Venus Cover Contest: Who Can Convert Boticelli’s “Birth of Venus” Into An ACX Audiobook Cover?

Venus Cover Contest: Who Can Convert Boticelli’s “Birth of Venus” Into An ACX Audiobook Cover?

Posted on October 5, 2013by profesorbaker

http://bit.ly/1665rSq

Can you put Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” on an Audiobook cover? Let me describe you, your talents, skills and abilities. You are:

Talented & Gifted.

Artistic & Authentic.

Creative & Innovative.

You are a wizard, a goddess, a genius.

You are both mortal & immortal.

You are a legend in your own time,

You are a legend in my mind.

You are a storyteller and a creator,

You are an artist and inventor,

You are revolutionary,

You are visionary.

You are motivated,

You are dedicated.

Are you without fear?

Then, and only then,

Now is the time when

You must bring Venus to life.

Bring her here.

Ancient sacrifice

Ancient religion

Can you put Venus on the cover?

Venus whispers to you: “Join my admiring legion“

Will you be my storyteller?

If I have accurately described you, and you believe you have what it takes, the journey you must make is a difficult one. The requirements of your challenge is below:

- Submit your contest entry within the next 7 days
- The winner will be decided by public vote
- Voting will be conducted by reader response on this blog
- The vote will last for seven days and seven nights
- Winning entry will be announced here and amplified by social media all throughiout the internet (over 8 billion webpages)
- Title: “Storytellers: In Pursuit of Happiness”
- Author: Thomas Jerome Baker
(Title & Author must appear on the cover)
- Any questions? Write to ==> profesorbaker@gmail.com

** Opportunity knocks. Show off your talent to the world. Are you ready? Can you bring Botticelli’s Venus to life? Yes?

http://bit.ly/1665rSq

Here are the requirements your Audiobook Cover must meet:

Image Requirements

Cover art submitted to ACX must meet the following requirements:

Technical Requirements

• Images must contain both the name of the title and author(s).

• Images must be no smaller than 2400 x 2400 pixels in size.

• The resolution of these images can be no smaller than 72 dpi.

• Images must be squared. The squared cover must be a true squared cover and cannot be rectangular with colored borders on the side (e.g., CD case cover/jacket).

• Images should be at least 24-bit.

• Images cannot refer to physical CD’s or media other than the audio presented.

• Jewel cases, promotional stickers, and cellophane are not allowed.

• Pornographic and offensive materials are not allowed.

Acceptable File Types

• JPG in RGB format only.

Delivery Methods

• Upload through ACX.com only.

File Naming

Each image file should be named with a condensed name of the title. Alpha numeric characters only.

Adhering to Image Specifications

Below are image samples that depict what a properly formatted cover should look like, and some examples that would be rejected.

Source: ACX

Cover A displays an appropriately formatted image that would be accepted into production.
Native size 2400×2400 pixels (not to scale in this document), with a resolution of 72dpi. Some elements had to change size or placement to accommodate the square size.

Cover B is an example of a cover that’s been rejected for not meeting spec.

Although sized appropriately, we do not accept covers that add borders on the sides (in this example, white bars) of the original cover sized for print editions.

We are asking for true square covers (which may mean layout changes) to add into our production.

Another incorrect example is C.

It is essentially the same rectangular image in B, stretched to meet our image spec. This also goes for smaller sized images, Cover D, being scaled up to meet the size spec.

Although this does meet our size requirements, there is too much noise and pixelation added to the image when scaling up that prevents sharpness and readability.

Source: ACX

Source: ACX Image Requirements

The Audiobook: Is hearing a book as good as reading one?

The Audiobook: Is hearing a book as good as reading one?

Posted on October 2, 2013by profesorbaker

Shutterstock/Takayuki

Is hearing a book as good as reading one?
This is possibly the wrong question to be asking in 2013. However, I will give my answer to this question after I share some amazing information with you. First of all, according to a recent CBS News report, Audiobooks have become a $1.2 Billion dollar industry. Evidently, there are a tremendous amount of people who enjoy listening to audiobooks.

Advantages of an Audiobook

Long distance runner? Listen to your favorite audiobook while you enjoy the scenery go by, exercising your body and your mind at the same time.

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Commuting to work? Why not listen to Storytellers: The Pursuit of Happiness while commuting to and from work: car, subway, bus, train, ferry, bicycle, walking, your audiobook is the perfect companion. A good audiobook can make your daily commute seem like a walk around the block.

Multitasking: Is there anyone left on the planet who only does one thing at a time anymore? In this busy world we live in, time is a precious commodity. Very few people can afford to do only one thing at a time nowadays.

Who is listening to audiobooks?

74% of those who download audiobooks through public libraries are women. Most are between the ages of 30 and 59 with a college or postgraduate degree, a study by Overdrive downloading service showed.

Most audiobook listeners are commuters. According to the The Times, they make up 47 percent, while 25 percent listen as they’re working around the house, and 23 percent listen while exercising.

Pop Culture: Audiobooks Are Cool

Matthew Thornton of Audible, Amazon’s audiobook publisher:
“We’re seeing heavy growth among younger listeners, people in and getting out of college who are part of the emerging app culture.”

A Wall Street Journal story (The New Explosion In Audiobooks) described how sales of audiobooks have “jumped by double digits in recent years,” and “shifts in digital technology have broadened the pool of potential listeners to include anyone with a smartphone.” The New York Times noted in June that audiobook sales went up 22 percent from 2011 to 2012.

Digital Innovation

Digital innovation isn’t just changing the way audio books are created, packaged and sold.

It’s starting to reshape the way readers consume literature, creating a new breed of literary omnivores who see narrated books and text as interchangeable.

Last year, the audio book producer and retailer Audible unveiled a long-awaited syncing feature that allows book lovers to switch seamlessly between an e-book and a digital audio book, picking up the story at precisely the same sentence.

So far, Audible, which is owned by Amazon, has paired some 26,000 ebooks with professional narrations. The company is adding more than 1,000 titles a month and aims to eventually bring the number to close to 100,000.

http://amzn.to/Qxmoec

Finally, is hearing a book as good as reading one?

Yes, hearing a book is as good as reading one, there can be no doubt about that. The evidence overwhelmingly points this fact out, and most experts predict that the audiobook trend will continue to increase in the future. We are talking about a Billion dollar industry, after all. The Audiobook industry is big, and it will only get bigger as innovation and technology responds to the demand for more audiobooks in the ears of more people…

I’d like to finish by inviting you to listen to a preview of my new audiobook: Storytellers: The Pursuit of Happiness. It is performed, in multiple voices, by the talented voice actor, Mr. Rich Crankshaw. You will surely agree that he has made this book come alive with his skills as a voice actor. His voice range is rich and wide in diversity, able to play multiple characters, as he does in this book. This audiobook will be coming out very soon. Be sure to get your copy early. I thank you in advance for your support.