the rest of my stories. Feel free to try before you buy.