In every brand new mommy's life, there is a night where she announces she is "going out on a date."
She has been shut in a poop/spit-up/drool-colored world for weeks— and yet despite her noblest maternal instincts, she still has an image of herself in a clean shirt, enjoying fine dining and maybe even finer sex.
That was me, many years ago, when my lover and I prepared for Valentine's Day by arranging to get me out of the house for a few hours, before my breasts started involuntarily turning into milky volcanoes and drowning the city in pent-up lactation lava.
It just so happens I wrote a story about this "My Big Night Out," and recorded it for an erotic audio album called Cyborgasm. It's called: "Milky."
Listen here to "Milky" 6:10 min
Check out all of Cyborgasm 2- The Edge of the Bed
Audible is now carrying all my erotic audio works from Cyborgasm, to the Herotica series to the complete collection of Best American Erotica [2005, 2006, are the latest]. I know many of you have heard me talking about my audiobook quests for years— it was a tough nut to crack!— but it's all finally here in one place.
I've been working with dozens of actors to record the best in erotic storytelling. None of us have ever done this before... as you may have read in the Times recently. Recording erotic literary fiction is new territory in the publishing world, as odd as that may seem.
So, as part of the grand experiment, over the next months, I'm going to post an excerpt from one of our story collections each week. I hope to succeed in whetting your appetite! I will be terribly interested in your reactions, so feel free to comment and email me in detail.
How much does this sort of thing cost? Audio downloads are cheaper than old-school audiobooks, but if you've never tried either, here's a tutorial:
Audible is the main company that sells digital audiobooks. They have a gajillion titles from hundreds of publishers. To seduce new listeners, they have a couple offers going on.
For starters, you can buy any audiobook a la carte, which range from $5 - $14.
It's always less than what you'd pay for a physical CD/cassette for the same title. (And no, I'm not counting garage sales and the used copy market).
One interesting thing about downloads is that there's a lot more variety. Traditionally publishers only made audiobooks out of huge bestsellers, because they didn't want to take a risk on stuff for smaller audiences, like erotica. Yes, you heard that right— erotica is considered a niche market with no proven track record. With downloadable audio, it's a lot cheaper for publishers to take the chance.
You can listen to the audiobooks on your computer, your iPod, (or any music player) or burn it to CDs yourself.
The other deal Audible offers is for you become a member, an "AudibleListener," like joining a book club.
AudibleListener gives you one free book a month, plus some other book freebies, and steep discounts on other audiobooks that you might want to gorge on. That starts at 7.50 a month for three months, and graduates to 14.95. You can cancel anytime.
So what's the best deal? I know it all sounds terribly involved.
If you love to be read aloud to— The New Yorker, the latest bestsellers, classic novels, politics, erotica, children's books— then being an AudibleListener is definitely worth it.
I know a lot of people for whom commuting, exercising— and just having quality listening time— has been revolutionized by this service. It's much easier than changing CDs or tapes, it always remembers your "bookmark," and the sound quality is fantastic.
If you are just into listening to erotic stories, then join for a little while and pig out. Or buy everything a la carte.
Listening to a story, instead of reading it silently, is a different visceral experience. You connect with the actor, the voice, more than anything. The suspense builds in a different way— you can't skip ahead! It feels like someone is addressing you, it's more in-your-face. In that sense, if you're aroused, it's going to rock your world, and if you're scared, apprehensive, or offended, that's amplified too.
The main reason I couldn't find audio producers for erotica years ago was because of rationales like: "Someone will get hard listening to your stories while they're driving a car, and have a wreck."
Well, I don't think you'll be THAT out of control!
But perhaps the nervous audio-producers were speaking to their own sensitivities— that indeed, it's a different body experience to listen than to reading. I couldn't bear to live without either! Try listening to one title, and see what you think...
Feedback, on any of my erotic titles, is always, much appreciated! It's especially important to all of us who've worked on these projects (and it's about 50 people, in various roles!) because we knew were were making the first mark. Send your feedback to me, gently, at susie at susiebright dot com, with "Audio Erotica" in the subject line.
