Podcasting Your Novel: Publishing's Next Wave?

From Time Magazine:

Two years into his job as a features writer at a South Florida daily newspaper, J.C. Hutchins left the newsroom to follow his dream: writing a novel. Thirteen hundred pages later, Hutchins finished 7th Son, a thriller about human cloning. Then, reality set in: no one would publish it. But Hutchins has found a way around the first-time writer's heartbreak — and he is now part of a technological wave that may carry writers into a next age of publishing.

In 2005, Hutchins joined a fledgling community of primarily unpublished science fiction authors who turned their works into audio recordings and posted them online. The authors released their work in 30 to 45 minute episodes — free of charge. They aggressively marketed their work with the help of word-of-mouth and cross-author promotion. Over time, tens of thousands of listeners downloaded podcasts of Hutchins' 7th Son. By 2007, St. Martin's Press, a division of MacMillan, was intrigued enough by his success and soon Hutchins scored a book deal. He has just co-authored a book in a new series called Personal Effects, scheduled for a summertime release; and St. Martin's will publish 7th Son in book form as well this year.

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